Richfield - 66th Street - General Topics

[seanrichardryan]

Hopefully they come up with something to visually terminate the view other than 5 Guys signage.

[twincitizen]

ZING! With Richfield already having two Chipotles, two Noodleses, two Subways, et cetera (and a third location of each nearby on the Edina border), I am at a loss for what could fill in these spaces. Phase 2 of the Lyndale Station development across the street (LA Fitness et al) is rumored to have chain coffee and MyBurger on board.

[uptown82]

I really hope that My Burger does come to Lyndale Station. Would be nice to have some high quality burger options in the area and to get that corner spot filled! I wonder what chain coffee would go there? Carribou just closed its location in that intersection last year.

[uptown82]

Maybe Dunkin Donuts as the chain coffee shop? Plans for the new building are on the Richfield Planning Commission site.

http://www.ci.richfield.mn.us/modules/s ... entid=5313

[mattaudio]

Coffee shop... with a drive through (part 3 of the PC doc). Sad that just as much Lyndale Ave frontage will be consumed by the exit for this drive through as the entire proposed building.

[twincitizen]

To be fair, the drive through circulates entirely within the parking lot and adds no new curb cuts. It's certainly not the worst possible outcome for this site. At least the corner will finally have building frontage (even though it will still be primarily oriented to the parking lot, aside from the patio).

[mattaudio]

Hopefully Richfield city planners will stipulate that the sidewalk-facing door should remain "as primary as" the parking lot-facing door. This has been a problem at 77th/Lyndale.

[seanrichardryan]

Hmmm, do we know any Richfield city planners?

[uptown82]

So according to the presentation to the Richfield planning commission, the building is going to have a Carribou Coffee and a My Burger. They are also in talks with a franchise hair salon, small electronics store, and possibly a small dentist office.

[blobs]

Richfield is getting real nice.

[sdho]

Regarding the striping configuration on Lyndale: Richfield is restriping Lyndale between 64th and 66th (adjacent to this development) to eliminate one of the through lanes and create bike lanes and on-street parking. Somewhat ridiculously, it will go back to four lanes (plus left-turn lanes) at the Crosstown, only to go back to a single lane in each direction just north of there. But still, it's a step in the right direction, and on-street parking should be beneficial for this site.

Unfortunately, no plans to lower the 35 mph speed limit on any street, even on 66th where the city and county are doing a complete reconstruction.

Restriping is either late this fall or next spring. They'll also be improving the ped crossing at 64th & Lyndale with a full refuge island and flashers.

[sdho]

Caribou and MyBurger are both confirmed. I think it is pretty grim that Caribou just left the mixed-use City Bella across the street (where people could use convenient street parking) and is instead going to Lyndale Station, with a drive-through and parking lot. Do they really think so little of their customers that they have determined that's what will bring more business?

[uptown82]

Apparently Great Clips will also be in the building with MyBurger and Caribou

[Mdcastle]

I think the number of people that would drive through but not walk in is a lot greater than any walk-ins upset about a move from one block to another. I never go in to get coffee whether it's from McDonalds or a coffee shop. And I won't parallel park for any reason. Maybe people from Richfield are more urban than me, but that's what I feel.

[sdho]

I think there are a huge number of people who are driving there and who would drive through, but won't necessarily pick a coffee place based on drive-thru preference. At Cedar Point (66th and Richfield Pkwy), there are four fast food-type places -- Subway, Chipotle, Noodles, and another Caribou. All seem to be doing quite well, especially Chipotle and Caribou. Richfield actually rejected a drive-through McDonalds in this area -- even though it's worse-served by transit, less accessible by foot, and much more of a suburban/greenfield feel to it. Yet they're allowing it in an area they call their burgeoning "downtown Richfield".

As for parallel parking -- it was a wide parking lane, and rarely packed to the point that parallel parking was even slightly stressful. Those who really hated it could park in the ramp. You don't need to be remotely urban to tolerate parking in a wide-open parallel parking spot.

[sdho]

Richfield and Hennepin County are reconstructing 66th Street from Xerxes Avenue (Edina border) to 16th Avenue (between Bloomington and Cedar). Four blocks outside the Minneapolis border, 66th Street is the longest east-west city street and only major east-west transit corridor south of Lake Street. At a similar project length and scale, this is in many ways as significant as the Lake Street reconstruction 10 years ago.

The good news is that things are looking great for the segment between 35W and Cedar. Most of that segment will be reduced to one lane in either direction, and the entire segment will have raised, one-way cycletracks. There will be landscaped boulevards and possibly landscaped medians. East of Veterans Park, some on-street parking will be included as well. You can provide feedback on this segment here: http://richfieldconnect.mindmixer.com/t ... ast-of-35w

West of 35W (to Xerxes), things are a bit hairier. Between 35W and Penn, homes are very close to the existing street. Hennepin County doesn't want to budge on lanes, and Richfield doesn't want to acquire the homes. Between Penn and Xerxes, there is no threat to the homes, but the homeowners in that area have been so reluctant to give up even a few feet of lawn, it's looking unlikely that bike lanes or cycletracks will be put there either. You can provide feedback on this segment here: http://richfieldconnect.mindmixer.com/t ... est-of-35w

[mister.shoes]

Living in S MPLS and working in Edina (me) and Eagan (mrs.shoes), we spend a lot of time on 66th—and it's only going to increase when baby.shoes goes off to daycare at a place on that street. I find it very useful, though rarely jam-packed with cars. The segment west of 35W is obviously the far more busy segment. East of 35W a single lane in either direction seems entirely appropriate, even west of Nicollet (IMO). I am very heartened to see the changes east of Nicollet and look forward to a much more pleasant street when that's done.

I am curious as to why (other than "we just did all that work a few years ago") the block on either side of the roundabout at Portland needs to remain two lanes. I suspect the answer (other than my parenthetical above) is something along the lines of "queueing space for people waiting to go through the roundabout." But if the roundabout were to be a single lane, it would be far easier to get in and out, as the current two lane roundabout requires yielding to both lanes of traffic—a very harrowing experience given how fast people drive through it.

[mister.shoes]

Speaking of roundabouts, I love the idea of replacing the lights at Nicollet and Lyndale and either side of 35W with three (really four) roundabouts.

[mattaudio]

Portland/66th should be a single lane roundabout. They could probably do this by enlarging the porkchops and the center circle, without messing with any outside curb/gutter.

Yet when I was at an open house, talking with an engineer, they were adamant that 62>Portland>66th Street>77 had to be a reliever to the 62/77 interchange. Which is ridiculous.

[sdho]

I am curious as to why (other than "we just did all that work a few years ago") the block on either side of the roundabout at Portland needs to remain two lanes. I suspect the answer (other than my parenthetical above) is something along the lines of "queueing space for people waiting to go through the roundabout." But if the roundabout were to be a single lane, it would be far easier to get in and out, as the current two lane roundabout requires yielding to both lanes of traffic—a very harrowing experience given how fast people drive through it.

Remember, although the project is an opportunity to reinvision the corridor, the actually driving force (pun intended) is the failing street and sidewalks. That driving force doesn't exist from ~5th Ave to Park, where the street is newly constructed, or east of 16th Ave. In the Lake Street project, there was a similar gap area around Hiawatha Avenue, where it had already been recently redone.

I do agree with your feedback on the roundabout, though. The city also does not have a clear idea of how to get the cycletrack through the roundabout. The current idea is to convert to an on-street bike lane, then offer a ramp to the sidewalk, or merge into the vehicular space through the roundabout -- basically going to standard bike lane treatment, but this means at least 3 transitions to get through this one intersection.

If that's the best they can do, I sure don't want to see any additional roundabouts!