urbanMSP

F&C unlocked. Ramsey County seeking to dissolve the Joint Powers Authority between Arden Hills and the county, asking the city to agree to dissolve the JPA by March 19 or the county will take legal options.

https://finance-commerce.com/2019/03/ra ... ons-board/

After spending $41 million to clean up the pollution and get the site ready for development of affordable housing and density, the county has been displeased with the city efforts to keep too many people out of the uninhabited northern half of the city.

I've shared this thought on Twitter, but apparently not here yet.

Ramsey County should ask the legislature to de-incorporate this property from Arden Hills. It would cease to be part of a city and just be unincorporated Ramsey County land. Under Minnesota law, it probably has to go back to being a township, but as an area with no residents (yet) it would be fully administered by Ramsey County. It could either remain a township as it develops (like White Bear Township) or become a new separate city, or perhaps be annexed by a more cooperative municipality, such as Shoreview. There's really no set-in-stone reason this land 'belongs' to Arden Hills. They are proving to be a wholly unnecessary variable in this equation. Ramsey County, as the owner of the land, would seem to have a solid case in going to the legislature and asking to detach this property from the municipality of Arden Hills.

Just put everyone our of their misery, Ramsey County!

My development proposal for this site is to plant trees everywhere.

Just because there is a large vacant piece of land doesn't mean it needs to become a master planned development. The location of this site has never made much sense for the kinds of uses they were proposing, and it's a development model that we should be moving away from.

Just put everyone our of their misery, Ramsey County!

My development proposal for this site is to plant trees everywhere.

Just because there is a large vacant piece of land doesn't mean it needs to become a master planned development. The location of this site has never made much sense for the kinds of uses they were proposing, and it's a development model that we should be moving away from.

Agree. Let it revert to greenery. It's 12 miles from city centers minimum.

I guess it's technically the rough distance of the 28th Ave Blue line parcels plus a mile or so, but that side of the metro is more urban oriented ~ish

Let a site that is immediately adjacent to a freeway and 12 miles from the city center sit fallow while developers are busy building spec housing in Hanover, sure.

Let a site that is immediately adjacent to a freeway and 12 miles from the city center sit fallow while developers are busy building spec housing in Hanover, sure.

Okay this isn't the Strib comments section, you can toss the attitude somewhere else.

Just saying 1500 units in suburban "dense" development doesn't seem worth it. If the proposal was a new 25,000 person complete town with a strong transit link to anything useful, sure. But it's lack luster all around. Their new center is a giant roundabout that seems awful for pedestrians.

And yes, I think 12 miles is far. Jeesh.

Let a site that is immediately adjacent to a freeway and 12 miles from the city center sit fallow while developers are busy building spec housing in Hanover, sure.

I'm certainly not in favor of that either, but I'm not aware of any county-led effort there. As a general rule, I'd like to see the Met Council set a tighter MUSA.

Just saying 1500 units in suburban "dense" development doesn't seem worth it. If the proposal was a new 25,000 person complete town with a strong transit link to anything useful, sure. But it's lack luster all around. Their new center is a giant roundabout that seems awful for pedestrians.

Ebenezer Howard on the Prairie.

Seems like Arden Hills wants to play chicken in the game of how much they can mooch of the county taxpayers and get low density out of it.

http://www.startribune.com/arden-hills- ... 507433872/

The lawsuit is filed.

http://www.startribune.com/ramsey-count ... 509773802/

Just put everyone our of their misery, Ramsey County!

My development proposal for this site is to plant trees everywhere.

Just because there is a large vacant piece of land doesn't mean it needs to become a master planned development. The location of this site has never made much sense for the kinds of uses they were proposing, and it's a development model that we should be moving away from.

Agree. Let it revert to greenery. It's 12 miles from city centers minimum.

I guess it's technically the rough distance of the 28th Ave Blue line parcels plus a mile or so, but that side of the metro is more urban oriented ~ish

I'm not sure I understand the argument that it should remain undeveloped. I have plenty of criticisms of the master plan and I don't love the one-developer approach, but there's a definite need for housing in the area.

Most of the housing in the area is single family, which means most people in the area are already driving to work every day. Isn't it better for them to live in this development, 12 miles from downtown and .5 miles from a grocery store, than in Blaine or Anoka or wherever the next nearest parcel of open land is? Plus, the 694 corridor is actually really dense with jobs. This project is an opportunity to put hundreds of homes closer to those jobs, ideally in a neighborhood with at least some degree of mixed-use and transit accessibility. Not every new development can be built next to strong transit because there's not that much of it in the twin cities yet.

The plot is in the vicinity of like 10,000 jobs. Isn't a bunch of townhouses with some retail is better land use than a ~450 acre park.

There was a blurb on this development in yesterday's Axios newsletter: https://www.axios.com/arden-hills-ramse ... f7707.html

Movement.

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... light.html

Wow! Zombie development rises! This is huge! It’ll be interesting to see the new master plan since it mentioned how office space is not as attractive as it was in 2019.

How much soil cleanup will they have to do?

How much soil cleanup will they have to do?

There is still transite (asbestos) piping in the ground running east-west on the south side of the cluster of buildings left at the north end. (Primer/Tracer area)

It's been 12 years since Target Field was built so the Twins are about due to start threatening to leave town unless we build them a brand new ballpark. Maybe we should leave room for a future sports stadium?

It’s bad enough we have to deal with billionaire sportball owners blackmailing our city every few decades, leaving land undeveloped to preemptively appease them is just about the worst way to approach the role of metro government and planning.

TBH, I find it hard to believe the Twins will be asking for something new anytime soon. I mean, Target Field is still considered a top-ten ballpark over a decade since its construction -- what would they even argue they need in a new stadium? More seating is the only thing I could think of, but that's a pretty weak starting point for negotiations. The other thing would be a roofed stadium, but the benefits of an open-air vs. a closed one or a retractable roof are pretty gigantic.

It would be exceedingly bold for the Twins to want a new park so soon, and I really don't think it's even on the mid-term horizon. Maaaaaaybe in 20 years Target Field will start to feel beaten down, but I think it's got a pretty timeless appeal for a ballpark.

Besides, if someday soon they do want a new park, do we really want to kick them out to Arden Hills? Target Field is such a great downtown asset, and while you could make the argument that housing would be a better use for the land it's on, you really can't argue that there's a better location for a ballpark in the Twin Cities.

lol

Considering the roof issues with US Bank Stadium, I'd be more concerned about the Vikings threatening to leave town, which of course is still very unlikely (for now).

As much as suburbanites like to rip on Minneapolis and St. Paul for their issues, they don't seem to mind going to those places when sports are involved. Plus there's been several opportunities for our big sports teams to move to the suburbs (or in the Twins and Vikings case, return to) including using the Arden Hills site, but they've passed it in favor of an urban location.