Highland Park : Development News

They’re known as granny flats, mother-in-law apartments, even Fonzie suites for those who remember the Fonz’s digs above the Cunninghams' garage in the tv show “Happy Days.” For years, accessory dwelling units (ADUs) have been popular throughout the U.S. for homeowners needing an additional, separate living space for a relative (or family friend) adjacent to main house—and as a flexible housing option in developed urban neighborhoods.
 
Now ADUs are legal in Minneapolis. On December 5, 2014, the Minneapolis City Council passed a zoning code text amendment allowing ADUs on lots with single or two-family homes. Shortly thereafter, architect Christopher Strom, who spent countless hours working with zoning administrators during discussions about the code change, launched his new initiative, Second Suite.
 
“I wanted to be the first to market my expertise with the zoning related to these small residential dwellings,” says Strom, who has a thriving business as a residential architect in Minneapolis, and has designed ADU-type cottages for clients in the suburbs and northern Minnesota.
 
He learned during informational meetings that “a lot of people didn’t want ADUs because they fear too many people would be added to the neighborhood, resulting in extra noise and traffic,” Strom says. “But the new law limits ADUs to a total of 1,000 square feet, including parking; they’re only feasible on certain lots, depending on the positioning of the primary house; and the primary house must be owner occupied. Only one accessory building is allowed per property, so most people will combine an ADU with a detached garage.”
 
As a result, Strom continues, “The majority of the new ADUs to be built in Minneapolis will be Fonzie suites. Remember how he lived above the Cunninhgams' garage? He had a cool bachelor pad totally separate from the main house, but was always at the Cunninghams'.”
 
ADUs are a viable option for creating more space, whether for additional storage, an art studio, home office or apartment for aging parents. With the new zoning, the units can also include a small kitchen and/or bath. “They’re wonderful for seniors, and a nice way to establish multi-generational living next to the primary house while giving the occupant an integral level of independence,” Strom explains.
 
St. Paul, particularly the neighborhood of St. Anthony Park, is currently looking at its building codes, as well, by studying the feasibility of allowing ADUs on single-family lots.  
 
Strom adds that ADUs are “a great entry point for people to start working with an architect.” A well-considered design might result in an ADU that blends in with the architectural style of the existing residence, or be entirely different.
 
Moreover, Strom adds, “Second Suite represents a lifestyle that I want to be able to deliver to my clients. This lifestyle is about families pooling resources and enjoying more quality time together through care-giving that enables grandparents to help with childcare and adult children to help with aging parents.”
 
 

The City of St. Paul recently revealed the latest draft of the comprehensive St. Paul Bicycle Plan, which proposes adding more than 200 miles of bikeways to the city. Incorporating public input on a previous draft of the plan, the latest manifestation takes a wider look at bicycling in the city. The plan now addresses bicycle parking, traffic signals, bicycle counting programs and other topics.
 
“This is a very significant effort,” says Reuben Collins, transportation planner and engineer, St. Paul Department of Public Works. “This is the first time the city has had a stand-alone vision for bicycling across all the city departments and the first time that we’ve really looked at the neighborhood level to ask what are the bicycle connections.”
 
St. Paul residents voiced feedback on the plan at a series of open house events and through Open St. Paul, as well as in personal emails and letters. Much of the community input called for addressing questions around wayfinding, trail lighting and zoning codes that would require bike parking in new developments, and encourage the incorporation of locker rooms and shower facilities to better accommodate bike commuters. The plan was revised to include much of that community feedback, according to Collins.
 
In development since 2011, the plan’s major aim is to complete the Grand Round trail system originally envisioned in the late-1880s as a figure-eight loop encircling both Minneapolis and St. Paul. The plan would also add a 1.7-mile loop in downtown St. Paul, which has been a notable void in the city’s bicycling infrastructure.
 
There is currently a recognizable disparity in the geographical layout of bikeways throughout the city, as well. While bicycling facilities are relatively abundant in the western half of the city, historically, there has not been equal investment in bicycling infrastructure on the East Side of St. Paul, according to Collins.
 
“I think there are a lot of reasons for that (disparity), but it’s something we are very aware of and looking to change,” he says. “We are looking to address that and reach some sort of geographical equity throughout the city.”
 
While city-specific numbers are hard to come by—something the plan seeks to address with bike counting protocol and programs—regional studies show a steady incline in the number of people riding bikes throughout the Twin Cities.
 
Bicycling rates increased 78 percent in the metro area from 2007 to 2013, according to a report from Bike Walk Twin Cities, a program of Transit for Livable Communities.
 
While Minneapolis is consistently ranked amongst the top bicycling cities in the country, St. Paul has struggled to keep up with its bike-friendly sibling to the West. “Certainly we can say anecdotally we know there are a lot more people riding bicycles [in St. Paul],” Collins says.
 
The St. Paul Bicycle Plan looks to solidify that growth in ridership by cementing an official citywide vision for bicycling. Planners hope to have the plan incorporated into the St. Paul Comprehensive Plan; one of the plan’s goals is St. Paul becoming a world-class bicycling city.
 
Sources of funding for the long-range plan will be “many and various,” Collins says. One significant potential source is the 8-80 Vitality Fund proposed by Mayor Chris Coleman. In his budget address this summer, Coleman earmarked $17.5 million to rebuild “key portions of our streets,” including completing Phase One of the downtown bike loop as laid out in the Bicycle Plan. He dedicated another $13.2 million towards completion of the Grand Rounds.
 
“It will be a very sizable investment to really get the ball rolling to implement the recommendations in the plan,” Collins said of the Mayor’s funding priorities with the 8-80 Vitality Fund.
 
The plan will next go before the Saint Paul Planning Commission October 17 where another public hearing will likely be set. After that, it goes back to the transportation committee, back to the Planning Commission, then on to the City Council for a final vote and hopefully adoption. Collins says the earliest he expects the plan to be put up for a vote is February of 2015.
 
 
 
 

An old autoworkers' union hall in St. Paul is getting a new life as a bike shop.

The former Ray Busch United Auto Workers Union Local 879, a one-story building that overlooks the closed Ford plant, will be the first St. Paul location for the local Erik’s Bike Shop chain, according to owner Erik Saltvold.

This is an area that the bike chain had been looking at for a long time. “We were pleased when it became available,” Saltvold says. “It’s a great urban biking area off of River Road, with blocks of fantastic biking options.”

Plus, the area’s demographics are “perfect for us,” with plenty of active-minded people, he says.

It’s noteworthy that this building “used to be an auto union hall and we’re changing from autos to bikes. We’re trying to be a first part of this whole transformation,” at the Ford plant--where bike- and pedestrian-friendly amenities are an emphasis for future redevelopment plans.

Although the building is something of a landmark, having hosted many banquets through the years, its appearance makes it fade into the background. “Our facelift will make it pop,” giving it more of a presence on the street, he says. For starters, the company will be redoing the building’s front, to make it more inviting and more modern, with bigger windows. At the same time, the design will keep intact its 1950s “retro chic” look.

“We’re playing with the building’s classic design,” he says, explaining that the idea is to make it “feel more like a retail store,” he says. “It’ll feel fun and active.”  

By the time the remodel wraps up, “When people come inside, they won’t even recognize it. The inside will be totally redone.”

When the shop opens in late summer, “It’ll be convenient for a lot of people biking and recreating in that area,” he says. “It’s going to be a great resource.”


Source: Erik Saltvold, owner, Erik’s Bike Shop
Writer: Anna Pratt

In planning for the future redevelopment of the St. Paul Ford plant, where cars have long been manufactured, the city is working with the company and other community stakeholders and consultants to explore various sustainable design possibilities for the site.

Ford Motor Co. will shut down the plant this fall and put the 160-acre property that overlooks the Mississippi River on the market next year, according to Merritt Clapp-Smith, a senior planner for the city's planning and economic development department.

Although there are no concrete plans yet for the site, or a developer, the city is working on the issue now because it wants to see a design that can "operate in a way that's efficient and cost-effective and better for the environment and health of residents," she says.

As such, the city is prioritizing energy efficiency, conservation practices, stormwater management, and multimodal transportation options and minimizing carbon dioxide emissions at the site, she says. 

Those priorities are partly the result of a couple reports that outline numerous green design options and stormwater management solutions that are posted online here and here.

Various city staffers and consultants presented the reports in a public meeting with the Ford Site Planning Task Force earlier this month.

An in-progress environmental assessment of the site along with a consultant study of environmental and traffic impacts related to different redevelopment scenarios will also inform any redevelopment proposals, she says.

All of this information will help the task force, which has been working on the issue since 2007, to recommend a redevelopment framework for the site to the city, she says.
     
Source: Merritt Clapp-Smith, senior planner, St. Paul Planning and Economic Development
Writer: Anna Pratt

If Ford Motor Co. decommissions its St. Paul plant as planned in the fall of 2011, the city will be ready with ideas for creating public open-space parkland on some of the 125-acre site. And not only by expanding room for sports, like the baseball diamond that Ford has provided for decades.

"The site borders one of the great rivers of the world," says Whitney Clark, executive director at Friends of the Mississippi River, a local advocacy group. Clark would like to see Ford's 22 acres of riverbank land join adjacent Hidden Falls Regional Park, with more of Ford's land along the blufftop becoming open space--if that works with redevelopment of the site.

Clark is part of a 12-member Ford Site Open Space Workgroup convened by City Council member Pat Harris this summer. (A separate task force is tackling how how mixed-use development might make use of the plant property.) The work group will study feasibility and scout out sources for creating open space, such as regional parks and state Legacy funds.

A river dam that used to provide hydropower to the plant now belongs to a private operator, but that shouldn't complicate public use of Ford's riverbank parcel, Clark says--in fact, people already fish there. "The elephant in the living room," says Clark, is the toxic waste--barrels of it--dumped there through the 1960s. He's hoping Ford, which has Superfund liability, will excavate soon, rather than after the barrels start leaking.

Density on the remainder of the site, likely fitting the retail-residential pattern of the neighborhood, is fine by Clark; unless it's highrise, it doesn't impact the river. Neighbors have legitimate concerns about congestion, he says. Planning could alleviate that, as could the open spaces the work group is seeking to create.

Source: Whitney Clark, Friends of the Mississippi River
Writer: Chris Steller

How high buildings can rise along the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities metropolitan area is one of the questions at issue as a state law, called the Critical Areas Act, gets an overhaul this year.

Since 1973, the law has required each city along the 72-mile urban and suburban riverfront to establish plans for protecting its stretch of the river. Those plans are supposed to tell developers about restrictions such as height, setback, and density.

But just as the river itself sometimes turns stagnant and cloudy, the Mississippi River Critical Area Act had by many accounts turned into a confusing and spottily enforced provision in recent years. That inspired the state legislature to order first a review and then a reform of  rule making under the law. By the end of 2010, the National Park Service will have drafted new rules for districts within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area.

Some buildings, such as the Carlyle and Riverwest in Minneapolis, found a way around height restrictions. Reform will help in cities like Minneapolis that have riverfront rules in place, says Irene Jones, program director at Friends of the Mississippi River, a local nonprofit advocacy organization, by making state law "generally easier for the city to enforce, less arbitrary."

In St. Paul, the 740 River Drive tower, which predates the law by a decade, offers a vision of development without state restrictions. To see how the law protects the river gorge, Jones points to the relatively undisturbed view downriver from the Marshall Avenue/Lake Street bridge.

Source: Irene Jones, Friends of the Mississippi River
Writer: Chris Steller