Miller Hanson Westerbeck Berger Architects & Planners
Damon Farber & Associates · Maxfield Research Group ·
Biko Associates · Bruce Peterson
Northeast Economic Development Council Project Manager Kim W. Havey
September 1997
| EXECUTIVE SUMMARY | |
| CHAPTER 1 | Background |
| CHAPTER 2 | Retail Considerations |
| CHAPTER 3 | Housing Considerations |
| CHAPTER 4 | Design Guidelines and Development Framework
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| CHAPTER 5 | Implementation
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| APPENDICES | A) Committees and Participants B) Task Force Summaries C) Streetscape - Kit of Parts [NOTE: Due to the number and quality of photographs in Appendix C, it is not included for viewing on the Internet. Complete copies of the Central Avenue Plan are available for viewing at the NE Library (2200 Central Avenue) and the NorthEast Business Association (1618 Central Avenue).] |
MILLER HANSON WESTERBECK BERGER, INC
ARCHITECTS & PLANNERS
Northeast Economic Development Council
Central Avenue Plan Steering Committee
Re: Make Central Avenue Great
Dear Members:
This report finalizes the planning and research effort that you initiated in July of 1996.
The utilization of this information and the implementation of the Plan is now the task which lies ahead. We have made specific recommendations on what we feel is necessary to begin an effective implementation. These need to be reinforced and supported however, by a full community effort.
We know this effort will be forthcoming because we've seen the grass roots interest from the committees and individuals we've had the pleasure of working with over the last 15 months.
We would like to pay a special tribute for the many volunteer hours spent by members of the Task Force teams, the Steering Committee, members of the Northeast Economic Development Council and the Neighborhoods in gathering the critical material for this Plan. The names of most of these contributors are included in Appendix A.
We would also like to recognize the groups which assisted in funding this research. They include:
Sincerely,
MILLER HANSON WESTERBECK BERGER, INC
Wilt Berger, President
Damon Farber Associates
Bruce Peterson
Biko Associates
Maxfield Research
The Central Avenue plan should inform and unite present and future businesses, residents, and other stakeholders as each individual decides how to invest, and grow their investment, in the Northeast Minneapolis Central Avenue Corridor, 7th Avenue to 37th Avenue.
Mission Statement: The Central Avenue Corridor has evolved from a turn of the century business street to a mixed use urban core which provides access to and from the city. The Corridor Plan recommendations will identify inherent values of the Avenue and propose sustainable design and planning alternatives to enhance the current and future value of Central Avenue for the citizens of Northeast Minneapolis. Our goal will be to make Central Avenue Great.
Surrounded by retail competition from Downtown Minneapolis, Old St. Anthony, St Anthony Village Shopping Center, Apache Plaza, Columbia Heights, and the new Quarry Shopping Center at 18th and New Brighton Boulevard, Central Avenue finds and develops its market niche by offering convenience to its immediate residents and workers. Central Avenue also offers retail and service destinations and walkable neighborhood charm not found at the close-by, more modern centers.
Central Avenue's success will depend on making the avenue even more comfortable for pedestrians-residents and workers of the area and those who come to walk from place to place on miscellaneous errands or in search of food or entertainment. And yet it must also accommodate and invite motor vehicles, as no shopping area can thrive without the further-away population's business.
"New Urbanism" principles explain how new housing and business can fit and function together. Central Avenue has many of the raw materials for successful New Urbanism. This Northeast Minneapolis Central Avenue plan and its implementation will help people rediscover how to use the materials wisely to inspire neighborhood feelings and behaviors not inspired by modern-designed centers, to make a "great street" that is safe and enjoyable for all, as well as profitable for its merchants and livable for its residents.
The plan's "Retail Considerations" section tells what stores should prosper, given the demographic characteristics of the shoppers available to the merchants and the realities of the competition the area faces. It identifies areas, blocks or buildings that are now underutilized and should be rehabbed or replaced in order to bring in such workable stores in the area between 20th and 26th Avenues. (An alphabetical list of businesses sought is included.)
The plan's "Housing Considerations" section recommends single family housing on the northern end, multifamily and alternative housing complexes on the southern end, and recommends ways to make the middle area, where housing and commercial interface with each other, more livable and stable.
The plan's "Design Guidelines and Development Framework" section demonstrates how the physical areas, from the street's center median, to the storefronts, and green spaces, can create identity for the area as well as comfort for its users.
(Appendices carry the raw material from volunteer, consultant-assisted task forces, lists of persons who contributed to this report and plan, block by block aerial photos, and lists of design materials.)
In the early 1980's Central Avenue's retail core received attention incorporating many of the physical streetscape-type elements recommended here. "Paint and Fix" incentives in the intervening years have staved off much of the physical/cosmetic storefront decline associated with many urban streets.
As this plan gets implemented, as has been tradition with plans, some key retail, office or housing projects will emerge, but we encourage people not to wait for the "big spark". This plan and its implementation, will emphasize the human capital investment needed to accelerate the dozens of jobs that remain to be done inside and in back of the stores and in the adjacent housing. This plan also broadens the area of scrutiny (compared to the 1980's plan), recognizing that areas far north and south of the retail core serve as extended gateways to Northeast and its heart-of-town street.
Want to know what's in it for you? The section titled "How to Make Central Avenue Great" identifies the goals and activities that will improve the likelihoods of individual projects flourishing. The section also recognizes that the biggest accomplishments start with each person doing what he or she can control, believing that others will at least not stand in the way, and in fact may add to the momentum. Money will help speed plans along, but it will not pay anyone to wait for big money (public or otherwise). Visualize a positive future, dream, talk to your neighbors, do what you can, and eventually as more connections get made, money will follow.