The City Council will consider approval of the Minnehaha Avenue design at two upcoming meetings:
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Tuesday, Nov. 19 sometime after 9:30am at City Hall (350 S 5th St) Room 317: Transportation and Public Works Committee -
Friday, Dec. 6 sometime after 9:30am at City Hall Room 317: Full City Council
Hennepin County is asking the City to provide municipal consent for the layout and support a variance to do narrower parking lanes. You can read details about the actions here and see the full layout here. We do expect that the layout will be approved and we have not been advocating on Minnehaha since the County announced their decision in late September.
We are disappointed that the County is not advancing a protected bikeway for Minnehaha that could have been transformative for the area, but there are a number of good improvements in this plan, including:
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Generally a 1.5'-wide buffer will be added for the bike lanes; -
Parking (pending final approval from the State) and drive lanes will be narrowed, which should also calm speeds some; -
The Minnehaha-Lake Street intersection will be improved to retain the southbound bike lane throughout and not carry through two southbound driving lanes. This should improve safety for everyone at the location of the most crashes on the corridor; -
Bump outs will be added at most intersections, which will improve pedestrian safety; -
A slightly narrower pavement width, which should reduce impacts on street trees; and -
New green space elements are part of the plan, including some innovative ways of managing rain runoff.
We will report on the discussion at the hearings.
A view of the general design of Minnehaha Avenue.
