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Council balks at standard cost-sharing for Southwest Beltline planning, asks for alternatives
Summary
Council members expressed opposition to using the standard APO cost-distribution for Southwest Beltline planning, saying Saint Joseph would not see commensurate benefit and asking staff to propose alternative split formulas before the next regional meeting.
A council debate centered on how to split planning costs for the Southwest Beltline. Council members said the APO cost-distribution formula would require Saint Joseph to share planning costs proportionally, but several members said their city would see little benefit and opposed carrying an equal or standard share.
One council member said the project could take decades to benefit Saint Joseph — "it's gonna be at least, and it is a bad guess, 30 years before even Wade Park gets on board" — and said the city should not pay a large planning share now. Another member said the city should propose an alternative split for Tier 1 planning rather than simply rejecting the APO formula.
Community development staff said the APO has an established formula and that technical committees struggled to identify an acceptable alternative on short notice; Sartell had proposed three formulas that Saint Cloud rejected. Council members asked staffors and representatives who attended the TAC meeting to bring back alternative proposals and to clarify whether a single city's ‘no’ would obligate others to cover costs.
No final vote or commitment to fund the planning phase was recorded; a council member said they would oppose the standard formula for now and asked for alternative split proposals to be returned before the next APO meeting on Sept. 12.
