SNO NRP Steering Committee Notes

First Meeting Mon. 11/15/04

SNO Office

Attended: John Akre, Paul Ruhland, Chris Koelfgen, Susan Kulstad, Stacy Sorenson

INTRODUCTIONS & LOGISTICS

All members of our Steer Committee are Sheridan residents with a variety of background experience that should serve our committee well, from teaching to Eastside Neighborhood Services, the environment, film making, economic development and more to be discovered.

Members List: Stacy agreed to prepare a members’ list, took info from those present. Absentees please send your name, address, phone and e-mail to Stacy Sorenson at .

Keep 3rd Monday Meeting Time? All agreed yes (absentees need to squeak if conflicted).

Next meetings are: Mon. 12/20 and 1/17, 7:00p at the SNO Office, 1226 2nd St. NE. Jan. 17th is MLK day, a holiday for many.

Chair & Note Taker: With a little discussion, all decided on:

John Akre, steer committee chair

Susan Kulstad, meeting note taker

NRP Primer: John with Stacy gave a brief overview of what the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) is. Established circa 1990 by the state legislature with involvement of the county, City and various boards, the program was responding to citywide housing stock in bad need of revitalization attention. NRP was conceived with a 20-year time horizon and involves neighborhoods, through neighborhood organizations, in developing the plan for how to reinvest in the neighborhood. Amended in 1997, NRP now calls for dividing the funding and planning into 2 10-year phases, “Phases I and II.” We are developing SNO’s Phase II plan.

Phase I produced positive results; the city is greatly revitalized, doing much better on housing than at the outset. Funding for Phase I came from tax increment funds (“TIF”) collected from downtown development. Phase I required that 50% of the NRP funds (given to neighborhood organizations, Hennepin County and the City) be devoted to housing issues. On the down side, recent changes disallowed further TIF funding and shifted NRP funding onto the City’s shoulders, which resulted in substantial cuts to neighborhood funding for Phase II (in Sheridan, Phase II funding is about a quarter of what it was for Phase I).

Currently being debated is how much of this funding must be dedicated to housing issues, and CPED has stated it should be 70% across the board. (Sheridan devoted 70-75% to housing issues in Phase I). Neighborhoods who met and exceeded the 50% mark in Phase I have begun arguing for somewhat more leeway.

John provided new members with a one-page snapshot table of our steering committee work plan that Susan prepared earlier this autumn. (See attached.) We have a relatively long timeline for our effort to enable significant outreach and a tempered pace so we won’t burn out. Stacy pointed out that we have the advantage of learning from other neighborhoods’ experience.

Useful Websites:

www.nrp.org – click on the spinning globe to get to SNO’s budget

Has links to plans of City, other neighborhoods, etc.

www.sheridanneighborhood.org – links to various neighborhood plans & surveys,

Marshall Street plan, etc.

SHERIDAN 10-YEAR PLANNING KICK-OFF MEETING

Late Feb. – Early March Date: Group agreed on timing. Idea is a big neighborhood meeting, for a couple of hours on probably a Saturday morn. Publicity will need to be worked up and initiated by January. A rough, draft agenda took shape:

I Intro to Meeting, Other Existing Plans that Impact Sheridan Planning

Steer Committee would provide a brief, integrated summary of the poignant points from existing plans such as Mpls. City Plan, Above the Falls Plan, Marshall St. Plan, NE Arts Action Plan, Phase II plans of adjacent neighborhoods, the Unified Housing Plan, etc.

Committee Assignments by Next Meeting to Prep for This (Absentees included – see Next Steps at end of notes for specifics): Group agreed to divvy up all these plans, each taking one or two. For your assigned plan(s), identify and write out condensed, poignant bullet points summarizing your plan using the following six categories:

  Housing

  Environment (natural and built)

  Business

  Safety

  Youth

  Community Building /Community Stewardship

So e.g., if the plan you are summarizing calls for artists’ tax credits for home /loft ownership and bike lanes on Marshall Street, you would write that out something like:

XYZ PLAN

  Housing:

 Lobby for artists’ tax credits for home /loft ownership within Arts District

  Environment (natural and built)

  Work with MN DOT on development of Marshall St. bike lanes

II Neighborhood Planning Session (Facilitated breakout groups)

Idea is we would break attendees into smaller, facilitated groups and have them develop plans for about 3 topics. Susan proposed a rough, starter set open to comment and refinement:

  Riverfront & Corridors Development

  Wellbeing, Stress Reduction & Recreation

  Building & Keeping Neighborhood & Affordable Housing

Cutting across and within these breakout categories would be things like: Arts District, commerce and safety. Facilitation of the small groups would move folks through something like:

A For [whichever topic], if you woke up one morning, stepped out your door and found what you most want in your neighborhood what would it be? What would be happening, what would you see and hear? {Desired State}

B Current State & What Needs to Happen to Achieve Desired State

C Results: . Picture of what folks want

. Needed Steps

III Gallery Walk / Short Presentation by each breakout to full group

A Chance to add full group ideas

B What’s missing? What hasn’t been touched upon here but should be in Sheridan’s plan?

B Dot vote on Needed Steps /Desired states

Publicity & Call /Personally Invite Handful of Key Groups: We will need to decide on and initiate publicity for the Kick-Off by January. Group agreed on idea to identify a handful of key organizations that we’d like to have represented there and in follow-up outreach, and assign steer committee members to call /meet with these to encourage participation (e.g., Grain Belt artists group, Sheridan business community, Latino group, etc.).

NRP Speakers Available: Stacy noted that if we need 5-min expert speakers for Kick-Off or other outreach meetings, she’ll help line up from NRP on topics such as Housing, etc.

NEXT STEPS

What / Who / By When
E-mail name, address, phone, e-mail to Stacy Sorenson for member list, at / Mary, Ezra, Dan
& Stacy / Asap within a week
Review Existing Plans per notes above, &
e-mail to rest of committee:
. Above the Falls / Chris / Next meeting 12/20/04
. NE Arts Action Plan / Susan / 12/20
. Bottineau & Hawthorne NRP Plans / Paul / 12/20
. The Minneapolis Plan / Stacy / 12/20
. 50 Indicators for A Sustainable Minneapolis
. City Unified Housing Policy / John / 12/20
. Marshall Street Plan – let John know who / ? (Mary, Ezra or Dan?) / 12/20
. Logan & St. Anthony West NRP plans / ? ( “ ?) / 12/20
For 12/20 meeting agenda: Publicity & Key
Calls / John / 12/20

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