There was substantial public comment at Tuesday’s City Council meeting regarding the Fourth Street reconstruction project plan to replace the vulnerable ash trees between Washington and Division with hanging baskets and planters, rather than with new trees. (You can watch the comments and discussion of the issue at the City Council meeting beginning at time marker 01:19:02 on the KYMN video of the meeting.)
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Council directed City staff to “have staff put trees back in the sidewalk area”, “as much, as many as possible”. Several times the issue of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was brought up as the reason why sidewalk trees were not possible. No one at the meeting, including City Attorney Chris Hood, seemed to know for sure what those regulations actually are.
Another objection to sidewalk trees is that they would apparently make it impossible to have the same sort of treatment/pavers as were used in the Fifth Street project last summer due to the difference in the sidewalk widths. (I’ll bet most residents, if given the choice, would prefer trees and different sidewalk treatment over no trees but with uniformity of pavers.)
Of course, there’s a discussion of this issue on Locally Grown.
As this year’s Keeper of the Keys to the Comprehensive Plan, I thought it would be appropriate for me to post some of the mentions of street trees in the Comp Plan, just to keep Northfield’s guiding document in people’s minds as it relates to this issue.
Street/sidewalk/boulevard trees are referred to in several different areas of the Comprehensive Plan. They’re mentioned as a part of community identity; as part of land use policy; and also in the environmental resources chapter, to name a few. For example:
CI (Community Identity) 4.4: Require new neighborhoods to create neighborhood scaled streets, with street trees and sidewalks (see Figure 4.4).
LU (Land Use) 4.4: Create regulations that require high-quality pedestrian streets with sidewalks, street trees, and adequate lighting, where appropriate.
ER (Environmental Resources) 9.1: The City will develop an urban forest management policy that addresses protection or replacement of significant trees on developed property and all land scheduled for development. This management policy will also establish standards for tree species and location within and near public right-of-way and easements.
ER (Environmental Resources) 10.2: Develop land use policies to manage and reduce urban heat island effects, including promoting shading of streets and parking lots with more trees.
Some of the benefits of street trees were stated in the 2006 Streetscape Framework Plan:
Overstory street trees increase the desirability of pedestrian activity, enhance the civic status of the street, and increase adjacent property values. Along with the overall width of the street, trees are a primary element in providing a sense of safe separation from traffic.
You can see from the examples above that street trees in Northfield are not just a nice amenity; they also represent our history, our values, and our identity as an historic town with an eye toward a sustainable future.
I’m very glad that the City Council took the action it did on Tuesday. It’s not a trivial issue, or one of micromanagement, for the Council to get involved when a plan is brought forward which does not give adequate weight to existing plans, recommendations, studies, governing documents, and long-term expression of citizen preference.
Oops…. I forgot to publish this.
There’s not much to report for the rest of February; the Planning Commission continued its weekly review of the draft LDC. From the Planning Commission portion of the February Boards & Commissions report:
As noted in last month’s report, in February the Planning Commission continued its arduous weekly meetings on the review of the draft Land Development Code. The Commission is now finalizing the site development standards for residential zones which apply to the current built environment (not standards for currently undeveloped areas, which will be different). We hope to get this section finished and on the council’s agenda for their work session in April.
During the review process we’ve had the benefit of some excellent research and information provided by City staff, including statistical analysis of the current built area ratios on residential lots, and estimates of lot coverage of impervious service; information on performance standards and best practices for managing surface water runoff; and examples from different cities around the country as to how they handle various aspects of neighborhood compatibility standards.
We’re tired, but hopeful.
Here are the meeting agendas, materials, and minutes for February:
I’ve gotten behind in my detailed logging of the weekly happenings. The last two weeks have primarily been about continued work on the review of the Land Development Code at the 2/11 work session and the 2/18 special meeting.
I also attended part of the business park Master Plan Steering Committee meeting on 2/18. Unfortunately, Thursday meetings now conflict with the Planning Commission meeting schedule, so I wasn’t able to attend the whole thing.
I hope to be able to post an update about the business park master planning process Real Soon Now.
The Planning Commission met on 2/4 to continue our review of the Land Development Code. I have some supporting materials to post, but won’t be able to do it for a couple of days; or perhaps I’ll include it with the update at the end of this week.
On 11/24/09, the Planning Commission held a public hearing on the request for annexation from two landowners in Bridgewater Township. The Commission discussed the request and its attendant issue at our 12/8/09 and 12/15/09 meetings. The links for the dates referenced contain the minutes from those meetings.
On 1/7/2010 the Planning Commission made its official recommendation, which will be presented to the City Council at their 2/9/2010 meeting.
The Planning Commission’s recommendation to the Northfield City Council, along with its rationale, is as follows:
The vote of the Commission was five to one in favor of the request. The vote
against annexation was based on the position that it should be delayed until
completion of both the Land Development Code and the updated stormwater and
stream protection ordinances, both critical tools given the unique, sensitive
natural resources involved.
Commission members stated that they are unanimous in their support of the
annexation requests, but have significant concerns about the impact of future
development on the environmental resources, including the two streams in the
area and more particularly the Brook Trout habitat represented in Rice Creek.
The Planning Commission advises the City Council that development in this area
should preserve and enhance the environmental features of the annexation area,
while at the same time pursuing viable economic development for Northfield.
To accomplish this, the Commission encourages the Council to direct that any
eventual development on the site be informed by a complete hydrological and
biological work-up for both Rice Creek and Heath Creek, research needed to
ensure that these acres are developed in a manner that accords with the principles
of the 2008 Comprehensive Plan. Furthermore, in accordance with the conditions
stated in Option #1, the Planning Commission encourages the Council to direct
City Staff to work closely and cooperatively with Bridgewater Township and to
engage the technical expertise of the Rice Creek (Spring Brook) Concerned
Citizens Group, the Cannon River Watershed Partnership, and other interested
groups, in the revision of storm-water and stream protection ordinances.
(Found on p. 17 of the 19-page Staff Report on the Gill-Prawer Annexation in the 2/9/2010 meeting packet.)
The Planning Commission/Zoning Board of Appeals page on the City website now has a link to a press release (PDF) which I believe was written by Brian O’Connell. I don’t know when or if it was sent out – when I asked Scott Peterson at KYMN if he’d seen it yet, he hadn’t as of this morning. I’m posting it here in its entirety:
The Planning Commission of the City of Northfield has made significant progress
on the revision and re-writing of the Land Development Code of the City. The
Land Development Code is an important series of rules that will serve to
implement the recently adopted Comprehensive Plan.
The hard and persistent work of this group has resulted in changes to the initial
draft code that has created a greater degree of clarity and usability of the code by
builders, developers, citizens, Commission and Council members as well as
administrative staff. The Planning Commission continuously refers to the
Comprehensive Plan to ensure that the Land Development Code reflects the
Policies and direction established in the plan.
The Commission has sought and obtained numerous comments from builders and
Developers in the Northfield area along with representatives of Boards and
Commissions of the City and the public in general. Armed with this input, the
Commission has been able to complete the review of three of the six articles of the
document and is making clear progress on the remaining portions of the Code.
The Commission is working on a review schedule that involves weekly meetings.
The Commission anticipates completing their review of the Code in the
next several months at which time discussion with the City Council and the public
at large will begin with the goal to adopt a new Land Development Code later in
the summer of 2010.
The Planning Commission continued its weekly meetings to review and revise the draft Land Development Code (LDC); at Thursday’s work session, commissioners also gave brief updates on any meetings they attended (Rholl – EDA; Thomas – Council goals meeting). Councillor Buckheit, the City Council liaison to the PCZBA, reported that completion and adoption of the LDC is one of the Council’s top goals for 2010.
I provided a summary of Planning Commission activities for the City Administrator’s monthly Boards & Commissions report, which I believe will be include in next week’s “Friday Memo”; most of what I wrote for the report has already been posted here in some form.
The words “walkability” and “connectivity” have probably been engraved on my brain due to the extensive work the Planning Commission has been doing on our draft Land Development Code (zoning ordinances), so I was interested but not at all surprised to learn that there can be a clear economic benefit to living in neighborhoods or communities that meet certain criteria for walkability:
A study published in August by C.E.O.’s for Cities. . . looked at the sales of 90,000 homes in 15 markets to estimate how much value was associated with something called the Walk Score. Using a 100-point scale, this score rates the number of destinations, including libraries, parks and coffee shops, within walking distance of a home. . . The study found that houses with above-average Walk Scores commanded a premium.
I wrote a post about WalkScore a couple of years ago. Some parts of Northfield score very highly; other parts are much worse than the national average. How does your address do? Does this tell us anything about corrections we should make in our built environment? Is it valid?
Additional links and information:
Earlier in the week, Griff Wigley, Ross Currier, and I had Councillor Erica Zweifel as our guest on the LocallyGrown audio show. (Earlier in the month Councillor Betsey Buckheit and Councillor Rhonda Pownell were also on the show; Locally Grown is doing a series, trying to have each councillor as a guest for a review of the past year, and looking forward in 2010.)
After the show I talked a bit with Tim Freeland of KYMN Radio about their ability to stream and store City meetings in the Council Chambers, and asked about doing the same for the Planning Commission (and possibly the EDA). Tim said that technologically there is no obstacle, that everything is set to go, but that there may be some City Hall bureaucracy to work around regarding security and access to Mission Control behind the door in the Council chambers. Erica heard some of this discussion, and I hope will bring it forward to staff/Council for a solution.
… [read more]
From the City website yesterday:
The City of Northfield has received a $150,000 grant from the MN/DNR to build a new multi-use path along the east side of the Cannon River. Northfield will work with the City of Dundas to develop a trail alignment between Dundas and the Peggy Prowe pedestrian bridge across the Cannon River. The City originally applied for $500,000 from the DNR grant program along with applying for a Rotary grant and money committed from other local sources. The City will be considering the scope of the project to fit within the funding received. A full project webpage will be published as the new trail plans and alignment are developed.
(Note: I don’t think the link above will be the permanent project link on the City website; I’ll try to remember to come back and change it later.)
