ACTION URGED ON CENTRAL CORRIDOR PLAN

Board member Doug Carlson reported that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Metropolitan Council (Met Council) are planning to prepare a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) for the Central Corridor project. The scope of the SDEIS includes the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit connection near the Metrodome and the University of Minnesota East Bank Alignment. Under Minnesota law, the public must be allowed to comment on the scope of the SDEIS.

Carlson encouraged all Marcy-Holmes residents to send their comments to Kathryn O’Brien (kathryn.obrien@metc.state.mn.us) and David Werner (david.Werner@dot.gov). O’Brien is the Project Manager for the Central Corridor at the Met Council and Werner is with the FTA. The Met Council is accepting comments through March 26. All comments will then be forwarded to the FTA.

At last month’s board meeting, MHNA opposed the Met Council’s plan to close Washington Avenue to traffic other than light rail and pedestrian. The board also opposed using Fourth Street SE and University Avenue SE as light rail routes. In a press release sent to the FTA and the Met Council, MHNA president Arvonne Fraser said, “To close Washington Avenue to all other traffic – the 25,000 cars and trucks daily plus 1,500 buses – and divert it to neighborhood streets would overburden Fourth Street and University Avenues SE as well as East Hennepin Avenue, which are already heavily traveled.”

The board proposed using the #9 bridge, or the “northern alignment,” across the Mississippi River as a safer alternative to closing Washington Avenue and a cheaper alternative to a tunnel under the East Bank campus.

ALLIANCE PRESENTS VISION FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA AND ITS NEIGHBORS

Prospect Park resident and University District Partnership Alliance member Dick Gilyard presented the work of his visioning subcommittee. “It took us a while to get going,” said Gilyard. “The neighborhoods around the U were used to thinking of themselves as separate entities.”

The visioning subcommittee’s directive is to create a shared vision between neighborhoods, the University of Minnesota (the U) and the city that would lead to a district identity, pride, and shared planning and development efforts.

Gilyard and his fellow subcommittee members created four basic categories for discussion:
Who lives here?
What are our area’s significant geographical features?
What do the neighborhoods stand for?
How does this relationship work? The visioning subcommittee is looking for feedback from residents?

The University District Partnership Alliance is made up of representatives from Marcy-Holmes, Prospect Park, South East Como, Cedar Riverside, business associations, the city, and the U and its student government. The alliance was created and funded with $750,000 from the legislature after a 2007 report sponsored by the U, the city, and the Stadium Area Advisory Group concluded, “The destiny of the University is inextricably linked to the destiny of the adjacent neighborhoods. These neighborhoods must have decent, safe, and affordable housing, as well as infrastructure such as schools, libraries, and parks.”

“They really need the neighborhoods now. They have examples of other universities that have let the neighborhoods deteriorate and have had to rescue them at great cost,” said Gilyard.

MHNA STRUCTURES REVOLVING LOAN PROGRAM

The board agreed on terms for its $150,000 revolving loan program. Loans will be available for exterior property improvements to owner-occupied and absentee-owned properties no larger than four units in the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood.

The board approved closing the Rental Rehab Matching Grant Program and moving the remaining $9,928.35 in the contract into the revolving loan program.

BOARD SUPPORTS GRANDSTAY HOTEL

The board voted to support all the requested variances for the proposed GrandStay Residential Suites Hotel on Southeast Sixth Street between East Hennepin Avenue and Central Avenue. The board’s approval is subject to the agreement of the affected landowners.

BOARD APPROVES CONTRACT WITH CUNINGHAM GROUP

The board approved spending $20,000 in Neighborhood Revitalization Program funds to contract with Cuningham Group to work on the 15th Avenue development area. The board hopes that Cuningham Group can move them from the master plan and supplement to implementation of the plan.

NEXT: Board meeting, April 15, 2008
MEETINGS: 3rd Tuesday monthly, 6 p.m. at University Lutheran Church of Hope, 601 13th Avenue SE
CONTACT: 623-7633, www.marcy-holmes.org
BORDERS: Central Ave. to 15th Ave. SE, 9th St. SE to Main St. SE

last revised: March 24, 2008

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