• Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan Update
• 2019 Budget
• Liquor License Charter Amendment Passes with Overwhelming Support
• Pastry with the Principal Event at Southwest High School
• Affordable Housing Incentive Program
• Minneapolis Sells its First "Green Bonds"
• Minneapolis Buildings Exceed Energy Challenge Goals

Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan Update

The end of the Comprehensive Plan process is quickly approaching. Tomorrow's Committee of the Whole sets the stage for the final mark-up session with the final vote taking place at our regular City Council meeting Friday, December 7th. Before that happens I wanted to take a moment to review the last month or two of the process. My office will also provide further updates as the process wraps up.

You may recall, after the second draft of the Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan was released on September 28th, I worked with our neighborhood associations to ensure we could have a conversation in every community in the 13th Ward about the changes, or lack thereof, from draft one to draft two.

Here is the series of meetings I attended:

• East Harriet October 4th
• West Calhoun October 9th
• Fulton October 10th
• Lynnhurst October 11th
• Kenny & Armatage October 16th
• Linden Hills special meeting October 24th 

Thank you so much to everyone who attended any of these meetings. Some of you made it to multiple! I greatly appreciate your engagement and feedback on this document throughout the entire process. Throughout these conversations, so much of the sentiment was the same from neighborhood to neighborhood in our ward. For example, I do not believe there was a single piece of feedback that indicated a change from a fourplex allowable on any lot to a triplex allowable on any lot was the right answer. What I heard, and what I know many of my colleagues have heard, were requests to address absentee landlords, lift up homeownership and local wealth building, to concentrate density in areas that make sense instead of haphazardly leaving it up to developers. To truly address the affordable housing crisis and to show with some or any kind of data that this plan would lead to affordability. Those issues went unincorporated, and my attempts to incorporate some of this feedback, via amendment, were even voted down in our previous markup session last week.

As this process moves forward, I will keep you posted through this newsletter. I appreciate all the outreach that has been sent, both positive and negative.

2019 Budget

We are quickly approaching the end of the 2019 Budget markup. This term I have the great honor and responsibility of chairing the Minneapolis Budget Committee.

The final 2019 Budget will be voted on at the final Council Meeting of the year, this Friday December 7th. There is one last public hearing, tomorrow night, December 5th at 6:05pm in City Council Chambers (Room 317). Following that hearing, there will be a final markup session and the Budget Committee will adopt the budget to forward to final approval on Friday.

I want to thank the hundreds of people who showed up to participate in the process. My values are your values and while we might not agree on how to solve the needed change in culture of the Minneapolis Police Department, we agree this is something that is critical. I remain committed to this work.

Something that I am particularly proud of is a staff direction that was approved by Council that asks Communications staff, in collaboration with the Innovation Team, to look at how we as a City can better communicate, particularly on large scale City initiatives, for example, the Comprehensive Plan. We need to do better at engaging all residents in our city. Both early and in the middle of these processes. I think this audit is a great first step in addressing how we can engage better as a city enterprise.

Liquor License Charter Amendment Passes with Overwhelming Support

On Election Day 2018 residents of the City of Minneapolis overwhelming  (72.03% YES to 27.97% NO) supported a City Charter Amendment that struck the seven acre rule related to liquor licensing. This rule required restaurants, either proposed or existing, to go to the MN Legislature to be granted a liquor license if the property on which they were located was a part of a commercial area less than seven acres.

The change has been labeled as an upgraded license for establishments that currently have a beer and wine license. Previously, once the exemption was granted, a small business would still have to go the City of Minneapolis for all zoning and regulatory service issues to open. It makes sense to house all related matters at the City as we have the infrastructure and knowledge to oversee it. This change is exciting and allows equal access to a process that businesses in larger commercial districts have always had access to. 

Additionally, a letter has been sent to all establishments that are eligible for this upgraded license as well as area business associations so they can best serve their members looking for this updated information. 

I am ecstatic for this opportunity for small businesses in Minneapolis and I look forward to seeing the growth in industry that we expect to see around the City as this upgraded license is available and granted in 2019 and beyond.  

To read more...

Overall results, precinct by precinct results, Star Tribune write up, and the link to the new application.

Pastry with the Principal Event at Southwest High School

Southwest High School's New Principal, Dr. Favor, held a community breakfast on the morning of Saturday November 3rd that I had the privilege of attending.

I have committed to ensuring that the leadership change at Southwest High School goes smoothly and is productive. I am pleased with the incoming principal's commitment to stay close to the community. He, assistant superintendent Carla Steinbach and Superintendent Ed Graff attended this community listening session, to hear neighborhood concerns and how the beginning of this first year has gone from their perspective. Dr. Favor and school leadership shared their personal views on how this fall has gone, and highlighted some initiatives like student-adult career exploration and civic engagement. Neighbors shared issues about traffic, open lunch, snow plowing and off-campus drug use. We will continue to champion and be involved in this conversation.

Affordable Housing Incentive Program

The City of Minneapolis is now accepting applications for the Minneapolis 4d Affordable Housing Incentive Program, which helps property owners obtain property tax reductions for agreeing to keep a portion of rental units affordable for 10 years.

The expanded 4d program has the potential to preserve 700 or more additional units of naturally occurring affordable housing in 2019. It is one of several strategies the City is deploying to address the affordable housing crisis in Minneapolis.

Program benefits

• 10-year eligibility for the 4d property tax rate, which provides a 40 percent reduction in property taxes for qualifying units.
• $100 grant per affordable unit (capped at $1,000 per property).
• Free or low-cost energy assessments and City cost sharing for solar energy installations and energy efficiency improvements.
• Payment of the first year State of Minnesota application fee for certification of the 4d property tax classification.

Owners of market-rate multifamily properties with two or more units are eligible to apply. At least 20 percent of the property’s rental units must be affordable to households making 60 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). For more eligibility requirements, visit the program website www.minneapolismn.gov/4d.

Applications can be made online. The application deadline is Feb. 12, 2019. Contact Dean Porter-Nelson at dean.porter-nelson@minneapolismn.gov or 612-673-5237 for additional information.

Minneapolis Sells its First "Green Bonds"

The City of Minneapolis recently sold its first-ever green bonds, worth $96.22 million, to finance portions of two high-profile public LEED Gold facilities soon to be under construction. “Green bonds” means the proceeds are used for environmental, social and sustainable objectives under guidelines determined by the International Capital Markets Association. Green buildings, also known as low-carbon buildings, are an eligible project type under the Green Bond Principles. Both the new consolidated Public Service Building and the East Side Storage and Maintenance Facility, a state-of-the-art recycling and waste facility, will save significant energy, create less greenhouse gases than standard construction and catalyze other developers to meet similar standards.

Minneapolis joins Saint Paul as the first cities in the state to issue green bonds. Green bond designation can help the City reach the goals and strategies in its Climate Action Plan while at the same time possibly achieving a lower interest rate on bonds to save taxpayer dollars and helping to expand the market for green bonds to support action on climate change.

While these bonds are sold, the City would like to encourage people with investment dollars to ask their investment providers how to buy green bonds to further support action on climate change.

Green bonds projects

In its Climate Action Plan, the City identifies a strategy to demonstrate leadership in green buildings.

The Public Service Building is expected to reach a LEED Gold or higher certification in consolidating several departments currently at several sites into one modern, energy-efficient building accessible by mass transit. The design emphasizes low energy use, natural daylight and minimal impacts to migrating birds.

With the East Side Storage and Maintenance Facility — also to reach LEED Gold or higher—the City will construct a state-of-the-art recycling and waste facility combining operations from two outdated City facilities into one location. It will help with increased solid waste and recycling responsibilities due to population growth and expand the City’s recycling and composting operations. It has the additional environmental benefit of allowing the City to convert the vehicle fleet to compressed natural gas.

Each spring and fall the City sells bonds to finance portions of its capital budget. Refunding bonds work similarly to the way a person might refinance a home, meaning the City refunds bonds it sold years ago by selling new bonds at lower interest rates.

Minneapolis Buildings Exceed Energy Challenge Goals

Minneapolis’ Building Energy Challenge winds up as a success with 75 percent of participating large buildings meeting or surpassing City emission reduction goals. They each reduced their greenhouse gas emissions at least 15 percent by becoming more energy efficient and by getting energy from clean sources such as wind and solar. Minneapolis ended the four-year challenge by awarding 10 buildings for reducing climate change pollution equal to the energy use of more than 2,000 homes a year.

Two of the 10 buildings switched to 100 percent renewable and clean electricity, nine of the buildings improved their heating and cooling systems and controls, and nine installed energy-efficient lighting.

Besides cutting pollution and saving money, energy efficient buildings can also attract more tenants and increase real estate values. Making buildings more energy efficient can support new jobs in clean technology and engineering.

The 10 high-performing large commercial buildings recognized for cutting their climate change pollution:

• Butler Square.
• Calhoun Square.
• DeLaSalle High School.
• Forensic Sciences Building.
• Hennepin County Government Center.
• Hospital Parking Ramp.
• Minneapolis City Hall.
• Minneapolis Convention Center.
• Royalston Maintenance Facility.
• Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Minneapolis campus.

The City of Minneapolis recognizes climate change as a serious problem to which human activities contribute heavily. The commercial-industrial sector contributed almost half of the total citywide greenhouse gas emissions in 2016 with building energy use as the main source.

The Building Energy Challenge was aided by the data from the Commercial Building Benchmarking and Transparency ordinance, which the City adopted in 2013. This ordinance requires large buildings to track and disclose their energy use. The Building Energy Challenge aligned with the goals and activities of the Clean Energy Partnership, and the challenge and ordinance both support the goals of the Minneapolis Climate Action Plan.

Anyone can contact Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy for information about how their building can reduce energy use.