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Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 11th, 2018, 9:21 am
by RailBaronYarr
If the takeaway from land use and development in the USA ca. 2018 is that neighbors are now powerless... man I dunno. Context/framing is everything: R6 on a site like this in a city like this is actually a fairly ridiculous zoning as it only allows 6 stories/84' by-right. The same block has R2B on it, and the rest of the neighborhood follows that pattern. The codes, processes, city goals/policies that staff/planning commission/city council must abide by all favor 100 years of neighbors' preferences regarding aesthetics, on-street parking, and 'crowding'. Which, fine, but let's not act like some parking reform and project-by-project variances and CUPs mean neighbors are powerless.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 11th, 2018, 9:32 am
by thatchio
All these projects convince me more that using a much more rigid zoning code on height and FAR would reduce fights for both the neighbors and developers. But the only way that would work is if the zoning districts were both redefined and reapplied so that the specific parcel had the zoning necessary to accomplish the comp plan or applicable small area plan. Why should 40 people have to show up to the Planning Commission to argue about scale? If they had won in getting it substantially reduced in scale, the developer would have wasted a lot of time and money...granted that is part of the risk of being in that business. Zoning reform is needed.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 11th, 2018, 1:53 pm
by Bob Stinson's Ghost
Interesting points in the previous 2 posts. The neighbors do have some power, as demonstrated by the changes to this project; not huge, but significant. It's just shocking for them when they find out it's a lot less than they thought.

I keep reminding myself that the system we have has grown up over the last 150 years of real estate development in Minneapolis, under the supervision of elected officials accountable to voters. It must be pretty close to what we want collectively as a city.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 11th, 2018, 11:45 pm
by Silophant
Well, pretty close to what the residents with the time and money to excercise political power want, at least.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 12th, 2018, 8:34 am
by Bob Stinson's Ghost
Well, pretty close to what the residents with the time and money to excercise political power want, at least.
Perhaps you're referring to the developer, Ryan Companies? They have people working to move this project forward all day everyday.

The unpaid part timers who showed up on that snowy night came away empty handed, though they had won a few concessions earlier.

It's pretty obvious who's going to win here.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 12th, 2018, 8:55 am
by LakeCharles
I keep reminding myself that the system we have has grown up over the last 150 years of real estate development in Minneapolis, under the supervision of elected officials accountable to voters. It must be pretty close to what we want collectively as a city.
You can use this logic to avoid changing the status quo for anything.

Substitute in gay marriage, or race relations, or anything you like, and you can come to conclusion that we're here now, we must want to be here, so let's not change anything.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 12th, 2018, 10:37 am
by Bob Stinson's Ghost
The people from the neighborhood come into the input phase with some pretty unrealistic expectations of how much influence they have. It might be best to just do away with it. I think we're about to see with Rex26 how easily neighborhood input can be swept aside.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 12th, 2018, 11:33 am
by mplsjaromir
The neighborhood's input should have limited sway over someone else's property rights.

If the neighborhood groups demand the end of private property, that would be intriguing.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 12th, 2018, 12:51 pm
by seanrichardryan

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 12th, 2018, 1:10 pm
by minntransplant
The neighborhood's input should have limited sway over someone else's property rights.

If the neighborhood groups demand the end of private property, that would be intriguing.
Based on my following of the various Nextdoor threads, it is difficult to hone in one what the opposition is most concerned about. Many seem reasonably upset that they spent a lot of time crafting a small area plan that says only R4 is allowed, and that the city is "tossing that aside" so an out-of-state developer can "make a bunch of money". But I have a strong suspicion that even a proposal that fit neatly into R4 zoning would be vehemently opposed for many of the same reasons they've also been citing (too many units, not enough parking, too ugly, ruins neighborhood character, etc.). I hate to be cynical, but it seems that many are latching onto the R4 to R6 zoning variance request as the primary reason this proposal should be stopped because it has the most legitimacy, when the reality is they just don't want more apartments near their houses.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 12th, 2018, 2:14 pm
by Silophant
Isn't this being developed by Doran? They're not out of state, even if that wasn't a bullshit reason to be mad about a project.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 12th, 2018, 2:55 pm
by David Greene
Lot of assumptions being made there.

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Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: February 15th, 2018, 2:22 pm
by Silophant
The Zoning and Planning committee denied this appeal, so this would appear to be in the clear.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: April 24th, 2018, 7:00 am
by Qhaberl
Have there been any additional appeals filed on this? I don’t think anybody answered my question up thread; is this a planned unit development? I mean is this development planed to be built at once or in several stages?


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Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: May 8th, 2018, 9:43 am
by relux
Although I have read some of the previous posts, I'm still not completely sure on the status of this property.

However, I do know that there appears to be a new CBRE "Now Available" sign up on the building. This seems to conflict with the previously announced plans..?

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: May 8th, 2018, 10:06 am
by grant1simons2
That's probably for the retail space in the new building. They have been doing boring, soil samples, etc. Looks like demo could start any week now.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: May 8th, 2018, 5:16 pm
by widin007
I walked by last weekend and the Sons of Norway building looked liked there was demo going on inside and there was a bunch of equipment out in the parking lot as well.

Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: May 9th, 2018, 6:47 am
by Qhaberl
If my understanding is correct, this development will take up a few properties just south of the sons of Norway building on the western side of the block. Are there still people living in those houses?


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Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: May 25th, 2018, 8:07 am
by Qhaberl
Just left the Sons of Norway area. Talk to one of the construction workers and he said that construction will start on June 1. I’m guessing he means construction/demolition. They haven’t started fencing off the parking lot, but they do have Jersey barriers inside the parking lot.


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Re: Sons of Norway block redevelopment - 1455 Lake St W

Posted: June 5th, 2018, 12:53 pm
by Qhaberl
They have the Jersey barriers up around the building now. Talked to one of the construction workers today, and he said they are currently working on disconnecting the utilities. He told me that demolition should be occurring around June 11 or 12th.


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