Following the concerns expressed by several neighborhoods regarding the Northeast Community Development Corporation's attempt to take over the citizen review process from neighborhood groups for the possible US Bank site redevelopment project on Central Avenue, several things have happened:
First, the NECDC and the city had to concede that the neighborhood in which the development is to occur (Holland) still has the right to conduct its own review process. It was also agreed that other development proposals (there are two that were completely ignored by the NECDC in its rush to accommodate Cub Foods/Sherman) should be on the table, not just Sherman Associates. The NECDC then requested to co-host the Holland meeting with the Holland Neighborhood Improvement Assn. but the HNIA board declined to do this for a number of reasons. Fools Rush In... Unfortunately, the NECDC doesn't appear to have learned anything from its missteps. Following the agreement with Holland, the NECDC has continued to plan for two additional meetings in Northeast on Cub. The first is to be several days after the Holland meeting in Windom Park--the next most directly affected neighborhood, just on the other side of Central. But the NECDC developed this plan without talking with the Windom Park neighborhood group. Windom Park had been asking Sherman to present their proposal for months and had been completely ignored. In November, the Windom Park board passed a motion to conduct their own meeting, rejecting the idea of having the NECDC take over their citizen review process. However, the NECDC then claimed it was too far along with its own process and insisted on going ahead with its own meetings. So, now we will end up with the ridiculous scenario of having two neighborhood groups hold "official" meetings on the US Bank redevelopment site while the NECDC holds two separate "unofficial" meetings on the same topic. The NECDC meetings are supposedly for "all of Northeast." However, anyone from anywhere in Northeast would be welcome to attend the Holland and Windom Park sponsored meetings. So why is the NECDC holding meetings at all? It appears fairly obvious that they are trying to manipulate the process by holding the Windom Park meeting in a senior citizen highrise thinking that this will be a natural constituency for Cub. And secondly, they are trying to establish a wider precedent for the NECDC to usurp citizen review from neighborhood groups for larger development projects along Central. It all ends up as a serious waste of time and resources for citizens obligated to attend multiple meetings and for neighborhood groups forced to spend time defending their basic rights and mandates for citizen participation. The NECDC also wants to charge the developers for the "service" of conducting these duplicative public meetings and reportedly already has an agreement with Sherman Associates for financial assistance (HNIA refuses to cooperate with such a strategy due to conflict of interest concerns). It appears unlikely that the other potential developers will go along with this shady proposition or the arbitrary deadlines set by NECDC for their meetings. So the NECDC will end up having only one proposal presented at its meetings while the Holland and Windom Park meetings will hear from all interested developers. Sowing the Seeds of Its Own Destruction? This course of events was all sadly predictable for anyone who knows some of the personalities involved who are now driving the NECDC. The NECDC has allowed itself to be taken over by a small group of frustrated activists no longer able to dominate their own neighborhood groups. What is unfortunate is that the NECDC might have had some real benefits for Northeast if it had managed to resist letting this small group of people, (almost none of whom were actually appointed to the CDC as official neighborhood representatives from their own neighborhoods), to manipulate and take over what could be a valuable initiative. This small group appears to think it has achieved a coup over the neighborhoods and that it is now in the driver's seat regarding development on Central. In reality, however, the NECDC is about to learn a hard lesson: Without the support of its constituent neighborhoods, the NECDC has no legitimacy, no mandate, and no future. Still unanswered by Sherman Associates: Where did the supposed "authorization" to bypass neighborhood groups and go to the NECDC referred to by Sherman Associates come from? Bruce Shoemaker Holland Neighborhood _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
