It’s never pretty when Ross bails on our radio show/podcast and yesterday was no exception.
Tracy put on her Chair of the Northfield Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals (PCZBA) hat and after exchanging pleasantries about sidewalk dining, we went toe-to-toe on the planning process for the business park(s). She played the ‘nice’ card and then ended with a lecture till we ran out of time. I was unhappy. I’m mostly over it.
(Originally posted on my CityCommons.net blog.)
Thanks to the City Council, the Planning Commission, and especially to Tim Freeland of KYMN Radio and City Councillor Betsey Buckheit for making my job easier.
First, a quick update on the LDC from this morning’s KYMN Radio newscast.
Next, the video of last week’s presentation to the City Council on the Land Development Code as it relates to existing (“built residential”) neighborhoods:
The “Friday Memo,” written by Northfield City Administrator Joel Walinski and various department heads and other City staff, summarizes the staff and department activities for the week. The Friday memos…
I noticed that the HideAway Coffeehouse and Winebar put out its tables and chairs this weekend so it seems a good time to revisit the issue of sidewalk dining in Northfield (that’s a Tag link to all our blog posts on the subject since 2006.)
Plus, there are two more Division St. eating/dining establishments opening this year.
I blogged last November that “Northfield’s sidewalk dining ordinance has been in effect since early 2008 but only one establishment has taken advantage of the alcohol clause: the HideAway Coffeehouse and Winebar. Five others have not. It might be helpful to find out why.”
Ross sent me a link a week ago to a blog called cooltownstudios that has a series of posts on outdoor cafe districts. (The blog is part of the bigger CreativeCrowdSource project.)
One of those blog posts is titled How to crowdsource an outdoor cafe district and it links to a forum thread on related attempts. The overview of how to do it:
It’s been a little over a year since the City of Northfield and Greenvale Township signed an annexation agreement for 530 acres of undeveloped farmland. The concept plans are for the park are now being proposed. I got this alert about the upcoming open house from Randy Jennings:
While digging through my photo archives, I stumbled upon photos from two public meetings in late fall of 2003: the Hospital Reuse Open House in November and a presentation by Hospital Reuse committee members Alex Beeby and Meg Hargreaves to the City Council in December, with photos of citizens (primarily 
Way Park advocates) speaking at open mic. (Those links go to my blog posts at Northfield.org.) I’ve combined the photos from both meetings into one album.
There are some familiar faces in this album. My favorite: downtown mail carrier Tom Kotula, showing his ability to handle more than the mail.
See the album of 38 photos, the large slideshow, or this small slideshow:
Mill Towns Trail representatives Peg Prowe and Glenn Switzer and Northfield City Administrator Joel Walinski presented at yesterday’s NDDC downtown forum at the Archer House. Lots happening this year!…
Our guest this week, Northfield City Councilor Kris Vohs (At-Large), with two of his grandkids in the audience.
We asked him to explain his vote in favor of the plan to reuse the existing Safety Center location for a new fire station and to build a police station at a new location. The surprising short version of his answer: getting ‘political’ support to build a single building would be difficult in this economic climate. More surprising: he doesn’t support going to the citizens on a referendum to fund the facilities.
The rest of the show we spent discussing the trees on 4th St. which again comes before the Council tonight.
Robbie and I had our first experience with bubble tea on Saturday. Yum. (The rumors continue to swirl around Northfield that’s a bubble tea restaurant that’s going into the into…