Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

November’s Downtown Forum, the College Presidents, has been rescheduled to January.

If you’re looking for a great downtown event this week, stop in the Downtown Northfield, MN Post Office on Wednesday, November 2nd, and wish it a Happy (Historic) Birthday.

Then, later in the month, join the Public Forum on the City of Northfield Streetscape Task Force’s “Gateways” Project.  It’s Monday, November 21st, 5:oo to 7:00 p.m., location to be determined.

In April of 1986, the Northfield City Council voted to create a Municipal Redevelopment District in downtown Northfield within which improvement projects could be funded with tax increment financing (TIF). The TIF district became known as Municipal District #4 and included a couple dozen parcels located in the C-1 and C-2 zoning districts, Downtown Core and Downtown Fringe.  The money would be generated by the amount that future property taxes increased over 1986 levels and the district would have a 27-year life, sunsetting in 2013.

The City Council wanted the funds to be used for improving streets, repairing the river wall by the Ames Mill dam, and building a public parking lot as well as other downtown improvements to be planned later.  The limited supply of parking downtown and its threat to economic vitality had been documented since the 1978 University of Minnesota Northfield River Corridor Plan and was subsequently corroborated by the 2001 Walker Parking Study. (more…)

The NDDC has been conceptually and programatically connected with both Northfield colleges, Carleton and St. Olaf, since the organization’s birth in 2000.  These two large local employers are perhaps our most frequent collaborators.

One of the NDDC’s founders, Bardwell Smith, is Professor Emeritus of Religion and Asian Studies at Carleton College.  The organization has always had at least one board member from each of the colleges.  In addition, the NDDC has conducted annual outreach campaigns during major college events such as New Student Week, Family Weekend, Commencement Weekend, Reunion Weekend, and Homecoming Weekend.  Each year, the college presidents have been the NDDC’s guests at a Downtown Forum.  Finally, the organization has led or participated in many community projects that were powered by Carleton and/or St. Olaf College students. (more…)

As most of you are aware, on April 5th, the United States Postal Service announced it’s intention to close the historic downtown post office and move service operations to the annex on the southern edge of town.  Mayor Rossing asked the Northfield Downtown Development Corp. to organize a task force made up of key stakeholder groups to fight the closure.  It became the Save Our Post Office Task Force.

Most citizens, the City Council, and the leadership of the Task Force agreed that the closing of the downtown post office would have an adverse impact on Northfield.  An average of 500 people a day visit the facility, bringing valuable vitality to our downtown.  Over 250 businesses in downtown benefit from the current location of these supportive services.  Approximately 400 residents are within walking distance of the facility.  Closing the downtown post office would hurt the local economy and the loss of the central location would be a hardship for the entire community. (more…)

On April 5 the United States Post Office (USPS) announced their decision to sell Northfield’s downtown Post Office building and relocate window service to the Carrier Annex on Cannon Road. A final decision will be made on June 3. The Northfield community has until then to try to reverse this decision!  A Save Our Post Office (SOPO) Task Force , led by the NDDC, has organized to keep a postal presence in downtown.

The SOPO Strategy:

• Raise public awareness about the potential post office closure
• Enlist support to lobby the USPS to keep postal services downtown
• Challenge the proposed USPS business model
• Prepare creative alternative plans to keep postal service downtown

Your Help Is Needed! Here is what you can do: (more…)