BUILDING CONNECTIONS

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• BUILDING CONNECTIONS
• Cedar Riverside Partnership
• January 26, 2009

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Small Area Plan Goals

• Guide land use and development changes for the
  next 20 years
• Examine current conditions (e.g. zoning,
  demographics, transportation issues, economic
  issues)
• Develop shared vision among stakeholders
• Create goals, objectives, and policies to help
  implement vision

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What does the plan provide direction for?

• Land use where should housing and businesses be
  in the future
• Housing how much, rental or ownership
• Market how to promote businesses, and what is
  the best mix
• Transportation walking, biking, driving,
  parking
• Public Spaces and Parks what improvements
  should be made
• Urban Design how can new structures adhere to
  neighborhood character, what does the walking
  environment look and feel like

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10 Guiding Principles

• Improve safety and comfort of pedestrians
• Enhance neighborhoods economic prosperity
• Emphasize a lively and diverse urban environment
  with compact, mixed use development
• Preserve neighborhoods historic and
  multicultural qualities
• Increase opportunities for affordable and
  accessible housing
• Support integrated multi-modal system while
  addressing parking issues
• Encourage environmental sustainability
• Form better partnerships among stakeholders to
  achieve more seamless transitions
• Improve pedestrian and bicycle amenities
• Improve quantity and quality of neighborhood
  gathering spaces

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Land Use Design

• Maintain land uses largely as is
• Reinforce traditional urban form, particularly on
  main corridors
• Support public safety objectives through good
  design principles
• Improve and enhance public open space and
  gathering places
• Key to Central Corridor
• Focus most intense development near future
  transit stops (including Hiawatha LRT)
• Future development along the Washington Avenue
  trench should be transit-oriented and create a
  presence along the trench with creative design
  solutions for both station access and visibility

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Economic Development Recommendations

• Issues
• Need better variety of goods and services,
  especially serving residents
• Lack of connections between commercial areas and
  to other parts of city
• Businesses not capturing student and employee
  markets
• Perceived and real safety concerns

Recommendations

• Seven Corners
• Destination for arts, theater, and dining
• Create connections between neighborhood and
  downtown cultural
• institutions
• Create strong, positive interface with Central
  Corridor LRT
• Rebuild connections between 7 Corners and the
  Cedar-Riverside
• intersection with pedestrian and bicycle
  improvements to Cedar Ave

• Cedar-Riverside intersection
• Perpetuate a successful collection of destination
  businesses
• Enhance physical appearance of area businesses
• Improve pedestrian experience along Cedar and
  Riverside
• Create strong visual and physical connections for
  pedestrians and bicyclists between intersection
  and LRT stations
• Provide neighborhood goods and services

• South Cedar
• Visually and functionally create an identity as
  an ethnic marketplace
• Recognize the long history and current role of
  Cedar Riverside as a
• location that supports recent immigrants
• Maintain current music and entertainment scene
• Enhance streetscape for a better walking
  experience

• Riverside Avenue
• Provide a human-scale environment that encourages
  people to walk, bicycle, shop, dine and use the
  areas transit amenities
• Strongly encourage mixed-use development with
  active uses on the ground floor
• Restaurants, coffee shops, convenience goods and
  services should meet needs of residents,
  employees, students and visitors to area
  institutions

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Transportation

• Improve overall transportation system
  connectivity, including bike/ped, transit, auto
• Strengthen Cedar Ave as a safe and attractive
  pedestrian-oriented area
• Enhance Riverside Ave with new bicycle facilities
  and related improvements

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Major Considerations IssuesConnectivity

• Considerations
• Neighborhood isolated island
• Disintegrated street grid
• Adjacent to Downtown
• Hidden transit station
• Disconnected commercial areas

• Recommendations
• Maintain and restore the street grid
• Further analyze freeway changes for better
  connections to Downtown
• Wayfinding and streetscape to major transit
  stations
• Small physical changes to better connect
  commercial areas (wayfinding, streetscape, etc.)

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Cedar Avenue Recommendations

• Issues
• Area appears unattractive and not in good repair
• Unsafe pedestrian crossings, numerous accidents
• Cut-through paths in many areas where people walk
• No public connection through on former 5th Street

• Recommendations
• Improve sidewalks, crosswalks, landscaping,
  street furniture, and lighting
• Safety improvements at intersections with
  Riverside Avenue and at 7 Corners
• Upgrade the mid-block crossing at former 5th
  Street, create a public walkway through block
• Create strong connections between street and LRT
  stations, including signage

Sample sidewalk with improvements
Sample intersection crosswalk
Sample mid-block crossing
Sample wayfinding sign
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Riverside Avenue Recommendations

• Issues
• Street has excess capacity, with more lanes than
  needed for traffic.
• Street is not a safe, comfortable, or attractive
  place for pedestrians or bicyclists.

• Recommendations
• Reconfigure the street to allow for bicycle
  lanes.
• Improve safety at pedestrian crossings.
• Improve traffic signal timing at intersections to
  make traffic flow more efficient.
• Investigate other potential long term projects to
  enhance the Riverside Avenue corridor, including
  improved pedestrian facilities.

Sample design for Riverside Avenue
Sample cross-section for Riverside Avenue
Traffic study shows ability to fit bike lanes
Potential route for new bike lanes (in red)
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Central Corridor Recommendations

• Access to Cedar, 19th and University Skyway
• Bike/pedestrian connections to and through the
  neighborhood
• Wayfinding a connected transit system
• Place making building connections and changing
  perception of the trench
• High visual interest at Cedar Avenue

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For Further Information

• Project Website
• http//www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cped/cedar-riversi
  de.asp
• Joe Bernard
• City of Minneapolis
• CPED Planning Division
• Phone [phone]
• Email joseph.bernard_at_ci.minneapolis.mn.us