Frustrated Brooklyn Center Council Sends Financial Requests For Hwy. 252 Rebuild

Frustrated Brooklyn Center Council Sends Financial Requests For Hwy. 252 Rebuild

Brooklyn Center City Council members have concerns about the Highway 252 rebuild project. As a result, they approved a new list of demands for the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT).

If these requests are granted, they would eliminate the city’s financial obligations to the project and create new financial woes for MnDOT.

The crash-prone Highway 252 may be reconstructed from its current form — an expressway with stoplights — into a freeway with new interchanges and no stoplights.

It’s a prospect that has worried elected officials and the city’s Highway 252 Safety Task Force for years.

Last spring, the council sent a formal letter to MnDOT, asking the agency to evaluate lower-impact road designs, as well as the health and tax implications for Brooklyn Center.

In a meeting on Monday, Oct. 14, some council members vented their frustrations with project, saying they felt the last letter was ignored. The conversation came as they discussed potential road designs for the project.

“They really just have us stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Mayor April Graves. “Obviously we’ve been [participating in design work] and our voice wasn’t being heard anyway … it really feels like a waste of my time to a certain extent, because I’m just there kind of repeating the same thing that makes no difference.”

Financial Requests

City staff members asked the council to send recommendations on road designs to MnDOT. The council couldn’t come to an agreement on the design proposals.

However, the council did agree to send two new financial requests to MnDOT.

They’re asking for a yearly payment from MnDOT to make up for any lost property taxes due to eminent domain land takes. They’re also asking to opt out of MnDOT’s normal cost-sharing model.

City staff members said these requests are not common and need to be submitted early so MnDOT can take them into consideration.

The council agreed with the proposal.

Council Member Teneshia Kragness said the time to make these “aggressive” demands was early in the negotiation process.

Graves, as well as Council Members Marquita Butler, Dan Jerzak and Kris Lawrence Anderson voiced concerns and frustration with the project.

“All of it is them asking for us to weigh in on stuff that we don’t have all the information about,” Graves said. “That’s sort of my whole point, is like, the process from my perspective, is flawed. And the question is, do we participate in the flawed process?”

Lawrence-Anderson said she worried the impact of construction on families.

“The thought of people losing their homes just breaks my heart,” she said.

Butler called the tax impacts a “significant burden” to the city.

Jerzak questioned if the project would provide safety benefits.

“An option is no-build,” he said. “I would rather not build than build a monstrosity that we stuck with for 100 years.”

MnDOT will eventually have to ask cities along the highway for municipal consent before moving ahead with construction.

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SOURCE: CCX MEDIA