urbanMSP

From the agenda of the Hennepin County RRA:

In 1991, the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority (HCRRA) purchased a 5.2 acre site located at University Avenue NE and 37th Avenue NE in Minneapolis as a future station site for a northeasterly running transit corridor. The City of Minneapolis has leased the northwest corner of the site for a Gateway Art Project since 1997. The 210’ X 210’ leased area includes a wooden replica of a water tower, a pergola and picnic tables, walking paths, landscaping and raised bed community garden plots. The rental rate is $1.00 per year and the city maintains the leased area.

Anybody know anything about this corridor? How much of the land does the county own, and where would it have gone? Obviously there's a lot of rail immediately south and west of this site, but it looks pretty land-locked today.

IIRC, back then, there were plans to build a LRT line along Central/University to Northtown or Anoka. There are some of studies and DEIS documents at the Central library 2nd Floor stacks.

Interesting. It would be interesting to know if the county still has any R.O.W. under its control along this corridor.

Froggie has a scan on his website from the 1990 study. It looks like it uses a predominately public ROW.

http://www.ajfroggie.com/roads/minnesot ... st1990.jpg

Crazy. How many other routes are there that just disappeared into the mists of time?

Many of todays ideas and studies date back 20 to 30 years. Hiawatha, Southwest, Central, Bottineau, Robert, Northeast/Anoka Cty all had detailed studies. At one point there were plans for a Nicollet subway to the greenway where the Hiawatha, Southwest, and 35W lines would fan out. Ramsey, Anoka, Hennepin, Dakota, and Washington counties were actively planning light rail lines back then. There was a lack of consensus between the counties, the state, and the Metropolitan Council about the feasibility of light rail, money, who would get first line, etc.

Yeah, I knew there were a lot of old plans, but I guess I imagined that most of them had morphed into something we'd still recognize today, whereas this plan (and probably some others that I don't know about) seems to have been completely forgotten. I suppose that in some ways, it's a forerunner of the Northstar service, although it presumably was more focused on serving NE Minneapolis rather than just running through it.