This is a photo of a smiling, almost gleeful, Janet Jeremiah at this morning’s staff meeting. In fact, if I’d snapped this photo two seconds earlier, you could have seen Janet’s “happy dance”. But alas, I was too slow with the camera today.
So what, you ask, might make a Community Development Director so full of glee at a regular Wednesday morning staff meeting. Well, the City Council adopted the Major Center Area Final Report at last night’s meeting. The findings and recommendations of the final report are definitive statement from the City about what it sees as the future of the Major Center Area, the area located generally around the Eden Prairie Center mall. You can download your own personal copy of the 80+ page report at the Special Reports section on the City’s website. Click on MCA Final Report.
Janet has developed and managed the City’s MCA Study process from beginning to end, which has been about fifteen months and counting by now. And while it’s not really at its ultimate end at this point, the Council’s action last night is important. The action does not make any regulatory changes to anyone’s private property, but it does tell the owners of private property how the City would like to see the Major Center Area develop in the future, and what the City will do (and not do) to help achieve that vision.
Next steps: Catch our breath. Take a short break. Then begin devising the regulatory changes that must be adopted by the Planning Commission and the City Council to achieve the MCA Study vision.
This will take awhile, but we’re on the way.
