Hopkins and Minnetonka residents may have more reasons to pay attention to plans for the Southwest Light Rail Transit (LRT) line now that officials are zeroing in on what route the trains would take.
That's because the planning process will start to mean more to those concerned about how their properties will be affected, how they'll access the trains or how it will affect the environment.
This fall, officials who've been hearing what the public thinks about the route choices will likely wrap up the process of choosing a route and then hand the plan off to the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority. A decision from the county is expected in early November, and then the plan would go to the Metropolitan Council.
At a Sept. 17 public hearing at Eisenhower Community Center in Hopkins, members of the Policy Advisory Committee (PAC), comprised mostly of city and county officials, heard from nearly 50 speakers in an auditorium of more than 200 people.
While many spoke about the different routes the train could take in Minneapolis, some from Hopkins, Minnetonka and beyond showed up to voice their concerns about the line.
Joanne Strate of Minnetonka said she favored a route that would have moved the line west in Minnetonka. She said steep grades on Smetana Drive could make the line dangerous there.
"I'm here to fight the uphill battle and I'd like to see 1A get chosen," Strate said.
Linda Hagmeier, who lives in a Minnetonka townhome and spoke for the townhome association, said she's deeply concerned that the nearby planned line would mean noise pollution, environmental degradation and loss of views.
"We're also concerned that this line will bring a destruction to the solitude we all enjoy," Hagmeier said.
Tony Wagner, a Minnetonka City Council member and a member of the PAC, said after the meeting that as far as Minnetonka residents are concerned, "In general, there's been very good support."
Wagner said the city also needs the line to help provide transit for more density planned in the Opus area.
"If you're going to put that density in there obviously there has to be transportation alternatives. At the same time, a number or people that live in that area today are concerned about some of the more practical elements," Wagner said.
He said in the near future, residents should continue to voice their opinions about the line. The local challenge will soon become trying to influence the final designs to meet the city's needs, he said.
In particular, goals in the city's comprehensive plan will involve light rail.
"It would be challenging for us to implement the goals that we have for Opus without the light rail," Wagner said.
Wagner said that the choice among routes has for the most part come down to one between 3A and a route through Uptown, 3C.
"We need to find the line to provide the best opportunity to get it built and funded. At this point that looks like line 3A," he said.
The plans can be seen at www.southwesttransitway.org.
The PAC had taken up the plans early this month after the Technical Advisory Committee of planning and engineering staff from each city along the line had recommended route 3A.
After a route is chosen, the focus will be on how the line will fit in with the communities it passes through by studying environmental impacts, station design and mitigation.
Work on preliminary design and an environmental impact statement could stretch from 2010-12.
The 14-mile line from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie could be built as soon as 2015, following construction of the Central Corridor line.
County Commissioner and PAC Member Gail Dorfman summed up the public involvement that's already taken place on the route selection, including 25 open houses and five public hearings before the one on Sept. 17.
"Public involvement is absolutely essential to doing this right," Dorfman said.
A number of speakers at the Sept. 17 public forum said the line would open communities up to each other, which they said could provide access to job opportunities in the southwest suburbs for those living in North Minneapolis, among other benefits.
Nobody spoke on that issue with quite as much gusto as Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels, who said that for too long North Minneapolis residents have been quarantined, boxed off and isolated.
"Now it's time to open up the gates so we can pour into that verdant garden of Eden Prairie," Samuels said.
Others favored a route through Uptown to access amenities already there.
Still others, like Richard Adair of Minneapolis, took a more long term view of planning for the rail line and said some of the emotional pleas should be watered down.
He favored route 3A based on criteria of using rail for longer trips with fewer stops and buses for shorter trips.
"You're doing 50 to 100 year infrastructure. You don't really know who's going to be living in the Uptown area or the Basset Creek Valley," Adair said.
Reader Comments
Posted: Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Article comment by:
Me
You have to admire the Mpls councilmen openly salivating at the idea of many North Mpls residents taking the train to “pour into that verdant garden of Eden Prairie”. By the way, if you want to know about the crime in N. Mpls (that may soon pour into Eden Prairie) visit http://www.mplscrimewatch.blogspot.com/
