news from Chuck Repke

[District 1 Council]

So I am not sure why this rankles me so, but Chuck left a call that he has been marketing the old Ramada site for a couple of years (!) and it looks like someone is going to buy it and put 60 units of apartments there.

This seems crazy to me in light of Gold Line planning. No variances needed, fits zoning, -- he says it is a go.

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Betsy Leach

Executive Director/Cmty Organizer

District 1 Community Council
2105 1/2 Old Hudson Rd.
Saint Paul, MN 55119
651.578.7600 (office); 651.578.7404 (fax)
www.district1council.org (website)

www.district1council.blogspot.com (blog)

[Paul Sawyer]

A few things.

First, I'm very upset with Chuck for keeping us in the dark on this, not consulting us as to what things would be going into our soon to be submitted community plan, and not finding out how to integrate this into Gold Line.  This could be a very good development, but it feels like everything being kept secret is going to result in a bad project.

Betsy is correct that this fits withing the zoning (RM2).  However, given that this will literally abut a Gold Line station, this is not going far enough.  This will produce a development at 24.1 units per acre.  That meets the overall city density goal of 20 units per acre in the Thrive MSP 2040 plan, but doesn't even come close to the density goal of 50 units per acre next to transit stations that is laid out in the Transportation Policy Plan.  With RM2 zoning, they could produce a building on this site that is 72 units and 5 stories tall.  That brings us up to 28.9 units per acre which is still not great but at least a little better.

Beyond that, the RM2 district has a minimum front setback of 25 feet.  That does not work with TOD best practices which would suggest a residential setback of 5, maybe 10, feet.

The D1 Community Plan calls for this parcel to be rezoned to T3.  In that district, this building would have to be a minimum of 54,232 square feet (which it may actually be with the planned building, but we need that number to confirm), and could be built up to a 325,393 square foot, 45 foot tall building.  Additionally, the front setback in T3 is much better at 10 feet.

If this building meets the standards of both districts, I'm not inclined to fight it other than to request that it be rezoned to T3 as part of this change.  I'm still upset with this process, but let's just focus on getting the building right.

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