Midtown Greenway Coalition
Land Use and Transportation Committee
Minutes
May 10, 2010
Attending: Eric Hart, Mark Labovish, Ed Briesemeister, Peter Taylor, Lauren Fulner, Margaret
Kirkpatrick, Alex Anderson, John DeWitt, Theresa Nelson, Tim Springer
Approved Agenda
Approved April 12 minutes
Announcements/Updates
• Mosaic, the proposed development for the Lagoon Theater parking lot, has been
reconfigured. The current proposal would shade the Greenway much more than the last
configuration. Between now and our June LU&T Comm meeting Eric will unearth our
policy statements on the project from several years ago. Tim Springer will reach out to
Stu Ackerberg.
• Acme Tag site (across the Greenway from Mosaic) could be an active project again as
well. Eric believes that they recently renewed their conditional use, giving them more
time to make the project happen.
Short Discussions
• Retaining walls in the Greenway by Midwestern Machinery Building. Basim Sabri put in
a low retaining wall on public land in the space between his building and the trails,
running parallel to his building. This placement of permanent infrastructure on public
Greenway land is atypical in that the County did not check with us first, and also in that
they allowed it at all. Letter to Marcia Wilda and CC Phil Eckert and John Tripp and the
Neighborhood Association. Staff will draft a letter and run it past Eric Hart.
• City developed a policy to make changes in traffic control for at-grade intersections of
the Greenway trail and streets. We thought they would implement it this year, but they
have not. Coalition to request CM Schiff to make an inquiry to learn from staff whether
they plan to implement changes and when.
Walker Library Redevelopment
Neighborhoods remained silent on the Greenway Center proposal out of deference to the
Coalition. The Coalition LU&T Committee and board have taken action to favor mixed use at
the site. Some concerns remain about building over the Midtown Greenway which would create
a tunnel.
Ed Briesemeister: Utilitarian calculation, Greenway Center is the best solution overall, benefits
are County saves money, create jobs, create new real estate taxes. There were some
compromises, the main compromise landing here at the Coalition – building over the Greenway
to put space closer to the YWCA parking ramp. Greenway Center LLC put ads in local news
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and got about 8 positive comments. Ed believes that a project that incorporates the YWCA, a
clinic, a hotel, and the library cannot happen w/o covering over the Greenway.
If the Coalition encourages the neighborhoods and the County to consider mixed use, but doesn’t
weigh in on the fact that the Greenway Center would cover over the Midtown Greenway, then
people may think that we like the idea of covering over the Greenway. One idea would be to
communicate with the neighborhoods to say here’s what we’re thinking, are you OK with it?
We’d go to the County after that.
There are two framing issues that require a balancing act:
1. Mixed use elements are attractive, integration of transit and civic activity;
2. Stewardship of the Greenway itself – what do we think about building over it?
The board-approved resolution is below with the additional sentence added by the committee as
underlined:
Midtown Greenway Coalition favors consideration of mixed-use development at the Walker
library site and encourages any steps necessary to realize this possibility. We also support
developments that maintain solar access to the Midtown Greenway.
Where to go next? The board could be sent an email saying here’s how the committee modified
the resolution, and ask for comments from our members in an upcoming e-news, if you are OK
with it, then we’ll run with this in discussions with the neighborhoods and subsequent
recommendations to the County.
The library is a public use. Perhaps when considering modifying our position on solar access
and Greenway protection, the fact that the proposed use is for a public purpose may be relevant.
Also, the development would generate about $600,000 in new tax revenues annually.
It could be couched as MGC supports mixed-use development in general but such projects must
be consistent with the Coalition’s principles for Greenway design and protections, such as
retaining solar access.
Policy on Buildings Over the Greenway
We’ll get a start on this as we gather board and community responses to our stance on the
Greenway Center development. Then at future meetings we can take up the wider issue.
Xcel Hiawatha Project
Senate File 1537 has been passed by the Minnesota Senate and the House. Next it goes to a
conference committee and then to the governor for his signature, veto, or inaction.