The City of Crookston Planning Commission met Tuesday night inside the City Hall Council Chambers to elect new officers to the board and discuss the purchases and adjustments of new land offered by the state.
The board first elected Bryan Schipper for the Chair of Planning Commission, Barry Bingham for the Vice-Chair of Planning Commission, and Jennifer Tate for the Secretary of the Planning Commission. With the board at full quorum, they began with the approval of the meeting minutes of their August 20th, 2021 meeting, which the board approved unanimously.
The board then began with the discussion of Parcels 82.00129.00 and 82.02352.00. Both were tax-forfeited land owned by Polk County, reconveyed from Minnesota. “These two parcels for City usage are for snow removal and snow piling for the winter months. They’re along South Main Street and Crescent Ave. Where the old Ottertail Power Station used to be. The city’s interested in using that as a means of dispersing or getting rid of snow,” City of Crookston Zoning Administrator Greg Hefta explained. The Planning Commission moved to validate by motion that a Public Use would be in compliance with the City of Crookston’s Comprehensive Plan for Land Use on the two parcels. The board heard from the Proulx family on issues they had from the public works and snow removal. It was bringing in debris and rocks to their property and causing damage to their property and home. They understood the importance of snow removal for the city and eventually consented to let the board buy the land. The board approved of the sale unanimously and mentioned to the family that they could continue discussing what will happen to the land and the Snow Removal plan in the City Council meeting next week.
The board then moved on to a request from Red River Valley Shows Inc. that had requested land use in the Rural Commercial RC Zone as recreational campgrounds back in February 2021. The Planning Commission was previously asked to review and comment on the request, but after a phone call by Red River Valley Shows representative Donovan Wald on February 18th. They have withdrawn their conditional use application for a campground on the property. “We have to reject proposals that are not accepted, the owner of the Red River Valley Shows did not want to proceed with the campsite, and they may have the option to proceed and submit an application for another conditional use in the future. It’s up to them,” City of Crookston Zoning Administrator Greg Hefta explained. The Planning Commission moved forward with the motion to reject the application request from February 2021 unanimously.
The board then moved on to its final item, where they had been asked to review and comment on the Redistricting of the Voter Wards in Crookston due to the 2020 census. City Administrator Finch and Interim City Administrator Reynolds presented two options on changes. Wards 1, 2, 3, & 6 had more people or blocks than Wards 4 & 5 and wanted to find a way to have them all with equal amounts. “In the past, we’ve had Wards as high as 1000 people, and a Ward as low as 825, but as a result of the census, we see the demographics of our Wards changing, and so we tried to equalize the number of voters in each Ward, having the least amount of impact on all of the Wards, and we brought forth an option that got them all within 900 voters in a Ward, and maybe a difference of 50 to 60 from top to bottom and maintaining the Ward structure,” Interim City Administrator Reynolds explained. The first option was that Wards 2 & 6 would trade blocks, and people to Ward 4 and Ward 3 would give some to Ward 5. However, this plan would separate Ward 6 significantly with a section from Ward 4. The second option takes away blocks and people from Ward 3 to Ward 4 & 5 though it gains some area from Ward 6. City Administrator Finch and Interim City Administrator Reynolds recommended taking the second option to the board for various reasons that would make each Ward near equal in population and wouldn’t cause as many problems as the first. After much debate, the board decided to choose the second option unanimously to be the layout voted on by City Council.
The next Planning Commission meeting will occur in April unless there aren’t enough agenda items.
