More Smart Land Use Reform in Saint Paul
St. Paul planning staff have been doing great work to reform the planning process. The latest change proposes to fix a broken petition requirement for certain developments.
Tag Archives: land use
Embracing Ruins as Historic Preservation
We tend to ignore ruins or look at them as failures, awaiting either a visionary creative reuse or the wrecking ball. What if we preserved them as they are instead?
Eat Your Greens and Shoots: But Find Them First
As the ground thaws each spring, edible perennial plants wake up and are there for the taking if you know where and how to look. Follow a few rules so you’re safe and there’s enough for everyone.
Celebrating the 1-year Anniversary of the streets.mn Climate Committee
On December 29, 2019, seven people met at Dual Citizen Brewery in St. Paul, and there we created the streets.mn Climate Emergency Committee. We had a few in-person writing meet-ups before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, and even though none of us could anticipate the events that followed throughout the year of 2020, we maintained […]
Will Minneapolis’s Zoning Code Update Allow More Multi-Family Housing?
A version of this article was posted to the Neighbors for More Neighbors blog. When many people imagine housing for a family, the stereotypical image is a single-family home and expansive turf yard. And in many cities and towns around the country, minimum lot sizes and zoning requirements ensure that the only options available to […]
Why Minneapolis needs a Land Value Tax
This image shows a mostly undeveloped parking lot, occupying a full block of prime real estate in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. Why does this lot remain underdeveloped? The owner of the land could increase their income drastically if they developed the land to its fullest potential. Additionally, the city as a whole would gain […]
From Shopping Malls to Lifestyle Centers
On why structured parking is allegedly problematic for regional retail in general, which is causing problems at West End. This installment will look at the overall evolution of regional retail – from downtown, to the regional malls, to lifestyle centers like West End. Downtown 2.0: The Mall With the massive movement of people to the […]
A Lukewarm Defense of Lakeville
Your author has spent a good deal of time in Lakeville. My wife grew up there, and it’s where my in-laws still live. In fact, our family of four lived there for a summer in between selling and buying a house. My father-in-law runs a small business there, and I’ve even spent a number of […]
Rebuttal to a Rebuttal: Let’s Talk Functional Density
Carol Becker is right about one thing in her September 18 opinion piece in the StarTribune (“Let’s Talk About What Density Really Is“): Having 150- to 250-unit apartment buildings spaced a half mile apart or more, with little in between, is not functional density. That’s it, though; the rest of the opinion piece is, well, […]
Ritzy Rafter Apartments in CenHen Opening August 1st
The new Rafter development will likely be one of the last large apartment buildings finished in Minneapolis before inclusionary zoning requires new construction to include affordable apartments. Pricing is out for units ranging from a 442 square-foot studio for $1,270 ($2.87 per square-foot) to a 2733square-foot 3-bed for $9,970 ($3.65 per square-foot). In other words, if they don’t […]