PPERRIA Membership Meeting - September 1996

The 9/30/96 Prospect Park East River Road Improvement Association membership meeting was called to order by Jim Widder, President, at 7:30 pm. A quorum was present.

The 7/22/96 PPERRIA membership meeting minutes as published in the 9/96 mailing were approved without corrections.

Information on the proposed transfer station at the SKB site, Malcolm and 7th St. Rick O'Gara, manager. This is the third year of yard waste composting on the site. In working out an agreement with the City Environment Dept to remove the "odor problem" and be able to fulfill the existing yard waste composting, an additional activity is needed on the site to cover the added expenses. Proposed is a collecting and sorting for transfer to another site of construction and demolition material. Material will be brought to the site by small trucks and transferred to the Inver Grove Heights site by large trucks. To contain the materials, proposed is a 150' by 300' steel building on the west end of the property. The east end will be paved. Traffic will increase by about 50 trucks per day. Until there is a roadway within the SE Industrial Area, it is proposed that Fifth Street be used instead of University. The current city composting agreement expires in 2000. The hours of operation will be the current 7 am to 7 pm, with usually a 5 pm end. Currently there are 15 jobs on site of which two are paid $20,000, two paid $15,000 and the rest +$10,000. Twelve jobs will remain on site with the rest moving to Inver Grove. Compost and wood chips will be continue to be available at the Malcolm site. Needed is a conditional use permit. A formal presentation will be made to the Zoning Committee. Rick was commended as a model industrial citizen in his responding and communicating to the neighborhood.

Joan Campbell, councilperson, reported that this morning at the Franklin end of the Sand Flats Park a jogger found a body. Police as yet have not determined the method of death.

SE Industrial area development. Mac Hyde of "Real Estate Recycling" reported on the activities at the "Lewis Nut and Bolt " site at Malcolm and Fifth Street. This is the first of several of the polluted sites to be developed. The company buys and cleans up polluted sites and also assumes any liability for the pre-development pollution. This frees the developer and results in a "clean" site, a critical issue. The site is about eight acres and has a seventy year history of metal manufacturing which polluted the site. From records it was possible to identify the pollution. Removal started last week and is expected to be completed by the first of 1997. All remedial methods should take place on site. An existing natural sealing fourteen feet down has prevented and would prevent any future ground water contamination. The cost is $2 million, of which all but $20,0000 comes from public site clean up funds. The proposed developer is Opus for an office/warehouse complex.

A motion was presented by Harrison Nelson for the Transportation Committee and was passed without opposition, to approve $60,000 of the NRP traffic calming funds. Included was an amendment that that Traffic Committee review the individual site test results and report back to the Membership their recommendation before any money is allocated for the site project. This motion was presented to show the City that the neighborhood supports the projects and to allow each project to be individually presented. The current test sites are the intersections of Emerald/Franklin and Wabash/Emerald. The Wabash/Emerald site is next to the 280 sound wall and will be a one way street east to St. Paul. Islands on the Mpls side are proposed to encourage truck traffic to the east rather than west on Franklin.

Neighborhood school report by Susan Larson-Fleming. In the NRP is a community based school. Part of the strategy is a proposed K-5 school at the Pratt building to be shared with the current Pratt programs. This could be a model of outreach and inclusion of parents. (Note... remember that the school program options started in SE twenty years ago.) The school facilities staff seems to be OK with the proposal, even though an old building is involved. The school site staff is now looking at the proposal. Their main concern seems to be the increase in new students. (Note...remember that all the SE school except Tuttle were closed in «83 due to excess of buildings.) This proposal is too small to solve the problem, although just opening new buildings does not solve the school current problems. A long debate is ahead, with the next several months of a critical nature. A key to success is joint planning with the Glendale Community. Of immediate concern is that any program at Pratt be a community program.

Zoning Committee report by Florence Littman. The Standard Rents building at 3000 University SE has a proposed use by PanelCraft for their show room and telemarketing. No zoning change is needed, but a conditional use permit is needed. The proposed use is similar, minus the shipping, to Standard Rents. The manufacturing and shipping will be done from PanelCraft's Marcy/Holmes site. Motion passed without opposition to recommend the proposed use. A proposed new development for retail use of the Holdahl and Twin City Tile properties at Washington and University passed the city zoning/planning committee, city council and was signed by the mayor. Neither PPERRIA nor the City Planning Committee approved of the proposed project. There seemed to be a major problem as to how this was approved. A side issue is the city's lack of guidelines for parking variances. More to follow. A motion was passed without opposition that the PPERRIA Zoning Committee meetings be held the Monday before the second Wednesday of each month. This will help in dealing with zoning issues and that information will be available for that month's Executive and Membership meetings.

Current status of neighborhood safety and security light fixtures project. Susan Gottleib is the NRP staff person for this project. Scheduled are three information meetings, ads in Southeast Angle and door-to-door information. Contact her at Pratt, 66 Malcolm SE, if there are problems receiving information. No decisions will be made at the three meetings, but they will be used for disseminating information, especially concerning individual lot cost. The Public Works has approved the lantern and acorn styles of lamp fixtures and probably will approve the witch's hat. Not approved is the St. Paul style. Again, be sure to attend one of the three meetings to ask about individual lot assessments. As economy of scale tends to determine city approval, installation of one style throughout the neighborhood at the same time would be in our favor. Mailings to non-resident property owners will be made. Not included will be East River Parkway (a part of the Park Board,) Motley neighborhood, almost all absent, institutional or commercial property owners, Glendale (a part of the city Housing Authority) and Tower Hill (has its own lighting project now being installed.)

The Executive Committee will select an NRP elector and report at the October meeting.

The plan for PPERRIA to adopt the East River Sand Flats. Tom Kilton reported that adoption was rejected by the Park Board due to there not being an ongoing involvement by PPERRIA. The meaning of this is somewhat unclear and the Committee will follow up. Concern was expressed about vehicle use of the path (possible) and off the path (not possible.) Planned on 10/26/96 is an event on the sand flats to publicize the opening and availability of the park.

NRP staff report. Harrison Nelson indicated that the staff is being expanded to have an individual responsible for a specific project. The staff will vary according to the projects and the availability of neighborhood individuals for staff. This should result in more focused activities and less stress on the staff. Amounts spent for NRP staff are way behind projections.

Due to membership meetings going beyond the 9:30 pm ending time and the necessity to allow the opportunity for membership comments and concerns, beginning with the October 1996 meeting, the membership meeting starting time will be 7 pm.

The SEED Master Plan, South East Economic Development. Vera Marshall reported that the SEED Committee has approved the plan. Copies are at Pratt or Luxton. The next step is an area-wide review. Major topics are traffic and environment.

Rachel Levitt reported that there was a "dog-bites-person" incident in the neighborhood in the last month. This is not the first incident with this dog. The PPERRIA Executive committee will report at the October 1996 membership meeting a strategy for issues such as this.

Motion to adjourn passed.

Respectfully submitted, Daniel Patenaude, PPERRIA Secretary