The Bridges project, which Teresa has written about before, has taken a new and exciting turn. This project, the largest and most controversial ever proposed in Saint Paul, was pulled in favor of a community led initiative called the Tri-District Council, as noted here previously. What does that mean? It could well be the dawn of an exciting new era in development in our city.
After the initial proposal was denied the re-zoning necessary the developer, Jerry Trooien, pledged to go along with an effort started by City Councilmember Dave Thune. In this proposal, the three District Councils most affected – the West Side Citizen’s Organization, Capitol River Council, and the Fort Road Federation – appointed representatives to work out a new development that would meet everyone’s needs.
The first real start for this group came three days ago, on January 18. At this meeting, it was decided that we would chart a new course as partners in the process of working out a design from the very start with a clean sheet of paper. The group was armed with a set of fundamental principles to guide its procedures. It will do more than just react, but actually lay down what will happen as full partners in the process. In short, the developer has agreed to make this process into a radical new approach to developing with the community.
Certainly, developments have occurred with input from the community before. Our District Councils have initiated developments on their own, and have also worked carefully with developers who had proposals in hand. But never before has such a large project been tried with community input from the very beginning. Can such a process work?
The first question has to be “Who gets to decide what happens?” The definition of “community” in this case has been expanded to include some districts that are not immediately adjacent to the proposed site on the West Side, downriver from the Robert Street Bridge, but are more broadly affected. I have the honor of representing one such group in this process, the Fort Road Federation. I hope that my interest is a bit more than my ability to see the site from the end of my block, and that my experience working with developers on projects closer to home will be effective. It is this sense of history that we have built up over the years in Saint Paul that I would like to place at the group’s disposal more than anything.
It is hard to say exactly where this will all go at this stage. The Mayor’s Office has recently weighed in with an opinion that the site is not eligible for Tax Increment Financing, which limits the options available to us – or at extends our timetable considerably as we seek ways around it. What I can say is that we will do our best to come up with a development that is both realistic and acceptable to everyone who is affected. It goes without saying that as people who live and work and play in the city we love, we also want what comes from this to be something that makes Saint Paul proud.
I wish we knew more at this time, but we have just started figuring out how we will proceed. I wanted to post a story about this here as the first of a series of updates to inform the world how it is going and to invite comments. Engagement of the broader community, including other people from around the nation who have experience with this sort of thing, will give us a better chance at success in this exciting new adventure.
Thanks Erik for attending the public meeting on Thursday the 18th, 2006, and sharing this with our readers
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“better chance at success in this exciting new adventure.”
i just gagged a little.