Two days after the Grand Forks council removed an inter-city bridge from a long-range transportation plan the Planning and Zoning Commission is recommending the project be put back into the MPO report.
The five-to-four P & Z vote followed a failed motion to support the council decision regarding the 2050 roadmap. The council is looking to eliminate the inter-city bridge in favor of greater emphasis on a river crossing at Merrifield Road. East Grand Forks lists the inter-city bridge as a priority.
So what happens if Grand Forks and East Grand Forks adopt differing 2050 plans? Metropolitan Planning Organization Executive Director Stephanie Halford says the recommendations would go come back to the MPO. “Both cities can have different decisions but it comes down to the executive board.”
Halford says another concern is a potential delay in receiving federal funding. “If it gets shot down at the executive board level we don’t have enough time to edit the plan and take out the inter-city bridge…that’s a couple of months. We have to have this plan adopted by the end of January.”
A final vote before the Grand Forks council is scheduled for December 18th.
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