“Buckle up, Buttercup, it’s coming!,” is a realization of business owners and neighbors now that the Hennepin Avenue South reconstruction project is moving forward. It’s a remark Judy Longbottom recently made to a friend, anticipating construction activity adjacent to her UPS Store on 28th Street and Hennepin Avenue.
“Frankly, I’m terrified of the next two years, and I am very concerned on how we are going to remain in business during the two year project,” said Ms. Longbottom after the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee of the Minneapolis City Council approved the reconstruction of Hennepin Avenue between Lake Street West and Douglas Avenue on October 26.
The committee passed a number of resolutions: ordering the work to proceed, adopting a special assessment of $1.98 million, authorizing the sale of assessment bonds and authorizing abandonment and removal of areaways in conflict of the project.
The scope of the project, which Hill & Lake Press has covered in detail over the past 5 years, involves removing and replacing the roadway, sidewalk and utility infrastructure. Additionally, and most controversially, the city will install “green infrastructure:” dedicated bike and bus lanes which will reduce on-street parking and replace two car lanes with one. On-street parking on Hennepin Avenue will decrease from 311 to 268 locations, with 210 of the remaining locations subject to rush hour or transit lane restrictions for a portion of the day.
The project has stirred strong objections from businesses on Hennepin Avenue and neighbors who are paying the special tax assessment to help fund the project and yet will bear the consequences of less customer parking and more parking and traffic on side streets.
Supporters talk of safer streets and sidewalks for bikers and pedestrians and fewer cars as a fulfillment of the city’s Transportation Action Plan (2020), Complete Streets Policy (2016), Vision Zero commitment (2017) and Street Design Guide (2021). Many of the studies informing such plans, however, predate the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent changes in commuter traffic and economic landscape of the city.
Prior to the October 26 vote at City Hall, local residents and business owners, including Mumtaz Osman, owner of Osman Cleaners on the corner of 25th Street and Hennepin Avenue, voiced objections,
“We have been in the neighborhood 32 years,” said Ms. Osman, “You are taking away all the parking and we will lose customers. I don’t know what we are going to do. It seems like nobody cares for the business owners and residents. We want to be part of the planning, but nobody is listening.”
Councilman and committee member Elliot Payne responded, “I hear you; I’m listening. I also want to put things in context,” citing data from 2008 to 2018 noting 14 bike fatalities and 117 serious bike injuries from collisions with cars citywide during the ten-year period. “There are families connected with those deaths and if any one of those deaths could be prevented by a bike lane, that’s the type of the weight of the consideration we have.”
A factor in such risk calculation is the price tag for the project: $52 million sourced from federal, state, metro transit, general city, storm and sanitary funding sources.
During the meeting, Margaret Anderson Kelliher, director of the Minneapolis Public Works and Infrastructure department, noted the city has formed an “Active Parking Committee” to discuss parking solutions on Hennepin Avenue.
Regarding the project schedule, utility upgrades have begun on the first segment, Phase 1, from 26th Street to Lake Street and will continue through April 2024. Construction on Phase 1 is planned for April to November 2024.
Utility upgrades on Phase 2 of the project, from Douglas Avenue to 26th Street, will begin in August 2024, continuing through April 2025. Phase 2 construction will run from April through November 2025.
The city will hold monthly updates with both virtual and in person meetings starting November 14th. Beginning April 2024, the city will provide weekly email updates and will convene weekly Friday morning stakeholder meetings and one-on-one site meetings as necessary.
More information about the Hennepin Avenue South construction project can be found at: www.minneapolismn.gov/government/projects/hennepin-ave-s/
