Star Tribune
Minnesota senator wants to do away with minimum parking requirements
Rules governing how much parking that cities require for businesses and multifamily dwellings such as apartment buildings are capricious and arbitrary, says Sen. Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis.
He point to rules in Carver, Minn., that require a minimum of two parking stalls for each lane in a bowling alley, while in Anoka the requirement is seven.
“Are bowlers driving 3½ times as much in Anoka than in Carver?” Fateh asked rhetorically during a news conference last week to unveil the People Over Parking Act that he plans to introduce at the Legislature this year. “Mandates force people to build more parking than they need, and they are burdensome for renters.”
Fateh’s bill would not eliminate any existing parking, but it would create a statewide law giving developers, business owners and landlords the ability to decide for themselves how much parking they need or want for new construction or existing buildings are renovated.
Efforts to reduce excessive parking have been gaining momentum following the decision by Minneapolis in 2015 to become the first city in the nation to get rid of a mandate requiring a minimum number of parking spots at transit stations. At that time, Chris Meyer, who sits on the Minneapolis Planning Commission, gave each member of the Minneapolis City Council a copy of the book “The High Cost of Free Parking.” The tactic worked, Meyer said, and it led to the city scrapping the mandate.
In the years since, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth and about 50 other cities across the country have eliminated minimum citywide parking mandates, said Tony Jordan with the Parking Reform Network.
“It has become a true national movement,” said Meyer, who bought 130 copies of the urban planning book to give to lawmakers in hopes of gaining support for Fateh’s bill.
Fateh has yet to find an author in the state House to champion the bill but has support from Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who represents Minnesota’s 5th District. Omar is co-sponsoring a national version of the bill in Congress.
Omar said Fateh’s bill is necessary because large parking lots lead to higher rents. An average-size parking lot can cost up to $40,000, she said. The cost ultimately gets passed on to tenants, including those who don’t own a car. Ditching city-imposed parking requirements would let developers build more units on the same plot of land, allowing more people to secure affordable housing, she said.
“If we make every apartment complex $40,000 cheaper to build, it will be much cheaper to rent that apartment,” Omar said.
The Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, an advocacy group representing cities outside the metro area, is not on board.
“Cities already have the authority to eliminate parking minimums if they choose,” said Executive Director Bradley Peterson. “This proposal is premised on the idea that what is good for Minneapolis is automatically good for Mountain Lake, Moorhead, or Mahnomen.”
Fateh said his bill will address two vexing crises of the time, climate change and affordable housing.
“Minimum parking mandates are terrible for both,” he said. “We need our policies to focus on building housing for people, not more housing for cars.”
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
Suspect “led us to the evidence” in Montana camper’s brutal killing, initially thought to have been bear attack
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
Snow and rain on Halloween
Suspect “led us to the evidence” in Montana camper’s brutal killing, initially thought to have been bear attack
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town