Harrison Charrette Success!

Team members, residents and Harrison Staff gathered on Friday and Saturday for the Mayor's Great City Design Team charrette. Harrison resident Pat Carney shares his photos from the visit here. Thanks to all the team members and neigborhood residents for a wonderful event. Results will be presented to the Harrison Neighborhood board on January 28. Check back for more details.
(Above) Team Members discuss development, identity and the future with Harrison residents.

(above) Team member Adam Arvidson presents results of visioning.

(Above) Rick Carter, Adam Arvidson and Daniel Green study site constraints and opportunities.

(above) Team members discuss design options during the charrette.

Visit This Weekend

Friday night and Saturday, the Mayor's Great City Design Team will be in Harrison neighborhood! Events start at 5:30 Friday, where team members, neighborhood staff, ROC board members and property stakeholders will review background information about the charrette and discuss major issues for the visit.
Saturday morning, the residents of Harrison are invited to join the team for Breakfast at 8am. A visioning session with the neighborhood will follow from 9am - 11am. After discussion with residents, the team will begin design and drawing at 11 and worth throughout the afternoon.
The team is excited and so is Harrison - we look forward to a successful event. Hope to see you there!

Non-Motorized Transportation - Access Minneapolis

Minneapolis has long been one of the top bicycle commuting cities in the country. Commuting by bicycle offers benefits to both the riders and the community in the form of health and reduced pollution and traffic. Increasing density along the Glenwood corridor will mean more residents going to an from work. Unfortunately for bicycle commuters, Harrison lacks a designated, direct connection to downtown.

As a part of Minneapolis' 10 year Transportation Access Plan, pedestrian and bicycle facilities have been analyzed throughout the city. While off-street paths exist close to Harrison and Bryn Mawr within the Cedar-Lake Corridor and Bryn Mawr Park - and north-south connectivity will see major improvement in the neighborhood with the construction of Van White Boulevard - east-west movement is still challenged. See the Bicycle and Pedestrian Gap Analysis - PDF. Improvements to the Glenwood Avenue corridor in the form of on-street bicycle lanes would serve to connect new commercial development and new residents to downtown resources as well as amenities within Wirth Park.

In the image above - from the Gap Analysis - item 25 is the Glenwood Corridor. Purple lines are existing or proposed off-street pathways and orange is the Downtown network.

Additional info:
City of Minneapolis Bikeways Masterplan - Northwest quadrant identifying the Glenwood Corridor

Chic Street

Here's an article by Christy DeSmith for Rake Magazine hinting at one possible direction for Glenwood Avenue.

"It seemed like a bold move at the time, but when Ini Iyamba opened a second store—his Ivy Men’s + Design boutique at 1220 Glenwood Avenue—just this March, design devotees started buzzing about the potential of his new address..."

More at the Link

C2 and PO Zoning Districts

C2

The C2 Neighborhood Corridor Commercial District is established to provide an environment of retail sales and commercial services that are larger in scale than allowed in the C1 District and to allow a broader range of automobile related uses. In addition to commercial uses, residential uses, institutional and public uses, parking facilities, limited production and processing and public services and utilities are allowed.
Examples of uses permitted

• Residential development, 850 s.f. of lot area per d.u.
• General retail sales and services
• Child care center
• Parking facility

Development characteristics:

• Maximum height of principle structures: 4 stories or 56 feet, whichever is less
• Maximum height of single and two family dwellings and cluster developments: 2.5 stories or 35 feet, whichever is less.
  

PO

The PO Pedestrian Oriented Overlay District is established to encourage the pedestrian character of commercial areas and to promote street life and activity by regulating building orientation and design and accessory parking facilities, and by prohibiting certain high impact and automobile-oriented uses.

Development characteristics

• Maximum setback: 8 feet
• Buildings should be oriented so that at least one principle entrance faces the public street.
• Parking lots may be located to the rear or interior of the site and are limited to not more than 60 feet of street frontage.
• Forty percent of first floor façade that faces a public street should be clear doors or windows at eye level.

More links from the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances:
(Hard copy of selected sections will be available at the charrette)
Zoning Code
Off-Street Parking Requirements
C2 District
PO District