County Road 55 is still alive
Todd County Commissioners rescind vacation of Lake Road
By Karin L. Nauber
 |
| County Road 55
near Lake Osakis. -INH File Photo |
On a three to two vote, the board voted to rescind the conditional vacation of County Road 55 during their meeting on December 6.
The original resolution to vacate the road was passed in November 2005. The vacation was partially based on the condition that a part of Highway 27 would be moved. When it was made clear in recent months that the Minnesota Department of Transportation would not allow such a move of the highway without full indemnification by Todd County, the discussion about vacating 55 or the Lake Road continued and new ideas for the plat called Copper Fields were discussed.
At the December 6 meeting attorney for the county Paul Reuvers brought everyone up-to-date.
Part of the new plan for Copper Fields was to take 27 out of the plan and include a new road with some different accesses. It also still included the vacation, at least partially, of CR 55.
Reuvers said the board again had three things to look at.
1. In light of Highway 27 being out of the mix, they could rescind the vacation of CR 55 which would resolve the litigation with Ellsworth Johnson.
2. They could amend the resolution from 2005 to still allow CR 55 to be vacated, but to make sure there is access to the public road.
3. There was a new petition to vacate CR 55 submitted on December 5. Reuvers said that it looked like everyone on the section of CR 55 to potentially be vacated had signed the petition except for Ellsworth Johnson and one other party. Reuvers said the petition would require action, but not today.
Scott Johnston, attorney for Developer Dennis Larson, Area Lakes Properties, LLC, said that if the vacation were to be approved, the current 55 would be treated as a private driveway with some mutually agreed upon easements to allow access to all the properties. It would use part of the existing road bed.
Commissioner David Kircher asked if there would be a connection to 27.
Larson said that the long-term goal would be to vacate all of 55 and have accesses to 27.
Kircher asked who would maintain the private driveway that 55 would become?
Johnston said that the landowners who benefited from the private road would maintain it.
Commissioner Randy Neumann reminded everyone that since they couldn't relocate 27 which was a condition of the 55 vacation, it couldn't be vacated.
Reuvers listed the options for the commissioners.
1. They could vacate all of 55 with all accesses being private and the road being a private driveway. Easements would have to be secured before the vacation could take place.
2. Rescind the original resolution to vacate 55 because the deals have changed.
3. Do nothing at this time.
Randy Brown, attorney for Ellsworth Johnson, asked, "If the board decides to do anything other than rescind the resolution will that not require another public hearing?"
Reuvers said that there was nothing that would prohibit the board from amending the resolution to clarify a new vacation strategy on 55.
"They would just be amending on part of that resolution," said Reuvers.
Neumann moved to rescind the vacation of CR 55.
Johnston said that they had not presented all of their information yet.
Kircher seconded the motion for discussion.
Reuvers then read a draft of a resolution to rescind the vacation of 55 into record.
Larson said, "The reasons (for vacating 55) haven't changed. This is a good thing for the county. Just because MnDOT dropped the ball doesn't give good reason to rescind. No other reasons. The waters are so dirtied that MnDOT doesn't want to be a part of the plan. It should be less work for everyone involved."
Johnston said, "There are no facts that support that rescinding is in the best interest of the county."
He added that moving the road away from the lake would increase the water quality in the lake. He said that the interest in preserving this road was not shown in that only two landowners did not sign the new petition to vacate it.
"Where is the finding of facts in the benefit of maintaining 55? To settle a lawsuit? The county board would be remiss if it was so short-sited that it would (rescind the resolution) just to settle a lawsuit. I think Paul (Reuvers) feels as I do, that this is a very winnable case. (If 55 remains) landowners will be crossing two roads to get to the lake. There were three proposed findings of fact. The best interests of the county just aren't there," said Johnston.
Neumann said that he had learned that an average of 80 cars a day travel 55.
Johnston said, "That's nothing. For the county to incur thousands to maintain a road for 80 cars a day is not feasible."
Larson added, "To drop this because of a frivolous lawsuitYou could get sued for any decision you make."
Reuvers said that it was likely that the county would prevail in the lawsuit being brought by Ellsworth Johnson, however there was no guarantee and it would be a potential claim against the county.
Brown said that on behalf of Johnson there would be no agreement to vacate the public road and replace it with a private driveway.
"I am not aware of any statute that allows the board to vacate this road. If you were Ellsworth and you had purchased property with a public road would you now want a private road that you had to maintain?" asked Brown.
He reminded the board that over 1000 people had signed a petition to keep 55.
"It is a scenic road and has significant value. My client is not opposed to the Copper Fields development, just to the vacation of 55," said Brown.
The vote was taken and Neumann, Kircher and Chair Mark Blessing voted to rescind the resolution to vacate CR 55 while commissioners Mark Nelson and Gary Kneisl voted to keep it.
Reuvers said they will have to take further board action on the new petition to vacate, but did not do anything with it during this meeting.
The board also moved and agreed to return $10,000 which the developer had put aside as a kind of indemnification to the county.
Neumann said the county had already spent $25,000 to $30,000 on legal costs and didn't feel it should be returned.