Elections
City looking to end lingering North-South highway plan
Some unfinished business from the 1998 election is back on the agenda at La Crosse City Hall.
A city neighborhood commission has passed a resolution, asking the Wisconsin DOT to end plans for a North-South Corridor to move traffic faster through La Crosse.
On November 3rd of 1998, La Crosse voters backed a referendum blocking city funding on a road through the marsh, and many voters were hoping that would be the last word on the matter, but the state says there’s still a need for that highway.
The vote against the highway plan was 11,951 to 7076, although 3 of La Crosse’s 18 districts at the time opposed the referendum question.
Mayor Tim Kabat says the expected price of the corridor plan has increased sharply over the decades, and it’s now priced at $143 million.
There are calls for the DOT to let La Crosse use corridor money to fix existing streets.
The full city council could vote on the matter next week.
The ’98 referendum specifically stopped the City of La Crosse from spending local money on a marsh road, but that was only binding for two years.