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.

After much hemming and hawing, the Lakeville City Council unanimously approved a transit tax increase to bring buses and transit stations to Lakeville by 2009.

I’ll stop bitching about this topic now, I swear.

I have been following the story that Apple Valley, Burnsville, Hastings, Lakeville, and Rosemount received portions of a one million dollar grant from the Community Development Agency which is meant to revitalize “tired business areas” in those cities.

Individual grants, ranging in amounts from $15,000 to $250,000 were divided up amongst the five cities meant to help fund items from tearing down residential housing to pave way for more commercial property and a larger city tax benefit in Rosemount to replacing soil under a former office in the last parcel of the overpriced and under-supported Heart of the City project.

I’m all for Dakota County funding projects aimed at helping cities revitalize as long as it really does something to bring more to residents of their respective cities. I just cannot get behind plans to create a buffer zone between new commercial development and other preexisting residential areas at the expense of more residential land.

On that note, I cannot fathom spending a quarter of a million dollars to replace the soil under a building that originally purchased for 1.8 million dollars as part of Burnsville’s plans for the Heart of the City “revitalization” back in 2001. From what I’ve read about the Performing Arts Center in the Burnsville City Planning Commission Minutes from June 25th, 2007 (warning: MS Word document, see the Google HTML version here), 20 residents were given the opportunity to speak (after being asked not to applaud when they agreed with someone) of which only one single person (Diane Rowse) “welcomed” the Performing Arts Center close to her home. Two parties were neutral or off-topic and the remaining seventeen were against the project in one way or another. My favorite quote from the minutes came from Dave Erickson who was recorded as saying:

He noted that there are so many deviations or variances needed to build this building that by rubber stamping approval for this will set precedence for future development and will invite future lawsuits by developers who are not given the latitude that this project will require. He would like to see the Planning Commission do the right thing and recommend stopping the PAC until the Mayor and Council does its do diligence on the need for this center. Most studies indicate that the Twin Cities Arts Center are over built and most operate at under capacity and tremendous losses. This white elephant will not be able to be converted into a useful building when it is realized to be a mistake to build.

This entire project is an absolute fucking money pit and in my opinion more people in Burnsville and now the rest of Dakota County should be fucking outraged that our money is going to fund pet projects that are nothing but black holes for cash which benefit only the City government members’ friends and egos.

To compare use of funds, Apple Valley also received a $250,000 grant which will be used to help relocate underground utilities needed for office expansion and construction of a training facility by Uponor which happens to be one of the city’s largest employers. Uponor has pledged, in the past, to continue their facility’s expansion through at least 2014. While I think that the $250,000 could be used elsewhere, at least it’s going to help continue funding jobs that currently exist, and will continue to exist, rather than those that may exist if, and only if, some City government official’s project becomes a success — even when the expensive feasibility study showed extreme losses at 5 years.

You can read all of the related articles here (Pioneer Press), here (Rosemount Town Pages, and here (Star Tribune)