urbanMSP

From what I can tell, we don't really have a thread dedicated to this area of the Twin Cities yet, though it is significant.

Recent news:

Hy-Vee pulling out of White Bear Lake - 'Too expensive' : http://www.presspubs.com/white_bear/new ... 040cf.html

'Revamping White Bear Sports Center comes down to need vs want' : http://www.presspubs.com/white_bear/new ... fabec.html

'As lake refills, White Bear Lake's biggest beach reopens' : http://www.twincities.com/2017/06/06/wh ... e-refills/

Nextdoor is talking about a new “high rise” apartment development in WBL. That probably only means 4 stories, but according to one comment it’s for 189 units. I can’t find details on the city or developers website. Anyone want to help?

Location: County Road E and Linden Ave
Developer: Schafer Richardson (maybe)
Size: 189 units
Discussed at planning meeting on Jan 30.

Last September there was a streets.mn post about an apartment proposal on Centerville Road, going into whether apartments here was a case of bad density.

https://streets.mn/2018/09/19/good-vs-bad-density/

After revisions, the apartments were approved. Doesn’t appear the unit count was reduced.

https://finance-commerce.com/2019/06/va ... from-city/

Neighbors fought and stopped proposed apartments at a vacant commercial node.

Now the city is doing something different(!?!?) and letting the neighbors decide what to do there.

http://www.startribune.com/vadnais-heig ... 567110562/

They want brewery that has nearly no commercial neighbors and everyone must drive to and drive home from.

To be fair, a lot of breweries in Minneapolis are also in random spots without commercial neighbors or great walkability.

To be fair, a lot of breweries in Minneapolis are also in random spots without commercial neighbors or great walkability.

Also to be fair, most of the breweries in Minneapolis are in older industrial areas with re-used buildings. Those that are purpose built, or in newer buildings are almost all very walkable. Also to be fair, even "unwalkable" areas of Minneapolis are relatively walkable compared to almost anywhere in Vadnais Heights.

I guess I'm not sure what you're getting at? My point was just that there are a lot of goofy things going on with this story, and "they're trying to lure a brewery into car-centric neighborhood" seems like kind of a random one to call out.

Less calling out the car-centricity and noting the deep isolation of the site. If the bike routes were more complete there with full trails and less road shoulders it might be in an interesting node of biking. But if ain’t.

I'm not sure it would have been a great location for apartments either, though, NIMBYs aside. It seems to be one of those parcels of land that isn't particularly ideal for anything.