Metropolitan Council

[David Greene]

So now business gets a direct vote on Met Council members? That's completely crazy.

[acs]

http://finance-commerce.com/2014/12/met ... licy-plan/

Oh boy. Looks like they caved to the suburban highway lovers. Where can we write to speak out against this?

[MPLS_Dispatch_Guy]

What are the groups thoughts on the Met Council.....Being a resident of East Bethel and with all the nonsense going on up here with the city sewer and water that the Met Council sold to the previous councils have other cities taken their recommendations hook line and sinker like EB did? I know it was sold on the promise that development will come but now we have a nearly 40 million dollar water/sewer system to service basically 1 mile east and west of Hwy 65 the entire length of the city and eventually connect to the houses around Coon Lake and not a stich or sniff of any development coming with it. Evenually those bonds come due and far as can tell the Met Council is not doing anything to help fix the pending budget crisis they helped create.

I know there was a proposed development to get things kick started for about 65 single family homes and several of the business's in the area have connected to the system so they pay some funds towards it but nothing at all coming down the pipe to even attempt to make a noticeable dent in the funds required. What are some of the things we could do to get things moving besides more housing and rooftops that help push the commerical side of development....Also I know the citys leadership has been quite an embarassment to many due to the infighting and other nonsense they have going on amongst themselves.

[Tcmetro]

Well the Met Council can't create development, they can only channel it. They are still convinced that suburban sprawl is going to continue, which would explain the expansion of regional sewer lines to the fringe.

In any case, this problem sounds like it was created more by the local government than the council. The city is responsible for drawing up the comp plan and other fun stuff like that. The council is a facilitator in these matters and only tries to keep things in line, perhaps a look at the Lake Elmo case would be a good read.

The specific problem with East Bethel that stands out is location. A lot of people who are commuting to the north metro suburbs (10/610/694 corridors) are going to want to live in closer proximity. I think that there would be even fewer downtown commuters from up there, but I suppose the express bus to Minneapolis exists now. It's hard to gauge what kind of housing development could happen, single family housing is only possible picking up a little bit of steam.

[woofner]

East Bethel is a great case study of why it was a huge mistake to allow discontinuous segments of MUSA (Metro Urban Services Area; i.e. the parts of the region that are connected to the regional wastewater system). If the MUSA ran through Ham Lake contiguously, East Bethel could have been connected to regional wastewater and wouldn't have to build their own system (this was the whole reason for the Met Council and keeping sewer rates low is probably their most successful achievement). That said, I would have thought the impetus for creating the MUSA exclave here would have come from the city of East Bethel itself. Dispatch Guy, where did you hear that this was forced onto East Bethel?

Now, I could see the Met Council forcing the wastewater system on East Bethel after the city decided they wanted development. Septic is of course a heinous method of treating wastewater. Residential septic has an enormous failure rate, and many systems do nothing more but inject effluent into aquifers. Also, I seem to recall that East Bethel has more industrial development than many other segments of Hwy 65, and you don't really want industrial uses to handle their own wastewater.

[mattaudio]

FYI, if you live in Met Council districts 9-13, today is the deadline to apply for appointment to the Transportation Advisory Board.

Districts 9-13 (seats E, F, G, H are open) includes St. Paul, as well as Pizza Ranches in Andover, Elk River, Maplewood, Apple Valley, and Lakeville.

[acs]

http://www.startribune.com/local/south/288834751.html

Holy crap the suburban republicans are going to be pissed at this. Bold move by Dayton. Can we already chalk this one up as a victory for urbanism?

[FISHMANPET]

Just saw that myself. His Facebook Cover Photo is of a bike. Yeah this feels pretty crazy, in a great way.

[Silophant]

The comments on that article are delicious.

[WHS]

Appointing a central city politician (not to mention a guy who worked on your campaign and is the husband of your chief of staff) to head up the Met Council that's already hamstrung by lack of cooperation from the suburbs?

Not sure I agree this is such a great move, guys. It doesn't matter what Duininck thinks if no one wants to work with him.

[mattaudio]

http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy ... et-council

As expected, Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature have filed a handful of bills this year to “rein in” the Metropolitan Council, the body that oversees regional transit and planning in the Twin Cities.

Less expected: that the co-sponsors for at least one of the bills are Democrats.

[David Greene]

Less expected: that the co-sponsors for at least one of the bills are Democrats.

Your mistake is in assuming the DFL is pro-city and pro-regionalism.

[mattaudio]

That was a copy and paste of the lede, not my take.

[fehler]

The bills the DFL are co-sponsoring are the ones that would give local elected officials consent/veto power over the Governor's Met Council picks. I have no idea how that would work in real life. But had this been in place, I doubt Annette Meeks would have served long as Pawlenty's 7th District Met Council representative, which includes North, Central, Downtown, Phillips, Whittier, and Kingfield neighborhoods of Minneapolis and Robbinsdale.

Or my representative in the 8th District, Lynette Wittsack, whose primary qualification is "married to Mark Stenglein". Oh, and happens to be a Republician in Minneapolis: http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/confi ... ynette.PDF

[mattaudio]

Dayton picks...
District 4: Deb Barber, to replace Gary Van Eyll
District 6: Gail Dorfman, to replace Jim Brimeyer
District 8: Cara Letofsy, to Duinick's now-vacant position
http://www.minnpost.com/political-agend ... appointees

[trigonalmayhem]

The bills the DFL are co-sponsoring are the ones that would give local elected officials consent/veto power over the Governor's Met Council picks. I have no idea how that would work in real life. But had this been in place, I doubt Annette Meeks would have served long as Pawlenty's 7th District Met Council representative, which includes North, Central, Downtown, Phillips, Whittier, and Kingfield neighborhoods of Minneapolis and Robbinsdale.

Or my representative in the 8th District, Lynette Wittsack, whose primary qualification is "married to Mark Stenglein". Oh, and happens to be a Republician in Minneapolis: http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/confi ... ynette.PDF

Wait, her qualifications were "clipping coupons to live within [her] means" ???

Well golly, no wonder the met council makes such solid planning decisions. It's been a while since I've seen a buy one get one free light rail line coupon, though.
Then again being a stay-at-home mom might have helped her babysit the other members during the Pawlenty years.

[David Greene]

District 6: Gail Dorfman, to replace Jim Brimeyer

Really glad to see this. Dorfman has a solid understanding of both urban and (inner) suburban needs. Brimeyer struck me as much more suburb-focused.

[twincitizen]

He might be a stand-up guy and expert on the issues, but I was really hoping Gary Cunningham would be replaced. I mean, c'mon dude you're married to the Mayor of Minneapolis. Even the perception of conflict of interest is simply too much. It really does not help with the whole urban vs. suburban dialogue nor with the ongoing calls for Met Council reform.

One of my biggest beefs with Dayton on urban/metro issues is that he has largely filled the Met Council with DFL/union cronies with long resumes of insider-y stuff. It would be nice to see at least a few non-political appointees to the council, but I guess it's pretty tough to get name recognition unless you're already a DFL insider or married to one.

[mattaudio]

My main gripe with how Dayton has operated, especially in this second term: We get all of the antagonism towards suburban areas and backlash towards urban areas, with few results in return. If we're going to piss people off, let's get more for it.

It's amazing how our Windshield Mentality governor is building resentment among the red districts without substantial benefit for the blue core, at least in terms of transportation and land use.

[David Greene]

One of my biggest beefs with Dayton on urban/metro issues is that he has largely filled the Met Council with DFL/union cronies with long resumes of insider-y stuff.

What's odd is that his first appointments to the Council were much less so. Sure, Harry Melander and the like were political rewards but there were some truly independent-minded people appointed such as Steve Elkins. I don't know why Dayton has regressed on this because your analysis is spot on.

Dayton was far too sheltered in his first term, blowing off collaboration with the legislature because I Am The Governor. This term he seems to be over-compensating and pandering far too much to the DFL establishment, Bakk notwithstanding.