Richfield - 66th Street - General Topics

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sdho
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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby sdho » October 9th, 2018, 7:56 pm

Will post graphics when available, but joint work session in Richfield to hear early plans for an apartment building to be constructed on the northwest corner of the Lunds at Penn and Crosstown.

The western 50' tree buffer would remain, but a 6-story apartment building would be up against that. Much of the parking lot would remain, although they also discussed adding a one-story retail building on the northeast corner (intersection of EB Crosstown off-ramp and Penn Ave).

Around 130 units and 160 parking spaces. This would reduce the number of customer parking spaces for Lunds, which is currently over-parked significantly.

There was also a possible drive-thru discussed to be added to the Penn Avenue frontage of the Lunds building. I expressed concern about this, also stated my desire for the apartments to be closer to Penn.

Richfield has long wanted substantial redevelopment on this section of Penn, and this would be the largest redevelopment since the Penn plan was created a decade ago. The only thing even close in scale is CVS. If I'm not mistaken, I believe this would also be the tallest residential in Richfield outside of the high-rise stuff right in the downtown area. Everywhere else is 2.5-4 stories.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby Anondson » October 9th, 2018, 8:12 pm

Would that northwest corner apartment building give access to the 62nd frontage road? Or will that be more completely blocked off from any access through?

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby Multimodal » October 9th, 2018, 8:57 pm

Thanks for standing up against drive-thru’s.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby sdho » October 9th, 2018, 9:00 pm

Would that northwest corner apartment building give access to the 62nd frontage road? Or will that be more completely blocked off from any access through?
They mentioned that they considered that, but preferred access through Lunds parking lot. Although I like the idea of better integration with the neighborhood, I feel like a lot of motorized traffic is probably headed toward Crosstown and Penn -- so why make residents wind through single family streets to get there if they can get right onto Penn?

There is an existing bike path and sidewalk that will remain. I'd hope those can be made to have really nice, direct access to the apartment building. So it'll at least be an inviting bike ride or walk to get into the neighborhood to the west.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby mattaudio » October 10th, 2018, 7:33 am

Um doesn't the Richfield plan for Penn-Central (not the defunct railroad Penn-Central) include a park & ride facility at Penn and 62?

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby sdho » October 10th, 2018, 12:48 pm

Here are some visuals:

Image

Image

Full packet here: http://www.richfieldmn.gov/home/showdocument?id=16947

The rendering is just for overall massing. They anticipate that exterior finishes would be a "Lunds pallet" that would match a remodeled store. So I would guess that would be brown-hued brick and limestone accents based on other stores, but nobody explicitly had that.

As they did at 71 France, they do want visual cohesiveness between the old and new parts of the site.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby billhelm » October 10th, 2018, 2:54 pm

Very nice. that parking lot is significantly larger than it needs to be.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby Multimodal » October 10th, 2018, 3:35 pm

That building placement just seems very odd to me.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby sdho » October 10th, 2018, 4:03 pm

That building placement just seems very odd to me.
You'd prefer the larger building go on NE corner? (Me too)

Three defenses of putting it in the back come to mind:
1. The 1-story retail building is not shown in the rendering. This might make it a little less harsh
2. It will allow the residential to be up against the pretty nice tree stand at the back of the lot. Would actually be kinda nice from the proposed 2nd-floor amenity deck.
3. Developers say it is easier to organize the parking lot, and prevents them from having to tear down an old, mature Oak tree near Penn

But the front of the lot still make more sense to me:
1. Better defines Penn Ave
2. Establishes a standard of 6-story scale on Penn. Most lots do not have the option of building 100'+ from the sidewalk -- because most are much narrower that this. Building close to Penn could prove a concept of building on a smaller lot
3. More convenient access to buses and sidewalk on Penn
4. Creates a sense of entry into the community for traffic entering Crosstown
5. Better northeast vantage point of downtown, Crosstown Commons interchange
6. Creates potential for mixed-use in one building

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby seanrichardryan » October 10th, 2018, 9:45 pm

Glad they're keeping that big oak tree, though it may not survive construction of the retail building.
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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby twincitizen » October 12th, 2018, 1:06 pm

What’s the deal with the oak tree? Is there some significance with the Lunds family? It doesn’t look all that special.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby seanrichardryan » October 12th, 2018, 1:45 pm

It's big, old, and used to be professionally lit for the holidays every year. A local landmark of sorts.
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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby sdho » October 12th, 2018, 2:57 pm

It is nice, but I'm not sure I'd prioritize preserving it over better building placement -- especially because, realistically, it will die far before the building is torn down. That Lunds is from 1968, and I doubt the tree preceded the store.

Speaking of trees, I think it is nice that they seem committed to leaving the thick buffer of trees on the west property line intact. To reiterate from above -- will be a nice buffer for neighbors, but also if they do end up putting the apartments in the back of the lot, it could be a cool wooded view from the second floor amenity deck.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby Drizzay » November 1st, 2018, 3:19 pm

Any talks of how they plan on controlling traffic on this stretch of Penn? It is damn near impossible to make a left turn out of the Lunds parking lot to go north on Penn in the evening.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby sdho » November 1st, 2018, 11:12 pm

Was not a topic here. In general there is interest in improving Penn here, but it's not on current Hennepin CIP, and City isn't pursuing other funding that I am aware of right now.

I agree that left turns at rush hour would be hard. Ideally, it would be nice if there were a roundabout at 64th that could facilitate an easy right + U-turn. You could go do a U-turn at the 66th light, but that's a nontrivial detour.

I'm reminded that much larger mixed-use Onyx on York gets by OK with only right-in/right-out at both entrances.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby mattaudio » November 2nd, 2018, 7:44 am

Would be so cool to see roundabouts at 64th and 66th, and a dumbbell for the interchange at Penn/62. Then continuous medians between those blocks, but with marked crosswalks through the medians at 63rd and 65th. Oh, and one lane each way on Penn of course.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby nordeast homer » November 2nd, 2018, 9:51 am

I know during the Holidays Lunds used to hire police officers to direct traffic here because it would get so bad. I wonder if any underground parking would not be accessed from the west side of the building and the alley be used by residents to 64th? With that you have a light to enter onto Penn.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby twincitizen » November 2nd, 2018, 7:47 pm

Would be so cool to see roundabouts at 64th and 66th, and a dumbbell for the interchange at Penn/62. Then continuous medians between those blocks, but with marked crosswalks through the medians at 63rd and 65th. Oh, and one lane each way on Penn of course.
Also desperately needs on-street parking (at least one side) from 64th-66th if there’s ever going to be reinvestment in some of these old buildings. Lotta funky little buildings without enough parking to be reused for anything fun (restaurants, etc.) Obviously wider sidewalks with boulevard space for trees, etc should also be included in a total rebuild of Penn.

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby mattaudio » November 2nd, 2018, 9:34 pm

#multiwayboulevard

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Re: Richfield - General Topics - 66th Street

Postby sdho » November 3rd, 2018, 6:16 pm

I know during the Holidays Lunds used to hire police officers to direct traffic here because it would get so bad. I wonder if any underground parking would not be accessed from the west side of the building and the alley be used by residents to 64th? With that you have a light to enter onto Penn.
I was noticing that route but never personally have used it. It is all a private alley across multiple property owners -- I would think Fraser in particular would probably prefer to not have additional traffic through their end. Looks like they already have some speed bumps to discourage too quick of traffic. As of the way the site plan was set up, the intention seems to be to go to Penn.


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