Gov’t & Policy – Page 41 – Locally Grown (LoGro) Northfield

Published April 22, 2010 by Griff Wigley

MotokazieLand Recreation Park: sounds like a good development

It was standing-room only at the Forest Township Hall in Millersburg last night. Lee Theis, president and owner of Motokazie, a motorsports race promotion and track-building company, made a presentation to area residents on the development of the MotokazieLand Recreation Park (PDF) in the highway commercial zone between I35 and Cty Rd 46 at Cty Rd 1 in Rice County.

Theis needs approval from the Rice County Board of Commissioners because this kind of organized motor sports is only allowed in agricultural and urban reserve zoning districts.

I stood at the intersection of Cty Rd. 1 and I35 and took this 22-second video to capture the sound of the freeway noise, as noise from the two motocross tracks is the concern raised the most by residents.

Next up: a public hearing on May 6th, 7 pm, at the Rice County Government Services building in Faribault.

See the website, Rice County Residents for Motorized Recreation (RCRMR) for more info on the MotokazieLand proposal. Supporters are asked to sign the petition and join the discussion on the Facebook group.

The Faribault Daily News has a good pro and con discussion page titled: In their own words: The Motokazie debate.

Other media coverage to-date:

Businesses County

Forest Township Lee Theis Motokazie MotokazieLand Recreation Park Rice County Board of Commissioners Rice County Residents for Motorized Recreation

Published April 21, 2010 by Griff Wigley

Down go the trees on 4th St

The boys from Cannon River Tree Care took down the 11 trees on 4th St. between Division and Washington this morning, marking the start of the 4th St. reconstruction…

Businesses City

4th St. reconstruction Cannon River Tree Care

Published April 21, 2010 by Griff Wigley

Where should the proposed new police facility go?

Last night, the City Council selected these five locations as their preference for a new police facility. See pages 20–41 of the Council packet: Northedge Auto Site Cowles Property/Riverside Drive…

City

Police facility

Published April 21, 2010 by Griff Wigley

State of MN to City: David DeLong was right. Hospital to now handle its own public data requests

In December, former Northfield City Councilor David DeLong asked Northfield Hospital for the names of the finalists in its search for a new CEO/president. It turned into a bit of…

City

data practices data requests David DeLong Northfield Hospital

Published April 21, 2010 by Griff Wigley

Photo album: spring burn, Hidden Valley Park

I woke up from my nap to the smell of smoke yesterday afternoon. A crew hired by the City of Northfield was doing a controlled burn of Hidden Valley Park. (The park is surrounded on three sides by the units of the Valley Pond Townhome Association where Robbie and I live.)

See the album of 16 photos (8 fire, 8 post-fire), the large slideshow, or this small slideshow:

City Photos

Hidden Valley Park spring burn Valley Pond Townhome Association

Published April 20, 2010 by Griff Wigley

Podcast: PC chair hands the curmudgeon his ass

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.

City Podcasts

Business and Industrial Park Planning Commission

Published April 20, 2010 by Tracy Davis

Land Development Code update

(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:

City Gov't & Policy

Land Development Code Planning Commission zoning

Published April 19, 2010 by Tracy Davis

I’m falling down on the job. Here are the last two Friday Memos.

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…

City Gov't & Policy Townships

Friday Memo Joel Walinski

Published April 19, 2010 by Griff Wigley

Let’s crowdsource Northfield’s sidewalk dining scene

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:

Businesses City Clients (Griff's)

HideAway Coffeehouse & Winebar sidewalk dining

Category: <span>Gov’t & Policy</span>