'Downtowns' for two suburbs on list of Met Council projects

Brooklyn Center and Ramsey are to get new downtowns. Chaska is to find a way to allow growth to fit in with its historic town center, rather than plopping 1960s-style suburbia alongside. And St. Anthony may wind up razing one of the world's first enclosed, climate-controlled shopping centers.

These were among the highlights in Metropolitan Council Chairman Ted Mondale's annual State of the Region address Wednesday at the new YWCA on E. Lake Street in Minneapolis. He announced a two-year "smart-growth" initiative designed to:

• Get walkable, transit-oriented, mixed-use developments in different settings around the seven-county area, as proof that the council's theories can work.
  
• More broadly promote the idea that organizing dense developments around transit stops is an alternative to sprawl and the loss of farmland and open space.

The speech also was an occasion for Mondale to respond to criticism this week from the home-building industry and others charging that restraint on outward growth is contributing to a spike in land and housing prices.

Mondale's initial response to that was muted. But on Wednesday, he accused home builders of seeking to "increase the value of [their] investments in undeveloped land" by pressuring the council to allow development.

But he acknowledged, in response to a study the home builders commissioned, that the council's estimate of developable land "needs further refinement" and said that "only after we feel the data is more complete" will it be used in decision-making. The home builders had questioned whether as much land is available as the council had claimed.

The council oversees long-range planning for the core seven counties of the metro area.

What's in the plan

As that discussion continues, the Met Council plans to spend $1.17 million over the next couple of years on the smart-growth initiative, much of it to help communities design the six proj ects, which were chosen from a list of two dozen prospects.

Mondale said that the money will come from reallocating the agency's budget and that it does not hinge on legislative action, although a council document refers to an attempt to "secure additional external funding" to pay for part of it.

The initiative includes:

• A redeveloped business district with a transit hub for Brooklyn Center, a first-ring suburb northwest of Minneapolis. The district is to be in the area around Brooklyn Boulevard, Hwy. 100 and Interstate Hwy. 694.
• A new Towne Center along a proposed commuter-rail line for fast-growing Ramsey, north of Anoka.
• A development plan for the Heights of Chaska, the growth area in Chaska Township northwest of downtown Chaska, a formerly freestanding community in the Minnesota River Valley. The goal would be to meld development with the old to avoid the abrupt change in atmosphere found in similar communities such as Shakopee.
• A new mixed-use housing and commercial center on the site of the almost deserted Apache Plaza shopping center, a 40-year-old complex in St. Anthony, northeast of Minneapolis.
• Two projects in and around St. Paul: the Harriet Island/District del Sol Urban Village, near downtown, and Hillcrest Village, a joint project between St. Paul and adjoining Maplewood. The former stretches from the Mississippi River into the city's West Side, a predominantly Hispanic area south of downtown, while the latter is an outdated strip center, from roughly the Apache Plaza era, that could be drastically redeveloped with senior housing and other uses along a bus corridor.

All of these will be "real, tangible projects," Mondale said. "But we need to be honest: We will not in two years change a development pattern that's been 40 years in the making."

All of the projects are to involve a process of "visioning" in which citizens are invited to participate.

Mayors of the selected communities expressed enthusiasm, saying the projects could make a profound difference for the future of each. "We do have to tear down in order to rebuild," said Brooklyn Center Mayor Myrna Kragness.

Potential opposition

Also present, however, was Rep. Mary Liz Holberg, R-Lakeville, chairwoman of the Met Council subcommittee of the state House Local Government and Metropolitan Affairs Committee, who recently completed a series of hearings at which local officials were invited to talk about the Met Council's future.

Holberg said she found pockets of strong opposition to council policies and a feeling that while some older communities are benefiting from the council's support and largesse, newer ones that have chosen an auto-centered approach are being shut out. "I'm looking for some balance," she said. "The growth areas need attention, too."

David Peterson can be contacted at david.a.peterson@startribune.com