04-26-2000 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Public Outreach Process Once the Metropolitan Council reviewed the proposed plan, the study's most important phase — review and comment by the public — began. The Council held a series of open houses and public hearings. A brochure mailed to households throughout the area invited residents to attend the meetings. These invitations were supplemented with materials on buses and with newspaper advertising. Planners also held more than 70 meetings with cities, counties and interest groups. This section details the many means by which residents could comment, including the number of responses received by the end of the comment period on March 1, 2000. Open Houses Tuesday, Jan. 25 Columbia Heights Public Library — 28 attendees Thursday, Jan. 27 St. Paul Public Library (downtown) — 48 attendees Tuesday, Feb. 1 Minneapolis Public Library (downtown) — 45 attendees Thursday, Feb. 3 White Bear Lake. Public Library —116 attendees Public Hearings Tuesday, Feb. 8 Minneapolis Public Library (downtown) — 45 attendees Thursday, Feb. 10 Mears Park Centre (downtown St. Paul) —104 attendees Thursday, Feb. 10 Metro Transit Training Facility (Midway area) — 49 attendees Public Outreach Results Nearly 4,000 comments were received, making this the most successful outreach in Metro Transit history. Comments from residents included 733 comment cards, 678 e -mail messages, 583 phone calls, 207 letters and faxes, and six petitions totaling 1,598 signatures. • One -third of citizen comments favored the plan, nine interest/county groups backed the plan and 22 of the 31 affected cities provided written support. • Only a quarter of the comments received referred to Sector 1; the remaining three - quarters focused on Sector 2. Half of all comments dealt with St. Paul Route 12 and four of every five comments involved just nine of the 45 proposed routes. (Figure 2 on the following page shows the geographic origin of comments.) Page 249