Post in Parking on University Avenue after light rail

Jul 21 14:13 UTC

As astute readers of this forum will know, the latest plans from the Central
Corridor office includes a drastic change in the projected street parking on
University Avenue after the new Light Rail Transit (LRT) line is constructed.
For years, the projection was a loss of - at most - 40% of the current street
parking.  The new projections include elimination of nearly 90% of all street
parking on University.

This very serious change could have a ripple impact on businesses in our area.
Even with additional off-street parking and shared lots, the impact on
"landlocked" businesses with no direct parking could be enormous.  I'm a
transit advocate and a transit user, but I'm also a realist about what happens
to businesses when street parking is removed.  These designs need to be
submitted for Federal Transportation Administration Approval the first week of
September.  There is very little time to understand and respond to these
changes.  We have requested the Met Council project engineers meet with our
Board of Directors and community members to get more details on these
projections.

The meeting will be held at the Rondo Community Outreach Library, 461 Dale
Street, on Monday, July 28 at 6:00 PM.  Come when you can, you do not need to
be present for the whole meeting to learn more.  You can read the Metropolitan
Council's recent presentation about parking, their most recent traffic study
summary, and the "Translations" project from U-Plan that shows where the
parking will remain, on our web site - http://GreaterFrogtownCDC.org.

Steve Boland
Working in Frogtown
Living in Summit-U
Hoping neither one becomes "fly-over" territory