As part of the September 11 St. Anthony West Neighborhood Organization (STAWNO) board meeting, guest speakers Eve Vanagas and Brandon Maas gave a presentation on future improvement plans for Marshall Street NE.
Vanagas is a Community Engagement Planner with Transportation Collaborative Consultants (TC2) and Maas is Transportation Project Manager at Bolton & Menk, Inc. Both companies are under contract with Hennepin County. Audience members included STAWNO directors and neighborhood residents.
Marshall Street (County Road 23) is a 3.3-mile street running north-south from Boom Island Park to St. Anthony Parkway. Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis have partnered and plan to reconstruct Marshall Street between 3rd Avenue NE and Lowry Avenue (County Road 153) beginning in Spring 2027, continuing into 2028.
The part of the Marshall Street corridor from 3rd Avenue NE to Broadway Street is the “Southern Section;” the corridor from Broadway Street to Lowry Avenue is the “Northern Section.” The project planning began in 2022 and moved into the engagement and design phase this year.
Eve Vanagas and Brandon Maas (at right) met with St. Anthony West residents on September 11, giving them details on a potential 2027 renovation to Marshall St. (Mark Peterson)
A 2018 corridor study recommended a two-way continuous off-street bicycle track through the corridor. Marshall Street was identified in the Hennepin County Bicycle Transportation Plan and the City of Minneapolis All Ages and Abilities bikeway network as a future dedicated bike route. Also, participants in the in-person and online survey preferred the concept of a two-way street with a center left-turn lane and an off-street bikeway. A designated bikeway and additional green space were responders’ first and second priorities.
Maas said the design called for boulevard widths of six feet (the minimum is 5.33 feet) where trees can be planted. About the preservation of on street parking, he said, “For the west side of Marshall Street, our plan retains 144 parking spots from Broadway to Third Avenue out of an existing total of 241.” Maas said it’s very difficult to predict where new buildings are going to go and what can be done about parking.
“Just in the last year, we’ve heard of a half-dozen interested developers for sites right next to the Ukrainian American Center and boarded-up houses next to the 1029 Bar, and more sites to the north near the Broken Clock (Brewing Cooperative).”
He said the city operates on a zero-percent travel model, which assumes traffic is going to stay the same, adding, “That’s just one of the things we’re trying, hoping to make the corridor more resilient to development. Getting the parking right means very, very hard work with city standards (and) county standards.” A further complication is the planned resumption of Metro Transit bus lines on Marshall Street in 2027.
Maas said that bump-outs are going to be a big part of the street design. “We do those for traffic calming effects, where we basically take the parking space and widen the runway and install curves at the street corners. Parking spaces usually start about 30 feet from crosswalks; the bump-outs won’t allow cars to be parked so close to intersections.”
STAWNO Board of Directors Chair Paul Jablonsky asked, “This a heavily-used pedestrian crossway going past the park. How will people be able to get across the street without being hit by a car that’s going to be speeding up Marshall from Third all the way north?” Maas replied that signage and rapidly flashing beacons would allow for pedestrian traffic along the park side of Marshall St.
The project was on the schedule for the September 22 Sheridan Neighborhood Organization board meeting and will also be addressed at the September 25 Bottineau Neighborhood Organization annual meeting. Feedback from surveys and neighborhood input, along with county and city policies, feasibility, technical design and maintenance were factors in determining the preferred design.
In-person and online viewing for that design is expected to begin this fall, kicking off with a public meeting on October 1 at the River Hub at Graco Park, 815 Sibley St. NE, from 5-7 pm.