On October 9, the Spring Valley, Minn., City Council heard from Dan Freeman, of the Spring Valley Business Alliance, to consider future plans for the group’s proposed Broadway Project.
Photo by Paula Barness
In May, Freeman approached the council with the idea of the Broadway Project. At that time he explained, “The Broadway Project is an effort by the alliance to make downtown Spring Valley a safe and more welcome place and to make downtown a gathering place. Our vision is to create some seating areas downtown and ways to restrict traffic so that it increases the safety for pedestrians and people parking downtown.”
Throughout the summer the Alliance did a trial run of the temporary seating areas during the Wednesdays on Broadway events.
The seating areas are placed at the ends of each block of downtown Broadway Avenue with the theory that this creates a more restricted roadway, which would in turn slow traffic down and help prevent drivers from going the wrong way down the one-way.
“I want to discuss the next steps. The Spring Valley Business Alliance feels that what we need to do is to get together with the city, Bolton and Menk and the residents and really flush out what the project should entail,” Freeman explained.
The group would like to hold a meeting in January to gather information from Bolton and Menk, as they have done similar projects in other communities, and to solicit the feedback from Spring Valley residents.
“It’s best to find out what people want before we just go and build it,” Freeman said.
Residents can check out the seating areas at the last Wednesdays on Broadway, which will be held on October 18 from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m., and will feature 55 vendors.
City Administrator Deb Zimmer noted Drew Weber of Bolton and Menk will attend the November meeting to present a proposal regarding ideas for the project.
The council voted to table the alliance’s request until the next meeting.
Other business
The council approve pay estimate three for the 2023 Farmer Street and CSAH project for total of $231,377.24.
The council voted the adoption of Zoning Osrdinance 46. The purpose of this ordinance is to streamline development processes, clarify and update codes for new development types. Graphs and diagrams were also added to make the information more clear. The council also passed a resolution providing for the summary publication of the zoning ordinance.
During the previous meeting, the council discussed potentially having a new base pay review done. As the city had this completed just last year the council voted down the proposed review.
Fire Chief Dustin Johnson asked the council for approval for purchase of a new pressure washer. Johnson explained Marzolf Implement Company is willing to sell the department the pressure washer at cost and is giving a donation to go towards the purchase. The total cost will be $2,925. The council approved the purchase.
The next council meeting will be held on November 13 at 6 p.m.
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