Grand Marais Mayor talks city infrastructure and street upgrades amid growing housing developments

With annual budget discussions approaching, the Grand Marais City Council is preparing to add another significant item to its end-of-year to-do list.

Throughout the coming weeks and months, the city council will begin discussions about the city’s role and responsibility to increase access or improve roads and infrastructure for development. 

In the past year, the city has received comments from proposed housing developers, Vesta Unchained and Hamilton Habitat, about the challenges and costs of connecting to city sewers and water. 

Most recently, another housing development came before the council and was ultimately denied a conditional use permit due to a substandard city street. 

“It’s been before the council before, and it will come up again and I think we need to rethink or understand better what role we want to play in that,” Grand Marais Mayor Tracy Benson said. 

Benson said moving forward, she thinks it is “important to have some guiding principles when we have to make these decisions.”

The council is actively exploring scheduling a work session to begin the larger discussion about infrastructure improvements within city limits. 

WTIP’s Kalli Hawkins spoke with Grand Marais Mayor Tracy Benson following the Aug. 14 city council meeting. The audio from the interview is below. 

Kalli Hawkins August 24, 2024