(KNSI) — The St. Cloud City Council will begin planning for the future and hold a pair of public hearings on Monday.
The meeting will start at 4:00 p.m. with a joint session between the council and the St. Cloud Planning Commission. The two bodies will review a draft of the proposed capital improvements slated to be completed between 2026 and 2031.
When the regular meeting begins at 6:00 p.m. in the city council chambers, the board will have a chance to approve the low bid for the St. Cloud Hydroelectric Tainter Gate Rehabilitation Project. The gates control water flow through the dam, directly affecting the power generated, and maintain the water levels needed upriver for the city’s intake system at the Drinking Water Treatment Facility. The seals and other parts have started to fail. The lowest bid is $646,500, which is 27% over the estimate. The project budget is $535,000, with the rest coming from reserves. This will be the first major rehabilitation work completed on the gates since they were put into operation in 1988.
A public hearing will be held for Love of Christ Lutheran Church’s senior care facility at 1971 Pine Cone Road. They are asking to expand from serving a dozen people to 20. The plot is currently zoned as R1, and any facility serving more than 12 needs to be in an R2 development area. The zoning change request has already passed the planning commission. After the hearing, the council can approve, reject or table the motion.
The public will also have a chance to chime in on eliminating some streets to make way for the development of an identified catalyst site. Sanvik Development will ask the board to approve vacating a small portion of 19th Avenue South, West Division Street and alley rights-of-way between Cooper Avenue South and 19 1/2 Avenue South and Division Street and West St. Germain Street.
According to the 2015 Comprehensive Plan, the land is one of several important to the city’s prosperity. The area was once home to an Xcel Energy substation and other buildings, which were removed in 2017 to make way for redevelopment. The city’s plans call for the area to be used as commercial and multi-family residential space. Any project there must utilize tax increment financing based on prior statutes as a blighted property.
Finally, the city council will look to set a meeting with St. Cloud State University on its future plans. After years of declining enrollment, SCSU recently released a five-year plan to ‘right size’ the campus. They recently eliminated dozens of degrees that had seen major drops in attendance and have discussed the idea of tearing down old and unused buildings.
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