urbanMSP

It's absolutely not a public hearing. There are no land use public hearings that happen in the neighborhood. This is most likely the developer coming to the neighborhood organization asking for a letter of support for their actual public hearing.

And yes let's absolutely keep shoveling public money into these organizations who are experts in the development process.

But are you sure it's not a public hearing? There are definitely, for example, public hearings about liquor licences that take place in the neighborhoods.

Yes, license hearings seem to happen "out there" but have you ever heard of an official land use hearing that isn't at the CPC meeting?

Well, I'm not 100% sure. But you could have a neighborhood-located public hearing that informs the CPC decision, in exactly the same way that you could have a public hearing on a liquor license that would inform the decision of whichever committee grants liquor licenses.

Yes that's certainly possible, the same way that I could win the Powerball jackpot tomorrow despite not having a ticket and the drawing not being until Wednesday.

Or the neighborhood association is demonstrating its limited knowledge of land use approvals and why they shouldn't have any involvement in the process.

I ended up chairing the meeting. The project we saw tonight had the parking removed and all the units were 1-beds. Someone asked why they didn't propose 2-beds and they said those are always the last to lease up.

The builder was initially opposed to removing the spaces as recommended by the COW, but talked about how they realized it made the building stronger and ultimately found there isn't much market for parking. They developed 3535 Grand which has 17 spaces for 24 units, and said they have leased only 4 of those spaces.

Music to my ears.

This project was completed last year, and the architect (Christian Dean Architects) has some professional photos of it on their website project page.

As a neighbor following this project from the beginning, back in 2012, I want to say the developers that finished this project have done a great job with both the new building and the original substation. Peep those new, well-insulated muntin windows that match the originals!

What ended up happening with the substation? Is it apartments? Office space?

The developer says he's renovating it for a "creative office user."

https://twitter.com/seandsweeney/status ... 2560247808