Minneapolis townhouse and condo owners in the Kenilworth corridor complain that Mayor Betsy Hodges and the City Council are ignoring their concerns about the future Southwest light-rail transit line.
The groups say the city officials are focusing on moving freight trains out of the corridor to make room for the light-rail line to run at ground level at the expense of nearby townhouses and condos.
"We are concerned that you may have lost sight of the residential impact on homeowners if the LRT runs 'at grade,' " they wrote in a letter to Hodges and council members.
The mayor and council members have called for rerouting the freight trains to St. Louis Park so the light rail could run at ground level next to bike and pedestrian trails in the corridor. St. Louis Park doesn't want the freight traffic.
The townhouse and condo groups, representing 166 homeowners at the narrowest part of the corridor, would rather keep freight trains there and put the light rail in tunnels under the existing bike and pedestrian trails.
Peter Wagenius, a policy aide to the mayor, said he met with representatives of the groups in January. "The mayor and the City Council disagree with the associations on the best way to protect the Kenilworth Corridor," he said, "but we will continue to work on mitigations in any scenario."
The groups' letter also widens a rift between the townhouse and condo owners and some other Kenilworth residents who live in a more affluent area near a channel between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles and who want the freight trains rerouted.
While that idea has been embraced by Hodges and the City Council, the condo and townhouse owners south of Cedar Lake Parkway complained that their concerns about running light-rail trains at ground level near their homes have been ignored.