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Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: August 16th, 2016, 9:48 am
by Anondson
Height cooties, they have a strange habit of infecting people within an arbitrary political border.

Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: August 22nd, 2016, 7:10 pm
by Anondson
Arden Hills really grumpy about extra units proposed by Alatus.

http://www.startribune.com/battle-is-jo ... 390976181/

Ramsey County, however, has long said greater units would be needed, and even desirable, to justify transit investments into that area such as a contemplated extension of the A Line.

Yeah, they "aren't downtown", and they are even outside the beltway just barely, but one can see the 35W corridor from Rosedale on north to the Medtronic campus filling in where a transit line would really benefit.

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: August 23rd, 2016, 1:07 pm
by min-chi-cbus
I'm surprised people are so up in arms about this. This isn't on anyone's (occupied) land -- it's all new and isolated from the rest of the suburb. The decision of what to build should come down to economics: built what people need and what justifies the expense. The developer (the expert on what the market desires) is saying that to make this project pencil out for them, there needs to be added density and walkability. Before people even understand what that entails, they're throwing up roadblocks and suggesting that the developer is trying to destroy their way of life. Who is anyone to say what should go where, besides a.) the city, and b.) the developer? I know it's good to get input from the public but their biased and slanted view of what the world needs doesn't necessarily match what the marketplace wants, or what the city is striving for.

I hope they reach a compromise somehow and allow the developer to build something that can be fully redeveloped and built out the quickest and most efficiently in terms of time and money. Let the market decide, for the most part, and the City can have a hand in helping to guide the development to mesh well with the rest of the city.

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: August 23rd, 2016, 1:37 pm
by VacantLuxuries
You realize you've bypassed Minneapolis and St. Paul at this point for overall density
It's not Bob Lux's fault that it's downright impossible to upzone the SFH neighborhoods in MSP.

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: October 30th, 2016, 3:32 pm
by John21

Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: December 7th, 2016, 10:10 pm
by Anondson
Unanimously approved at the planning commission, zero people spoke in opposition, in fact there was surprise there was so much positive response across the city to the proposal.

http://www.startribune.com/arden-hills- ... 405354436/

Mea culpa, Arden Hills, I did not think there would be such a response to this after the city council was so tense over the height and density proposed. I did not think this outer ring development would fly. This makes extending the A Line this far much more likely!

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: December 8th, 2016, 11:57 am
by matthew5080
My god the comments are just hysterical to read, "The beginning of the end of this once nice suburb"... RIP Arden Hills, it was nice knowing you.

Anyway, I think this is fantastic news!

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: December 9th, 2016, 9:58 am
by min-chi-cbus
People are nuts. Some people feel entitled to a quaint little town a stone throw's away from a burgeoning metropolis....and they want it for cheap. And I want a golden goose!

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: December 9th, 2016, 2:34 pm
by UrsusUrbanicus
People are nuts. Some people feel entitled to a quaint little town a stone throw's away from a burgeoning metropolis....and they want it for cheap. And I want a golden goose!
Additional development in another part of their city needn't even mean a change to their quaint little street. (Especially in the land of street hierarchies and dead-ends). And I'm sure they probably know that. "Our way of life" is just a nicer-sounding way of stating their anger that someone who's black, or Muslim, or gay, or makes less money than they do, might be allowed in their proximity. The crowning irony is that, given the general political demographics of suburbia, many of the complainers probably crow loudly about "property rights" anytime a city proposal or regulation limits their ability to do exactly what they want. Well, the pesky thing about property rights is... other property owners have them, too!

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: December 9th, 2016, 2:44 pm
by min-chi-cbus
On another note, and completely non-objective, I truly wish the Twin Cities were growing as fast as Denver or Seattle or Dallas right now, so large-scale urban redevelopment projects such as Rice Creek Commons in Arden Hills, the Ford Plant in St. Paul, and other opportunities like these on both small and large scales would be built out a.) quickly, and b.) "correctly" (meaning to their absolute highest and best use).

I'm afraid that with meager demand these projects will fill in slowly and not reach their true capability. In my personal opinion, some of the best examples of urbanism in this country were built during times of extreme population and job growth, and part of me fears this is what's needed to make (parts of) cities truly great. IDK if that will ever happen again in the Twin Cities in my lifetime.....perhaps if peoples' perceptions of the weather (or the weather itself) changes dramatically, or if lake water becomes the most sought-after resource on the planet.

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: December 21st, 2016, 9:54 am
by twincitizen
I can't be the only one here questioning the demand for hundreds of condos here, right? I dunno man...has Bob Lux gone crazy or does the math on a 10-story concrete condo building somehow work here due to cheap land (and TIF + other subsidies)? While the land costs are gonna be lower than a site in Minneapolis, the attainable $/sf sales prices would also be much lower out here.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying it's too far away and no one wants to live here, because that is certainly not the case. To anyone looking without our extreme urbanist lens, this is a pretty good location. It's really not further from downtown than the Brooklyn Center / Brooklyn Park border. It's pretty much Fridley with better freeway access - and that access being to both downtowns, as well as your Medtronics, St. Judes, Land o Lakes, etc. I think plenty people would consider renting an apartment or buying a SFH in this general area, as clearly many tens of thousands of people already do just that. But expensive condos? I'm skeptical. Who knows, maybe they've done a market study and there are just tons of boomers ready to downsize from their Shoreview/North Oaks/Arden Hills McMansions, yet want to stay in the general area (or for many in the north metro, this would be a move closer in). I guess it all depends on how low they can push the price point on the initial batch of units (via free land, TIF, public $ for underground parking infra, etc.)

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: January 30th, 2017, 11:20 pm
by Anondson
A story about the environmental aspect of the future development.

http://www.startribune.com/megaproject- ... 412229363/

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: March 14th, 2018, 5:09 pm
by Anondson

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: March 14th, 2018, 7:20 pm
by mamundsen
Is it just me... or is an 18year build out sound incredibly long? Think of it this way, a family moves into phase one with a new baby. That kid could be graduated and get his/her first job in the last phase building's first day open.

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: March 14th, 2018, 9:47 pm
by min-chi-cbus
Maybe those babies are funding future phases through a child tax levy....hence, the 18-year build-out?

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: March 15th, 2018, 8:34 am
by twincitizen
I hear they're exploring the use of CIF - Child Increment Financing

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: September 4th, 2018, 7:10 pm
by mamundsen
Arden Hills passed the master agreement 3-2 tonight.

Pioneer Press reporter live tweeted the whole thing.

https://twitter.com/frederickmelo/statu ... 40864?s=21

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: November 7th, 2018, 6:36 pm
by xandrex

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: November 8th, 2018, 7:38 am
by jtoemke
Potentially unpopular opinion - I'm kind of meh about it.

I have mixed feelings. If it prevents people from building even further out into the land surrounding the wilderness, then cool.

If these 1200 units could be accomplished somehow another 5 miles closer where transit access is already established and viable, I've thought that would be better.

It has just always seemed so far from our productive centers to me. The Ford site seems like the better version. Let this become a park.

Re: Rice Creek Commons (TCAAP site) - Arden Hills

Posted: November 8th, 2018, 10:13 am
by alexschief
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.