The struggle to build downtowns in suburban cities isn't an overnight project
Maybe Apple Valley isn’t meant to have a walkable downtown, where people can live, work, play and shop without getting into cars. Maybe the big-box intersection of 42 and Cedar is all the downtown that city and its residents want. Or maybe building a more traditional downtown in a classic car-oriented suburb just takes a little longer than advocates for such projects would like.
Apple Valley Editor Andrew Miller reported last week that the city council in Apple Valley approved the request of a developer to downsize his retail and housing project on an old pumpkin patch near Galaxie Avenue and 153rd St. The area, known as Village at Founder’s Circle, is still more pumpkin patch than town center, although there are some buildings there. But, especially in this economy, Mayor Mary Hamman-Roland feels she has to accept half a loaf of the new-urbanist project rather than the whole loaf she’s been dreaming about for years. And the city is under pressure to get construction going on the retail-housing building before the Metropolitan Council takes back the $2.3 million Apple valley was given under the Lival Communities Grant program. So Hamman-Roland and the rest of the council approved a reduction in retail space and housing units. When this project was in the dreaming stage, and it was all pumpkin patch, Hamman-Roland and other city officials visited similar developments, including Edinborough-Centennial Lakes in Edina. More than 25 years ago, the city of Edina embarked on converting an old gravel pit into a mix of condos, retail stores, senior housing and parkland around a small lake. It’s become a national model for so-called “new-urbanist”
