A preliminary university report describes how light-rail at-grade on Washington Avenue could be accommodated. It would include fewer traffic lanes, reduced landscaping and sidewalk areas, relocation of building entrances, turn lanes, and the acquisition of a building at the southwest corner of Oak Street and Washington Avenue to provide enough sidewalk.

The report states that one answer to concerns about safety and the function of the light-rail line is to convert Washington Avenue into a transit, pedestrian, bicycle mall between East River Road and Oak, or Harvard, street.

This would require connections for through traffic to access and/or bypass the campus from each direction, “including new roadways, services areas and parking facilities, and modifications of existing… facilities,” according to the report.

In the draft document, Pleasant Street and East River Road would become on-campus arterials for through trips. Also, Church and Harvard streets would become north-south arterial routes through campus.

Changes in the stadium area might include designating the future Granary Parkway as a northern traffic bypass, coordinated with the University Avenue and Southeast Fourth Street.

Also, the bypass plan proposes that Oak Street and Huron/25th carry north and south traffic from Granary Road to East River Road and to I-94. In the plan, 27th Avenue Southeast would connect University Avenue with Riverside via the Franklin Avenue Bridge.

University Physician clinics and parking would be relocated. An 800-space public parking ramp, accessed off of Oak and Essex, would replace public parking now available in the Washington Avenue parking ramp.

Stadium area changes could include development of a multimodal terminal and transfer site at a light-rail station to serve LRT, Metro Transit and university buses, as well as provide parking and possibly office space and housing units.

The university is also in conversation about a possible East River Road connection to Southeast Main or Second streets, near the 10th Avenue and new 35W bridges.

On the West Bank, Washington Avenue would become an arterial street that “facilitates the recreation of a unified neighborhood connection to both the university and downtown Minneapolis.” The plan foresees the Seven Corners and Cedar-Riverside neighborhoods tied together via a Cedar Avenue Pedestrian Mall, with access to a West Bank light-rail station.

Reactions

Melissa Bean, executive director of the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association, said she and some other residents don’t favor the option of diverting traffic from Washington Avenue around the campus. “It doesn’t seem like a scenario that we could look forward to,” Bean said.

“We’d rather miss some (project) deadlines in order to make the planning right,” she said. If this is a 100-year project, I’m not sure it is best to press to meet short deadlines.”

Jo Radzwill, chair of the Marcy-Holmes land use committee, agreed about the neighborhood traffic. “As land use chair, I didn’t like funneling traffic through the neighborhoods,” Radzwill said. “We definitely don’t want truck traffic sent down our residential streets.” Radzwill does like the idea of a pedestrian mall on Washington Avenue and would like bus traffic to be taken off to make the mall work better for students and the university.

last revised: February 12, 2008

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