Contact: Mat Hollinshead, 651-698-0260 or mat.hollinshead@northstar.sierraclub.org
Sierra Club Proposes Riverway Development Plan
Expanding on ideas first expressed at a June 30 mediation meeting, the Sierra Club has presented an 18-point plan to address transportation needs while protecting the St. Croix Valley National Scenic Riverway and its watershed.
"There is a way to accommodate commercial growth in St. Croix County while protecting the values that attract new residents and visitors," said Mat Hollinshead, Sierra Club delegate to a new mediation process just begun under the leadership of RESOLVE, a national consulting firm.
"St. Croix County is rapidly becoming part of the Twin Cities Metro Area. Our plan recognizes that by offering comprehensive strategies for transportation and growth," said Hollinshead. "It galso does for the St. Croix River what Minneapolis and St. Paul did a century ago for the Mississippiproviding transportation links that connect across the river while preserving it as a high quality amenity and recreational resource."
St. Croix County is the fastest growing county in Wisconsin. The St. Croix National Scenic and Recreational Riverway was the first designated under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, in 1976. Former Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson and the late Minnesota Representative Bruce Vento were leaders in creating both the Act and the St. Croix Riverway.
The Sierra Club, which currently has 35,000 members in Minnesota and Wisconsin and 750,000 members nationwide, has been a key supporter of the Act and the Riverway.
"Minimum lot sizes in western St. Croix County are zoned, for the most part, at two or three acres," said Hollinshead. "That tells me that St. Croix County residents like the open spaces, the natural surroundings, all the things that the Riverway was formed to protect. Shopping and business services developed in existing towns and along Highway 65 will be just as convenient, even more convenient, than trying to do your shopping up on Highway 36 in Minnesota."
Hollinshead's family itself has had a cabin on Bass Lake, in St. Joseph Township, for 54 years.
"We've been commuting between St. Joseph Township and St. Paul in the summers for all those years," he says, "and we are equidistant between Hudson and Houlton. For us, I-94 is fast, uncongested and convenient," he says.
Hollinshead, who uses the bus and a bicycle to get around when he is at home in St. Paul, would like to do the same in St. Croix County. "If, as both the new bridge supporters and the Sierra Club agree, St. Croix County is part of the Metro Twin Cities area, then let's do for St. Croix County what we've done for Eden Prairie, namely transit and park-and-rides," said Hollinshead. "The Minnesota River Valley actually has three transit agencies. St. Croix County has no regular transit service at all."
Central to the Sierra Club's new proposal are bypass-lanes and signal prioritization for ambulances, fire trucks, and transit. Emergency vehicles heading for the Lift Bridge could radio ahead so that it would be down upon arrival, then use special lanes to bypass any backed-up traffic. "Downtown Stillwater uses a tremendous amount of its riverfront area for parking right now," Hollinshead said, "Why not consolidate that in a new state-of-the-art, underground parking facility and install new pedestrian plazas, greenspace and streetscape on top, including a bypass lane? That would fit the ambience of the riverfront very well."
The Sierra Club proposal is being presented as part of a new stakeholders process devised when Federal and state government agencies failed to reach agreement on the new St. Croix crossing in 2002.
For more information, please contact Mat Hollinshead at 651-698-0260 or mat.hollinshead@northstar.sierraclub.org, or Heather Cusick at the Sierra Club, 612-659-9124.