From March on, Apple Valley business owners have been up in arms over preliminary plans to convert Cedar Ave into a highway which would include some different ideas for how mass transit would flow alongside regular traffic especially during rush hour.
The Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce met with Dakota County officials to try and persuade them to consider the “damage” they would do to businesses if they altered the way Cedar currently is (congested and miserable, especially on days with any type of precipitation — frozen or otherwise) to something that was more traffic friendly (anything is better than what it is like now — a vast parking lot caused by long traffic lights). In the Star Trib article linked above, there were some comments from other businesses such as Old Chicago and Valley Pontiac Buick GMC which are joining 15+ others under the group name of “Save Downtown Apple Valley” (if someone wants to register savedowntownapplevalley.com for me, I’ll be happy to have the domain point here — hey, after all it has a much better ring to it than clappingforcluelessness.com). I couldn’t be more pleased because I wrote up a little something before about how the Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce President agrees that the intersection of Cedar and 42 is the real Apple Valley downtown area and not 153rd and Galaxie. I’m so glad other businesses agree with me. I just wish that the City Council would too!
Now, while I agree that changing the traffic patterns, while excellent for the residents, may cause some problems for local businesses, I personally couldn’t care less if Old Chicago suffers. I thought what Michael Regnier, a regional manager for Old Chicago, said was hysterical and even made me seriously wonder if he had ever been to the Apple Valley Old Chicago or put any thought into what he was saying to the Star Trib when he said:
“We could lose our patio, or have buses screaming along 10 feet away from it,” said Michael Regnier, regional manager for the Old Chicago restaurant chain, with a unit located near the intersection. “And if we lose access points, it’ll kill us. We might as well open a heliport to fly people in. If it takes too long to get to us, they’ll go to Famous Dave’s instead.”
Now, I don’t know about any of you but their patio is already 10 feet away from the road where buses and cars already “scream by” on a daily basis — especially when people attempt to run the cautions to avoid being stuck in the Cedar/42 “parking lot”. Also, Old Chicago has no direct access off of Cedar or 42 so people have to drive to 147th and Glazier or Garrett and Glazier and then drive two+ blocks to get to the location. Then to go so far as to say that people would rather go to Famous Daves instead (who don’t serve pizza or beer on tap and might require waiting at yet another traffic light) is just fucking ridiculous. If anything, those people would instead go to Applebee’s or BW3 instead of coming back around to Old Chicago being that those two establishments offer beer on tap and are closer to the intersection of 147th and Glazier… If people are getting to Old Chicago now, they’ll get to it in the future too. Let’s cut out the poorly thought out comments shall we?
I believe that the County, the City and the businesses need to meet somewhere in the middle on this one. We obviously need much better transit options and much less congestion but we also need to support business owners, especially the local ones that are located in Times Square shopping center like Bucky’s Diner and Osaka to name only two.
Related posts:
- Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce President Agrees Cedar/42 is Real “Downtown”
- Watson’s Forced to Move for Transit Parking: Apple Valley, MN
- 153rd St, Legacy Park, and Apple Valley Central Village: Apple Valley, MN
- Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers: Apple Valley, MN
- Best (or Worst?) of 2006: Apple Valley, MN
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April 24th, 2008 at 10:59 am
1. The intersection of 42 & Cedar most certainly is the logical center of Apple Valley. Agreed
2. There is no “downtown;” at least not in the traditional sense. I’m sorry if that stings in some peoples’ brains, but it’s true. You know it. Get over it. Apple Valley is essentially the result of growth surrounding #1.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
“This street was never designed
to be a freeway,” said Jim Paul,
owner of Valley Pontiac Buick GMC.
“But they’re trying to turn it into one.”
Actually, it was designed to be a forest, corn fields and an airstrip nearby. Once upon a time, it was just a little two-lane road. Then, it became the 4-lane divided gem upon which you were happy to plunk your business. Shit changes, dude. All the (potential) customers you happily welcomed to the area will cause growth issues. Dems da breaks.
April 24th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
A mid-level manager of a national chain resturant shouldn’t be setting transportation policy in Apple Valley, espically when proven he has no clue what the specific issues of the intersection are.
And what property manager schedules all of their leases to come due at the same time? That’s just piss-poor planning on their part, most likely it just opened and every tenent was handed a standard form. Again, grow a brain.
April 24th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
fehler, if anything, the businesses are probably going to choose not to renew because the rent is either too high or they are displeased with the overall outdated look of the shopping center. I am leaning more towards the outdated look but I’m sure that the rent is going to play a pretty big part in it as well.
March 19th, 2009 at 11:50 am
#1-5 Someone needs to grow a brain and it’s not the business property-owners along Cedar Ave.! Here are some questions to help you all get started:
Why did Apple Valley install its sewer-lines 17 feet too far west along Cedar Ave. – and Garrett Ave./onto mega-buck Fischer’s- Valley South Development (with the DC tax-revenue dept., throwing these homeowners the bone of a 17 ft. wide un-taxed “road-easement” deducted from their lot-sizes)?
RE: Longitudinal section-line as center of Galaxie Ave.– Why do Tod Tollefson’s, Dakota County (DC) Surveyor’s: Scott Highlands 2nd and 4th Addition Plats show this east section 27-line in the middle of a ’100 ft. Galaxie Ave.’- each side being 50 feet wide with Orrin’s pre-1969 developments “moved over” on the the DC plats to conform to their 17 ft.-sewer/water/electric-installation error/50 foot Galaxie when all the recorded, legal descriptions of Orrin Thompson’s developments (Scott High 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Additions) specify/describe the west half of Galaxie as being 33 ft. from the section-line. (psst. a 17 ft. ea/34 ft. total DC-error… with AV?DC now trying to steal 30 ft. from the businesses, like Pete’s Gas, on the west side of Cedar… but it’s a 34 ft total-error, why just steal 30 ft. you ask– do keep in mind that AV/DC ‘gained’ a fudge-factor of +4 ft. west, from an adjustment Orrin did for an easement-exception with old Scott-house, so 30 ft. is all they need…)
RE: Latitudinal section-line, along alley behind Apple Villa Senior Apts. and longitudinal quarter section-line along Garrett Ave. intersection/quarter section monument:
Why does Tod Tollefson’s DC Plat of Valley South-1972, show the intersection of these quarter-section lines/monument as being 1.82 ft. north and 2.20 east from the center of Williams’ gas pipe when all the recorded, legal descriptions specify/describe the center of the pipe as being 25 ft. north of the latitudinal section-line (as it runs west from Koch), and then allows a 70 ft. X 70 ft. corner-easement/pipe is 25+ feet northeast of this monument as the pipe turns northwesterly, in the middle of Garrett Ave., NOT 23 feet to the west as shown on the DC Valley So Plat…. (23 feet- where’d that come from!?… oh, little grasshopper…Garrett is really a 30/60 ft. total road… DC Plat shows it as 80 ft…. 60 + their 17 ft. error=76… + that 4 ft. ‘gain’ = the “80 ft. Garrett Ave. in their dreams”)
When all these AV/DC/MN: “electric/sewer/water-utility/give-the-wrong-measurement-info-to-subsequent-developers to ‘cover-up’-our-installation-errors” crap began hitting the fan (~1970), guess who was AV mayor… Willie Branning. Part of his-AV ‘fix’ was to first move the section-lines/corners on their plats (using all the non-encroaching easements they could, or should I say erasing all the non-encroaching easements– like along Galaxie road’s Scott High 2nd and 4th developments– and if that wasn’t enough, heck they’d just move over the neighborhood on their plats to it ‘look like’ they owned the strips of land; next, AV (and other cities-Rosemount, and Burnsville)/DC then offered or in most cases, requested that the property-owners involved in their screw-up overlaps and gaps, buy the parcels in conflict (they did this via granting all manner of ‘variances’ to the subsequent developers and looking the other way as they offered great deals ‘expanding their properties’ to adjacent/pre-existing owners. The govt. never owned the strips of land in the first place, so it’s a case of “First we taketh to cover-up our screw-ups and sell it back to you to keep the tax-revenue coming in; and now, we wanteth it back for the multi-mil road-projects coming our way!
(Get the picture, brainiacks?)
March 19th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
P.S. Wait until I tell you kids the story about how DC led the charge for conversion to GPS/GIS “contiguous platting”– complete with legislation to let them destroy orignal plats after converting them to their electronically-altered versions… “The better to shift section-lines and provide false GPS-coordinate measurements to others, my dears.”
March 19th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Mr. Madison, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
March 19th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Will someone please ask AV Mayor/Ex-RN/”Independent General Contractor” Hammond-Roland how much she gets in kick-backs by first approving the mega-developers’ public-project/fixed-bids and then being ‘hired’ by their associated companies?
And, please ask AV Councilmember/Metro Council Pres. “Livable Communities”/high-density housing Commission/MNSCU Board V.P./Owner, RnD Products Co. (as she states, “…just a small company that makes electricians’ jobs easier”, but really a national HVAC equipmenty supplier for multi-mil public-projects ranging from ‘new city centers’ to college-building projects)/ and now, another mech.-equip. wholesale-supply Co., Grendahl, how much she gets in kickbacks by first approving the multi-mil projects and then supplying all their HVAC/mech.s?
How ’bout AV Councilmember/recently retired (’cause the heat is on!) “Ind. Consultant”, Goodwin, how much he’s made in kick-backs over these many years?
Will someone please ask AV Councilmember/higher-ed. V.P., LaComb how much she gets in kick-backs by first approving the projects…
How ’bout Burnsville Mayor/VP of Hartford Group-”Brandt Co.s” (the mega-developer of all of our new ‘city-centers’ and too many other public-profjects to mention via their ‘Brandt Co.s’), Kautz, how much she gets in kick-back bonuses for approving the public-projects?