Southdale Library Block Redevelopment - Edina

[MNdible]

If the schedule is to not open the library until 2022, it's very unlikely that any detailed design has been done yet.

Sounds like it's just rough massing and conceptual design work. That's such a tiny fraction of the overall design work that making a change at this point, if it's a change that makes sense, isn't a big deal at all.

[twincitizen]

I would not want to see it move to Southdale Center. As it stands today, this is located right on the border with Richfield. Both Edina and Richfield have another library (Edina branch and Augsburg Park branch), but this serves western Richfield and southern Edina pretty equitably.

Quoting sdho from 4 years ago(!), moving the library across York to an unwalkable Southdale parking lot would be a major loss for current library users in west Richfield. Richfield residents should oppose such a move. The only "move to Southdale" I'd support is building a new library building along York Ave, fully accessible from the sidewalk. That would put it right across York from Cub & Onyx. Moving the library to the Herbergers space should be a non-starter.

[sdho]

That would suck a lot. I would still prefer a building at 70th & Xerxes, and it seems to jibe with Richfield desire for a shorter building along Xerxes (since library is to be 2 stories, but residential will be 6+).

It's not just thinking Richfield. Xerxes is also an important, more walkable street that serves hundreds (thousands?) of Edina residents in Durham, senior buildings, York Plaza apts, Onyx, and (future) Aria.

But certainly, 70th & York would be much better than attached to Southdale Center.

[Multimodal]

Southdale is much larger than an average branch library, isn’t it? I know it has a large reference section that most branches don’t have, and probably more and larger meeting rooms than an average branch library.

Perhaps an argument could be made that close access to transit is as important a consideration as walkability. The transit center is at Southdale (although an argument could be made that it should be elsewhere), so that’s something in favor of a location on Southdale Center block.

[Multimodal]

As for location on Xerxes vs. York at 70th, it’s important to consider density when talking about walkability and the walk shed.

Current and expected density on York (and west of York) is high and only going to get higher, whereas current density on Xerxes and east is single family homes (perhaps up to fourplexes eventually?). A branch at York would serve more people in its walk shed and bike shed.

There’s also the idea of prominence of public buildings. In our car-oriented era, we tend to tuck them away on side streets where there’s plenty of cheap land for parking. But in “the olden days”, public buildings like libraries were large, architect-designed, prominent buildings adjacent to major thoroughfares, easily accessible by transit or walking or biking.

[Multimodal]

As for the walkability of York, yeah, it leaves a lot to be desired. (OK, it’s terrible!).

This may be a little pie-in-the-sky, but I recently found out that Hennepin County has offered Edina the possibility of “turning back” York/Xerxes to the city. Edina’s Engineering & Public Works want no part of this, as the maintenance costs of such a busy road are high.

But if Hennepin offered it to Edina, they must’ve also offered it to Richfield & Mpls, as it touches all 3 cities. Anyone know how they feel about it?

Sure, it connects to Hwy 62, but it kinda fizzles out as it goes over 494 and dead ends in Bloomington at American Blvd. It feeds many small commercial nodes in Mpls as well as the whole Southdale area. But could it be re-imagined as a grand boulevard with transit and 4 lanes of slowed traffic and protected bike lanes?

Sure seems like there’s plenty of space.