HomeMy WebLinkAbout1974 05-23 Citizen Unit Asks Building Ban for NE Maplewood DISPATCH A CItizen
Unit Asks Buildin
an ffor NEMaplewood
•
By Jim Broede ment stores, will lead to ►
Staff Writer traffic increases well be-
A spokesman for Citi- yond the design capacity t,Vint DiSVilicli
zens Against Residential of some of the present
Exploitation (C A R E) streets. St. Onge predict-
has
asked Mad 's ed. EAAREACity Council to declare a And he asserted traffic
moratorium pn further will be bumper-to-bump-
commercial d e v e 1 o p- er on some streets if-the
ment in northeast Ma- council allows an addi- Sectio n
plewood. tioMal 400 acres of va-
"I'd like to see, some cant commercially
s o r t of moratorium," zoned land around the THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1074
James St. Onge told the mall to develop in the
council at a recent meet-- next year or two.
ing, "until that (north- "I'm r'e a 11 y con- meanwhile, said he has Ramsey County to en-
east) area has a road cerned," he said. "about •doubts that a construe- courage improvement of
systrmfithat can handle those 400 acres. If we t i o n moratorium will county roads.
thethink we have problems withstand a court test.
St. Onge, chairman of now,we'll have more. get the
CARE said that without county active," he said,
a construction ban, pre- Councilman Don Wie- The city was unsuc- "in bringing their roads
sent traffic problems in gert pointed out that the cessful with a morato-
up to higher standards."
the surrounding residers- city has an $8.4 million num two years ago.
tial neighborhoods "will improvement program Another councilman, Mayor Robert Bruton
be greatly compound designed to cope with Burt Murdock, said that said he sees merit in a
ed." maximum development sizeable assessments for building moratorium. -
The council took no ac- in northeast Maplewood. road and u t i 1 i t y im But he said the council
tion on the request and Some of the projects p r o v e m e n t s will no p r o b a b l y lacks the
gave no indication it already have been or- doubt lead to further "t o o1 s" to implement
w o u I d be considered dered in. commercial d e v e 1 o p- and enforce One.
again in the future. But St. Onge•contends ment.
The opening of the Ma- t h e r e 's no guarantee ' "The only way we can
plewood Mall shopping that!the council will im- "T h e y (landowners) do something like that."
center later this sum- plement the full seven- can't afford to own their he stated, "is if the legis--
mer, including 120 shops phase program. property," he explained. 1 a t u r e gives us the
and two major depart- Councilman Wiegert, The•
y have to sell. tools."
"That s why a morato-
rium on commercial de- He said he was some-
velopment will be a pret- what hopeful that mota-
ty tough restriction."- toriums will be legal
some day "because
Murdock advised St. that's what the Metro
Onge to take his case to Councilisproposing."