BROOKINGS Have you ever had a hankering to name a road? Well, nows your chance to do so, and at no less a location than the Brookings Marketplace development.
The land, which will be a retail hub housing stores including Aldi and Target, needs roads for its customers to properly navigate it and two are in the works. One will be an east-west public street, currently called Market Street, between an extended LeFevre Drive and 32nd Avenue north of Sixth Street; the other will be an east-west private street, currently called Prime Place, within the Marketplace development.
Were throwing names out there; theyre placeholders, Community Development Director Mike Struck told councilors at Tuesday nights City Council meeting. If youve got something better we could change it if youve got a great name.
Before you submit a name, though, there are a couple of considerations. These include the fact that city regulations require a private road that runs east-west needs to end in place and a public roadway that runs east-west needs to end in street.
Nobody would be offended as to what the names are proposed, Struck said. We just want to keep them short enough so that they will fit on a sign and we dont have to order extra-large signs.
You can let city councilors know your ideas by emailing them. Their contact information can be found here.
Councilors officially tabled the resolution on a 7-0 vote to allow time for the public to submit name proposals. Before doing so, though, Councilor Brianna Doran asked if tabling the resolution would affect the construction timeline of the Marketplace land.
No. We do have a building permit in that we need the naming of the private road, but theyre not ready to move to construction, Struck said. We need to get the infrastructure put in first. But they have submitted it and were just waiting for addressing.
The preference would be to get a name that everyone agrees upon in place first because we dont want to do an address notification change, he continued. That can kind of the utilities dont like us, post office doesnt like us and, you know, so, lets just try to figure out a name that we all like and get it right the first time.
The tabled resolution will come up for consideration again at the councils Feb. 25 meeting.
The Marketplace land is being developed by Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies and is located just east and north of Sixth Streets interchange with Interstate 29. Work on the site will start in spring and stretch into 2026.
In other business at Tuesday nights meeting, councilors:
Approved, on a 7-0 vote, the creation of a new zoning designation called civic district.
According to a city memo, the new district is intended to provide for a district for public and civic buildings and large institutional uses which otherwise may not fit into other zoning districts because of their specialized land use needs and public purpose.
On a 7-0 vote, gave the go-ahead to a resolution designating Brookings as a Bee City USA affiliate.
The move follows a recommendation from the Brookings Sustainability Council, which will collaborate with the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department to implement it.
Bee City USA, per a city memo, is an initiative of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, (and) provides a framework for communities to take actionable steps to protect and enhance pollinator populations.
There is an annual $200 fee, and commitments by the city include developing a pollinator habitat plan, reducing pesticide use and hosting educational events.
Heard first reading of an ordinance that would provide for the removal of the No Mow May designation from the citys ordinance book. Its second reading will be at the Feb. 25 meeting of the City Council.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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