BROOKINGS – The Brookings City Council reversed an earlier decision and voted to raise the speed on 20th Street South, during the March 23 council meeting.
The vote was 6-0. Councilor Leah Brink was absent.
The council voted 4-3 on Feb. 24 to keep the speed at 25 mph from Western Avenue South to Main Avenue South instead of raising it to 35 mph. On March 9, Councilor Joey Collins requested the topic be put on the agenda for March 23, saying he had additional information he had not had in February.
At the March 23 meeting, City Engineer Jackie Lanning explained how the street was designed to accommodate vehicles going 35 mph.
“The street classification is determined before a street is designed,” Lanning said.
She displayed a map showing the collector and arterial streets in the neighborhood.
“Twentieth Street South, the entirety of it, was designed as an arterial street, so it was designed for 35 mph traffic, and what that means is that we set a certain pavement width and the striping of the lanes and also the vertical curve of the road is set to match highway design for 35 mph roadway system,” Lanning said.
The vertical curve was lowered about 4 feet, she noted.
Pedestrian crossing signs were installed near the intersection with Larkspur, she said.
“Another factor that played into the design of 20th Street South is that it is about a half-mile north away from 26th Street South, where Dakota Prairie (Elementary) School is,” Lanning said, which they felt was enough distance from the school zone.
She highlighted the other 35 mph zones in the area on the map.
Collins said he got confirmation of information since the previous meeting and was informed by Police Chief Dave Erickson that there had not been any accidents in the area.
“The hill that I was concerned about had been cut down 4-5 feet,” Collins said.
The road was actually made for 35 mph and people have told him the road “is just not very busy,” he said.
Dakota Prairie Elementary is for kindergarten through third grade.
“I can’t imagine, at that age – at least I wouldn’t – allow my kid to walk across the street alone,” Collins said. “I would walk my kid across that road.”
Councilor Nick Wendell said he voted no last time but appreciates city staff and neighborhood residents giving them additional context, so he feels more comfortable voting yes.
“We will do a pedestrian count in the spring,” when more pedestrians are walking, Lanning said. “It’s an all-encompassing study; there’s not really a magic cut-off.”
Under consideration is the traffic volume, how many people are crossing, time of day, frequency, and an engineering study is involved, she said.
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all type of study,” Lanning said.
Niemeyer said he’s seen a flashing sign in tandem with a crossing sign in another town to make sure drivers paid attention.
Lanning said she could follow up with data after the study in the spring or summer.
Rezoning lots on Sixth Street
The council approved rezoning two lots at 1402 and 1404 Sixth St. from Business B-2A, which is an office neighborhood type district, to B-2 district, according to Mike Struck, director of Community Development.
The lots are part of the urban strategy area in the comprehensive plan, he added.
“We anticipated that Sixth Street would change over time,” Struck said.
The lots are surrounded by R-2 property, including Hillcrest Aquatic Center to the east, a residential neighborhood to the south; to the west is a B-2A, on the north side of Sixth Street is B-2 zoned property, Struck said.
Jay Larson said he was an adjoining neighbor and that the comprehensive plan and the strategy could be interpreted “many ways.”
Larson said the land is a B-2A, which has six uses, one of which is an office building. For a B-2 business, he said, there are 28 uses and “they vary very significantly.”
Larson said Sixth Street has been changing over time, as the longterm residents know. He’s kept a folder since the 1950s.
“We’re all in a society where bigger is better, maybe,” Larson said. “I think that it is important to realize that there is a neighborhood and, whatever happens, there are precedents.”
The vote was 6-0.
Malt license
The council did not approve an on-off malt license for MG Oil Company for the former Gas N Mor location at 600 Sixth St. Because the alcohol license must be approved first, council did not discuss or take a vote on the video lottery request for MG Oil Company for the same location.
Dr. Rick Hieb objected because the proposed location was near First United Methodist Church, which houses GAP and other programs for small children, and uses a combined parking lot. He suggested the council talk to people in the area before members vote on the topic.
The location currently has one on-off malt license and 10 video lottery machines, City Clerk Bonnie Foster said. Approving the request up for vote that evening would grant a second on-off malt license, with another 10 video lottery machines, allowing for a total of 20 video lottery machines at the location.
Niemeyer said he opposed the first one and asked City Attorney Steve Britzman to explain how the original malt license and video lottery machines were approved.
The original malt license was approved by city council and there was a lot of debate over the video lottery license, Britzman said. Back then, the law governing video lottery was not fully clarified, but a Supreme Court determined “cities could only utilize the criteria in one video lottery statute which also includes whether the location is appropriate for video lottery.”
Businesses can be reconfigured within the building footprint to add video lottery machines, but “you still have the authority to approve both malt beverage and video lottery based on the traditional criteria of whether that is a suitable location,” Britzman said.
“I’ve been on record not being thrilled with … continuing to increase the number of these machines,” Councilor Patty Bacon said, adding she would vote no.
Councilor Nick Wendell said the council not too long ago did a deep dive on video lottery and what the state law allows.
“And how our community has interpreted it in the past, knowing that this has been a challenging issue, and that we’ve been confronted with this type of decision lots of times in the last couple of years,” Wendell said.
“I’m not saying that because we approved it in one location that we have to continue to follow that exact same path,” he said, adding it would be hard to change that path and he would be voting yes.
Voting yes were Wendell and Councilor Holly Tilton Byrne. Voting no were Bacon, Collins, Corbett and Niemeyer.
Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.
