Support SW LRT!

Dear Neighbor, The Southwest Light Rail Transit (SW LRT) line is being planned, with three stations in SLP (Louisiana, Wooddale, Beltline). This project will bring some of the most transformative changes our community has ever seen. Most of these changes will be positive jobs, housing development, investment, connectivity with downtown Mpls and St. Paul and beyond. Some changes will be less welcome more traffic, SW LRT trains and bells every 7-10 minutes, and then, of course, the question of the day where to put the freight trains. The SW LRT project may be at risk if the Met Council and Federal Transit Authority believe that SLP residents oppose it and will create too many obstacles for it to be built. If you care about SW LRT, please consider voicing your support. Our community has co-existed with trains since its inception. While all of us would prefer that the freight trains be eliminated from our city, removing them entirely is simply not realistic. No matter where these freight trains get routed, our community will remain a desirable and attractive place to live. While some folks are saying that re-routing 2-4 freight trains a day from one side of St. Louis Park to another will cause all kinds of harm, I believe that our community will remain vibrant and strong and desirable no matter how this issue gets resolved. We will work together to do this right. The more important issue for our community right now is ensuring that the SW LRT project stays on track and moves forward. If this project is important to you, this is the time to make your voice heard.

We agree! We fully support the addition of LRT to St. Louis Park!

The Met Council may indeed feel that way, but why should they? Co-location is Cheaper (even if you believe in typos) by $23M, Easier (no building of a mile long ramp and a new railroad bridge), and Safer for obvious reasons.

No one is discussing eliminating the trains altogether, just keep the trains on the corridor that was built for such traffic-the Bass Lake Spur. Railcars will increase on the MN&S from 28 average daily to 253 daily. Many will be a mile long and some will carry ethanol

What can you do? If you support SW LRT, or if you feel that your interests, concerns, and opinions are not being heard sufficiently, this is the time to speak up. You can: Write a Letter to the Editor to the StarTribune, to Sun Sailor, to on-line news source Patch, or to the City Council. Prepare comments to submit to the DEIS DEIS is the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. This is what the Met Council and the Federal Transit Authority will look at as they review routes and mitigation needs. It doesnt have to be fancy: you can simply write a letter stating your support of SW LRT and specific mitigations/improvements that you think are needed to make this work well. Read instructions for submitting comments on the DEIS here or link to a comment form. Comments are due by December 31, 2012. Talk with your neighbors and friends in St. Louis Park about why the SW LRT project is important and encourage them to write in comments as well. Want more details? Read on For those of you who are following the details, I have outlined below some of the issues that I think are particularly important to Ward 2 residents (see attachment). Some of you may have received information from Safety in the Park or Sorenson neighborhood which outline concerns more specific to the residents and neighborhoods located along the MN&S line. Attached, however, are concerns that impact you - Ward 2 residents - directly. As always, please do not hesitate to contact me directly with your thoughts and comments on this.

If you live in Ward 2, you should know the facts. Anne would have you believe the switching wye (very understandably a sore topic for years for the Elmwood neighborhood) is going away with the reroute. It is not. Don't take our word for it. Look up the drawings on the SWLRT website. The fact is, the railroad needs a way to go south to the river. Right now, using the wye is cumbersome and difficult for them. The best scenario for Elmwood is for a southern arm to be constructed where trains can move through the area without breaking up and going through wye. However, even such a southern ramp will not alleviate noise, vibrations, and safety concerns. The operations that many residents hear is not the railroad using the wye, but rather the "blocking" (rearranging) of trains on the siding NEAR the wye. That siding is also not planned to go away with the re-route. Lastly, but most importantly,a critical part of the reroute is a mile long ramp starting at Blake Road and rising east at a .86 grade before it crosses over a new bridge over Hwy 7. The noise today will be minimal as compared to several locomotives gunning their engines at full throttle to make it up a grade so extreme that the railroad has already stated is not acceptable.

Sincerely,

If you want light rail like we do in SLP, the quickest, easiest, safest way is to oppose the re-route and demand keeping the trains where they are. Steering Committee, Safety in the Park! www.safetyinthepark.com, safetyinthepark@gmail.com.

Anne

Anne Mavity St. Louis Park City Councilmember Ward 2 AnneMavitySLP@comcast.net 952-913-1108