The merger issue of North Longfellow has been afloat for quite some time. I would like to provide some information to clarify the decisions to be made with regards to this issue.
The planning department adopted a new policy regarding neighborhood boundaries sometime this past summer. In short, it requires a public meeting with stakeholders affected by this decision. In this case, the stakeholders would be the entire Longfellow neighborhood which includes the portion south of Lake Street to 34th street and the entire Seward neighborhood. The Longfellow neighborhood would have to agree to split the neighborhood along Lake Street. Seward would also need to hold a public meeting and vote to approve the acceptance of North Longfellow into Seward, changing its geographic boundaries. In reading the planning department policy on this issue, the groups are required to flyer all those affected with 30 day notice. There is no funding provided by the planning department to pay for this notice. It is unclear to me at this time whether NRP funds or Citizen Participation funds can be used to pay for organizing around this issue. It is also my understanding that the planning department is encouraging the applicant group to meet with surrounding neighborhoods in addition to direct stakeholders. The other issue at hand in this discussion is whether North Longfellow wishes to be represented by Seward Neighborhood Group for it's Citizen Participation and NRP functions. Again, all of Longfellow would have to agree as would Seward. And in this case without Lake Street being a true geographic boundary for Longfellow, the MCDA would have to waive it's policy to allow for this to happen as would the NRP as both our policies speak to geographic boundaries. In terms of NRP funds for Longfellow and Seward, any geographical boundary changes would not affect Phase I NRP funds as they have been nearly all contracted or expended in both Seward and Longfellow. Only the Phase II allocations would be affected by this change. And right now what Phase II will be is not clear. (Will be shortly I hope) The other option is for Longfellow as a neighborhood to break free from the Longfellow Community Council and operate as an independent neighborhood association. Again, the neighborhood would have to vote whether to allow the new group to represent them or to continue with the Longfellow Community Council. The Phillips neighborhood voted to operate for purposes of NRP and Citizen Participation as four separate regions. Phillips is the largest geographic neighborhood in Mpls. and has the largest population (19,000+) Ventura Village has applied to be considered as a neighborhood separate of Phillips. I think a pretty good argument can be made that Phillips is just too big and has to many issues to remain as one neighborhood any longer. The VV application is moving through the approval process as we speak, albeit slower than molasses in January. This neighborhood also had no neighborhood association representation from the time People of Phillips was decertified until the new regional associations were formed and recognized. Recently, the North Loop neighborhood voted to break away from the Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association (DMNA) and form their own new neighborhood association. They are now called the Warehouse District North Loop Neighborhood Association.(WDNLNA) Both DMNA and WDNLNA held meetings and voted on the issue. WDNLNA will recieve a portion of NRP funds from Phase I because there is not currently an approved NRP action plan in DMNA. (They are meeting tonight to approve the DMNA Phase I NRP plan) Sorry this is so long. Hope the information helps. Barb Lickness NRP Neighborhood Specialist to Longfellow __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Find the one for you at Yahoo! Personals http://personals.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
