Cloquet Council: City advocates for multimodal trail by Hwy 33

The Cloquet City Council laid the groundwork for a number of new or ongoing initiatives Tuesday, including plans for future transportation and housing projects.

Councilors and Mayor Roger Maki unanimously passed a resolution supporting the “multimodal” use of Highway 33 between Big Lake Road and Cloquet Avenue, with a letter outlining the city’s viewpoint shared with the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

MnDOT is looking at rebuilding that stretch of the state highway in 2028 and held a public information meeting in Cloquet on Feb. 1. The Cloquet City Council got its own presentation from Wood City Riders club president Chris Rokke on Feb. 6.

Rokke was frustrated that MnDOT appeared to not take into account any of the city’s own studies on the corridor, in particular the importance of making the roadway safe and accessible to ATVs and snowmobiles as well as bike riders and pedestrians. Currently the project is scheduled for 2028.

Public works director Caleb Peterson said it’s early in the planning process and a good time to encourage MnDOT officials to read the city’s studies and make sure all users are included, but balked at making any kind of demands.

Ideal plans show ATVs and snowmobiles using a separate lane from foot traffic. Creating this safe space would likely require MnDOT to shift the highway eastward between Pinehurst Park and Perkins because the large hill on the west side leaves minimal space along the road.

Peterson isn’t sure that walkers and ATVs will get separate lanes.

“Shared use is not ideal … but the reality is that all those users are sharing the corridor right now,” he said.

The council resolution stated that the city encourages study of the feasibility “to accommodate an adjacent motorized trail along Highway 33 from Big Lake Road to Cloquet Avenue.”

Hotel Solem

Councilors took the next step toward a brighter future for the historic downtown Hotel Solem building, which the city condemned last year as a way to facilitate affordable redevelopment of the vacant and blighted building. By unanimous vote, the council set a public hearing at 6 p.m. April 2 to discuss the establishment of a development district and a tax increment financing district to include the building at the corner of Ninth Street and Cloquet Avenue, a longtime hotel and then low-income housing space that was most recently home to Mexico Lindo and then Pedro’s.

C&C Holdings is working with the city and has submitted plans to redevelop the building. The $3.75 million project would involve gutting the entire building down to the studs, bolstering and stabilizing the building, replacing the HVAC systems, adding an elevator and sprinkler system and making other improvements to support 18 market-rate apartments, ranging from studio to two-bedrooms units.

In other matters,

the council:

• Approved county plans to “microsurface” Washington Avenue this summer. The proposed surface treatments and repainting will be done under existing traffic with lane shifts and flaggers as necessary.

•Appointed Cheryl “Shari” Olson to fill a vacancy on the Cloquet Housing and Redevelopment Authority Board. Olson heads the Community of Hope nonprofit, which aims to help people struggling to make ends meet or find a home. “Housing is the biggest problem,” Olson told the council. She is also a retired real estate agent.

• Unanimously passed, without discussion, a conditional use permit for 3W properties to construct two two-family dwellings in the southwest corner of Maplewood Avenue and 20th Street, in a single-family residence district. The planning commission recommended approval after a public hearing Feb. 13.

• Approved 4.61-percent and 2-percent percent pay raises in 2024 and 2025, respectively, for Cloquet Community Education to continue running the city’s aquatic programs, including The Beach at Pinehurst Park, along with park rentals. The pay raises are consistent with the school district’s raises as negotiated by the teachers’ bargaining unit.