Citizens, business leaders provide Design Team input
Ashley Haynes
ashley.haynes@ecm-inc.com
The citizens and business owners of Cambridge came together to give input on what the city should look like in the coming years.
For 27 years, the Minnesota Design Team has visited over 130 rural towns across the state to aid them in planning for their futures.
“The future tomorrow, it’s going to happen. It you don’t plan for it intentionally, you’re not going to like what happens,” said Design Team co-chair Hans Muessig.
Around 150 citizens attended the community dinner held April 1 at First Baptist Church in Cambridge. The Minnesota Design Team asked attendees five questions to learn what they believe would benefit Cambridge:
• What is one positive physical improvement you’ve seen to the city of Cambridge?
• What makes Cambridge unique?
• What would bring you downtown?
• What community improvement would you support for a $200 per year tax increase?
• What do you see as the driving force to shape the future of Cambridge?
Groups discussed answers to these questions and created posters of their answers. Afterward, the citizens placed stickers on the ideas they supported most.
Many appeared to agree the parks system has improved in recent years, as well as shopping and retail options throughout the city. It was also a common theme that the people and
small-town feel of Cambridge make it unique.
Based on the stickers on the posters, it appeared many would support a brewery downtown, as well as more unique shops and stores. Many stated they would support new parking and sidewalk improvements downtown.
Though some said they cannot afford higher taxes, a community center and new library were trends among the posters.
Minnesota Design Team offers thoughts on the city’s future
Rachel Kytonen
rachel.kytonen@ecm-inc.com
After a weekend of touring the city of Cambridge, meeting with community leaders, business owners and hearing from the general public, the Minnesota Design Team outlined their thoughts on the future of the city during a formal presentation held Saturday evening.
The presentation held at the Hardy Performing Arts Center at Cambridge-Isanti High School consisted of an 18-page slideshow presentation led by members of the design team and time for the public to ask questions of design team members. The presentation is available on the city of Cambridge website, ci.cambridge.mn.us/cambridge.
The city of Cambridge staff and city council worked with members of the Downtown Taskforce to bring the design team to Cambridge. The design team visits only two cities per year to offer guidance and expertise on topics the cities have asked them to explore.
The Minnesota Design Team is an American Institute of Architects Minnesota committee that has been around since 1983. Its multidisciplinary teams have worked with more than 130 rural communities helping them to improve their built environments. The 17-member team visited Cambridge March 31 through April 2 but were provided with a plethora of information from the city prior to their visit.
The team members are volunteers who consist of professional engineers,
architects, and urban and city planners. The design team members who volunteered for the Cambridge visit included a couple of individuals from the Isanti County area but were mostly from the Twin Cities area and beyond. The team visit kicked off an in-depth comprehensive-planning process for the city of Cambridge.
Cambridge City Administrator Lynda Woulfe said city staff would be seeing the formal presentation from the design team at the same time as the general public.
“We as a city staff, are seeing this presentation for the first time, just like all of you,” Woulfe said. “After tonight, we’ll have to determine how to nurture this, how to make it grow and how to work it into our long-range financial plan and see what we can do.”
The Cambridge City Council will begin its regularly scheduled April 18 council meeting at 4:30 p.m. for the purposes of discussing the results of the Minnesota Design Team visit. The meeting will be held at Cambridge City Hall, 300 Third Ave. NE, Cambridge. All other business items will begin at 6 p.m.
A special meeting of the Cambridge City Council will be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, for the purposes of meeting with the Downtown Task Force to discuss the results of the Minnesota Design Team at Cambridge City Hall. Council members will participate in discussion and hope to create a path for implementing ideas from the Minnesota Design Team’s visit.
Hans Muessig, who served as co-chair of the design team, said the team has been busy since arriving in Cambridge March 31.
“We’ve probably gotten about 10 hours of sleep over the past three days between talking to our host families and community members, but it’s been an exhilarating and exhausting experience,” Muessig said. “We are here because you asked us to come. We have looked at how can you grow as a city, how can you change and how we can help you plan your future. The ideas you see tonight represent our best thinking and best ideas based on what ideas and priorities you have for your future.”
The slideshow presentation consisted of information based on the April 1 community meeting, shared visions, possibilities for different project areas, supportive uses, opportunities for the downtown, housing and parking information, Highway 95 design options, traits to make Cambridge unique and implementation.
“The design team was inundated with information prior to our visit, and we would like to thank the city staff and City Council for getting us all the information we needed prior to our visit,” said team member Todd Streeter. “With the information we received Friday night at the dinner, it was obvious the downtown is a point of concern. The question is, What do you want your downtown to be? The downtown is usually the heartbeat of a community, and with some communities that heartbeat is fading away. The question is, How do we revive this situation? I don’t think anyone wants their downtown to die.”
Streeter also touched on the idea of keeping the library downtown and cited studies that claim between $4 and $7 is generated into the local economy per person per each visit to the library.
“There is really an economic benefit to keeping the library downtown,” Streeter said. “If you have people spending time downtown at the library, you have them spending time in the downtown in general.”
Muessig said the community needs to keep thinking about its downtown.
“Downtowns keep communities alive,” Muessig said. “Do you want to end up as a town that has no downtown? The east side of this city isn’t the downtown. We have a lot of people retiring and aging here, and when their families come to visit for the weekend, isn’t there a possibility of putting in a hotel downtown? Besides attracting and retaining professionals, there are a lot of reasons to have a hotel downtown.”
Cambridge Mayor Marlys Palmer thanked the team for their efforts.
“We would like to thank the Minnesota Design Team and the Initiative Foundation who helped fund part of their visit,” Palmer said. “I can’t tell you how proud we all are of our city staff. They have been working on this visit for nine months. I thought parts of the presentation this evening were really interesting and it really gave us a lot to think about. I love so much about Cambridge, but the absolute strength of the city is its citizens that make our community. We have a lot of citizens who serve on committees that help direct the future of the city. Thank you all so much. We’ve really had a great time over the past four days.”
Muessig said although people can disagree on ideas, it’s clear the overall goal is to have a thriving and vibrant city.
“You all want a healthy community and you have the assets to do this,” Muessig said. “Small towns are really our passion, and we have had a wonderful time visiting your city.”