Citing a thin administrative process, lack of clearly definable expectations, and “a new, increased scale of promotion that will occur through off-road enthusiast groups and social media on a national level,” Mike Hofer details a case against approval of the Border-to-Border Touring Route by the Cook county board (B2B requires more thoughtful planning – Jan. 10). He rightfully defines the project as the planning, mapping, signage and promotion of a designated touring route across the state utilizing existing county and U.S. Forest Service roads.
In other words, a touring route for any highway-licensed vehicle from Lake Superior to North Dakota for highway licensed vehicles on legal existing roads.
Experience as a business leader who marshaled lots of projects of similar or greater complexity across the finish line in his working days, sharpened his recognition that successful projects “consistently follow a disciplined management process including concept, scoping, planning, implementation and monitoring.” In addition he says those successful projects are “vetted carefully by experienced subject matter experts who challenge the assumptions and highlight the hidden risks and costs of what the project sponsors are pitching.”
Wow…That seems like a lot of process for something as simple as identifying and signing a Jeep route that essentially utilizes existing U.S. Forest Service roads through the county to do what the USFS and the county have been working on for years – attract more people to the area.
Let me just say up front, starting with a bill authorizing the project, the packed public meeting at ISD166 in 2016 – where the DNR initiated the organic process of asking locals where the route should go, to the coordinated activity of the USFS and DNR and their outreach efforts to county and affected township officials, to a second round of public meetings, to DNR and USFS presentations to the county board, there has been lots of process. In fact, there has been too much process.
Minnesota Four-Wheel Drive Association (MN4WDA) is partnering with DNR on this project. With touring routes emerging as the newest, family-oriented, outdoor motorized activity in this state and across the nation, MN4WDA recognizes it is on the threshold of building a new cornerstone activity in Minnesota recreational culture.
Impressed by the positive response at the initial and follow-up public meetings, and heartened by the welcoming media messages to “Visit Cook County,” they stuck a pin in the map at Hovland as the eastern trailhead and expected to be up and running in 2018. A year and a half later and we’re still dealing with calls from concerned citizens like Mr. Hofer, for more process.
With the Cook county board still undecided and time running, the DNR asked a committee of county staff and commissioners to let them know sooner rather than later if they were opposed to the project. The board heard the report last week, talked round and round about the project and in the end – you guessed it – asked for more information.
At this point, if you are MN4WDA, the DNR, or the USFS for that matter, you can understand why frustration would set in if you can’t get a positive decision on bringing Cook County the new business, relationships and energy sought by the Visit Cook County campaign.
A group has emerged in the county that opposes the B2B. They contend, like Mr. Hofer, more studies need to be done on social and environmental impacts, collecting more data, doing more public outreach. All of this on a project using public roads they have a constitutional right – through the gas tax revenues they pay –to ride on.
This is the group that hired a lobbyist to oppose a MN4WDA bill that set a new standard for public outreach by an outdoor recreation group. The bill authorized and funded – with Off-Road Vehicle unrefunded gas tax revenues – a B2B administrator so local governments had a one-call option for new ideas or problems on the route, a maintenance fund local governments could access to help keep B2B roads maintained, and a first of its kind statewide master plan, to be sure the touring system MN4WDA is building brings in all stakeholders and efficiencies possible.
We’re still trying to figure where the controversy was in that bill.
I need to be very clear in that the touring route riders are coming to Cook county. That proposed alignment is no secret and they are coming whether the county supports the B2B or not. If the alignment is not adopted, there are no maintenance funds for the roads they will be using and no access to the administrator. It would be a big mistake and a big loss for local businesses, because there will be a resentment by users who know they were rejected.
Finally, if Mr. Hofer and the group opposing the B2B are so serious about more studies, more data, more public outreach, why do we not hear the same concerns raised about other projects and events like Le Grand Du Nord, hiking trails or the 99er in Lutsen?
The beckoning welcome that initially brought this project to Cook County through the Visit Cook County program is beginning to sour for this great new group. Through all the delay and process, I hope the message is not morphing from “all are welcome,” to “all except your kind.”
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