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Dear SOS Supporters,
Throughout her campaign, Mayor Kaohly Her promised to improve City processes, listen and respond to citizen input, and make fiscally responsible decisions.
Mayor Her has committed to delivering on those promises by ensuring a transparent process for the next steps regarding a bicycle facility for Summit Avenue.
Questioned frequently during the campaign concerning her position on the proposed Summit Avenue Bike Trail, she stated repeatedly that while she had reservations about the proposal, she was not ready to take a final position because the information required to make that decision was not available to her. She has heard and acknowledged our concerns with the process and strives to address them through transparency and engagement without pre-decided outcomes. Mayor Her wants the process to be fact-based and transparent to ensure resident voices and preferences are heard and incorporated.
The first test of those commitments will be the informational sessions Public Works has scheduled for March 25th and April 8th. (See link below for meeting details.) Our new Mayor committed to restoring trust in City Hall and she can make good on that commitment by ensuring that the next steps by Public Works for any proposed bicycle facility on Summit Avenue will be transparent, based on objective facts, and with no predetermined outcome. The Mayor has promised to engage residents regarding which bicycle facility (existing on-street lanes versus proposed off-road trails) will be the most cost-effective given the fiscal challenges facing St. Paul, and will have the least environmental impacts on Summit’s iconic tree canopy and historical character as required under Minnesota’s Environmental Rights Act.
Public Works has also agreed to undertake an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) regarding the various options for a bicycle facility on Summit, but it is not clear whether they will be pausing further design work for the off-road trails until the EAW has been completed, which seems to violate the spirit if not the letter of Minnesota Rules prohibiting actions which could prejudice the outcome of pending environmental review. Given our concerns about the impacts of the off-street trail as proposed, we have suggested that in the interests of saving time and money the City should proceed directly to an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which we believe would be the inevitable conclusion of any objectively-conducted EAW, but that remains an open issue.
The Mayor was clear that a reset of the engagement and the project will be based on careful analysis and get down into the details, including whether all of Summit needs to be fully reconstructed. Her focus will guide us on the impacts of the project on green space, safety for all users, a financial cost-benefit analysis of all options for pavement and other infrastructure, and an independent arborist to evaluate tree-by-tree effects.
Mayor Her understands that the results of this process may not please all stakeholders. The success of the process will, however, rest on the extent to which all stakeholders can state that they had a chance to be heard and that the conclusion was based on objective facts.
Assuming that Public Works faithfully follows Mayor Her’s commitments, regardless of the outcome, SOS owes Mayor Her a deep debt of gratitude for putting her campaign promise into action.
Website for information on the Common Cent Informational Sessions
https://www.stpaul.gov/projects/public-works/pwcommoncentprojects
Thank you all for your continued engagement!
SOS Steering Committee
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