3/20/11
In a previous post, the Insider wrote about the proposal for a trail connecting two trails and running along County Rd 19. There was a "Concept Plan" developed by a committee from Orono, Tonka Bay and Shorewood and considered by the councils of the three cities in 2009. Orono and Tonka Bay approved the plan (each on a 3-0 vote) with Shorewood not approving on a 2-3 vote (Lizee and Zerby in favor and Bailey, Turgeon and Woodruff against).
During Shorewood's 3/14 Council Meeting the approval of the Concept Plan was reconsidered. See the meeting at http://windowsmedia.alphameetings.com/LMCCShorewood/031411shorewood.wmv and skip to the 1 hour and 13 minute point.
Council Member Zerby and Council Member Hotvet (both were members of the 3-city trail committee in 2009) and Lizee indicated they wanted to approve the 2009 Concept Plan and support a request from Mayor LaBelle of Tonka Bay to do so.
Council Member Woodruff reiterated his objection to the Plan on grounds that the $15 million option it contains was still unacceptable. Further, he requested that the Plan be reviewed by the newly formed Shorewood Trail Committee, the Planning Commission and the Parks Commission, all of which have some jurisdiction over trail planning. This request fell on deaf ears, with Lizee, Hotvet and Zerby totally ignoring any reasonable process and normal involvement of Shorewood's volunteer commissions and committees.
Administrator Heck intervened stating that he'd like to bring the matter back to Council at the next meeting (3/28) since a resolution wasn't actually part of the packet for this meeting. Council agreed.
So, three of five council members were ready to vote in favor of a two year old Plan that had not been reviewed by cognizant commissions and committees, that had not been commented on (or even seen by?) by Council Member Siakel who was absent on the 14th and, most importantly, that wasn't documented by a resolution or even in the meeting packet (the actual Concept Plan was not in the materials distributed to Council). Is this the kind of due process the residents of Shorewood want and deserve?
Happy Reading!
The Insider
Reminds me of the Shorewood Marina. A CUP was up for review earlier this year. Magically, in the Planning Commission review, the 30-plus motorized slips became 50-plus. In the council, no public hearing was held, and two of the council members who voted in favor of it were new and had no benefit of public input. Even without the extra 20 slips being "slipped" in, the final approval should have had a full public hearing before the council.
ReplyDeleteThis article inspires questions:
ReplyDelete1. Is Shorewood expected to pay the $15M or is this the total cost to be shared by other agencies? Realizing it is all taxpayer dollars, nevertheless that does make a difference in how a Shorewood resident might view it.
2. I notice there was a resident on this committee in 2009 and now there are two residents on the new trail committee. So, how are "at-large" residents chosen? How can more residents be involved? Where should we be looking for the sign-up process? I've seen nothing in the newsletter...
so glad council member woodruff decided to approve the resolution to reintroduce a discussion with tonka bay and orono and get involved in the dialogue process!
ReplyDeletetonka bay will be please that we accepted their invitation to discuss.