High-school student Sean O'Leary kicked off a terrific discussion on Northfield.org's "Issues" list recently. The discussion is relevant to anyone living in Northfield, and I thought it was worth posting some of the highlights here.
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-td
I was walking through the maze of what will be *Bridgewater Heights today. I noticed details on the window of one of the units that was closer to completion -- they were set up in nine panes instead of one. I thought it unique. Then I realized that *every* other window in sight was equally "unique."
But looking around at almost all recent developments in Northfield seem to be the same way. Almost all the development on the south side (south of the High School) is the same way. And look over near the Northfield Retirement Center -- the north side is no better. Northfielders are constantly priding themselves on the history and integrity of our town -- and its buildings. Based on what most residential development is looking to be like, we're becoming another dull, generic suburb. Anyone else have some thoughts? If not big-picture Northfield development, how about what shade of taupe will be all the rage next year?
*Technically, Bridgewater Heights is in Dundas.
Sean Hayford O'Leary, student
http://sdho.org
Sean -
This concern goes to the Comprehensive Plan and then the Zoning
Ordinances under it. It's all posted on the City of Northfield site
(it was, haven't looked it up since the revamp). I recommend a
check-in with Kiffi and Victor Summa if you'd like a delightful tour
through these documents, the point of them, how they work, the
problems. There was also a good post on the Comp Plan on
northfield.org and I can't find it now, but the writer noted that in
Northfield, it's a mess, and of course I'd agree.
What you're seeing is just what those who have been struggling with
the Comp Plan and Zoning Ordinances have been concerned about, I
find it more of a Reprehensive Plan because both Northfield and
Dundas have tailored them to developers specifications -- the Target
developers wrote their ordinance and it was accepted nearly
verbatim. And indeed, it's Apple Valley down there now. Ugly, ugly,
ugly. That development north of NCRC is Presidential Commons, that
was one where the developer played a shell-game of "hide the park"
and the dedicated parkland required was shuffled around and around
even though city had taken block grant money for it -- the City
Council had passed a Resolution requiring dedication of the land for
"Grant Park" at that time and 20 or more years later, it still
hadn't been done! It took a lawsuit, and all we got were the lots on
the north end there and the gully they contain... that helps the
water and flooding problem, but it's not anything anyone could call
a park.
Dig out that Comp Plan and look at what it's trying to do and the
ultimate result you've seen!
Carol Overland,
attorney and blogger
http://northfield.org/blogs/caroloverland/
Color police have been with us for some time. Dig out the original
contract for your house .... anything other than beige(etc) and
'natural' colors are prohibited. I think it must have been an '80's
thing.
We do seem to live in a monochromatic society - the favorite house
color is beige/cream/taupe/etc. and the favorite car color is gray.
Think of the uproar the St. Olaf College president's house caused.
As to Bridgewater Heights, the Comprehensive Plan you need to look
at is Dundas, not Northfield. There are a few statements in the
comprehensive plan regarding housing and maintaining the eclectic
characteristics of the older areas of Dundas, but none prohibit
beige:
- G 3 The City will encourage developers to provide a variety of
housing choices including apartments and townhomes.
- G 4 The City will also require developers to integrate lot widths,
housing sizes, styles and materials that are more characteristic of
the existing diverse development in the older areas of Dundas.
There is a public hearing on this comprehensive plan coming up on
May 18.Kathleen Doran-Norton
President,
Northfield League of Women Voters
I think you've nailed
it. People are worried about resale and about choosing a trendy
color or design style they'll be stuck with for the life of their
vinyl siding. Remember Mansard roofs?
I'm old enough to have watched avocado green get replaced by
hunter green only to have hunter green replaced by sage green, which
is avocado by another name. These things all run in cycles and
nobody wants
to get stuck in the wrong place when the cycle changes.
There's another point. The Olive Gardens and Home Depots and the
beige houses offer a sense of comfort and familiarity to people who
want a nice hometown, but one they can take with them when they
move. Nobody
likes being the newcomer, the outsider, the one getting lost on the
way to the grocery store. Chains -- and beige houses -- let people
stay in the family
home and eat in the restaurant they visited as a child, 20 years and
a thousand miles away.
Finally, for a lot of us, life is in visiting friends, enjoying our
grandkids, traveling and experiencing life. We aren't as attached to
our homes as we once were. We like them, but we're not as invested
in them as our parents were. Of course, that will make it easier for
our kids to get us to more to the beige assisted living units. . .
Anne Bretts, journalist
Managing Editor,
Northfield.org
Sean asked
about sustainability in mass developments, so I'll toggle out of
lurker-mode for a bit.
To my knowledge, sustainability has hit the radar screen for some
of the
more progressive developers only. Others will implement a few
green
strategies only.
A few regional developers are seeing that sustainability makes
sense
already. Watershed districts are restricting runoff due to
imperiled
waterways; Municipalities are starting to tax storm water runoff.
Buyers
want homes that are affordable to operate and maintain, and that are
health
for their families.
As a sign of the changing times, I just received a flyer for a
seminar
entitled: "Green Homes and Sustainable Communities: The Future of
Affordable
Housing and Community Development". We're looking at going to
the seminar
to bring these ideas to Northfield.
Also, the United States Green Building Council is now in the
process of
developing a LEED certification for neighborhood developments.
I've signed
on to the Corresponding Committee to learn more.
LEED-ND Certification will have to pay attention to these draft
criteria,
which you can view in more detail online at
http://www.usgbc.org/:
- Location Efficiency
- Environmental Preservation
-
Compact, Complete & Connected Neighborhoods
- Resource Efficiency
If you do download the draft criteria, you'll see that they are
paying
attention to things like reduced automobile dependency, contribution
to
jobs/housing balance, proximity to schools, imperiled species, steep
slope
preservation, housing diversity, affordable rental housing, reduced
parking
footprint, pedestrian comfort and safety, on-site power generation,
and the
list goes on and on.
In a nutshell, this is more detail than most developers want to
address. To
address all or most of these criteria I think it will take market
demand, a
legislative mandate, or top-down drive from developers.
Peter Schmelzer, architect and blogger
vivusarchitecture.com
More zoning thoughts...
When I see the zoning map at City Hall, if memory serves, all the new developments of the last few years are actually PUD's (planned unit developments)or some other variant. In essense, the zoning as set up is not meeting the demands or expectations of the City or developers if everything that comes along needs to be given an exception to the current zoning.
As for the Q block, I have also wondered if this area could develop an entertainment identity - movie theaters and bowling alleys perhaps. Of course this might add traffic to the adjacent streets, but that is how cities grow, unless they wish to sprawl off the edges everywhere - change has to be allowed to happen somewhere other than the cornfields!
Steve Wilmot, architect
City of Northfield's Heritage Preservation Commission
Glad Steve and Anne are picking up on the Sprawl issue.
Au contraire Anne. it's not about development leap frogging - it's about
supporting sustainable development. No single part of our community is as
important to its economic and social fabric as is the old downtown.
A few points:
Q Block Big Enough?
Just for starters, allow me to direct you to a number of downtown film
venues.
- CHICAGO Water Tower Place, Michigan Ave & Chicago Ave (Miracle Mile)
houses a multiplex since the 80s
- Minneapolis: Lagoon Theater five screens - Uptown Mpls
-
Edina Theatre four screens - in Edina, 50th & France
Large fields of parking and concrete block boxes w/screens are suburban...
and that's what we are NOT!
On Municipal Support of development:
On the Q block...how about, the city
provides a parking lot - for general use in the AM and for the theater, food
venues etc. in the evenings.
And just what residential neighborhood is adversely effected by the
theater or other commercial any more than the trains and trucks do now... and
will continue to do in the future... or any other commercail that might be built
there?
TRAFFIC: Well, it is on the highway - Synonymous w/traffic... lots of
natural traffic there and increasing.
We're not advocating revising history as in REMOVING Edina Realtors or Bierman's flooring. In fact that was on the zoning maps for such development. It
is the "leap frog" to the corn that is offensive...especially at the expense of
the historic downtown. That's revising history.
Anyway, you get my drift. As Tracy said, "I could go on and on........
Oh, and check Steve's remarks about PUDs. Absolutely right on! Staff and
developers have used PUDs to allow the developer's goals, while in most
instances have not benefited the city with it's side of the develpment
agreements.
And... finally, there is a good answer to the Library downtown. Stay tuned!
Victor Summa, citizen
I was doing some brainstorming on this myself, and the only places I could
think of were:
- Remove the parking lot on Washington between 4th and 5th. Do a below ground
parking garage, with the library on top, possibly even purchasing the buildings
on 4th and Washington.
- Remove the Liquor store, and go in an L shape from the liquor store to
Bridge square on the parking lot property. Include a nice riverview reading deck / boardwalk, and tie in the trail system across the boardwalk.
- Ames Park.
- Multiple level design on existing site, leveraging the street and parking
lot across from the library. This would have to have some sort of parking added.
- Move the library to the new Medota Homes / Community bank space on Bridge Square, and go a little taller?
- Purchase Witt Bros, NAPA, and the old dentists office, and build there.
- Purchase the old church and releated buildings at Woodley and Division, and build a new anchor to the southern end of downtown.
- Move City Hall into temporary trailers, then build a combination
Library/City Hall on the existing City Hall location on Washington Street.
(possibly move City Hall to the Old Library?)
These are just brainstorms (or light brain showers, if you so choose.) Each of
them probably have many many issues.
The key thing here is, the Library NEEDS to stay downtown. There is NO question
of that.
Regards,
-John Thomas
A few words on consultants and my own experiences growing up.
There is something to Victor's stance that suburban type consultants offer
solutions that do not always fit. I grew up in Winona in the 70's & 80's
and will be back this summer for my 20th high school reunion. We lived on
the edge of town but most of our errands brought us downtown. The dentist,
orthodontist, and eye doctor (using some of Victor's examples) all were
downtown in buildings with no parking lots! There was on street parking and
city owned lots scattered around the downtown.
The dentist was in a renovated butcher shop - one of the oldest buildings in
town. The orthodontist was in an art deco doctor's office building, get
this, right next door to a YWCA - which also had no parking lot. The eye
doctor was in an unremarkable retail/office space which had a few spaces of
parking on the back alley.
Why all these sorts of businesses think they need to pay property taxes on
parking lots that are empty when they are closed puzzles me - is this
supposed to balance the "convenience" of parking in a lot owned by the
business? This is standard suburban type development that probably sounds
pretty good when you go to a convention to learn the latest trends.
As for library consultants, the one piece of history that I know, is that
these are the same consultants that advised the library 20 years ago to have
operations on a single level. I will leave it to the patrons of the library
to say whether having more than two stories has been successful or a
hindrance to the library as we know it. I don't believe the staff at the
library have had a problem with it.
I will bring up my youthful experience again, where Winona has a library
(admittedly in sorry need of some creative updating) which has THREE levels
and has been this way since its book stacks addition was built back in the
20's or 30's.
I am reminded also of the pool consultants who say that you will get more
use out of an indoor pool due to the weather in Minnesota. Well DUH, I
didn't need to do a study to know that. What I also know is that on a hot
sunny day, an out door pool has QUALITIES that I think many will say
outweigh the QUANTITIES of how many months of the year they can use it.
Similar balances need to be used in thinking about downtown - it is also
about quality and quantity - consultants and the public in general find it
much easier to measure and talk about quantities, but are so often
disappointed with the qualities after the project has been completed.
Steve Wilmot
When the parking lot was created across from the library (South)
(after the house had been torn down), I felt a great opportunity had
been lost.
The site is ideal for a two story parking lot, and the existing
street would have become the down ramp and the exit for the lower
level. Since that lower level would have been prime parking for the
various businesses in that area on division, they could have been
rented on a monthly basis as heated garage spaces.
The present area of street parking South of the library could become
a portion of the library.
In other words going from the South end of the library in a
southerly direction you would have library, wall, down ramp, down
sidewalk, parking ramp (two levels).
The upper level parking/sidewalk could have an entrance directly
into the library. Since the street is now a one way, and the parking there is not all
that convenient due to the slope, perhaps this would solve many
problems.
J Brogger
This week, the Planning Commission is reviewing the Transportation chapter of Northfield's Comprehensive Plan. In addition to revising the language to include more references to multiple means of mobility (not just automobiles), we need to consider exactly how bike and pedestrian trails fit into the picture. Dundas Planning Commission chair Bruce Morlan had a piece in the StarTribune last week in response to the Strib's nice but rather uninsightful article about Dundas development on May 16. 
The Northfield Planning Commission is undertaking a monumental task: we’re FINALLY moving ahead with revising Northfield’s antiquated Land Development Regulations (zoning ordinances).