Recent actions

Last update: January 15, 2008 - 5:39 PM

RECENT ACTIONS

SAVAGE

Monday: The City Council, in an informal work session, discussed and unofficially approved of a plan to use $50,000 from the sale of a three-acre parcel along Hwy. 13 to help improve the look of its historic downtown area. A new grant program for fixing up downtown building facades would be established for $30,000, with matching grants of $15,000. Additional grants would be available for landscape screening and trash enclosure. The city would work with the Chamber of Commerce. Formal approval is expected next week. The city's original downtown is located around the historic rail depot, now a coffee shop, just south of Hwy. 13.

The council was also presented with a proposed work plan for city staff members for 2008 and 2009 that included completing a feasibility analysis for an outdoor skating rink; building an asphalt trail along the south side of County Road 42 from Dakota Avenue to Allen Boulevard; deciding whether changes are needed in the city's snowmobile policy; developing aesthetic standards for highly visible buildings along Hwys. 13 and 101; and writing a policy to save mature trees threatened by development.

PRIOR LAKE

Monday: The planning commission approved without opposition a request from a firm called On-Site Engineering and Forensic Services Inc., for outdoor storage. When the firm applied for approval for its site layout in April 2005, it said there would be no outdoor storage. Nevertheless, city staff recommended approval, provided there is enough screening from view. The building is at 5714 Graystone Court, in the Deerfield Industrial Park, across the street from a residential neighborhood.