St. Louis Park - General Topics

[twincitizen]

A thread for St. Louis Park development news, general discussion, planning ideas/fantasies, and minor projects not worthy of a separate thread.
There are dedicated threads for:
West End area
Excelsior & Grand area


I'll start with this: Wayzata & Texas development.
http://stlouispark.patch.com/articles/v ... nd-wayzata


"The parcels are owned by MnDOT and have been identified as "excess property" after a highway project. MnDOT is willing to sell the land to the city for development. Currently, the area is zoned residential, and at a Monday night City Council meeting, members said they'd probably like to keep it that way. So, expect some type of housing to go up."

What do we think about this? Could either site support mixed-use? There appear to be some older low-scale office buildings between the parcels that could be acquired as part of a bigger project.

None of this strikes me as super desireable for residential, due to the highway noise. However, It would be close to a bunch of jobs and on the 675 express bus. There's a pedestrian bridge over 394 in the immediate area too. A mixed affordable/market rate apartment project perhaps?

[nordeast homer]

I could see these sights developed into some smaller office condo developments. They're not terribly large sites, but if you included some of the older office buildings or housing around them I could maybe see an apartment development. I used to live in an apartment complex on the other side of Louisiana from there; it's a great area, close to everything.

[mulad]

Yeah, the red parcel is about 1/4 mile from the Louisiana Transit Center (just east of this image), so TOD-style development should definitely be considered. I think a freeway BRT system similar to the Red/Orange lines will eventually happen on I-394 too, and this is one of the most logical areas for a station. I'd also hope that a substantial building here would be welcomed by neighbors, since it would act as a noise wall along the highway.

It'd be tough to get by in that area without a car, and figuring out parking on that site seems problematic to me -- you can barely fit more than one aisle on there -- maybe a second with a single-sided extra aisle with parallel parking. There is a Rainbow just over a mile away (at the West End shopping center) that should be accessible by the #9 bus from Louisiana Ave, but a lot of the businesses on the north side of the interstate accessible via that pedestrian walkway are just car dealerships and repair shops. (Even so, if I was a really nice developer, I'd either ask Mn/DOT to install stairs on that bridge or offer to pay for them myself. Ped bridges really shouldn't be ramp-only...)

It would be a tolerable location for cyclists -- not too far from General Mills, and it's a little over a mile away from the North Cedar Lake Trail.

[mamundsen]

Lifetime Fitness in St Louis Park is building a 4 level parking ramp this spring.

"The ramp will take up some space on the business’s existing parking lot. When complete, the number of parking spaces will expand from 619 spaces to 842 spaces. Landscaping will also be brought up to city code through a hedge, tree replacement and the addition of trees in parking lot islands."

http://sailor.mnsun.com/2013/01/st-loui ... s-forward/

Thoughts?

[mattaudio]

I think a legitimate bike/ped connection between Vernon Ave and Park Place, as well as ped/bike connections on Cedar Lake under Hwy 100 would help people get to the West End area without driving. That and a LRT spur along the BNSF Wayzata Sub to West End

[mamundsen]

I think a legitimate bike/ped connection between Vernon Ave and Park Place, as well as ped/bike connections on Cedar Lake under Hwy 100 would help people get to the West End area without driving. That and a LRT spur along the BNSF Wayzata Sub to West End

I still can't get over the fact that the Cedar Lake Regional Trail does not have a good legitimate connection here. According to the trail maps, you should exit on 32nd St, go up and over the rail on what is essentially a freeway on/off ramp, then come back around on Cedar Lake Rd. I "illegally" cut across the tracks about 50 ft east of 32nd.

The next option is to continue east until the ped/bike bridge near the Jewish school.

[Chauncey87]

I have been hearing for over a year now that they are going to "gut" this mall and turn it into a sort of strip mall. This seems like an ambitious idea. I ran into the former mall manager the other day and asked him if apts or condos are going to be added above the shops. He said "After running the numbers it just wouldn't work out." However he isn't really running the mall anymore. Maybe we could see a mash up of the West End and Excelsior and Grand? Have any of you heard any other news about this mall?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knollwood_Mall

[bapster2006]

I live right by Knollwood and can walk to it. I have never seen a plan in my local literature that discusses any development. I can tell you that it is busy all day long and definitely not hurting. Between the Cub, Kohls, DSW, and all the rest, the parking lots are always full. Funny that when I bike to Cub (along with a handful of other people) my total trip time is actually less than driving because I'm not fighting the people who don't know how to park.

[lordmoke]

Scroll down a touch and read "Sultan's Commentary" for a good history of the mall. It's been a strange one:
http://deadmalls.com/malls/knollwood_mall.html

[Chauncey87]

The mall is still very busy. Off the top of my head it has inside the mall part Kohls, Panara Bread Co., a furniture store?, Foss swim school, GNC, some sort of moble shop, TJ Maxx, and Applebees. I even might have missed a couple. It is in a high traffic area. I just hope when ever they do figure out what to do they choose to add some type of housing.
Side note I think the movie theater is still there with pretty much the whole thing still intact. They just boarded it up. Short term I think it would be cool if they just took down the boards and cleaned it up maybe start to show action movies from the 80s

It helps I also live close enough that I bike to it often. $5 bugers/wings and pitchers at Applebees every Monday I am sold.

[mnmike]

This is my old grade school! So news of it's demise is a little sad to me. The building is nothing special, built in the 40s or 50s...looks more like a 1920s building. The church and school have been closed for a while, it was most recently Quest Academy, a charter school.

Anyway, a townhouse proposal is being floated for this site...it was presented at the Browndale neighborhood meeting last week. For those unfamiliar, the site is just south of Excelsior Boulevard on Wooddale Ave. Not a lot of details yet...it was a very preliminary presentation.

36 units in 8 of townhouse/rowhouse style buildings, with the main entrance off of Toledo. The school/church and 2 houses that go with it would all be torn down. Just thought I would give a heads up. Like I say, a bit sad to see my old school go...but honestly the building isn't really worth saving, and is laid out awkwardly with its church/school combo.

This is what the building looks like. The site also contains a large parking lot, large playground area and 2 houses.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo_explorer ... er=3526430

[woofner]

I have no idea of the internal layout but I'd think this would be ideal for an apartment conversion. Nice big windows, same form as walkup, etc. They could still build some townhomes in that enormous parking lot next door.

[mnmike]

No, it isn't a very good layout for conversion. On the inside, half of the building is a sanctuary with a 3 story high ceiling, and the other half is 3 floors of classrooms.

[Ubermoose]

There's a little story in the West Metro section about plans that have been presented to the city for tearing down a portion of the mall and relocation some business to the corner of the property near Aquila and Hwy. 7. Sounds like there would be some major drainage issues that need to be addressed before any work could be done. http://www.startribune.com/local/west/215710111.html

[MNdible]

I'd like to see some of the properties in this area take better advantage of their frontage along Minnehaha Creek. I'd think that some of the restaurants could make a very nice patio stepping down towards the creek.

[sad panda]

There was a written report for SLP's June 10, 2013 study session. It has some maps of what is proposed and more details on the stormwater management issues.
http://www.stlouispark.org/webfiles/fil ... 6_10cs.pdf

[Anondson]

Interesting info about the redevelopment. Having lived in SLP for at least 35 years on and off, this is wise. But anything that is done that fails to take into account better pedestrian crossing across TH7, even such as a grade separated crossing like was done with Wooddale and is going to be put back at Louisiana, will be a lost opportunity. Knollwood will never be a destination for LRT travelers getting off at the Blake LRT station to the south, but the apartments in Hopkins across TH7 to the south bring many many pedestrian crossings through this nasty intersection it would be a shame to lose this opportunity.

[Ubermoose]

I don't know how likely this is to happen, but it appears they are going to look into it further.
It would be added to the south end of the Rec Center and a 3 story parking ramp would be added as well.
http://stlouispark.patch.com/groups/pol ... cks-1-post

[PhilmerPhil]

Woah there! Removing the (in need of an update) skatepark for a parking lot? Get outta here!

[mamundsen]

I wondered if there was a thread for this... I saw more details as I was looking at the plans for the proposed apartments near the West End.

Here is the link to the agenda that included both projects: www.stlouispark.org/webfiles/file/agenda/13_07_22cs.pdf