Index of SPPS Budget Discussion http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/spps-posts.html _________________________________________ Last night about 30 community members attended another meeting to discuss the proposed CVS store at University and Snelling. A member of the CVS design team (Velmier), someone from PED and Jane Prince from Jay's office were also present. The issue was this. University United filed an appeal of the Planning Commission ruling which allowed the project to move forward. UU believes that this is a very significant corner and the building should be significant (not a one-story chunk cut from the middle of a suburban strip mall) and should be transit friendly. The proposed CVS store is absolutely not transit friendly (no door on University Avenue, only door from the back parking lot) and is nothing like the traditional architecture of University Ave.. CVS has proposed come cosmetic alterations and UU wanted to meet with the community to determine if the community continued to support the appeal or believed that CVS had come far enough.
Virtually all of the citizens who attended the meeting spoke in favor of continuing the appeal. They expressed strong support for transit friendly development and continuing to insist that this be a building that we can be proud of, not one we have to turn our eyes away from and wonder how it dropped in here from I-94 and Radio Drive. Probably the most interesting interaction of the evening came when one of the citizens asked who this store intends to attract as customers. He point was that if CVS wanted to attract the neighborhood, this type of store simply missed the point. If, on the other hand, CVS wanted to primarily attract the people who drive by on their way to the burbs, then this might be a good choice. The Velmier guy said something like, 'That is a fair question. This store needs to do much more volume than could ever be supplied by the neighborhood. We really do need to draw from a much wider area.' That pretty much answered the question. The neighborhood types all spoke in favor of continuing the appeal. It will be up to the UU board to make the final decision, but there was certainly no support for throwing in the towel just now. -- Jeanne Weigum 651-646-3005 fax 651-646-0142 _____________________________________________ SPPS Budget Reduction Forum - Feb. 23-27 Co-Sponsored By NEAT: http://www.stpaulneat.org/ _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
