[Mpls] Northside construction moratorium

[RAlbee4045 at aol.com]

The following email was received from the Minneapolis Consortium of Community 
Developers:

Dear Housing Committee Members,

On Friday, April 30th a motion was made by Council Members Johnson,
Johnson-Lee and Samuels to impose a moratorium on new construction in North
Minneapolis.  The motion was made in response to concerns about
prefabricated housing on the North Side, but applies to all new
construction.  The moratorium is being taken up by the Zoning & Planning
Committee tomorrow morning (May 6th) at 9:30am.  A public hearing will
probably be called in the next few weeks.  

Unfortunately, the city has an ordinance that allows moratoriums to take
effect as soon as they are on the table (instead of after they've passed) so
at this time the city has stopped issuing building permits for North Side
projects.  Twin Cities Habitat was denied a permit earlier this week.  

We will continue to be in touch with city staff and Council Members and hope
to have more information about this issue soon.

The Zoning & Planning webcast will be broadcast live tomorrow, if you're
interested in the discussion http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/webcasts/ . 

Given the announcement last week of the $20M investment in affordable housing 
for the northside announced by Mayor Rybak and then the $20M commitment by 
the Franklin National Bank, it seems rather out of sync for such a broadbased 
moratorium as suggested to deal with tacky prefabs. How bout some enlightenment 
on this topic?

Robert Albee
American Indian Community Development Corporation
Ventura Village Neighborhood