urbanMSP

There is equipment back on site this morning. It looks like they will be working again in the same spot as about a month ago - I'd assume they are doing additional sampling.

Acme Comedy Club and other businesses are now circulating a petition to oppose the development, because the loss of a surface lot would be too much for them.

https://www.change.org/p/hillary-dvorak ... businesses

The only semi-legit arguments were points 5 and 6. The rest were reaching at best and patently false at worst. It hurts my brain to think how they got 2,500 people to allegly read that petition and agree with their logic.

Just curious, to anyone who knows, but do petitions like this have much weight in a city planning committee, which -- as I understood it -- can uphold the zoning codes and any master plans of a given property, but not necessarily dictate the type of space use that goes into a development project.....as long as it's within the higher-level coding/zoning? For example, I didn't think it was a City's place to dictate whether or not the addition of a commercial enterprise would unfairly jeopardize the success of another commercial enterprise.

The only semi-legit arguments were points 5 and 6. The rest were reaching at best and patently false at worst. It hurts my brain to think how they got 2,500 people to allegly read that petition and agree with their logic.
Just curious, to anyone who knows, but do petitions like this have much weight in a city planning committee, which -- as I understood it -- can uphold the zoning codes and any master plans of a given property, but not necessarily dictate the type of space use that goes into a development project.....as long as it's within the higher-level coding/zoning? For example, I didn't think it was a City's place to dictate whether or not the addition of a commercial enterprise would unfairly jeopardize the success of another commercial enterprise.

Looks like several comedians with tens of thousands of followers each tweeted out links to the petition, so... three thousand signatures, sure, but the majority aren't from Minneapolis residents, or even Minnesota residents. Every situation is different, of course, but the "get randos from across the country to sign an online petition" strategy wasn't terribly effective when Nicole Curtis tried it.

Certificate of Appropriateness appeal to be heard at Thursday's Z&P meeting.
http://www.minneapolismn.gov/meetings/l ... MSP-181051

That was pretty weak.

Today's meeting is proof that if neighbors actually work to improve a project, instead of get it killed, they can actually accomplish something. They stopped complaining about the loss of parking and crap like that, and finally looked at the building and what the materials were. They addressed the large amount of metal siding, and the committee requested the developer swap out that metal with more brick. A win for the neighborhood.

That was the outcome, but I think it was an accident. They were also complaining about the height, which was basically only seven stories on a technicality. They used an example of another new project which was 10 stories but had better materials as an example of better materials. When Goodman pointed out that bigger buildings can make it more economical to use better materials and asked if they would be more OK with a taller building if that enabled better materials, most people said no.

Goodman also pointed out that there can be variations of color of brick to break up large facades, pointing out her building which has red brick in front and brown brick on the other sides, but that probably just meant expensive decorative brick in front and ugly structural brick in the back. I'm just hoping brick doesn't wreck the economics of this project.

I find it fascinating that people who live downtown are anti-hi-rise.

I find it fascinating that people who live downtown are anti-hi-rise.

I feel like everyone around here is anti everything.

This passed the CPC last night.

Who exactly has standing to appeal a CPC decision? Can ACME, or does it have to be someone who's more than just a neighboring tenant?

I'm pretty sure anyone who pays the filing fee can appeal a decision.

Interesting that nobody from Acme spoke (though it sounds like the owner was there, since Eric Roper talked to him afterward).

And the opposition here was a mess, they bemoaned this area and its lack of parking by fighting a variance to include more parking than is allowed Downtown. I just don't know what people want in these situations, the city doesn't have the power to unilaterally block development because an unrelated third party has a complaint. They kept saying "we're not opposed to development but..." but honestly I think they would be opposed to anything on this lot short of a free public parking ramp. To prevent the owner from building something that's basically allowed by right (the variances requested were very minor, all told), you'd pretty much just have to seize the land from the owner. Sounds a bit like communism or fascism to me, honestly.

I assume someone in the neighborhood group that gave the initial presentation against will appeal they seemed to me to be one of the more organized opposition groups I have seen though that is not a high bar. I would agree that based on the testimony its hard to see those who presented against this project being for anything that isn't a public parking ramp. Looking at the site plan I was amazed to see that there are 4 levels of parking in the project which is more than I remember seeing in any of the other 6 story apartment projects going up. Overall, even if the city did want to prevent this project I have a hard time seeing what they would use as justification for denying it.

I don't get it... there's literally a large parking ramp that sits empty at night 2 blocks away from this lot. It may need some open-hour adjustments but I'm sure the owner would work with Acme if it means more parking revenue. People park and walk much further distances to see shows downtown.

The easiest thing seems like negotiating with the ramp owner to get it opened on nights and weekends (currently it closes at 9 on weeknights and is closed on the weekend) and hiring a valet would solve all their problems, and maybe make parking even easier here. The current situation sounds far from ideal.

I hate to speak ill of our vaunted small business owners, but this guy doesn't seem very good at running a business, which goes to show that most successful businesses are because of luck and not great skill of the proprietor.

^But that would be creative, productive problem-solving. A win-win for everybody. That's just too hard for parking barkers. Now, where's my blue tarp?

He could also be really smart, and be using this as cover for a move he was planning to make anyway.

He could also be really smart, and be using this as cover for a move he was planning to make anyway.

Exactly. Front page of Downtown Journal, the petition rouse, etc.

^But that would be creative, productive problem-solving. A win-win for everybody. That's just too hard for parking barkers. Now, where's my blue tarp?

I think that's a more plausible reality than just being dumb lucky and successful.