Downtown
Minutes from
The regularly scheduled meeting of the Board
of Directors of the Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association, Inc. (DMNA)
was held on
With a quorum present, Jerrie Hayes,
Chair, convened the meeting at
After introductions, the Chair made the following announcements:
¶ The several calls and complaints she has received over the past month regarding downtown traffic congestion and road blockage. The Chair will follow up with Lisa Goodman regarding these complaints but in the meantime for information related to road blockage resulting from the LRT project, contact the Metropolitan Council’s light rail hotline at 651-284-5020 or visit its website at www.metrocouncil.org/transit.
¶
The Center for Neighborhoods’ (CFN) central information hub on
the internet to save the NRP (www.communityzero.com/savenrp),
the purpose for which is to coordinate activities of the Minneapolis neighborhoods
for securing additional funding and planning the restructuring of the NRP as
a result of recent legislative action. CFN is also sponsoring the
¶ The 62d Minneapolis Aquatennial Festival from July 13 through 22 featuring the new Aquatennial Village (open on weekends) at Parade Stadium; the Hennepin Block Party on Friday, July 13th; the Torchlight Parade on Wednesday, July 18th; and the riverfront fireworks by the Lock and Dam on Saturday, July 21st. For more information visit www.aquatennial.org.
¶ Memorandum from the Minneapolis Planning Department regarding the City Council’s adoption of neighborhood boundary change process (Attachment 1).
¶ The NRP’s recent draft of Conflict of Interest Policy that has been submitted to the NRP Policy Board for adoption. The period for public commentary is through Friday, August 10th (Attachment 2).
¶ The Plymouth Congregational Church’s welcome celebration for the Oromos community on Monday, July 30th (Attachment 3).
¶
Notice of Industry Square Project
Committee meeting on Wednesday, July 11th at
¶ The Metropolitan Council’s corrected copy of the Livable Communities Demonstration Account Opportunity Grants application (Attachment 5). The Chair advised that this is a one-to-one matching grant from the Met Council for project development that DMNA applied for last year and was approved for the first phase but not for the second phase. The deadline for submission to apply for 2001 funds is August 1st.
¶ Glenn Johannesen’s potential extended absence due to AII’s new accreditation process requiring all presidents to obtain Ph.D.’s within 18 months. Glenn has indicated to the Chair that he plans to remain active on the board but will need to determine what his schedule will allow going forward.
A. June Board Meeting Minutes
The Chair asked if there were any amendments, corrections or edits to the contents of the board minutes from June 2001. There being no objections to the contents, the minutes from June 2001 were adopted by unanimous consent.
B. Committee Reports
1. Land Use Committee Report. Mark advised
that he attended a meeting regarding the Northstar Commuter Rail Line wherein
preliminary design plans were discussed regarding its terminus station in the
Warehouse District (running on existing tracks from
Mark informed the board that he and Monroe attended the public hearing for the
Mark then informed the board that the LUC met on Tuesday, July 3rd to discuss
the Hennepin Avenue Streetscape Project (see Attachment 5 of the July board
package material). Mark proposed to the board “Is this an appropriate project
for DMNA to be involved?” If no, so be it. If yes, how would DMNA become involved?
Mark suggested to either use NRP funds by making a contribution to the project
like any other NRP project to pay for the architectural and engineering portion
and let the project proceed; or loan the money to the City and then the City
through assessments against property owners along Hennepin Avenue would repay
DMNA the loan thereby allowing DMNA to reuse the funds. Barbara Lichness
believes it is an appropriate NRP project and that due to the time constraints
DMNA should proceed with this project without knowing all the specific details
related thereto while getting its broader plan in place. Tom Hoch
explained that the request for $350,000 from DMNA is to cover the cost of developing
construction estimates and establishing assessment levels related to the project.
After questions were entertained the Chair moved and Mark seconded to support
the Hennepin Avenue Streetscape Project by resolution (Attachment 7). The motion
to adopt said resolution was carried unanimously. The amount and method of
funding the project was postponed to be more fully discussed in the first full-phase
planning meeting.
Lastly, Mark informed the board that Ann Calvert of MCDA approached him as to
whether DMNA would be interested in partnering with other groups (e.g., Minneapolis
Park Board, MCDA Housing Department) on their projects that require additional
funding (+/-$30,000) to complete. Having agreed to do so, Mark will work with
these groups to ensure their projects are reviewed in time to be included in
the master plan.
2. Housing Committee Report. Mark advised that he has not received any further information from Jackie Cherryhomes’ office regarding the promised methods to ameliorate the traffic congestion in the North Loop Neighborhood. Mark will follow up with Jackie since these methods were to be employed by June 20001.
3. Finance Committee Report. Since DMNA’s
bank statements are issued on the 11th of the month, Mark had no balance update
and advised that no additional checks were written since the last report but
that he’ll forward an update once the statement arrives. Also Scott Engel has
issued another invoice that needs to be paid as well as begin making payments
to the Ambassador program.
The Chair advised that two items from the June’s Treasurer’s Report – the
Officers and Directors Insurance documentation as well as the follow up documentation
for Citizens Participation – have been completed and submitted.
The Chair stated that she was contacted by Dee Cotten
requesting a $100 reimbursement for last year’s donation by Rivergate
Apartments’ management for National Night Out.
4. Public Relations Committee Report. Carletta advised the board that the logo was being updated to reflect the changes the board requested.
To accommodate Lisa’s recent arrival, the agenda was interrupted to allow her to make the following announcements:
¶ Her support of the Hennepin Avenue Streetscape Project.
¶ Her excitement about DMNA’s support and involvement in the Lamoreaux Project, one of the best affordable housing projects she considers going on in the City right now.
¶
The Historic Preservation Commission’s
denial of all demolition permits for the
¶ Responding to the Chair’s inquiry about who to contact regarding downtown traffic congestion, Lisa advised that as of August 1st charges to developers for the use of public right-of-ways will be implemented and that all construction projects must be off the public right-of-ways including drive lanes, parking lanes, and sidewalks. Developers will also be required to place a covered sidewalk/bike lane for any removal of same. For information regarding site-specific congestion, Lisa advised visiting the City’s website which lists all press releases and media advisories. Since state law dictates that the City of Minneapolis cannot tell utility companies when and where they can conduct maintenance work as long as it is conducted within the right of use and time (usually 7 working days) allowance, penalty fees under the lane usage oversight ordinance are only inflicted against a utility company if it exceeds the allocated amount of time to conduct a specific maintenance job.
¶ Turning to the issue of NRP funding, Lisa advised that the funds are in place for Phase 1 but that under the current tax structure there will not be enough funds to pay for Phase 2. The City is committed to doing NRP in some fashion or form, the question is where will the funds come from to pay for it. In addition to NRP not being funded, the MCDA won’t be funded, so according to Lisa this is a question of community development priorities across the board (i.e., commercial corridor development, affordable housing, brown field reclamation, historic preservation) that will require a balance between all the community development activities the City is doing not just ones funded through NRP. This will give the City an opportunity to reevaluate what’s been going well and what hasn’t been going well.
¶ Lisa advised that the legislature is in charge of redistricting and that the City’s charter dictates that redistricting must be implemented within 60 days of when the legislature had done so. Since the legislature hasn’t acted, redistricting will now go through the court system and probably would be resolved by the end of the calendar year. Lisa believes that we won’t see significant boundary changes from what currently exists.
¶ Lastly, Lisa advised that the money for the Kiosk project passed through City Council and will soon be implemented.
Continuing with the Committee Reports:
5. Ad hoc Employment Committee Report. The Chair advised that although the ad had been submitted it had not run in the latest issue of NRP Link.
6. Implementation Committee Report. Kirk Moorhead
advised that he had come before the IC several weeks ago to discuss the Affordable
Housing Reserve Fund (a $16 million NRP set aside established by the City of
Sue Jahn updated the board on the progress she has made in organizing National Night Out on Tuesday, August 7th and requested DMNA sponsorship. The Chair explained that due to DMNA’s filing status (i.e., an organization not licensed to solicit for donations) prevents it from tendering thank you letters for donations received in amounts that exceed $500 a year. For that reason and because this event was not budgeted in First Step is why DMNA has not officially sponsored National Night Out. However the Treasurer advised that the board could decide to disseminate funds for the event from Citizens Participation and/or NRP funds that wouldn’t go for food or beverages. The Chair reiterated that the board had approved support of the event and had requested a budget. Thereafter the Chair moved and Mark seconded to donate $400 out of DMNA’s Citizens Participation fund to National Night Out contingent upon receiving a budget by the end of this week substantiating those charges. Andy friendly amended the motion by indicating that receipts must back up all disbursements. The motion as amended was carried unanimously.
Chief Rocco advised that since the police buyback program is down to $17,000 and would be soon exhausted, proposed to allocate another $100,000 from Phase 1 and to obtain monthly as stipulated in Sharon Lubinski’s memo (Attachment 9). The Chair then moved and Rocco seconded to immediately allocate $25,000 from Phase 1 funds for the police buyback program. The motion was carried unanimously.
The meeting was adjourned at
Signed and approved by
______________________________
______________________________
Chair
Secretary
Attachment 1
[Memorandum from Minneapolis Planning Department dated
Attachment 2
[Cover letter from Robert D. Miller dated
Attachment 3
[Invitation from Plymouth Congregational Church to welcome members of the Oromo community]
Attachment 4
[Notice of Industry Square Project Committee meeting]
Attachment 5
[Livable Communities Demonstration Account Opportunity Grants application]
Attachment 6
[Notice of a Zoning Application]
Attachment 7
Resolution in Support of
the
WHEREAS the Historic Theatre Group has developed a Hennepin Avenue Streetscape Project to create a pedestrian-friendly, uniformly-themed urban street from Fifth Street to Tenth Street along Hennepin Avenue that will: encourage pedestrian traffic both during the day and night; spur additional private investment in existing building facades; be affordable to area businesses; and help define the area as the Hennepin Theatre District.
WHEREAS the Hennepin Avenue Streetscape Project requires front-end costs to complete the architectural/engineering-related work necessary to establish the special assessment levels against benefited properties.
WHEREAS the Historic Theatre Group has requested $350,000 from DMNA to cover said front-end costs.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the DMNA supports the Hennepin Avenue Streetscape Project and believes that it is an appropriate use of DMNA’s NRP funds in that it promotes the attractiveness of the downtown neighborhood for downtown residents, employees, business and property owners as well as visitors, and because it will serve to visually and physically unify a historically and culturally important part of the downtown neighborhood.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the amount and method of funding said Hennepin Avenue Streetscape Project shall be determined at a later date when DMNA has completed its full-phase plan.
Attachment 8
[Who is CCHT and Proposal to DMNA]
Attachment 9
[Memo from Inspector Sharon Lubinski
dated