urbanMSP

The PLACE proposal got a significant write up.

http://sailor.mnsun.com/2015/12/11/plac ... ouis-park/

Yes, one guy really did compare to a 14-story building that would have a portion of its units reserved for 60% of area median income as Cabrini Green.

Pretty comprehensive coverage but a few transportation-related things were missed by the reporter. PLACE has said their project doesn't hinge on a construction of the Xenwood underpass, and after recent engineering reports came stated the depth of the underpass might interfere with the site.

The traffic on Wooddale between TH 7 and 36th St. is a problem, a large percentage of the unbearableness will be relieved with the TH 100/TH7 interchange improvements. Another issue is the rail crossing of Wooddale is to be built to meet federal quiet zones, doing so will require a barrier that will make the frontage road a right-in-right-out.

ThePLACEteam tweeted today, "PLACE presented to St. Louis Park Planning Commission. Preliminary word was positive. #design"
https://twitter.com/PLACEteam/status/677866038726279168

A fourth public meeting is scheduled for Jan 28th, 6:00–7:30 pm at the SLP High School room C350. (It's the 3rd floor of the circular wing).

PLACE still wants creative-types (artists, bakers, makers, musicians, performers... etc.) to take a survey on live-work. Take it and spread it around... http://survey.welcometoplace.org/

Bump... Reminder the fourth meeting is in two days. Spread the word among any artist or maker you know that is in need of space to live and work.

Just saw a tweet from PLACE that they are having a fifth community discussion. Anyone else wondering if this project is a pipe dream?

They are placing notices on Next Doot to come to the meeting and the only complaints are traffic at 36th and Wooddale, so you can plan on a bunch of them showing up.

I'm expecting it. Loud too.

The traffic concern is something I don't always get.....if these people are truly neighbors, they don't have to worry about (sitting in) the traffic in these development-intense areas -- especially if they're retail -- because they can just walk to them. If people don't like traffic because of pollution, noise or the dangers it presents, then I'd question why they live adjacent to or in a busy interchange or district. Obviously development could affect traffic for comings and goings outside of the n'hood in question, but to that end housing development doesn't really generate much traffic compared to office and especially retail or gathering places like churches or parks -- particularly if the development project enhances walkability. Yet, I highly doubt anybody would protest the development of a new park or gathering place like a town square.

So, yeah, I think it's a bogus argument 9 times out of 10. A new mall being built in a quiet residential neighborhood: THAT would generate considerable increases in traffic, and could be a genuine nuisance worthy of protesting against. A redevelopment of a key interchange zoned for commercial uses: an improvement of space use in an appropriate location that generally benefits more than it diminishes quality of living.

P.L.A.C.E. is really going to extreme lengths to position this as car-light, car-free. People see "300 units, plus 100 hotel beds, plus some retail" as "OMG MOAR CARS"

And I sympathize in this case, a little. At rush hour (on normal non-100-detours) Wooddale across 7 is a special kind of traffic engineering stupid. MNDOT designed a bridge with intentional poor sight lines to force drivers to inch into the pedestrian crossings in order to see if it was safe to turn. ON PURPOSE. Then directly next to the on-off ramps is squeezed a frontage road, regional bike trail, freight rail crossing with 7 trains per day (often during rush hour), and a traffic light controlling a street with 13,000 cars coming from one direction.

Movement of every mode through this tight space is a nightmare ballet where cars win everything, except when freight trains butt in and give everyone the finger. There is some pretty heavy traffic between 7 and 36th on Wooddale because thousands of drivers have discovered it is faster to cut through Wooddale/36th to get between 7 and 100 than to go the stop lights at the 7/100 interchange. If the traffic studies don't take into account traffic returning to the 7/100 interchange after the new design then money was wasted because the study isn't going to reflect reality.

So it's not just complaints about heavy traffic, it's also about the traffic that is there going through a convergences of every mode in a small area with insulting sight lines. People were bothered that all these people were now going to add hundreds of new trips from a direction that until now has relatively few, the eastern frontage road. The newest design splits off half (the hotel and live-work spaces) away from the frontage road and on Wooddale/36th, directly adjacent to the LRT station. I'll go get the newest layout... Brb.

https://flic.kr/p/HwyUVw
I'm on my iPad and can't get Flickr to generate bbcode, so a dumb link is it. Check it out.

Thanks for posting that plan. I had not planned to go to the meeting last night, and it has been difficult to find any type of plan online. I had not realized that they planned to develop right up to 36th St on the west side.

The site plan was changed for a few reasons. After a survey they found MNDOT ran the ramp to eastbound 7 on to the property without buying it, plus all the government stakeholders didn't want frontage road traffic to worsen the fragile traffic mixing.

Met Council wants dense TOD at the station. There will be no park and ride her so they want as many riders nearest to it possible. They have given this development grants based on some of the units proposed here, grants for stormwater, affordability, etc.

The city bought the McGarvey and Nash Frame sites long ago in planning for TOD, so they want development to happen too. They own the land being proposed. Originally the P.L.A.C.E. proposal was the frontage road site only. After they learned of the regional sewer interceptor running under the frontage road (you don't move them, or build on or even near them) it hurt how they could fit on their site along the frontage road. After traffic studies were coming back showing the new frontage road traffic would add too many cars from a new direction into the nasty Wooddale convergence, it seems someone suggested adding the Nash Frame site into the mix of this.

By taking the hotel and live-work units and retail off the frontage road over to Nash Frame's site, it changes the traffic movements around the Wooddale ramps enough to make the studies not send alarms.

It leaves the frontage road site by the ramp empty though. Something might go there long long in the future after people get a good look at how people change how they get around Wooddale/36 when the highway interchange is finished and the station is used.

For those doing SWLRT development math, the developers told the attendees this was going to cost $135–$150 Million to build. Though without SWLRT this will still go forward, it will change how they program their car-free/car-light living (shuttles/bike share/car share/etc.).

Latest proposal concept written about. Both the previous council meeting that granted the adjustment in the agreement that changed which properties were available, and the public meeting.

http://sailor.mnsun.com/2016/06/30/revi ... l-station/

What would these be without delicious quotes from Sue Sanger...

I was kind of thinking maybe this thread be renamed "Wooddale Station Area" since the proposal has grown to encompass more than the former McGarvey site and more topics around the Wooddale Station Area are going to come up.

For example this article on the Wooddale Bridge itself, and the many intersections converging in the area.

http://sailor.mnsun.com/2016/06/30/flaw ... lt-to-see/

The traffic study and discussion with the city engineer will finally happen on July 28th.

http://www.welcometoplace.org/slpmeeting7

If you have any interest in the future of vehicle/ped/bike/transit in the Wooddale-TH7-36th intersections, this is the time to show up and speak or listen.

Wooddale area news, the Burlington/Microcenter retail building was sold for over $14 million.

http://finance-commerce.com/2016/08/new ... -building/

Plans for upgrades and another retailer. Hopefully starting with the parking lot, which is very sad. The entire site has so much potential in the future.

So where will I go when I need a motherboard screw?

I hope all that happens is an exterior clean up and maybe another building in the northeast corner of the surface parking for the new retail addition. While they wait for SWLRT clarity, then after SWLRT the main building gets a mixed use proposal that extends Xenwood Ave through the property to Wooddale Ave. That would be like five years out.

I hope all that happens is an exterior clean up and maybe another building in the northeast corner of the surface parking for the new retail addition. While they wait for SWLRT clarity, then after SWLRT the main building gets a mixed use proposal that extends Xenwood Ave through the property to Wooddale Ave. That would be like five years out.

Is this an old K-Mart store?

I grew up knowing it as a Zayre Shopper City, but yeah. It became a Kmart too.

http://slphistory.org/highway1003700/