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MINUTES of the MHNA General Membership Meeting
Tues, Sept. 19, 2006

University Lutheran Church of Hope, 601 13th Ave SE, Minneapolis

1. Meeting called to order at 7:40 pm by Brian Biele.
2. The agenda was approved.
3. The August minutes were approved.
4. Committee chairs read Board Actions Taken Earlier Tonight:
   • Executive- Executive Committee declined a request to act as fiscal agent for a U of MN class grant. The Executive Committee unanimously agreed with the Land Use Committee to oppose the Cluster Development (Jeb Robinson, developer) proposed for 401 University Ave SE. (See Land Use minutes for details.) President Brian Biele submitted his resignation. The presidents of all 3 SE neighborhoods were asked by SE Library Task Force to sign a letter to the Minneapolis Library Board objecting to the closing of the SE Library. All three neighborhoods’ presidents agreed to sign in order to have it in the record. A motion was passed to warrant the current president to sign the letter.
   • Safety & livability – No actions taken. A summary of committee activities since April was tabled until the October meeting. The rental license revocation case for 729 8th Ave SE will be heard at the full city council on Friday Sept. 22. A committee member has asked the group to make some recommendations re: Dangerous Animals ordinance and that will be coming probably to the October meeting.
   • Land Use
     • 1117 8th St SE, new construction of a tri-plex in the R5 zoning district, needs only administrative review as it is allowed in the current zoning. Each unit in the triplex will have 5 persons. The Land Use Committee met with the developer and suggested some ways to make the project fit in better with the neighborhood. Parking is still not in compliance with our master plan ratio of .5 spaces per bedroom. Since there did not appear to be any impending deadline on this, a motion was passed at the Land Use Committee to let Jo Radzwill write an official letter and email it to members for comments before sending it on to the city.
     • Cluster Development 401 University Ave SE – The project, which was to appear before the City Planning Commission on August 28, was subsequently continued to the September 18 meeting. Jeb Robinson plans to use parcel number 23-029-24-14-0086, zoned R-5, as a cluster development. Two units currently occupy that property. The house with address 401 University would remain as is. The home (a duplex) bearing the address 308/310 Fourth Ave SE would be demolished and the house at 408 Fourth Street SE (also a duplex) would be moved onto that space, leaving the 408 Fourth Street SE open for a new building. Developer is asking for a conditional use permit to use the property at 401 as a cluster development. A variance is requested to reduce the corner yard setback along 4th Ave SE from 10 ft. to 0 ft. This will allow the houses to be in line along 4th Ave SE. In addition, a variance for a rear yard setback reduction from 7 ft. to 6 ft. is requested for the easterly side of the property at 401 University.The Land Use committee expressed concern at losing our older housing stock. The feeling is that developments of this type are designed to make as much money as possible in the short term without regard for the character of the neighborhood and without any vision for future long-term development. It is evidently cheaper to move the “newly rehabbed” duplex at 408 4th St SE onto the lot at 401 University SE replacing the duplex at 308/310 4th Ave SE than it is to rehab the 4th Ave SE duplex.The committee was very concerned about the structure planned to replace the older duplex at 408 4th St SE. It appears to be very similar to the 4-plex at 412 4th St SE (also owned by this developer) – this 4-plex has no windows in the second story of side facing 4th St SE. Committee believes developer is moving the 408 duplex merely to replace it with a higher density structure, a 3- or 4-plex. The Land Use committee would like to see higher quality structures with more character and has suggested that developer use more windows and trim around the windows in the replacement structure for 408 4th St SE, as well as installing windows in the upper story of the street side of 412 4th St SE.As is the case with all these rental properties, parking does not meet the .5 space requirement of the MHNA master plan. City parking requirements seem adequate for single-family or R-2 zoning, but are woefully inadequate for denser rentals where occupants are often unrelated. The committee is unsure of the exact number of bedrooms in the two buildings (duplex and 4-plex combined) in the Cluster development, but is quite certain the number of parking spaces provided in the cluster development falls below MHNA master plan standards.

       Where there is insufficient off-street parking provided, building occupants search for on-street parking. Many of the neighborhood streets are narrow and parked cars add to congestion. The Land Use Committee recommended the MHNA Board send a letter to the developer and the city planner, Jim Voll, stating our opposition to this project for the following reasons:

       “While we appreciate the developer’s willingness to meet with the neighborhood regarding this project, the Land Use committee has some remaining questions that we feel the developer has not yet answered: a) What is the status of the house that is being demolished? (Is it beyond rehabilitation or are they demolishing it because they know newer structures are easier to rent to students and will increase the rental value of their property?) b) Can this project be completed without the variances?

       The Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood opposes this cluster development for two reasons – It does not add to the number of owner occupied homes in the neighborhood and it does not provide adequate parking. The MHNA master plan specifies 0.5 parking spaces per bedroom. In an area where parking is already problematic, additional vehicles parked on the streets just adds to the congestion. The Neighborhood would like to request that the City allow parking areas to be striped for as many cars as possible (“double loaded parking stalls”) as this will reduce the impact on the surrounding neighborhood and better serve the residents of the buildings.

       Although 408 Fourth St SE and 412 Fourth St SE are not officially part of the cluster development, they were presented as a package to the Land Use committee. The Neighborhood would also like to request that if the project is allowed to proceed that the developer be required to provide exterior detailing (408 Fourth St SE) on the building elevations facing the streets that fits the context of the surrounding neighborhood, for example trim of at least 4” around the windows, plantings to obscure exposed foundation walls and variation in the siding material in order to visually break up long expanses of vinyl lap siding. The building at 412 Fourth St SE is an eyesore to the neighborhood, particularly since it is completely devoid of windows on the side facing the street, and the neighborhood does not want structures similar to that. The neighborhood is very concerned about it character and feels that structures of this kind are not necessarily a positive contribution to the neighborhood.”

       The MHNA Board accepted the Land Use Committee report and recommendations.

   • NRP – A proposal to use NRP funds as a neighborhood contribution toward the cost of a study of the impact of the U of M on adjacent neighborhoods was approved by NRP Committee. The study is mandated by the state legislature as part of the U of M stadium bill. SAAG claims the study would be more “credible” if its costs were partially paid by the adjacent neighborhoods. Melissa Bean, our SAAG rep, said a neighborhood contribution would send a statement to the legislature that the neighborhood is serious about the impact study. She said the study is estimated to cost about $80,000 in consulting fees. The NRP motion to authorize up to $2,000 of NRP funds, if matched by other Southeast neighborhoods, to expand the scope of the impact study to include identification of funding mechanisms and development opportunities for U of M investment in the neighborhood including faculty, staff and student housing, was approved by the board. The NRP contribution would come from the $55,000 NRP strategy to promote the development of faculty or senior housing in the neighborhood. MHNA Board voted to approve the NRP motion.

   A proposal re: hiring a fundraising consultant for the Mississippi Riverfront Trail Project was tabled until it can demonstrate MPRB acknowledgement and support. Elissa Cortell announced that Matt Ayers, a CURA intern, is working on a survey of U faculty, staff (retired and current) and grad students. He hopes to reach 20,000 people with a 4 – 6 minute survey of housing preferences. It will be out by mind October and completed by January.

   Misc – We have been asked to officially join the Central Corridor Light Rail Collaborative. It is comprised of mostly St Paul neighborhoods and although it will not reach into Marcy-Holmes, we may still be affected by the line in terms of development, parking, etc. A motion was passed to join the group with Board member Casey Briscoe as our representative.

5. New Second Precinct Inspector Robert Skomra was introduced. He has 37 years of law enforcement experience. He has been looking at Second Precinct crime statistics since coming on board, and although Marcy-Holmes’ numbers are the biggest, he is encouraged to see they are coming down and the city’s initiatives are working. The recent assaults in SE Como were addressed – the police believe two people will be arrested soon. The precinct’s main areas of concern are: Marcy-Holmes and a portion of Prospect Park; Lowry, Central and Marshall Street corridors from south of Broadway to south of Lowry. Officers review crime statistics to spot patterns – the good news now is there are no patterns. Crime numbers are going down. The first Friday of Sept. party detail was relatively quiet, yet they still issued 60 tags. The second weekend tally was over 200. There are still six more saturation details scheduled for this fall. Inspector Skomra feels that it’s worth the effort and cost. Beside stopping underage or public consumption, preventing intoxicated people from driving or committing other crimes, these details increase police presence on the street and that deters all sorts of crime. He acknowledged that our Dinkytown beat officer was retiring and may not be replaced right away. He has requested from Chief Dolan three 2-person beats 4:30 pm – 2:30 am in East Hennepin, Lowry/Central and Dinkytown.When questions ensued, Inspector Skomra said that he supports the Restorative Justice program, but wants to see better assessments in terms of re-offenders. He talked about the new Third Ward CARE Task Force, which brings together law enforcement, housing inspections, citizens and council member to discuss problem properties and crime issues. He also suggested that MHNA send a rep to the monthly 2-PAC meetings.
6. Minneapolis Solid Waste’s Susan Young (aka Trash Lady, Graffiti Maven, Shopping Cart Diva) addresses the group about the recent move-in/move out accelerated trash collections. These occur twice a year when students relocate. A letter goes out to property owners, managers and tenants about the program and its costs. The totals from Sept 06:
   

   Week prior to holiday	227,400 lbs garbage weight
   Holiday Week	382,860 lbs
   Week after	164,860 lbs

   Ms Young also said Marcy-Holmes had 62 graffiti incidents in July; 92 in August. City crews report about 55% of the incidents. All are photographed, inspected and evidence is taken for prosecution. Fire stations have swipes, graffiti remover, gloves, etc. She appreciated Marcy-Holmes residents’ involved in the Adopt A Litter program. A question was asked about how to prevent people from dumping household trash (not street litter) into the containers. She will send out some stickers that state “This is an adopted litter container and not meant for your household garbage”. Other neighborhoods have had success with those stickers. A question was asked about people dumping unwanted stuff into other people’s construction dumpsters. She suggested in this neighborhood we should tarp the dumpsters and light them at night to prevent this. Document the incidents and call the Second Precinct to report.

7. CM Diane Hofstede reminded the group of the upcoming Third Ward Summit, Saturday, October 21, 2006 8:30 A.M. – Noon, East Side Neighborhood Services, 1700 Second Street NE (612) 781- 6011. The planning session for the CARE committee is being held tomorrow (Wed) at First Congregational Church. MHNA’s Tom Lincoln and Norm Lynskey are our official reps. CM Hofstede thanked our Safety & Livability Committee for their work at 729 8th Ave SE. She was asked about the city council vote coming up on the De La Salle stadium. She has an alternate proposal to deck over the parking lot to create a field. She prefers to look at he issue holistically and fears lawsuits will ensue after the vote. A question of conflict of interest was answered – unless there is a questions of financial gain, council members with ties to the school can vote.
8. Kathleen Reilly implored members to attend the Libray Board’s upcoming Community Meetings addressing their budget shortfalls. Library trustees are looking at several solutions, all but one involve closing the SE Library. If you are unable to attend in person, write a letter or go to the library’s website and fill out an online form (www.mplib.org) before October 25. ”It is painful to be back where we started three years ago”, said Kathleen. On the bright side, the libraries now have a “Check out a Museum” campaign offering free passes for 4 to area museums.
9. Because time was short, it was decided to delay the Safety & Livability Committee’s report on Safe Summer 06 until the October meeting.
10. Elissa Cottle, NRP Coordinator, announced that NRP funding will run out citywide in 2009 but for most neighborhoods it will happen after 2007. The NRP policy board came up with a list of funding mechanisms and people wishing to weigh in are encouraged to tell their elected officials.
11. Executive Director Melissa Bean thanked outgoing president Brian Biele for his service to MHNA. Brian is moving out of the neighborhood and stepping down from the board. Brian served for many years as a board member and was in his third term as president. He was instrumental in streamlining the committee structure and developing new neighborhood leaders. He was a pleasure to work with and will be missed.
12. Meeting adjourned 9:05 pm

Melissa Bean, Executive Director.