Counterpoint: 600 Main Street SE a Tale of Competing Needs and Visions….
Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 11:36AMBy Steve Minn
In her April 24 commentary, Cordelia Pierson offered her perspective on a privately held piece of land near the river that my partners and I have owned for the last 21 years. Ms. Pierson suggest that this small parcel is critical to implementing the Central Mississippi Riverfront Regional Park (“CMRRP”) Master Plan, adopted by the Park Board in 2016. We have a different vision – providing 80 units of affordable family housing that the city desperately needs. We are in the middle of the most confounding housing crisis of a generation, and action must be taken. Can these two competing plans co-exist? We believe they can.
The CMRRP Master Plan does not prohibit commercial or residential uses within the area it designates as “regional park.” In fact, as Ms. Pierson was a member of the same rulemaking working groups that I participated in, I know she is aware that the plan encompasses a number of permissive development zones, including residential.
The very same 2040 Comprehensive Plan that guides our parcel as future park also sounds a clarion call for affordable housing. 2040 Plan Policy # 33 directs the city to embrace opportunities to create affordable housing – particularly affordable family housing. Production of 80 units of affordable family housing at this location, comports with Policy 33 - Action Items: a, b, e, h & k.
Here are the links to reports guiding action on affordable housing:
https://minneapolis2040.com/goals/affordable-and-accessible-housing/
https://itascaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Itasca-Housing_Affordability_Report_September_2020.pdf
It is true that the MPRB and others opposed the rezoning of 600 Main in 2009 when we proposed luxury housing. At the time, there was no housing crisis, no Unified City Housing Plan, no “The Way Home” Progress report, no Inclusionary Zoning Policy and no 2040 Comprehensive Plan with a complete Affordable Housing program. The Metropolitan Council had not yet called for the creation of 180,000 units of housing in the Metropolitan region by 2030, and Minneapolis had not yet committed $50 MM in its Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) to expedite affordable housing production. Welcome 2023.
Ms. Pierson suggests that our parcel is one of the few selected for regional park protection. That is not quite the whole story, either. An objective reading of the CMRRP Master Plan is that our parcel is one of many private inholdings the Park Board might like to acquire from a willing seller, but by no means the critical piece. 600 Main Street is not riverfront property and has no riparian access to the river. It sits behind the University Steam plant and has only been identified as “additional gathering” space to the existing Father Hennepin Bluffs Park in the CMRRP. There are several other large commercial properties on the river side of Main Street within the CMRRP boundary that are called out for acquisition in the CMRRP Master Plan. And what pray tell are these other parcels? Why none other than: De LaSalle High School, Xcel Energy St. Anthony Falls Hydroelectric Plant, and the University of Minnesota Steam Plant. It is highly doubtful the MPRB will be acquiring those other private properties any time in the next century.
Nor is our parcel intended to be trail property. The CMRRP Master Plan instead identified the University Steam Plant Coal Haul Road as the most logical route connecting the East River Road to Main Street. Our parcel would not facilitate either trail or riverfront lands.
The Park Board offers they “…will continue… policy of negotiating with willing sellers for acquisition of land within the regional park boundary… where it is not possible to acquire land, the MPRB will work to create partnerships with landowners with the goal of obtaining easements as necessary to promote trail connectivity throughout the park and along the riverfront…”
We emphatically state that we are NOT willing sellers. The parcel provides critical resident and visitor parking for our existing 221-unit apartment complex at 601-701 Main Street SE. If not for the ability to include supplemental parking below grade as part of our proposed new project, we could not otherwise develop or part with this land or devalue our huge residential investment. This has been our position for the 21 years.
Consistent with other stated MPRB policies, we are not opposed to cooperating on easements to facilitate trails or other public uses in conjunction with housing development. It is important to point out that we have partnered with the MPRB on two other sites to provide: “…users with unencumbered and protected access to park spaces…” (page 8-4). We therefore believe the MPRB’s goals can be achieved by means other than blocking affordable housing called for in the city’s 2040 Plan. As noted in the recent Greater MSP Partnership/Itasca Project Housing Innovation Report, Innovation 1L is to: “…unlock land supply by selling or leasing strategically-located public or private land for affordable housing development...” Releasing this parcel from future park guidance meets that criterion.
Fourteen Years is a long time and circumstances are certainly different than 2009. However, let me point out that in those 14 years, the Park Board has never once made an offer to purchase this property, never once set aside a single dollar for acquisition in any Capital Improvement Plan and did not program any acquisition dollars in their 2020 budgeting for the Father Hennepin Bluffs Park renovation now in progress.
Actions speak louder than words. Weighing the ambiguous against the specific, and the possible against the improbable – our housing project is a realistic, near and long-term achievement. Given how unlikely it is that the University or Xcel will give up their power generation properties on the riverfront – the “inholdings” that are truly key to expanding the regional park – that improbable vision should not be allowed to stand in the way of creating 80 new, affordable homes for families in the near term. If an easement is needed to help make a trail… we are ready to cooperate.
Sincerely,
Steven M. Minn, on behalf of
Bluff Street Development, Llc
