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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/

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    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

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    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

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   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
 

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    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

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   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
 

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I was doing some brainstorming on this myself, and the only places I could
think of were:

1. 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.
2. 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.
   
3. Ames Park.
4. 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.
5. Move the library to the new Medota Homes / Community bank space on Bridge Square, and go a little taller?
6. Purchase Witt Bros, NAPA, and the old dentists office, and build there.
7. Purchase the old church and releated buildings at Woodley and Division, and build a new anchor to the southern end of downtown.
8. 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

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    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

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    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