True Exclusive: Lutsen town plan

Lutsen Meeting Minutes from Tuesday 3-27-07

Thank you to everyone who attended Tuesday night's meeting!
We have just posted our concepts/drawings on our server. Follow this link:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~cland/

There will be two folders labeled 11x11 and 8x8. This refers to the size of the drawing so you can either print them out on 11x17 or 81/2x11 if you wish. Inside the folders will be pdf files of all of our boards. Let me know if you have any technical difficulties. Please remember that this work is preliminary. We have posted it so people can refer back to it and ask any additional questions or give us additional comments on the work. For those who could not attend the meeting the drawings will help you have a better understanding of the meeting minutes. We will will be re-shaping the work for a final presentation that will be scheduled for sometime in June.

I have attached the meeting minutes in a word document and also pasted it below.
Again, if you have any additional questions or comments please feel free to call or email.

Nichole Schlepp
Design Coordinator
Center for Changing Landscapes
University of Minnesota
612-624-2976
schl0482@umn.edu

Lutsen Meeting Minutes 3.27.07:

A steering committee workshop was held in February. In that meeting we received many comments/inputs on the Gitchi Gami Trail alignment through Lutsen , discussed some town center concepts, and received feedback on what people saw as the character of Lutsen and the potential character of a future town center. Based on that meeting we were able to refine our concepts and present them Tuesday night at a preliminary design meeting held in the Lutsen Church basement. Here are the topics that were presented/discussed at Tuesday night’s meeting:



1. Gitchi Gami Trail:

-An existing regional trail map was shown that spanned from the Poplar River to the Caribou Trail. The DNR has funding for the trail and an alignment with property owners’ consent to Arrowhead Electric. This portion of the trail was shown as a solid line on the map. It is in the power line corridor after crossing Poplar River and then makes its way to the right-of-way along Highway 61 before reaching Arrowhead Electric.

From this point the trail was shown as a dashed line and split into two options along the right-of-way: one is on the north side and one is on the south side of the highway.



2. Zoning and Linear Systems:

-A map of the existing town center from Arrowhead Electric to Lutsen Church was shown with dashed lines for the Gitchi Gami Trail on the north and south side of the highway.

-Town Center ‘Gateway’ locations were shown to the west of Arrowhead Electric and to the east Lutsen Church. This is where the speed could drop to 30 m.p.h,, town center signage would be placed, there could possibly be curb and gutter along the highway, ‘Town Center Plantings’ could be incorporated helping to signify that you are entering the town center of Lutsen.

-Zoning as specified from Lutsen’s town plan is also shown on this map. One of the only changes we would be suggesting is that in the ‘LGC’ area the density could be more than .25/acre with an option for single-family residential to enter this area as ‘Town Center Housing’.

-Within the ‘LGC’ area a thicker red line was drawn indicating our ‘Town Center Study” area. This line is carried out through the town center concept drawings as well.

-A section line (in red) was cut just to the east of Lutsen Church for studying the highway/frontage road/Gitchi Gami trail spacing.



3. Highway/Frontage Road/Gitchi Gami Trail Section Studies

-Section studies were cut at a pinch point east of the Lutsen Church where a home is approx. 12’ from the R.O.W.

The studies shown were: existing conditions, a very ‘bare minimum’ MNDOT typical rural section at 40 m.p.h., a curb and gutter option at 30 m.p.h., and a section showing the trail on the south side.

From these studies it was apparent that there is more room on the north side (100’ of R.O.W.) of the highway for a frontage road and/or trail. On the south side there are steeper slopes and there is only 50’ of R.O.W. causing the trail to be within 2’ of the road with guardrails on either side.

People responded well to the curb and gutter option because it allowed a separation between the trail, the highway, and the frontage road and allowed the plantings to come in closer to the highway creating a narrow visual corridor.

In terms of stormwater runoff, the rural section with its ditches works best. Curb and gutter eliminates the ditches and would require some other type of detention or treatment before moving into the creek.

For next time, more studies will be done that take a closer look at the stormwater for the curb and gutter option Discussions will continue with the DNR and with MNDOT to ensure we are meeting trail and highway requirements as well as having something that works well for Lutsen.



4. Town Center Concepts:

-Two concepts were shown for the town center. These drawings are meant to be a vision for the future, to help the community of Lutsen see what their zoning and town plan could possibly accomplish, and how having a plan for the future can help the community retain and protect the character of Lutsen and become an even greater resource along the North Shore. Both concepts worked to emphasize the feeling of community, to create a pedestrian-friendly cohesive town center, and to focus the town center and housing on amenities such as the creek or open green spaces as well as thinking about potential stormwater collection/treatment facilities.



-Town Square Concept- this concept focuses the town center core around a small square. (See Town Square axon drawing for a closer look at the square). It is a very traditional plan that would be pedestrian-friendly. “The square” uses the land quite efficiently and therefore allows for more commercial/retail buildings. As the design moves up the hill it changes to live/work units, small single-family tuck-unders and single-family rear attached that focus on a common green space. (See drawing of Town Center Housing Types 1&2). Beyond that the housing shifts to single-family residential rear detached on 60’x120’ lots. (See drawing of Town Center Housing Type 3)



-Town Green Concept- this concepts follows the same principles as the Town Square concept but focuses the town core commercial area around a single curving “Main Street” that frames a large central green. (see Town Green Axon drawing for a closer look of the green) This design is not as dense as the Town Square so there is less square footage of commercial/retail in this plan. A ring pattern emerges in this design where each ring is a different type of commercial building (all commercial/retail or live/work units) and then shifts to the different patterns and densities of housing types (again see Town Center Housing drawings)



Of course, before all of this could possibly happen a community septic system and water system would have to be in place as well as a stormwater plan. We discussed septic package plants and were they are located in the plan. Another big question was water. Water is a much larger issue that needs to be looked at by engineers but we will do what we can. Again, we will continue to develop our stormwater plan for these town center concepts.


There were also many questions about costs, funding, timelines, etc. These concepts are a vision and would be a very long term idea for Lutsen. This would not happen overnight but very gradually. Costs and funding are big questions as well as the market in Lutsen for this type of development. Some ideas about funding sources were discussed. We will explore some of these questions for next time.



The community decided that the final presentation should be before the busy season starts so we will be back sometime in June. We will continue to work on the details, the character of the buildings, and develop a signage and detail package for the town center. The Gitchi Gami trail/frontage road/highway sections will also be studied again.


Lutsen Meeting Minutes 3.27.07.doc
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