Roseville Council Delays Action on County Road C2 Issue

The Roseville City Council delayed decisions on connecting County Road C2 and the city’s 2012-2013 budget Monday night – requesting a staff recommendation on the controversial C2 connection and putting off further budget debate until Aug. 22.

An overflow crowd forced some people to watch the proceedings from outside the Council chambers or on closed-circuit TV screens as dozens of Roseville residents testified for or against making County Road C2 an east-west thoroughfare.

The city would have to bridge a 175-foot gap between the current cul-de-sac jutting west from Lexington Avenue, which would increase the flow of traffic along C2 over the next 20 years.

Connecting the eastern and western segments of C2 has pitted residents of the isolated stretch of C2 against home-owners who live along Josephine Road near the southern tip of Lake Johanna.

Deb Bloom, Roseville’s city engineer, was asked by Councilman Robert Willmus to prepare the staff recommendation. Bloom told Council members that she would prepare the recommendation for posting on Roseville’s city web site before a meeting where the Council would vote whether to approve the city engineer’s directive is held.

Meanwhile, lengthy testimony on the County Road C2 issue cut short the Council’s discussion on the 2012-2013 Roseville budget recommendation by City Manager Bill Malinen. Malinen's advice to the Council changed after the Minnesota Legislature passed a budget for the two-year period that began July 1.

That state budget deal alters Roseville’s city budget because state lawmakers eliminated the Market Value Homestead Credit program.

Because of that program cut, about $475,000 currently levied to Roseville taxpayers could be used to pare an expected tax increase of more than 3 percent to 1.8 percent, and to lessen reductions on city programs and services.