I attended the meeting held at Lynhurst Community Center on Monday, April 29. The staff present did a nice job of organizing and conducting the meeting; however, I came away frustrated with the underlying purpose of the meeting and the lack of site review and design work that had been done in advance of this meeting concerning the proposed off-leash dog recreation park at Nicollet and East Minnehaha Parkway.
In view of (1) the terrain and contour of the site; (2) fence setback from the parkway road; and (3) structures and trees on the site, I doubt that there is sufficient usable area to make this a desireable or useful off-leash park. There was no information from staff concerning tree and brush removal that would be required for the proposed use. Nor was there any information concerning the impact the park would have on the boulevard across the street from my home and those of my neighbors. Any loss of trees in this area would be totally unacceptable. In addition, the proposed dog recreation park would impose an additional burden on the limited available parking to serve residents and other visitors to this stretch of the Parkway. The area under consideration is arguably within the creek watershed. I am concerned about the concentration of urine and fecal matter on this site and its potential impact upon the creek. The entrance to the Parkway at Nicollet is a gateway to one of the city's greatest treasures -- its chain of lakes and connecting parkway system. Building a chainlink fence in this location is a uniformly bad idea. For all the reasons given, I sincerely hope that the Board will cease any further consideration of an off-leash dog recreation area at Nicollet and East Minnehaha Parkway. After all, this site was ranked 18th out of the 19 evaluated by the Board-sanctioned review committee. It is time to accept the viewpoint of that committee and stop wasting any further time or resources on this. Respectfully submitted, Tom Brady 35 East Minnehaha Parkway Minneapolis MN 55419 (612) 827-6791 _______________________________________ 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
