urbanMSP

Okay I fully realize how incredibly vain and shitposty it is to self-cite streets.mn posts I've written, but they go a long way in explaining why I feel the way I do about why conventional planning that makes "perfect sense" is wrongheaded, without the need for tons of words here. So. htt...

Tonight, the Edina City Council approved the 44th & France Small Area Plan. They did vote to expand it by including 2 single-family homes. Neighborhood nodes do need to grow as we get denser. A developer will have a proposal for redevelopment of the dry cleaner’s lots (and those 2 houses) as a s...

Personally I'm less concerned about the technological issues and more about the social and policy ones. There's going to be a huge range of quality and safety between the different providers of AVs and AFAIK we haven't set out minimum standards for safety and testing. We don't have a legal framewor...

Couldn't deliveries be conducted in alleys?

Yeah, I’m thinking any European city like Munich would be much denser than Mpls or StP and that, with a few exceptions, we could mostly deal intelligently with deliveries such that they shouldn’t block the bike lane. But I could be wrong.

So I read in here that the Met Council is not technically in compliance with federal requirements. is that true? Wikipedia doesn’t think so, since it reports most MPOs across the country are appointed, excepting Portland. I know that the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB) is a separate thing becau...

Where the district’s current population? Just trying to get a grasp on how much is imagined to be added.

Well, looking at the neighborhood maps the city puts out, all the Southdale/Edinborough/Centennial/Parklawn/Pentagon areas are combined about 5500 people.

From Metro Transit/Met Council there are currently no plans for any substantial transit improvements in the area, only minor improvements to existing bus routes. American Blvd. ABRT would be so close, but not in the area. I seriously question their logic when France Avenue ABRT isn't even being dis...

Interesting tidbits I heard recently: The “Southdale Area” (which by city definitions has recently been broadened to include a southern leg that goes out to the old Pentagon Park) could be home to 20,000 residents when fully re-built at planned densities (Southdale Area Plan). The entire city is cur...

While it is spring break, there was nonetheless not a single resident there to speak against (or for) the project. Though the Council does seem to be ignoring the PC’s wishes lately. It’s perfectly fine for a council to ignore a PC’s vote once in a while. Commissions are advisory, after all. If it s...

The Planning Commission approved increases in height & density to allow a 19-story, 182-unit development at the Guitar Center site (Hazelton Apartments, a luxury tower by the people who did Nic at 5th).

The city’s added parking on their side of France from 50th up 3 blocks, and is considering doing it all the way to 45th. (So I guess that fits into your theorem.) But at 44th, the 44th & France SAP calls for wide sidewalks and a central turn lane instead of parking. The Grandview Transportation ...

Unofficial news:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/109641115750464/

Official updates (scroll down):
https://www.threeriversparks.org/page/n ... il-project

Last I heard was that they had to wait for the ground to thaw to move some utilities before finishing it off.

The official grand opening is in early June, I believe.

Oh, that’s a great book. Well, I loved the first half of the book, but it lost it’s magic before the ending.

Savannah’s grid is discussed in the book “Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns“ by Dover & Massengale.

https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Street+Desi ... 1118066706

Not unanimous: 4 for, 1 against. While it is admittedly a difficult lot (size, shape, grade), it is also the signature lot in that it is prominent from all approaches. A drive-thru is a terrible, terrible use for that space. Very disappointing. Edina’s neighborhood nodes are tiny, and there’s little...

Yes, that’s exactly right. Alternatively, the 2 upper units in each triplex could be rented as single units, making them duplexes.

I agree this is nice missing middle housing for that area.

The Estelle shadows would have lingered over a neighbors panels for maybe less than 30 minutes in the early morning in winter as they moved with the sun.

Think of the economic harm! [emoji13]

Shadows are traumatic to single family homes and rivers, lanes and parks.

Residents installing solar panels to demonstrate harm in shadows in 3, 2, 1…

Also there is simply something wrong in a system that allows developments like Shake Shack basically as of right but requires comprehensive plan amendments (that they fail to get) for something like Estelle. Estelle would’ve been much better 1 block east of where it was proposed. While I don’t insi...