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letter from Mayor Sayles Belton
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August 17, 2001
Steven Bosacker, Chief of Staff
Office of the Governor Jesse Ventura
130 State Capitol 75 Constitution Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55155
Dear Mr. Bosacker,
I was unable to attend the meeting held last Friday, August 10
with Jim Campbell, Hennepin County Commissioners McLaughlin and
Dorfman and Craig Anderson regarding the I-35W Access Project. I
am, however, deeply concerned about Mn/DOT's recent requirement
that the Project's design accommodate additional traffic lanes.
As background, you should know that elected officials representing
the citizens of Minneapolis, community residents, organizations
such as the Philips Partnership and Mn/DOT have been working together
since early 1998 and have experienced amazing success correcting
past design omissions with the provision of ramps connecting Lake
Street area businesses and neighborhoods with 1-35W. As has been
voiced many times, residents have strong feelings about the way
Interstate 35W divided their neighborhoods when constructed in the
1960's causing significant social, environmental and economic decay.
To make matters worse, the freeway was not designed to be very accessible
for them.
During the early 1990's Mn/DOT proposed to significantly increase
the capacity of the freeway by providing additional lane segments
and space for LRT. The City's elected leaders and residents emphatically
opposed this expansion because it did little for them while taking
hundreds of homes creating a wider freeway. The level and intensity
of their opposition was considered to be unprecedented. Now, these
same residents have risen to support the Access Project because
it provides the connectivity that has been missing all these years.
When the community first initiated the freeway Access Project they
were only talking about improving connections to and from Lake Street.
In response to Mn/DOT, they have significantly expanded the Project's
scope to include remedies needed to fix freeway problems that are
decades old.
For example, they have recently proposed to relocate the existing
35th and 36th Street ramps to 38th Street as a measure required
by Mn/DOT to eliminate a poor design that has created safety problems
caused by the short distance between the existing 31st and 35th
Street ramps. Secondly, they are proposing to redesign the existing
5th Avenue entrance ramp to both I-35W and I-94 in order to relieve
congestion backing up from where the ramp currently provides entry
to these freeways. These additions have substantially increased
the cost of the Project and require the taking of residential structures
not needed for the original Lake Street Proposal. The City, County
and community have been willing to do this in order to gain Mn/DOT's
approval for the new ramps at Lake Street. However, if these changes
were advanced by Mn/DOT alone, the entire Project and its ability
to receive community support (and necessary City approval) would
be placed in jeopardy.
During our initial meetings with former Mn/DOT Commissioner Jim
Denn and the current Metro Division Director Richard Stehr they
emphasized that Mn/DOT had no plans for making improvements of any
kind to 1-35W between downtown Minneapolis and 46th Street. Thus,
we felt confident in proposing additional access ramps without having
to address community concerns with expansion issues raised in the
1990's when the mega-project was being hotly debated.
Now, Mn/DOT is requiring that the Access Project accommodate, in
its design, the placement of additional lanes sometime in the future
by Mn/DOT. They are being discussed as HOV lanes as a way to reduce
the public's distaste for them, but in fact, no one knows what form
these additional lanes will take in the year 2015, Mn/DOT's expected
use date. Mn/DOT staff has indicated that expansion proposals, such
as the 2015 project, are insignificant. However, it is my opinion,
the opinion of the community and the opinion of the majority of
officials representing Minneapolis that lengthening our bridges
and acquiring more right-of-way in the course of constructing new
freeway ramps is not only significant, but a breach of our good
faith understanding that the Lake Street/ 35th-36th Street ramp
reconfiguration is not now and never will be an expansion project.
Additionally, Mn/DOT's new expansion proposals pose a significant
breach of trust with our neighborhoods and residents who were told
that the project proposal is an access project and not a project
that would add freeway lanes. Had they known in the beginning that
Mn/DOT would be piggybacking on the project in order to add lanes,
their view toward the Project would undoubtedly have been different.
I would also note that prior to March of this year, there had been
no indication that Mn/DOT would require additional lanes accommodations
in the Project design. Mn/DOT staff now tell us that without these
accommodations they will withhold State funding previously committed
and their approval of the Project.
HOV laneswould be a sigificant addition to I-35W. State and Metropolitan
planning processes have not proposed them and therefore there is
not a basis for their requirement. Preferred alternatives in the
Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) prepared for the mega-project
and for the T.H. 62 Crosstown work specifically dismissed the need
for additional HOV lanes between I-94 and 46th Street. The mega-project
EIS concluded that LRT should be provided and that an existing all-purpose
lane would be converted for HOV vehicles. The Crosstown EIS said
that no HOV lanes would be needed north of 46th Street. The Metropolitan
Council's Transportation Policy Plan suggests the need for a corridor
study, but does not designate a specific outcome such as the need
for HOV lanes. Mn/DOT's Transportation System Plan only has a general
reference to the need for addressing infrastructure, capacity and
safety issues within the corridor. Again, nothing specific is proposed.
Why Mn/DOT now insists that the Project accommodate HOV lanes when
past studies have discounted them and current planning is yet inconclusive
is not understood?
The Access Project is desperately needed for South Minneapolis
businesses and residents. Wells Fargo purchased the Honeywell campus
with several reservations regarding transportation access, nevertheless
Wells Fargo went ahead with their business plans because they felt
their concerns would be ameliorated by this project. Abbott Northwestern
Hospital has plans for the construction of a new regional heart
hospital just to the south of their existing campus. Their proposal
is predicated on having this access project completed in the near
future. Any renovation of the former Sears complex at Lake Street
and Chicago Avenue will also need improved connections to I-35W.
l want to emphasize that accommodating more lanes will jeopardize
the Access Project. In good faith Minneapolis proceeded with Mn/DOT's
assurance that we would not be put in this position. The Minnesota
Congressional delegation has been very successful in making federal
funding available as needed for the planning and design work. Plans
to pursue a substantial level of federal funding for construction
in F.F.Y. 2003 are already in place. Now in order to move forward,
Mn/DOT would have us go back to the community seeking support for
an expanded scope that will likely kill the project.
My hope is that Governor Ventura will affirm the critical importance
of the I-35W Access Project to our mutual Smart Growth agenda, and
direct Mn/DOT to support this project without requiring more freeway
lanes as a condition. This project must continue to be an access
project and not an expansion project.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Sharon Sayles Belton
Mayor, City of Minneapolis
cc. Jim Campbell
Commissioner Peter McLaughlin
Commissioner Gail Dorfman
Craig Anderson
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