June 19, 2013, Wednesday - Public Meeting at MPRB on Athletic Field for Elliot Park

Time: 6:30pm

Location: Minneapolis Park and Rec Board, 2117 West River Road

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) Planning Committee will hold a public hearing on an Athletic Field Plan for Elliot Park on Wednesday, June 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the MPRB Headquarters, 2117 West River Road North.

The Athletic Field Plan being recommended to the Board by a Non-Appointed Community Advisory Committee (CAC) features a synthetic soccer field for the park, located in downtown Minneapolis at 1000 14th Street East. Park safety, usability/functionality, and increasing park activity were the community priorities that guided the CAC’s overall recommendation.

This Athletic Field Plan is based on the input received from the community surrounding Elliot Park and includes two design options for constructing a synthetic turf soccer field. The plan identifies a community-preferred full size adult soccer field option in collaboration with North Central University (NCU) or a smaller youth 6 soccer field option. The MPRB has the necessary funding for the smaller size field. NCU will be required to fund the balance of the larger field. If NCU is unable to obtain the necessary funds, the MPRB will proceed with the smaller youth 6 size field. Both field options were developed and reviewed by the community with support by the Elliot Park Neighborhood Building, Land Use & Housing Committee.

During the meetings with the community, comments were wide-ranging from security/safety concerns in the park to the need of increasing positive use of the park. In part, the community supported the full-size soccer field because of the crucial role NCU plays in providing positive role models in the park and neighborhood. While there was concern expressed about the need to remove up to 35 trees on the west side of the park for the field, the community viewed the need to expand Elliot Park’s amenities and provide a premier athletic field in the neighborhood as more important than the preservation of trees on that particular portion of the park. The community is dedicated to replanting many of the lost trees, and to restore our depleting urban tree canopy.

The public is invited to attend the public hearing to review the plans and share their comments with the Planning Committee.

Once the Plan is approved by the Planning Committee, it will go before the full Board on July 10th for approval. Once fully approved, NCU will be required to raise their portion of the funds for the full size field and the MPRB will move into design detailing. The construction of the field will be determinant on the time needed for NCU to raise the funds.

For further information about this and future improvements, visit the project page on the MPRB website.

Contact:
Questions from the public:
Tyler Pederson, Project Manager
Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board
612-230-6418
tpederson@minneapolisparks.org