What to do with the rocks left over from Highway 61 reconstruction between County Road 34 and Chateau LeVeaux has become a bit of a controversy. Lutsen Development Corporation has requested a conditional use permit to temporarily stockpile about 30,000 cubic yards of blasted rock at the Tofte Cook County Airport, but some of the residents near the airport have objected.
A document prepared by the Cook County Planning & Zoning Department states that the airport plat was established in 2001 on about 121 acres. It includes 38 residential lots—nine of which have sold—and the airport runway. A homeowner’s association is in place for the neighborhood, which is zoned single family residential.
The document states, “The abandoned Tofte airport runway represents the singular county-regulated landholding in the West End capable of accommodating this excess construction material. …The rock will be stockpiled on the intact, asphalt surface of the abandoned runway.” The runway was utilized in the same way in 2001 when a different portion of Highway 61 was reconstructed.
Bill Lane of the Planning & Zoning Department spoke with Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) project manager Dave Mavec, who indicated that “storage of the excess material on DOT property would not be considered.” Lane said that MnDOT generally does not store rock that has been blasted from its road projects.
According to the Planning & Zoning document, numerous property owners in the airport development contacted the Planning & Zoning office. Some were concerned about the impact of 1,500 to 3,000 heavy truckloads on the roads and the “disruption of peace and quiet” they would cause. Others said moving the rocks in and out of the neighborhood would create safety hazards. One property owner noted that previous stockpiling was done before houses had been built in the neighborhood.
“Conversations with adjacent landowners suggest their level of frustration,” the document states. Some landowners said Lutsen Development Company had not given them enough information on their intentions and considered the project primarily of benefit to Lutsen Development Company, which would be paid to store the rock on its land in the development, and KGM Contractors, the firm doing the highway reconstruction.
According to the Planning & Zoning document, landowner Randy Schwecke said, “I wouldn’t have purchased the property had I known there was going to be a massive rock pile out my front door.”
On the other hand, the document states that landowner Richard Tormanen did not consider the storage of rocks a problem, especially if Aero Drive rather than FlyBy Drive was used to go in and out.
“The stockpiling and availability of a large volume of shot rock,” the document states, “could be viewed as an available resource for Cook County, be it as part of future Highway 61 enhancements or as components of future erosion control or stabilization projects throughout the county.”
In a special meeting December 18, 2009, the Planning Commission denied the permit request, and the county board followed suit on December 22. During the process, however, KGM found out that the Town of Tofte owned the southwest portion of the runway, zoned forest/agriculture residential, and asked if it could stockpile the rock there. Tofte’s land can be accessed more directly from the Sawbill Trail, and Tofte is willing to stockpile it.
ThePlanning Commission will hold a public hearing at 3:00 p.m. Thursday, January 28, 2010 to consider Tofte’s application for a conditional use permit to stockpile the rock on its portion of the runway.
According to Bill Lane, the airport runway, built decades ago, has not been used for some time. He said Lutsen Development Corporation had originally thought it would create a fly-in “bedroom community,” but getting the runway into compliance with FAA rules would be complex.
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