April 30, 2011, Saturday - Minneapolis Riverfront Development Initiative Public Meeting

Time: 10:00am-Noon

Location: Minneapolis Park Board headquarters, 2117 West River Road, Board Room

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board launches the Minneapolis Riverfront Development Initiative (MR|DI) this month with several public and committee meetings, April 27-30, ahead of the Park Board’s planned June announcement date. MR|DI is the successor of the Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition, the largest competition of its kind in state history, which built on the award-winning Above the Falls master plan to address 5.5 miles of the Mississippi River and adjacent neighborhoods stretching from the Stone Arch Bridge to the city’s northern border.

The Minneapolis Riverfront Development Initiative is a design-driven strategy, lead by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, to leverage parks as the engine for sustainable recreational, cultural and economic development along the riverfront, reclaim the Mississippi – one of the three great rivers of the world and America’s “fourth coast” – as the source of our regional identity, and establish our region as a leading river community for the 21st century.

Working in partnership with TLS/KVA, announced as the winning team of the Design Competition on February 10, 2011, the Park Board has established a six-month design strategy phase that will result in a framework for development along the Upper Riverfront, as well as a selected site for the first parks-based development project of the MR|DI.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will provide multiple avenues of public participation in the Minneapolis Riverfront Development Initiative. Several times throughout the next six months, the Park Board will host public meetings, beginning with three in April. Webcasts of the meetings will be archived on the MR|DI’s website. Additional public meeting dates will be announced as they are finalized. As with its precursor, the Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition, the MR|DI will develop meaningful avenues to both engage the community in a two-way design education process and re-engage the city and broader regional community with the Upper Riverfront. The MR|DI will announce details of these community engagement projects in the coming weeks; the public is encouraged to visit the initiative’s website at MinneapolisRiverfrontDevelopmentInitiative.com for regular updates.