David Brauer wrote: > Somebody, please help explain this eruption of park romance to me. > > Now, I'm all for more parkland in the urban core - say, Block E (but we > all know what happened there). However, in the case of the library's > "north block," is there not a city-subsidized park rising on Marquette > Plaza - right across Nicollet Mall - ready to open this spring? And is > it not just a block or two away from the riverfront, which we're slowly > but surely turning into a linear park?
What a park will do is provide an open space much bigger and much different than the plaza across from the north block. It is hard to explain in an e-mail what a three dimentional model shows. The staff from Pelli's group showed what the area will look like when it is all developed. Basically, this area becomes very dense with housing and office buildings over the next ten to twenty years. A plaza or other open space will provide a substantial amenity, providing a break in this development much larger and different than the plaza across from the Nicollet Hotel block will be able to provide. In addition, the open space will help spur redevelopment, bringing new dollars onto the tax rolls much sooner than they would otherwise. Also it is more like four or five blocks from the River if you walk it, creating a plaza/open space substantially closer to the core of the downtown, something that has been debated for the downtown for years (like for the Norwest Center site, Block E, etc). > I can take or leave a parking ramp on the north block...actually, I > agree with the anti-car folks here...you don't need one given all the > parking resources close by. First off, parking is needed for the Library. Going to the library is fundimentally about hauling things (books, videos, etc) and an average of 193 spaces are needed to meet that demand. Providing this alone will take up most of the space under the library building itself. Second, as to parking on the north block, as the surface lots in the immedia te area are redeveloped, both reducing supply and increasing demand, there will be demand for additional parking spaces. Whether an underground ramp on the north block will be financially feasable even with this demand is a question that staff will be working on. >I think the same argument holds true for > parkland...there is a lot nearby. But a housing development, perhaps > with some neighborhood retail, that looms less large with less parking - > something that pays taxes, fills an urban planning need, etc. - seems > fiscally sane while improving Downtown livability. Is there something > I'm missing here? If the housing is TIFFed to fund affordable housing and provide money to the library, there will be no funding for the tax base from a housing project. Open space, however, can spur redevelopment that will actually contribute to the tax base. Financially open space may make the most sense if you are concerned about tax base growth. I don't think that any option has yet been taken off the table - housing, parking, open space, or something else no one has put out there yet. Staff for the Implementation Committee will be working up cost estimates on these various scenarios and will be presenting them to the Implementation Committee so the tradeoffs can be known and recommendations developed. Carol Becker Longfellow _______________________________________ 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
