St. Cloud Ward 1 Challenger Hobbs Pushes Housing, Downtown Parking, Police Expansion

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- A political newcomer is taking on a longtime incumbent in St. Cloud's Ward 1 election.

Charlie Hobbs is a former professor. He's a current member of the St. Cloud Planning Commission. He says his time as a planning commissioner has prepared him well to sit on the city council.

It's a familiar environment: we meet in the same room, we meet behind the same dais.  When you are on the planning commission inevitably you become very quickly, if you're going to be any good at it, intimately familiar with city processes, with zoning, for how things work.

Hobbs had an unsuccessful run for city council two years ago. A couple of his top priorities are working on more housing, especially starter homes, and public safety by expanding the police department's co-responder program beyond 9:00 p.m.

The downtown area is in Ward 1. Hobbs says he'd like to see free street parking after 5:00 p.m.

I think that it's worth that. I think it will incentivize more people to come downtown.  We talk about revitalizing downtown a lot; we don't need to shoot ourselves in the foot by doing things that are counterproductive towards that. By the way, not one single person currently on the city council said even a peep when our mayor doubled the hourly parking rate for street parking downtown.

Hobbs also wants to be involved in the redevelopment of the area that currently has the courts, jail, and sheriff's offices, which will be leaving downtown in 2029. He says that area needs to be six acres of opportunity, not six acres of gravel.

He says the city has a lot to be proud of, especially the city's first responders, among other things

I'm proud of the gems that we do still have downtown. Think of Books Revisited and think of Jules' Bistro, among other wonderful gems.

Hobbs also pointed out the city's exceptional public library.

Hobbs is facing incumbent Dave Masters in the Ward 1 race. We heard comments from Masters in Monday newscasts.