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Fargo Commissioner Gehrig Calls City Plan “Special Interest doc”; Ties Bike Lanes to Higher Taxes

Over the course of several months in 2011, Fargo city leadership and citizens came together over the course of several public meetings to develop a comprehensive plan for the future of the city. The result was the Fargo Comprehensive Plan Go2030, a wide-ranging planning document that outlines the priorities that residents wanted to city to consider going forward to the year 2030.

The process was led by the City of Fargo Department of Planning and Development, and was well attended by both city leadership and a broad swatch of citizens interested in helping manage city growth and progress. Topics of discussion included streets and neighborhoods, flooding problems, energy consumption, infrastructure and improvements.

In a Facebook post by WDAY’s Mike McFeely, Fargo City Commissioner Tony Gehrig (who was not an elected official at the time of the GO2030 meetings) said that the document produced from the meetings ( GO2030 Fargo Comprehensive Plan) is a “special interest doc” and that the public process was a “study by the EPA”.

Rory Bell, one of the driving forces behind the Dakota Medial Foundation StreetsAlive! program questioned Gehrig, asking if the program was not an effort of the city of Fargo.

Gehrig responded that the comprehensive plan was “recived and filed” and was “not binding”.

Gehrig also said that “some people want bike lanes and higher taxes” and that “bike lanes are not a concern for the majority of residents”.