Fulton Neighborhood Association NRP Committee Meeting Minutes 3/6/2013.
Notes from the Fulton NRP meeting of March 6, 2013
Present
Jim Tincher, John Finlayson, Jeff Alden, Ruth Olson, Dave Delvoye
Minutes
The committee approved the minutes of the 2/6/13 meeting. There was a discussion of the agenda of the 3/13 FNA Board meeting, which will feature a report by Park Board Commissioner Brad Bourn, a discussion between residents and Southwest High School staff about the plan to install lights at the high school field in order to hold events there at night, and a discussion between the owner of Red Cow restaurant and residents regarding parking and traffic issues.
Fulton Neighborhood News
The March issue of Fulton Neighborhood News will be delivered the weekend of 3/9 – 3/10.
Rain garden at Lake Harriet United Methodist Church
The grant application for the rain garden project was submitted to the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District.
Fulton Farmers Market
Jeff updated the committee on the attempt to find out if the businesses at 50th & Xerxes would be opposed to the Fulton Famers Market installing promotional banners on the eleven low-level street light poles in that commercial district. Funding for a portion of this project, using Community Participation Program funds, was approved by the FNA Board at its 2/13 meeting and is on the agenda for the 3/19 meeting of the NRP Policy Board. The intent is to produce and install the banners before the mid-May opening of the farmers market.
The process has become complicated by trying to determine if the businesses would be interested in participating in the project by producing their own banners which could be swapped out with the farmers market banners during the market’s off-season. This kind of partnership would reduce the costs for the business owners.
To discuss these questions, Jeff met with Steve Young who is working on the 50th Street Streetscape project and representatives of the Nicollet-East Harriet Business Association (NEHBA) who are trying to organize the businesses at that corner. NEHBA staff agreed to canvass the businesses, but that was delayed due to subsequent questions about permit fees and insurance costs. At Steve’s request, Jeff got that information from Urban Works, the vendor for the project. If the businesses decide to produce their own banners, that would be a separate project which could be funded in part by FNA.
The committee suggested separating the two questions and getting an answer from the 50th & Xerxes businesses within two weeks about whether they oppose the installation of the Farmers Market banners. The question about whether the businesses want to install their own banners could take longer to resolve. Jeff will follow up with NEHBA and will ask Urban Works to begin the project now, with the expectation that the funding will be approved soon.
Minnehaha Creek corridor
The group from Fulton and Lynnhurst working on this project met on 3/4 to design a community engagement process to collect feedback from residents. This would be a three step process: 1) In the spring and summer, use various methods to gather general information about residents’ interest in improving the creek corridor; 2) At the summer festivals, seek more detailed information from residents regarding specific options; 3) In the fall, design and distribute detailed surveys to all residents of the neighborhoods.
Notes prepared by Dave Delvoye.
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