On April 26th, members of the Imagine Kutzky Citizens Council and supporters of the Kutzky Park Neighborhood Association gathered to participate in a public hearing held by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The purpose of the hearing was to review the proposed Imagine Kutzky Land-Use Plan Amendment and decide on a recommendation to send forward to the City Council.

The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended that the plan be approved by the City Council.

The next step in the approval process will be to participate in a public hearing at the City Council on May 15th.

Members of the Citizens Council strongly believe that the large number of neighborhood residents that showed up to support the plan at the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing sent a positive message about the neighborhood's committment to improving conditions in Kutzky Park. If you attended, thank you for your support, and we hope to see all of you (and more!) at the City Council meeting on May 15th. We will post more information about this meeting as soon as it becomes available.

Posted by Stephanie at 12:24 PM | Link

 

One of the goals and objectives of Imagine Kutzky is to make changes to both the Land-Use Plan and Zoning that will be in the best interest of the neighborhood. The Imagine Kutzky Citizens Council has been working for the past year to decipher what those changes should be. Imagine Kutzky has recently filed their proposed Land-Use changes with the Rochester/Olmsted Planning and Zoning Department.

The April 11 KPNA meeting will be the first in a series of public meetings to inform the community of these proposed changes, answer questions, gather feedback, and seek approval from the city for the plan. The proposed plan will be presented to the neighborhood, the Planning and Zoning Commission, and ultimately the City Council. Provided the plan is approved by the City Council, the Land-Use Plan will be officially adopted by the City.




Contact Us with any questions you may have.

Posted by Stephanie at 3:19 PM | Link

 
Welcome visitors to the Kutzky Park website. We wanted to point out a few changes to the Imagine Kutzky page:

The Planning Categories for our work with Imagine Kutzky have now been updated to reflect the final revision of the Imagine Kutzky Vision Plan, which was approved by the Citizens Council on November 30th. You can easily navigate through Imagine Kutzky goals and objectives by clicking the mailbox icons to your left.

Also in the set of icons to the left we have added a link link to the names of your current Imagine Kutzky Citizens Council members, allowing you to better stay in touch with your neighborhood representatives to this committee. We have also included the governance structure for the Citizens Council so you will know how this KPNA Subcommittee represents the neighborhood, and how you can become a member of the Citizens Council.

If you have any ideas for other information you'd like to see on this website, we encourage you to Contact Us. We look forward to hearing from you!

Posted by Stephanie at 9:17 AM | Link

 
At their most recent meeting on November 30, the Imagine Kutzky Citizens Council approved the Proposed Final Imagine Kutzky Vision Plan. Working as a sub-committee of the KPNA, the Citizens Council will present their approval of the Vision Plan as a recommendation for approval by the membership of the KPNA. Approval through vote will occur at the next KPNA meeting on December 13, at Lourdes High School, at 7 p.m.
At the November KPNA meeting a motion was made to open the approval process with the vote scheduled for the December meeting, providing neighborhood residents with a month to review the Proposed Vision Plan.
Please attend the December 13th KPNA meeting to cast your vote. We encourage you to contact Imagine Kutzky Citizens Council members or staff with questions, concerns and ideas.

Posted by Stephanie at 8:49 AM | Link

 
The final revision of the Imagine Kutzky Vision Plan is now complete. Included in the Vision Plan are maps visually showing the locations of the proposed improvements in the Kutzky Park area. Once approved, these maps will be part of the complete Vision Plan.

Posted by Stephanie at 9:09 AM | Link

 
Imagine Kutzky has now finished a 10-month review and revision process of the Vision Plan that was established by input residents of Kutzky Park provided during a visioning process begin in 2004.
Members of the Citizens Council, the subcommittee of the KPNA that leads the Imagine Kutzky effort, presenteed the proposed final Vision Plan at the KPNA meeting on November 8th. The Plan is available for review throughout the month.
The proposed final Vision Plan must be approved by the KPNA through a vote by the membership. The vote will take place at the next KPNA meeting on December 13th, 7 p.m., at Lourdes High School.
Please Contact Us with questions, or to request a hard copy of the proposed final Vision Plan.

Posted by Stephanie at 1:34 PM | Link

 
The Imagine Kutzky Citizens Council is the leadership group formed to guide and implement decisions about improvements to be made within the Kutzky Park Neighborhood, based on the long-range Imagine Kutzky Vision Plan.

This group is made up of members of the KPNA. The volunteers that currently serve on the Imagine Kutzky Citizens Council emerged out of a series of neighborhood visioning meetings conducted to craft the Imagine Kutzky Vision Plan, or became involved through their leadership roles in the KPNA.

The Citizens Council has been meeting since April, and now has formalized it's operational structure. There are now official minutes being recorded at Citizens Council meetings that will be available for your review.

At the July Citizens Council meeting, the group finished the task of outlining how members of the KPNA can join the Citizens Council, how the group will officially communicate with, involve and represent the KPNA, and how members of the Citizens Council will govern themselves. These by-laws will be available for your review when the July Citizens Council meeting minutes are published on this website.

As always, please Contact Us with ideas, concerns or questions!

Posted by Stephanie at 11:05 AM | Link

 

On August 1st, First Homes became the new owners of one of the most troublesome properties in Kutzky Park: 815 1st Street SW. Due to deterioration over the years, as well as the location of drug activity, fights and numerous police calls, this rental property has been known to residents of 1st Street SW to be one of the neighborhood's biggest deficits. Now, First Homes intends to turn this property into one of Kutzky Park's biggest assets.

"While we can't buy every house in every neighborhood that's a problem, we felt this was worth the investment. We hope it will have a ripple effect when others see major investment happening in one of the most challenging areas of the neighborhood, causing them to see this as an area worth investing in," explains Sean Allen, Executive Director of First Homes.

Currently, First Homes does not have a specific plan for the property. A development team is being assembled that will develop and implement rehabilitation plans. The team will consist of representatives from the Kutzky Park Neighborhood Association, as well as experts in area of housing and finance.

First Homes will move forward in partnership with Imagine Kutzky to maintain a relationship with the neighborhood throughout the process, as well as develop support from the city for future plans for the property.

The purchase of 815 1st Street SW is the most tangible result thus far of Imagine Kutzky. Serving as the formalized relationship between the Kutzky Park Neighborhood Association and First Homes, Imagine Kutzky long-range goals and objectives are assuring our community that the Kutzky Park Neighborhood is a vital part of the community that is in need reinvestment.

Congratulations to all the residents of 1st Street SW and volunteers of the Kutzky Park Neighborhood Association that have shown strong committment to the cause of revitalizing their neighborhood; the hard work is paying off!

Posted by Stephanie at 11:45 AM | Link

 
Last summer's Imagine Kutzky neighborhood workshops and neighborhood survey indicated that traffic was one of your major concerns for your neighborhood. In fact, the only other issue that was MORE of a concern was deteriorating property.

In creating a plan for Kutzky Park neighborhood streets with many different elements that would address the traffic problem and return streets from through-traffic speedways BACK to true neighborhood streets, Imagine Kutzky leaders recommended that first, streets should be returned to two-way traffic flow. This recommendation was made through a series of meetings with the Public Works Traffic Engineer, studying the streets in other neighborhoods, and study of basic traffic principles. (click here for more background information)

A neighborhood meeting occured in April during which we presented the entire traffic-calming plan for the neighborhood. We also presented the proposal for a one-year trial of two-way traffic on 1st Street SW. This would include the following:

• Two-Way traffic along all of 1st Street SW
• Between 11th Avenue and 16th Avenue, change parking restrictions to allow parking on North side of street only. (Currently, there is only parking on one side of the street at a time, but restrictions alternate parking from North to South sides throughout the week).
• Between 11th Avenue and 16th Avenue, a painted bike lane would be added on the South side of the street.
• Stop signs would be added on 1st Street SW at the 12th Avenue intersection to stop East/West bound traffic. Stop signes on 12th Avenue SW stopping North/South bound traffic would be removed.
• Traffic Counts after the one-year trial would be compared to traffic counts prior to the trial so impact can be evaluated.

Expected Results:

The goal of any traffic calming plan is to decrease the comfort level of driving fast and create inconveniences for the drive on the street. Narrow driving lanes, oncoming vehicles, a bike lane, two-sided parking on 1st Street SW between 11th Avenue and 6th Avenue, and an added stop sign requiring traffic to stop will drasticaly decrease the comfort level of driving fast on 1st Street SW. The presence of large vehicles such as garbage trucks and busses will 'clog' up the streets further in a way that will deter drivers from using Kutzky neighborhood streets as convenient speedways to downtown or the highway. Eventually, traffic will drop off to levels more appropriate for a neighborhood.

Neighborhood leaders will keep you informed as this item moves forward. As always, feel free to contact us with questions or feedback.

Posted by Stephanie at 11:02 AM | Link

 
Watch for posts from Stephanie Kilen... Real Soon Now.

Posted by Griff at 5:20 PM | Link