Bryn Mawr NRP Phase II Planning

Area 2 Focus Group

Thursday, February 23, 7-8:30 PM

In addition to Vida Ditter, facilitator; and Greg Lecker, note taker; attendees include: Timm Caven, Curt MacKenzie, Kim Faith, Claude Worrell, Kathryn Glessing, Lynda Shaheen, and Kevina Munnich. Attendee stay in the neighborhood varies from 5 years to over 30 years. Area 2 is the area bounded between Cedar Lake, Cedar Lake Trail, Theodore Wirth and Cedar Lake Parkway, and I-394.

Neighborhood strengths:

- Location

- Proximity to parks and trails

- Good energy, strong, great neighbors,

- I just like it here. Convenient. Good neighbors keep an eye out for each other

- Safe feeling

- Pride in property; working along with rest of neighborhood to make it nice

- Area 2 doesn’t have much traffic going through it like other parts of the neighborhood

- We have retained multi-generational feel; a mix of different living situations – seniors and retirees who have moved in, families with children who have grown and who now have their own children living in the neighborhood, even a small amount of renters

- The older housing is of good quality; the newer housing of less quality is slowly being renovated or replaced with better quality construction; a good variety of different types of housing

- Close to lake, Theodore Wirth Park, and downtown. Cedar Lake Road used to be more of a problem when it connected across Highway 12. It was dangerous for children to cross.

Neighborhood weaknesses:

- Lack of racial diversity

- Lack of a little business center

- The S. Frontage Road and its present businesses, present building conditions and parking lots. Folks gave the example of 18-wheeler semi-trucks who drive and park on Cedar Lake Road to pick up payment for their deliveries (wholesale grocery brokerage office is there). The excuse is that the trucks cannot turn around in the parking lot. This isn’t a permitted use, though neighbors seem to allow it as long as the truckers have made some accommodations, for example, not idling there.

- The S. Frontage Road buildings and lots are trashy looking – particularly on the back side facing the trails and parks. The Crossroads building is old, the quality of much building construction is such that these buildings don’t last forever, even with some repairs and renovations.

- Speed and general level of traffic on Cedar Lake Road but especially on the S. Frontage Road – it’s like a mini-freeway particularly during morning and evening rush hour

- The traffic divide between neighborhood areas

- Although we’re close to downtown, it’s difficult to walk there due to the lack of a frontage road sidewalk

- The pedestrian bridge is unsafe due to its placement and where it lands on the deadend of Thomas Avenue – it’s closed in and isolated behind the sound walls. The original walkway design (with steps on the south end, and stopping at Upton Avenue on the north end, was a much better design.

- It would be nice to have a coffee shop at the S. Frontage Road. We used to have two service stations and a restaurant there.

- There is a strong disconnect from the present business district, downtown Bryn Mawr

- It’s ridiculous that the S. Frontage Road sidewalk is not being planned and constructed as the Area 2 Mill and Overlay project is being undertaken

- Even the bus stops have no sidewalk, no pad – bus riders are being left off in a snow bank and have to cross a busy street where there is no stop sign

- Concerned about tear-downs and new in-fill housing. We never heard about variances – much of this work is built within 6” of what is permitted by width and height limits. The two large Cedar Lake Road homes are drastically affecting the available light for adjacent homes.

- There seems to be nothing that we can do with the current zoning to prohibit the McMansions. This would not be the case in Edina where there are stricter rules that are strongly enforced.

- Maybe there could be an ordinance against changing or renovating more than ___ % of the original structure and size

- Changing character and declining level of affordability in housing stock

- How is development going to affect the 41 townhomes at Madeira Avenue?

- The triangle of parking lots at Discovery Mortgage is unsightly. Snow storage blocks the view of traffic to a motorist trying to pull out from Cedar Lake Road onto the S. Frontage Rd.

- The S. Frontage Road businesses are not attractive, the size of the trucks, truck exhaust

- Sidewalk issue – can’t easily walk to downtown Mpls and to the Sculpture Garden even though we are so close to these.

- It’s just silly to not have a South Frontage Road sidewalk

- Access to Cedar Lake Parkway will need to be addressed sooner or later

- Access to Cedar Lake Trail is non-existent or unacceptable

- Development at the Penn Avenue terminus should not be a highrise – not 10 stories, and not 24 stories. We would accept four stories, especially if it was housing that was affordable for seniors and families with children.

What issues are important or will be important in the future?

- Some issues have already been mentioned

- Traffic – it will only increase along the S. Frontage Road and on the freeway

- Tear-downs and in-fill housing – maybe we can’t do anything about this

- No problems with renters – maybe we don’t have enough rental

- We’ll continue to see larger and larger homes being built because the people that can afford our land prices do not want to live in a 900 square foot rambler.

- Land at the S. Frontage Road will continue to become more and more valuable; to valuable to support the current buildings

- Market pressures and deteriorating building conditions will force redevelopment along the South Frontage Road and at the Penn Avenue terminus

- Long-time, good residents moving out of the neighborhood to retire

- The Bryn Mawr Bluff behind Cedar View Drive is a glacial morraine of Lake Superior sand and silt with a hollow tunnel inside. This geologic structure may lead to further blowouts of erosion, especially with heavy rains

- Future heavier traffic on the rails that are much closer to the base of the bluff than when the train yards operated between Area 2 and Cedar Lake. This weight and movement may impact the stability of the Bryn Mawr Bluff that supports Cedar View Drive homes. This should be examined when considering the proposal of routing all freight trains on the east-west rail to St. Louis Park allowing the commuter rail to be routed in the Kenilwirth Corridor. We do like the trains. We always felt that it was better to have the railroad than the traffic that existed at our former home in Area 3.

- Use of the S. Frontage Road commercial property and development along the LRT will likely be divisive issues. Already, the Bryn Mawr Land Use Plan raised issues that became divisive.

- With the rising prices, young families with children can’t afford to purchase housing.

- Some sort of affordable condo housing should be built – something in the range of $150K to $200K

- We do see the Land Use Plan as something that can provide some guidelines for development

- Some question whether families with children would want to live on land sited between the S. Frontage Road and Cedar Lake Road. The building site itself should provide some amenities and design on its south face to soften the development and to meet the challenges of the site

- It’s important to keep a range of housing prices to attract folks with differing opinions from ourselves

One service, project, program or thing that BMNA could provide or what issue is most important to address?

- VOLUNTEERS – a lot of volunteers are getting tired and burned out. It’s difficult to get people involved or to deliver the Bryn Mawr Bugle.

- This is true even within our 41-townhome association

- Not sure what else needs to be done that hasn’t already been accomplished.

- There are a lot of land areas over which we have little or no control. I would hate to lose our parks and green spaces. What may happen with the Prudential/Target site some day? We don’t want development to be built up to Brownie Lake. We don’t care about losing our view so much as seeing development jeopardize our parks

- BMNA and Vida do a great job

- Build us a sidewalk along the South Frontage Road! Keep focused to complete this!

What types of housing programs should BMNA provide?

- We don’t have enough funds to develop something ourselves

- A program to keep housing in good stable condition – review Phase I housing program

- The only feasible housing program is one that would address the few remaining homes that need attention – especially pay attention to code violations and structural deficiencies

- Work with our council person to determine if there is developer interest in the South Frontage Road area. In designing this development, include smaller, affordable units

- Concern that the development that we want won’t happen here because of rising land prices

- It would be great to retain the seniors – maybe tax assistance since property taxes could begin to squeeze out seniors.

- I would be willing to pay $1,000 per year to subsidize their taxes, to keep seniors in the neighborhood

- Property taxes are increasing because home prices are increasing

- We feel that we do get great value for what we pay

- Any dollar that could be used to help the schools improve and maintain good programs. I’m sick of clients questioning the quality of the schools. The schools need our help!

- I too support investing in our schools.

- Look at neighborhood as a whole – maybe other neighborhood areas need the housing money more.

- It’s too little money to facilitate housing development