The upcoming November 1st City Planning Commission agenda contains two excellent projects from Hennepin County.
Both are conversions of hotels into <30% AMI housing. The first project will convert 45 rooms of
the former University Inn in Marcy Holmes and the second will convert 55 rooms of
the former LuMINN Hotel in Downtown West.
I went to the planning commission meeting yesterday evening. The LuMINN Hotel conversion went onto the consent agenda without objection, but someone indicated that they wanted to speak on the University Inn/Gopher Motel project, and so that was kept on the agenda for a public hearing. It turned out to be the most wildly offensive public hearing I've ever witnessed, and I've watched a lot of planning commission meetings in a number of towns and cities!
The opponents to this project turned out to be local representatives of national fraternity and sorority organizations (these people were not students, they were adults who managed the fraternity buildings and presumably were otherwise involved in supervising or organizing the Greek life) and a nearby pastor. As often happens with opposition like this, the first person to speak made a semi-cogent argument and then subsequent speakers trying to press home the argument became further and further unmoored.
Essentially, it became clear that these organizations opposed the housing project because of an implicit but strong assumption that anyone with a qualifying income (<30% AMI) is a likely criminal. Speakers repeatedly painted Marcy Holmes as a neighborhood in the grips of an epidemic of crime, as if it should be obvious why this was relevant information to share at a zoning hearing. Eventually the pastor turned subtext into text by conceding that, while there had been no issues so far with Hennepin County using the former hotel as emergency housing, if the units were turned into low income rentals "there will be rapes."
A blow-by-blow account of the meeting from WedgeLive can be read
here.
When the public testimony was closed, several planning commissioners forcefully addressed these remarks. Commissioner Campbell pointed out that the assumptions made about the future residents for this building were not relevant to the decision before the CPC. Commissioner Alper corrected the record by speaking about the types of people who would qualify for this type of housing. Roughly a third are in the workforce, a third are seniors, and a third are disabled. Commissioner Olson spoke about her personal experience coming out of college and renting a unit not too different from the kind of unit proposed here. Commissioner McGuire's remarks were the most forceful. She directly addressed the claim about rapes by saying that she had been raped—but by a fraternity brother. She urged the fraternity representatives to keep their own house in order before trying to deny housing for others.
Ultimately the CPC voted 5-4 (with the four I quoted above in opposition) on a motion made by Commissioner Rainville to continue this project one cycle to November 14th in order to ensure that the Marcy Holmes neighborhood (which had not submitted a letter) was consulted. On Twitter, the Marcy Holmes Neighborhood Association
has subsequently made clear that they did review the project and there was no substantial opposition at that meeting, so they didn't bother to take a vote or submit a letter. Several of the commissioners who voted for the continuance also expressed support, so I am confident that it will pass at the November 14th meeting.
In the meantime, please email your Hennepin County Commissioners and tell them that you support this fantastic work by the county.