urbanMSP

Good question. They must have been anticipating taking it all the way to Penn, like the other 62nd St on the Minneapolis side? But as of 1971, it was dead-ended where it dead ends now. http://geo.lib.umn.edu/Hennepin_County/y1971/CLK-1-1229.jpg I imagine if Crosstown is ever expanded or this interch...

Lunds apartment project approved by Richfield Planning Commission last night, moving to City Council. This is to be built on the north/west part of Lunds' very large parking lot. There was some grumbling (also by me) about the large setback from Penn, and push toward Russell. But Lunds was pretty in...

Just came across this thread seeing if Richfield had come up anywhere recently :D Looks like County GIS map has fixed it so that this SE corner correctly displays as Richfield Road. I've never seen it as Calhoun Pkwy / Maka Ska Pkwy. The boundaries are pretty clear: the much-narrower portion is a pa...

During the work session for this, the senior city planner pointed out a previous study of downtown Richfield -- specifically focused on 66th & Nicollet -- that generally showed the area was "over-supplied" for retail/commercial space. Bear in mind that just east of the railroad, there ...

Edina's approved a new proposal for the southern half of the Estelle site. The developer will replace a 2.5-story office building with 1-story strip retail and surface parking. Although there have been other disappointing developments, this is the only situation I'm aware of in the Southdale Distric...

I agree with everything but the last conclusion. Unless the ultimate outcome of a new plan is, "don't fret about the pedestrian environment on France Avenue" -- I see no scenario in which it would have been bad to put decorative lights in at the time it was cheapest and most practical. But...

I hope you're right the wholesale changes will happen. I think a big barrier for Edina is that it's been able to coast *really successfully* on private or outside investment doing 95% of the work for them. There are some exceptions, like Centennial Lakes and the Edina Promenade. But most upgrades ar...

Hopefully they'll at least reduce that frontage road to two lanes? It's a pretty silly 4LDR right now That’s not part of this project. The frontage road is presumably MNDOT controlled? And Viking Dr. is the southern border of Edina there, so presumably that would be a big, multi-jurisdictional proc...

Woof. That section between TH 100 ramp and and Beltline is really all over the board. At some points they have a quasi-protected bike lane, at some points they have bikes and pedestrians sharing a 6' sidewalk. Beltline is OK, but I'd like to see at least a 10' MUP (or 12' if back-of-curb) to provide...

The curves in the frontage road keep the traffic slow! They do, but they also make the approach really confusing and make it very hard to see pedestrians crossing that leg. You don't see them until you've made that final twist and are fully encroaching on the crosswalk. Would be nice to have a curv...

If the E Line ends up going down France, then I imagine Hennepin & Edina will have a plan for upgrading sidewalks and lighting, including this bridge. Spoiler: they will not have a plan for that, and certainly not money for it. There have been no upgrades like that at all on either of the aBRT ...

Can verify it’s open. Drove over it yesterday. Sidewalks look pretty puny. Pretty sure the sidewalks are over twice as wide as they used to be. I do wish they had a low fence or something other than the curb to block cars. I need to go there in person, but I believe old were 6', new are 8-10', so a...

Got some pics of Aria f.k.a. Envi Edina f.k.a. Cake Residences today: https://twitter.com/sdho/status/1158042623032143874 It's looking pretty good, exterior and grounds are like 95% complete. Street presence is terrific from the townhomes, mediocre from the main building. But an obvious huge improve...

Not sure if YouTube links to the precise time where I copied the URL, but it’s 2:43:50 where “sketch plan” is defined and where the majority of the conversation begins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asNGWAg7p-Y They have a nice pattern for linking to a particular time. Just add &t=XXhXXmXXs -...

This feels pretty meh compared to other proposals in the area. I guess it's better than the Etrade/Roti building across the street, but that was such a small site it felt more justifiable. I would expect more here. At a bare minimum, Edina should require principal entrances facing France and/or 70th...

Seems like there would be a high crossover between people who go to Lifetime Fitness and people who go to Rojo.

I'm not really happy about the library thing from the library perspective, but it seems like a win for the mall. How could anything draw fewer people than a dying Herberger's?

And, speaking of private drives, really hope we can get some east-west connections between York and Xerxes in the future (south of 66th), at least for people walking and biking. 69th and 70th are the only vehicular accesses between 66th and 76th. There's a good bike-ped connection at 73rd (on the Ed...

Regardless of how you feel about the mall vs. the current site being chosen, it is appalling how the County/Library & City of Edina conducted a year+ of public engagement focused on the redevelopment of the existing site (including new library building), and then just quietly discarded all of t...

Depending on the ramp design, it is nice that it can be a linear flow — there is no hunting for spot, row after row, but one progression, and you *will* see the first available spot. However, that design can be pretty annoying when you need to leave. I think the current MOA setup -- with an external...

Good points. For me, the main retail draw on its own was Lululemon, but they have since moved. In that case, there isn't really a more convenient, drive-up-strip-mall type option. The one I go to otherwise is Galleria, where there is also a presumption of parking a car a ways and walking. Ridgedale ...