urbanMSP

This was specifically in response to Mackenthun's considering moving the highway. There were already some commercial uses that had located there, but there was a general fear that having the grocery store move would really impact the downtown. The McDonald's was still in the future, as was the car d...

Wish there was a plan to preserve their character and not easily let them bloat with monstrous lot zoning filling in the land between their core and the outer rings. Oddly enough, I wrote my Master's thesis in Urban Planning on Waconia's small town character and how to preserve it in the face of im...

They published the wrong image. This is the proposed Liberty Crossing project in Golden Valley. The chateau look for the senior building is alive and well.

Up on Finance & Commerce, though behind pay wall: Judge denies summary judgment in Southwest LRT case By: Cali Owings August 5, 2015 10:02 am A federal judge has ruled that the Metropolitan Council was within its rights to seek municipal approvals for the future Southwest Light Rail Transit line...

The closure of Wayzata is due to the final work on the MCES forcemain sewer project. It should be completed and reopened by the end of next week (June 12) and maybe even sooner depending on the weather.

Yes, the area east of 169, north of 55, and generally west of Boone. The City Council has already given preliminary approval to a new apartment building on the bowling alley site (and the adjacent property to the east), including using TIF to make public improvements on Golden Valley Road. There is ...

It's coming. You're going to see a lot happening there over the next few years -- mostly housing with public improvements of sidewalks and streetlights. Some things in the works for the industrial areas, too.

That's the very optimistic timetable. The more realistic date being discussed is 2021.

Freight rail will remain in Kenilworth during construction of the tunnels. The tracks will probably need to be shifted to the west a few feet in some areas, but the plans are to keep operations there while the tunnels are being dug.

^^ Well said.

This option was discussed at last week's CMC meeting and there was not much appetite for trying to get the bus operations to move. A more likely scenario would be to co-locate the LRT and bus operations at SouthWest station, build additional structured parking, and terminate the line there. While st...

The Southwest OMF is not being sized to accommodate vehicles from Midtown. This was made clear at the last CMC meeting. But the possibility is being left open for being able to do heavy servicing of Midtown vehicles at the SW OMF if necessary. The assumption is there will be a separate facility buil...

It's even easier to interline them when they are both at grade (at West Lake). The idea is to preserve the option to move Midtown vehicles onto the SW tracks in order to do occasional heavy maintenance at the new OMF. Regular light maintenance would take place at a separate facility whose location i...

At the SWLRT meetings, Jim Alexander explained that they have managed to engineer the SW tracks so that a potential Midtown track could interline at West Lake (under either the shallow tunnel or deep tunnel option). It is not possible to interline at Hiawatha/Lake due to the differences in grades. T...

I guess that depends on your definition of "south". The revised LPA alignment (or whatever they are calling it) keeps the Louisiana station north of Oxford but does bring it down off of the current embankment and tucks it into the hillside. The option that moves it even further south (part...

I don't believe the south Louisiana station option is included in these numbers. That would be an additional $15 million above the estimates here. I find it hard to believe they will be able to cut enough from the project to then add in some of the improvements that have been talked about.

The initial station layouts for Louisiana (as well as Beltline, West Lake, and 21st Street) will be rolled out at tonight's joint BAC/CAC meeting at Benilde-St. Margaret's. Right now the main trail would remain up on the elevated section with freight and access would continue to be to the north via ...

The proposed LRT crossing at Louisiana under this scenario is an at-grade crossing, as are the two crossings of Oxford.

May 24th - Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.