Met Council Community Development Committee approves Summit Avenue Regional Trail plan
(FILE/KSTP)
The Met Council Community Development Committee voted to approve the Summit Avenue Regional Trail Long Range Plan during its meeting on Monday.
The full Met Council was set to vote on the issue on Wednesday, Aug. 23, but the item is no longer on the agenda. Another date and time has not yet been released.
The plan was already approved by the St. Paul City Council back in May.
A presentation of the plan can be seen here.
The plan is part of a larger effort to rebuild the Summit Avenue roadway while improving the regional trail, some sidewalks and crossings, curbs, gutters, trees, lighting, amenities and utilities.
City officials say building a four-and-a-half-mile bike path on Summit Avenue would protect cyclists, but critics argue it would take out many mature trees in the area and sacrifice street parking.
The city’s plan says about 220 trees would be vulnerable during construction.
The regional trail plan would include a raised bike path separated by a curb from the road. It would run along Summit from the Mississippi River and the Samuel H. Morgan Regional Trail. Part of that stretch would also go from two-sided parking to one-sided.
If approved, the next step would see St. Paul city officials sending preliminary plans to the Metropolitan Council Environmental Services Interceptor Engineering Assistant Manager.
This latest development follows a public input dialogue that began last year.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated that the meeting was set for Tuesday evening and has since been corrected.
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