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With laser pointers and projectors, the JLT Group broke out the big guns Monday night to try to impress upon the West Side of St. Paul that the Bridges development plan really does have the community’s needs at heart.
Still, developer Jerry Trooien started the meeting he organized with this blunt statement: “This is not an open democratic forum.” Instead, he described the gathering with about 50 attendees as an “informational forum.” For the next 2 1/2 hours, Bridges project staff spoke about geography, topography, flood plains, water tables, gradation, plan overlays and storm water retention.
What Trooien and the staff didn’t talk about was the Bridges project. For a forum run by the Bridges developer, called by the Bridges developer and paid for by the Bridges developer, there was almost no talk of the project itself.
“Tonight was to establish some parameters,” said Roland Aberg, the Bridges master planner and main speaker.
Trooien promised that JLT would discuss “more exciting things” at the next meeting.
The meeting ended with a question-and-answer period that was supposed to take only written questions because other meetings have been contentious. Since “everyone has been very civilized and cooperative,” Trooien said, “we can scrap the written question idea.” But he did ask that questions focus on topics addressed that night. Only one question, seeking clarification of a technical term, came from the audience.
Much of the meeting focused on the West Side Flats Master Plan. All of the speakers were careful to point out that this plan does not actually cover the area where the Bridges is to be located and neither does the District del Sol small area plan.
Trooien said a lot more information is available now about the West Side Flats Master Plan than when the plan was created in 2002 . “Six years ago, all of us, me included, had one notion about what that housing and retail would look like,” Trooien said. “Historically, no one should have seen this as a major retail space.”
The next meeting will be Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Wellstone Center.
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8 Comments »
Comment posted April 24, 2007 @ 11:47 pm
Hence a multi-part conference. “For a forum run by the Bridges developer, called by the Bridges developer and paid for by the Bridges developer, there was almost no talk of the project itself.”
Trooein knows his audience and will break things up into easily digested portions…ya think?
Comment posted April 25, 2007 @ 7:51 am
Good thing! And it’s a darn good thing too! If we’d had to sit through much more of that meeting I’m pretty sure the speakers would have fallen asleep. I expect tomorrow night will be slightly more interesting.
Comment posted April 25, 2007 @ 11:22 am
“This is not an open democratic forum.” Couple of questions:
How many of the attendees were paid JLT staff people? At the last Tri-District Council meeting, a full third of the 45 member audience was being paid to attend. However, only one of the JLT staff was being paid to heckle those trying to work through some difficult issues.
Given that the earlier Bridges proposal for zoning changes was headed to certain defeat at the City Council – stopped only by Trooien’s now-abandoned promise to work with the neighborhood – what does he hope to accomplish here? His attitude of patronizing dismissiveness has even alienated those people he instilled on the WSCO board, so what can be done when even his puppets don’t listen to him anymore?
Was there any mention of WSCO at the meeting at all? Were WSCO people present? Did City staff bother to attend? Did Council member Thune?
One of the things many think Trooien was trying to do was to create confusion between his process and the community-driven and City-sponsored discussions. Do you think he created confusion?
Comment posted April 25, 2007 @ 11:55 am
Questions…. 1. Not sure how many were Bridges staff, I think at least 8 between speakers, door people etc, but no idea about the others…
2. No idea, hopefully we’ll find out by the last meeting but I believe the stated reason was informational and Trooien said, “The question is what is the best development plan for the area.” More general topic about “riverfront development issues” than about the Bridges.
3. No comment.
4. Very brief, but not from Trooien.
5. Erroll, Don Luna, and I think one other WSCO board member I noticed there, they didn’t speak.
6. Not that I saw.
7. No.
8. Honestly I think he was really clear that this was a JLT thing, I’m pretty sure no one in that room thought that this was City-sponsored or WSCO sponsored. Trooien was very honest when the meeting started about what it was. I’m not sure if he will be at the start of every meeting or if he expects the same people to show at every meeting but he was pretty straightforward about it being a JLT show.
Comment posted April 24, 2007 @ 6:47 pm
Hence a multi-part conference. “For a forum run by the Bridges developer, called by the Bridges developer and paid for by the Bridges developer, there was almost no talk of the project itself.”
Trooein knows his audience and will break things up into easily digested portions…ya think?
Comment posted April 25, 2007 @ 2:51 am
Good thing! And it's a darn good thing too! If we'd had to sit through much more of that meeting I'm pretty sure the speakers would have fallen asleep. I expect tomorrow night will be slightly more interesting.
Comment posted April 25, 2007 @ 6:22 am
“This is not an open democratic forum.” Couple of questions:
How many of the attendees were paid JLT staff people? At the last Tri-District Council meeting, a full third of the 45 member audience was being paid to attend. However, only one of the JLT staff was being paid to heckle those trying to work through some difficult issues.
Given that the earlier Bridges proposal for zoning changes was headed to certain defeat at the City Council – stopped only by Trooien's now-abandoned promise to work with the neighborhood – what does he hope to accomplish here? His attitude of patronizing dismissiveness has even alienated those people he instilled on the WSCO board, so what can be done when even his puppets don't listen to him anymore?
Was there any mention of WSCO at the meeting at all? Were WSCO people present? Did City staff bother to attend? Did Council member Thune?
One of the things many think Trooien was trying to do was to create confusion between his process and the community-driven and City-sponsored discussions. Do you think he created confusion?
Comment posted April 25, 2007 @ 6:55 am
Questions…. 1. Not sure how many were Bridges staff, I think at least 8 between speakers, door people etc, but no idea about the others…
2. No idea, hopefully we'll find out by the last meeting but I believe the stated reason was informational and Trooien said, “The question is what is the best development plan for the area.” More general topic about “riverfront development issues” than about the Bridges.
3. No comment.
4. Very brief, but not from Trooien.
5. Erroll, Don Luna, and I think one other WSCO board member I noticed there, they didn't speak.
6. Not that I saw.
7. No.
8. Honestly I think he was really clear that this was a JLT thing, I'm pretty sure no one in that room thought that this was City-sponsored or WSCO sponsored. Trooien was very honest when the meeting started about what it was. I'm not sure if he will be at the start of every meeting or if he expects the same people to show at every meeting but he was pretty straightforward about it being a JLT show.
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