The Hiawatha Light Rail Transit Line: Why Fifth Street? Thanks for your conversation about light rail and the Hiawatha Line's alignment with 5th Street in downtown Minneapolis. Many find the nuances of the project, decision-making outcomes and extensive planning with various partnering agencies to be a set of complex facts and figures. The current on-line discussion about why the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit Line is planned to travel along 5th Street downtown Minneapolis was preceded by years of debate and discussion in the planning stages of the project. To determine the best route for the line, the Minneapolis city engineer convened a Transit Steering Committee in October 1997. They were charged with reaching a consensus on the downtown route. Members of the committee represented business, downtown residents, city staff, affected agencies, Council Member Dore Mead, Chair of the Minneapolis Transportation and Public Works Committee and the 7th ward council member. The co-chairs of this committee were Dick Allendorf of the Minneapolis Downtown TMO, Judith Martin, vice chair of the Minneapolis Planning Commission and Metro Transit General Manager Art Leahy. Executives from, NSP,[Xcel], Dayton's and others. What resulted from input from all of these interests was 5th Street as the recommendation for various socio-economic reasons. Considerations included: What was best for the downtown in terms of public access to the line, residential needs, business needs, planning needs and cost. The committee had many difficult choices amidst numerous limitations. For instance, they needed to place the line close to the downtown core in a way that made the most sense for the Convention Center and the employment/retail activities. An environmental evaluation also concluded that this street configuration does not cause air quality problems in this dense area of the city. This choice was the best one in terms of what worked well with the other downtown locations, combined with looking at east/west versus north/south streets, and which of the north/south streets were available and able to accommodate other stations on a line that was feasible. Basically, no single station is a lone island. All must work together along an alignment in a cohesive way. Thus, 5th street became the choice out of a long process of elimination. Other streets they looked at included, 6th, 7th and 8th. None worked because the other streets could not accommodate stations on the same side of the corridor and you need to avoid a station on the one side, with the next stop on the other side and so forth. There was an awareness of the utilities on 5th. There are utilities on nearly all Minneapolis streets. But, while the committee was confronted by a myriad of complicated issues, they were charged with making the best decision for LRT and the future of this $675 million dollar investment. All meeting minutes were open to the public. There were many public meetings where the information was reported and public hearings were conducted in addition to the solicitation of the varied interests represented on the committee. Little opposition was encountered when the proposal were discussed. The City Council supported the choice of 5th street with a unanimous vote in July of 1998 and it was signed by the Mayor. The Hiawatha Light Rail Transit Project Office welcomes your interest and discourse on the issues pertaining to the project as well as mass transit in general. We invite you to keep abreast of construction via our hotline. It is, 651-284-0502. Our web information is at: www.metrocouncil.org/transit. Click on Light Rail Transit. Our next public meeting on construction is Wednesday June 27, 2001. 6:30 to 8 p.m. Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. 2730 E 31st St, Minneapolis Mn. Regards, Karen Louise Boothe Public Information Coordinator Hiawatha Light Rail Transit Line _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
