The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) is beginning a process to plan all the neighborhood parks in the Northeast and Southeast Service Area, which includes all of the neighborhood parks east of the Mississippi River.
On June 28th, the MPRB Commissioners approved the composition of a Community Advisory Committee (CAC). The CAC is a group of community members that will guide the project and make recommendations to the Board. The MPRB is asking for appointments from seven geographic groupings of neighborhood organizations.
The following groupings were arranged by Commissioner Wielinski and the neighborhood groups, and approved by the Board of Commissioners:
• Waite-and Colombia Park
• Audubon and Windom
• Marshall Terrace, Bottineau and Sheridan
• NE Park, Beltrami, Logan, and Holland
• St Anthony East, St Anthony West
• Nicollet Island East Bank, Marcy Holmes and the
University
• SE Como and Mid City Industrial, Prospect Park
Each geographic grouping will have a primary and alternate representative(s) that equal the number of neighborhoods in the grouping. Each grouping will prioritize the order of the alternate representative(s). An alternate can act as the neighborhood representative appointee at CAC meetings when the primary representative is not available.
The process works like this:
The MPRB staff team is promoting the project through various channels and will be receiving applications from the general public. The deadline to submit applications is August 25, 2017.
For more information on the project, please visit the project webpage at
https://www.minneapolisparks.org/eastoftheriver
A link to the CAC application is below:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/eastoftherivercac
The neighborhood groups will review the applications submitted to the MPRB. They will have until September 29, 2017, to select their preferred candidates.
CAC meetings will take place in the northeast/southeast service area in the evenings starting in fall 2017. Though final meeting dates have not yet been scheduled, the total time commitment for a CAC member is likely to include:
• Between seven and nine two-hour meetings beginning in September 2017 through late 2018;
• Some general assistance with and/or attendance at community events throughout the planning process; and
• Work group meetings as needed.
CAC members will be primarily asked to provide guidance on the East of the River Park Master Plan as a whole. It is important that CAC members are big picture thinkers able to see beyond the boundaries of a single park or neighborhood. Small stipends are available to CAC members for childcare and transportation.
About the East of the River Park Master Plan:
The first service areas master planned were South (2016) and Downtown (2017). The North Service Area is currently underway. The Northeast Southeast Service Area Master Plan, also called the East of the River Minneapolis Neighborhood Park Plan, includes all Minneapolis neighborhood parks east of the Mississippi River. It features:
• 26 neighborhood parks
• 5 regional park and trail areas
• 7 community and neighborhood recreation centers
• the possibility of creating new parks, lands, and land
connections
The Service Area Master Plan will take a comprehensive look at each park asset within the Northeast Southeast Service Area; set a vision for operations, management, programming, and capital improvement; and create a master plan for each non-regional park within the service area.
