It’s a no-go in the snow along 70th Street west of Keats Avenue. At least for snowmobiles or other recreational vehicles, that is.

The Cottage Grove City Council last Wednesday night passed an ordinance amending city code to prohibit snowmobiles on that stretch of road as the area becomes home to more development.

Deputy Director of Public Safety Greg Rinzel made a presentation to the council at the meeting and several people spoke for snowmobiles and against, prior to the council discussion on the issue. Mayor Myron Bailey summed up the sentiments of council members.

“Our city is changing. Our city is growing,” he said. “I just don’t see this working out.”

Rinzel said the matter came up from a citizen complaint.

“On March 19, 2018 a concerned resident addressed the Public Services Commission meeting. During the public forum, the resident requested information on the plowing of snow for the walking trail along 70th Street.,” he said. Commission members requested additional details regarding the trail along 70th Street, specifically who would plow the trail and if it were plowed how would that affect the snowmobile trail map. Although 70th Street is a county road, the City of Cottage Grove maintains or plows many county railways during the winter. Commission members requested staff meet with the snowmobile club to find a solution for the 70th Street trail as it would be unsafe to plow the trails and still allow snowmobiles to operate on the trail.”

Snowmobiling was allowed for an additional year after the East Cottage Grove Snowmobile Club indicated they wanted to maintain the 70th Street trail “having already placed signs on it,” said Rinzel.

“ECG was the only club operating within the city after the Cottage Grove Club dissolved. Snowmobiles From Page 1

City staff members and Mayor Bailey met with ECG and agreed to allow the trail to stay open for the 2019 season.”

Bailey said it was his understanding that 2019 would be the last year of snowmobiling on that stretch of road.

“We granted it last year because of that,” he said of the club signing the trail along the road. “We all kind of worked together as a team. i didn’t get the impression from our Public Safety group that the intent was to just continue the trail into the future. We wanted to make sure there was enough time to make some adjustments. That was my take on it,” he said.

Bailey said that while there haven’t been snowmobile incidents on that stretch of road, he wants to make sure it stays that way.

“My personal feeling is this section of road does not make sense to continue,” he said.

Rinzel showed statistics that there were 38 snowmobile complaints from 2011 -2018, and half of them were related to the 70th Street corridor and adjacent parks.

“Overall, the complaints demonstrate the residential growth in the area is changing the character of the snowmobile route. For example, the very popular sledding hill at Highlands Park is in direct conflict with snowmobilers. The trail in this location is at the back of the curb and is plowed. This forces snowmobiles to enter the restricted park area,” he said.

Snowmobiling and walking trails are in conflict.

“Recently, staff determined the best course of action would be to eliminate the 70th Street trail west of Keats Avenue. The paved walking trail has far too many areas (over 16 including two new roundabouts) where the walking and snowmobile trails (with a snowmobile speed limit of 30 mph) are ‘one and the same.’ These interacting points create risks for both pedestrians and snowmobilers,” Rinzel wrote in his memo to the council.

Rinzel pointed out that Woodbury has eliminated all trails except Hwy. 19 and Manning Avenue.

The city has proposed adding some trails and allowing a snowmobile trailer location at the Lamar Park ballfields for residents who need to get to the trail system.

“That’s really a nice idea,” said council member Justin Olsen.

Snowmobile club members did indicate however that the Minnesota DNR, which helps pay for trail upkeep, doesn’t allow funding to transfer to new trails if one trail is lost.

The Star Trail Snowmobile Association consists of 10 snowmobile clubs that groom, sign, mark and maintain 140 miles of trails within Washington County. President John Udstead pleaded with the council to table the action and work out a solution so the stretch of 70th Street isn’t lost to snowmobiles.

“We’re here to provide tourism for Cottage Grove and all of Washington County,” he said. “We are families. We all have full time jobs. We do this for the City of Cottage Grove of our own free will.”

He pointed out that snowmobilers – unlike bicyclists – pump millions into local communities.

“Washington County alone has 25,000 registered, voting snowmobile owners so it’s quite a big thing,” he said.

He urged the city to let snowmobile traffic continue on the stretch of road, under guidance of the club.

“We are the experts in trail safety, respectful to Public Safety, the council and the mayor,” Udstead said. “We are the experts. The trail in question, I say is safe, and I’m an expert.”

He pointed out there were zero accidents involving snowmobiles on the road.

The stretch of 70th Street helped local snowmobilers get to the Star Trail system.

“This is not a destination trail, this is for your voting, taxpaying citizens,” he said. “During the year of COVID-19, we shouldn’t be taking away from our recreational opportunities.”

Olsen urged the group to continue working with the city on alternatives.

“I really want the club to work closely with our Public Services Commission to find alternatives,” he said, noting that the city could work with the DNR on trail funding.

“That seems odd to me,” he said of the funding not being transferable to new trails. “Maybe that’s something we need to work with our state legislative team on.”

“It seems like 95 percent of what we’re talking about, we’re talking about the same thing,” Olsen said. “Everybody seems to be singing from the same sheet of music. We want people to be able to snowmobile in Cottage Grove. We want to be able to provide more opportunity to do that. Where the rub is, is this specific railway system along 70th Street.”

Rinzel said that Public Safety would work to educate snowmobilers and make sure signage alerts them of the change.

In other business, Bailey, Olsen and La Rae Mills were congratulated by council members Steve Dennis and Dave Thiede for winning re-election Tuesday.

“I’m very happy we kept the team together,” said Dennis.

Mills reached out to city staff and election volunteers for the great job they did making the Cottage Grove polls run smoothly.

“Our city worked really hard in making the polling places available yesterday and to make sure all the things were put together safely,” she said, noting there were 145 volunteers who helped out.

“Thank you to those volunteers. Thank you to the staff here,” she said.