Karen Kraco’s excellent front-page article (February 22) on the neighborhood meeting to discuss the proposed development of the Lowry Grove trailer park site raised some issues that may have interested your readers and that I would like to address: This plan, presently in a preliminary stage, would turn Lowry Grove’s site into a high-density mega-complex. It calls for more than 800 units on 15 acres, increasing impermeable surfaces by at least 46 percent and leaving very little green space.
The traffic study projects an additional 4,384 trips per day through our neighborhoods. However, Hennepin County says this estimate is low. The study also projects that over 60 percent of the site traffic will travel via Northeast Minneapolis streets. This will adversely affect not only Stinson Parkway and Lowry Avenue/Kenzie Terrace, but also St. Anthony Parkway/Boulevard and many side streets as drivers seek alternative routes due to congestion.
Parking plans lack specificity. The site is low-lying and has historically experienced drainage problems, so sufficient underground parking for hundreds of units will be difficult and expensive to construct. The likely result is that residents and visitors will seek free parking on surrounding neighborhoods’ streets.
This preliminary plan, calling for 54 units per acre, is out of compliance with St. Anthony’s present comprehensive plan. Coincidentally, at the February 27, 2017 meeting of the Land Use and Housing Steering Committee, the city planner suggested increasing the high-density housing range from 8-40 units/acre to 15-60 units/acre in the upcoming 2018 Comprehensive Plan.
The Metropolitan Council projects the addition of 250 households in St. Anthony during 2015-2040. So why the huge push for high density? If inner-city housing density is not your vision for the Northeast Minneapolis-St. Anthony area, please contact your representatives in either Northeast Minneapolis or St. Anthony, and attend the next St. Anthony planning meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, March 27, St. Anthony Community Center.
Linda Marie Anderson
St. Anthony Village