By: Kia Farhang

A small number of University of Minnesota neighborhood residents and property owners will soon decide whether six noise barriers should be built along stretches of Interstate 35W.

Many say the voting process is unfair, and the $3 million walls are almost inevitable. That money, they say, could be better spent improving neighborhood infrastructure.

“This is a great example of irresponsible spending,” said Craig Janssen, owner of Southeast Como-based Elmwood Properties.

Janssen said officials should instead add storm sewers and streetlights to the neighborhood, because the sound walls are pointless.

“I don’t see a benefit for the human race here,” he said.

Voting process concerns

The proposed walls would be part of a $13 million project starting in June that’s adding a lane to northbound I-35W.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation evaluates all of its projects’ potential noise impacts, said Scott Pedersen, MnDOT manager for the west metro area.

While the freeway project would only slightly raise noise levels in the surrounding neighborhoods, residents near I-35W already face a decibel level higher than state standards, Pedersen said.

The freeway project would bring the noise level to as much as 80 decibels, which is equivalent to having a garbage disposal on all the time. The sound walls would bring the noise level down to the current state standard of 65 decibels.

Under MnDOT voting regulations, property owner votes count for twice as much as resident votes do.

But many property owners eligible to vote don’t even live in Minnesota, said Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, and won’t bother to vote.

Since MnDOT’s default position is to build the walls, Kahn said it will be almost impossible for concerned residents to fight them.

“The worst thing about [sound walls] is the voting process,” she said. “It’s hard to vote them down.”

At a public meeting Thursday, Kahn said people won’t vote against the walls because they’ll assume the process will be similar to constitutional amendments, where a lack of vote counts as a no. Here, not voting counts as a yes vote.

Marcy-Holmes resident Mike Brothers said the process should be like constitutional amendments instead, and more neighborhood residents should be allowed to vote.

“You need a majority to change the status quo,” he said. “I don’t like that it’s opt-out rather than opt-in.”

Brothers said he doesn’t want the walls because they could attract graffiti, like neighborhood utility boxes and railroad crossings have in the past.

A number of trees along the freeway will be removed if the sound walls are built. Kahn said losing trees will have a negative psychological effect on residents.

“The idea of facing a wall of green trees as opposed to a solid, concrete, probably to-be-graffiti-filled wall is enormous,” she said.

Frustrations with government

Southeast Como Improvement Association President Wendy Menken said residents don’t have enough time to consider the sound wall project.

“This entire conversation was made long ago without our consideration,” she said.

Menken said the voting process is “broken” because people can’t decide how the government will spend money.

“You can just see the disconnect between [officials] and people on the ground,” Menken said.

Property owner Janssen said the project is another example of government offices spending their budgets unnecessarily so they won’t face cuts in the future.

“People in political office are spending money how they want, rather than spending 100 percent on the people,” he said. “When’s the last time someone in the government asked you what you thought of something?”

For more on how sound walls affect neighborhoods, pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily.