I have been following numerous stories about downtown revitalization projects falling short of their goals due to the stalled economy and I’m especially interested in the overpriced Heart of the City project in Burnsville and the barren wasteland that the preparations for Founders Circle has become. In addition to those two, Lakeville residents have to put up with the confusion of having not only two downtown areas like Burnsville (MN-13/Nicollet and MN-42/35W) and Apple Valley (Cedar/42 and 153rd/Galaxie) but three (CR-50/I-35, Cedar/CR-46, and Holyoke)!
With the many issues surrounding Apple Valley’s Central Village being the City Council’s worst nightmare, they have decided to scale back the project from 197 residences to 129 and 52,000 to 39,600 square feet of retail space. They are also planning on shrinking the size of the underground parking structure by ~150 spaces. Back in May, there was a concern that Apple Valley would lose $2.3 million in Met Council grant money but now it seems that concern has lessened as City Council member Ruth Grendahl realizes that other cities, unlike Apple Valley, are smart enough to stay out of the development business and aren’t going to be asking for any Met Council funding anytime soon.
My favorite quote about Apple Valley’s Founders Circle nightmare comes from Mayor Mary Hamann-Roland who said, “Everybody has put themselves on the line with this. It’s been blood, sweat and tears on this project. But it’s been worth it.” I’m not quite sure what she thinks is worth it — the overgrown weed infested lots, the empty storefronts or the fact that Apple Valley’s vision for a “walkable downtown” looks more like a famished rural downtown than a thriving suburb with grand visions to become Woodbury…
Now, aside from all of Apple Valley’s woes, I’m wondering why Lakeville, as of mid-May at least, has been able to continue to push forward with their “Holyoke redevelopment” and have “success” with it? Is it really because of David Olson’s guidance or is it because they are trying to one up Apple Valley and show them who’s boss? According to the Downtown Lakeville Business Association’s director Judy Tschumper, they now have a spot where people can unwind or even “solve the world’s problems.” Perhaps Apple Valley’s City Council members and their chosen developers should head down there to solve some of their own.
Check out some more on this topic on the Pioneer Press here.
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May 29th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
What we need is some more big box chain stores filling up those weeded lots…or at least a Chili’s!
May 29th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Yup, this project has become a joke, and the fact that they want to slam some crap together right away so they don’t loose federal funding is pretty damn sad. I especially like the single 5 story apartment building that sits alone in an empty field behind the townhomes. The deveoper ran out of $$ and bailed out, leaving a project 10% complete and acres of barren land (for about 2.5 years now).
I thought a “new downtown” project might be a success at first - the initial building, Enjoy, was a nice piece of architecture in an otherwise boring suburban landscape, but for some reason, a block long strip mall with clown-colored awnings was built and blocked everyones view of it. duh. I thought people got paid to plan this s&%t out.
Oh yeah - you think lakeville’s plans are a bad idea… Wait until they start tearing down the 100-year old homes along rosemount’s main drag and do the same… A developer has already been chosen.
http://www.thisweek-online.com/2008/january/4stjoe1508.html
wow. For the first time, I may actually agree with you on something!.
May 29th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Believe me, I’m no fan of what they are planning to do in Rosemount either, I just haven’t started bitching about it yet.
May 29th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
…give him time ;)
May 30th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Another example of the weird “happy talk” I hear from our Mayor… The development in the “core” of Apple Valley is terrible. Really terrible. Each project is bought and paid for by developers with no evidence anywhere of any sort of a central plan.
Burnsville’s heart of the city may be a pipedream not in sync with suburban realities.. but at least it has some semblance of a plan.. there appears to be a method to the madness. Apple Valley’s core looks like Houston Texas, America’s worst planned city.. We got office buildings plopped next to funeral homes. Decaying strip malls and fastfood none which have interconnected parking lots or streets. We got brand new development in open fields with freakish traffic circles leading people across acres of open space, but not necessarily to any businesses.
We have solid businesses, Dunn Bros, Panino Bros, Enjoy that folks who aren’t familiar with the “back” roads of the development couldn’t get to if they wanted too.
Now, last time I drove through there I see there’s a big play lot, part of a future park, built, but with no parking, and more empty acreage around it. I didn’t even see the park until I started wondering what all the minivans were about parked on the side of the road.
Meanwhile the west side of town crumbles… Poor gas stations, shoddy strip malls, section 8 housing… Why the rush to fill in what was farm land when we have plenty of good old suburban brownfields right in the core. See North of 42 between the County complex going all the way to Wal-Mart.
It’s a sad state of affairs really. BTW I’d argue that Lakeville has a real downtown, Holyoak.. but Lakeville suffers from Scottsdale AZ syndrome. A small population squeezed into a county sized parcel of land. Lakeville annexed so much land that if they ever did fill in the entire parcel you’d have Bloomington South.. and you’d need a couple commercial areas to serve all the people living there.
Once again, lack of planning, and payoffs by developers. That’s why in AZ the last several Governors have gone from State house to State housing (prison).
May 30th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Sank,
My problem with Burnsville’s Heart of the City isn’t with the planning, it’s with the City Council’s blatant disregard for the opinions of the taxpayers. When you allow 20 to speak and almost every single one of those people (19 to be exact) say they aren’t interested in the plan that you have come up with, you don’t ignore them and continue on so that your name will be included on the plaque placed on the side of the dilapidated building 25 years later.
Apple Valley is a mess and while I’m glad that they are slowing down to take a look, I really think that more needs to be done than backtracking a few square feet and a few homes. As you mention, they need to go back to the drawing board during this economic lull and spend the time to ensure that people really do want what they plan to provide and that it’s not going to end up creating more open office/retail space and empty housing units.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I agree with you. I dont’ anything about the politics of the Heart of the City project in Burnsville, I was simply responding to the aesthetics of the project, it looks good and seems well planned. Ignoring constituents is another issue all together.
BTW Mayor Mary is good at that too.
May 31st, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Lakeville’s situation is pretty different from Burnsville and Apple Valley’s. Like Sank said, it involves the actual existing downtown (that has been there for around 150 years) rather than creating one from whole cloth the way they are in the other two suburbs. Like Rosemount and Farmington, it’s different when you have an existing, more self-contained small town that was enveloped in suburban outgrowth, as opposed to communities that went pretty much straight from farmland to suburb (Burnsville, Eagan, and Apple Valley).
That said, because of Lakeville’s size, the downtown is never going to be a location where many of its residents shop or spend much time due to how spread out Lakeville is. To use my family as an example, I lived on the northern edge of Lakeville (west of Cedar and south of 46) growing up. We did the vast majority of our shopping in Apple Valley since it was much closer (and this was way before the shopping area in Lakeville that’s east of Cedar was built). If we did shopping downtown, it was because we were in the area for something else, usually church, and wanted to pick something up quick. And this was in the late 80’s and 90’s — nowadays, Lakeville residents have even more shopping choices, so there’s less reason for them to go downtown.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Bill, regarding Judy Techumper the Lakeville Business Association Director, she was the Economic Development director in Burnsville back a few years…. she is still a member of the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce and is STILL involved with the “Heart of the City” project at least she surfaced last November as a “Friend of the PAC” trying to collect money for the Performing Arts Center. AND she lives in Apple Valley. Are you sure she isn’t in volved in Apple Valley govenment some how?
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Will, I’m just quoting from the ThisWeek article I linked to above (you can see it again here) and it says:
Aside from that, I’m not sure what her involvement is otherwise and tonight my head hurts too much to even come up with a decent post so you’ll have to suffice with a crappy video from camping this weekend :)
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:58 pm
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August 5th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
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