Brickstone Partners has submitted a new project design for an 8-story apartment project at 3100 West Lake for informal review by the Minneapolis Planning Department (CPED) and the Planning Commission’s Committee of the Whole (COW) at a meeting that is expected to take place at 4:30pm at City Hall, Room 319, on April 27. The PDF file submitted to CPED by Brickstone, which contains many photographs, maps, renderings, plans and perspectives, can be downloaded here. The COW agenda and CPED staff report, when available, will be posted here. Presented below are renderings of the project selected from the Brickstone submission.
Source: Brickstone Partners PDF submission submitted to CPED April 18,2017, page 14.
Source: Brickstone Partners PDF submission to CPED dated April 18, 2017, page 9.
Source: Brickstone Partners PDF submission to CPED dated April 18,2017, page 10.
Source: Brickstone Partners PDF submission to CPED dated April 18, 2017, page 16.
Source: Brickstone Partners PDF submission dated April 18, 2017, page 15.
CIDNA Response: Brickstone invited CIDNA’s Land Use and Development Committee to informally review the project on Thursday, April 13. Brickstone submitted its proposal to the city on Tuesday, April 18, so CIDNA was unable to formally respond to the proposal. The Committee met on Monday, April 17 to provide informal and preliminary feedback to Brickstone, CPED, and the Planning Commission. Many pages in Brickstone’s submission were not shown to the Committee on April 13, so a more complete review of the submission by the Committee will be forthcoming after input from the homeowners associations, the neighborhood, and the community during the coming weeks and months. Brickstone expects to meet with CIDNA and the HOAs in the near future. There follows CIDNA’s preliminary comments about the project:
The design addresses many of the concerns that the Committee has communicated to Brickstone since our first project meeting on October 3, 2016:
- Height and setback, while not ideal, would reasonably respect the neighbors and the Shoreland.
- The height precedents of Lakes Residences and Edgewater on Lake Calhoun within the Shoreland Overlay District would be reasonably respected.
- The project would offer attractive design with glass, materials, articulation and clean contemporary lines.
- There would be reasonable setback from Lake Street to address the interface with adjacent buildings and work toward a respectful pedestrian environment.
- The emergency generator would be located away from the neighbors on the northeast ground corner.
- HVAC would be accomplished with magic packs, which are small individual heating and cooling units on the wall in each apartment, not environmentally ideal, but perhaps modestly quiet for the neighbors under many circumstances.
- The 8th-floor roof would be clean with no overruns except the elevator, and the swimming pool attractively located on the 7th-floor roof.
Before CIDNA supports the project, or agrees not to oppose it, we must address the following unresolved issues:
- Traffic and staging during construction: CIDNA is extremely concerned about traffic disruption during construction in this very congested section of Lake Street.
- Access to the project after completion: The westerly curb cut on this site would be eliminated, creating more complicated traffic patterns and potentially unsafe pedestrian environment. Issues of U turns, improved crosswalks, and other traffic-pedestrian issues should be addressed.
- Verify any structures that would be located on the roof.
- Lighting plan as it affects pedestrians and the neighbors in this very tight urban environment.
- Detailed review of landscape interface with the neighbors.
- Plan to protect the neighbors from construction damage including a reasonable agreement to compensate neighbors from construction damage. Construction easements may be part of this discussion. (The COW should know that the neighboring Loop Condominiums have borrowed $1.8 million to pay for construction damage caused by the Trammell Crow project. A lawsuit is pending. CIDNA wants to avoid a repeat of this kind of damage.)
- Reasonable, timely and transparent process for the community to review the project including meetings with the homeowners associations and CIDNA.
- Approval by the CIDNA Board of Directors.
Given these unresolved issues, CIDNA requests another COW meeting at the appropriate time to review the project. The Committee’s comments are subject to review of all additional documents and submissions by Brickstone (including the developer’s submission for the April 27th COW meeting, which the Committee was not shown before submission.)
CIDNA looks forward to working with Brickstone and the city on this important project in one of our most densely populated areas.
Next Steps: Brickstone and CIDNA will work with stakeholders during the coming weeks and months to address project improvements, clarifications and unresolved issues. Follow this website (click the Follow Button) for updates, announcements, and meetings. Please submit questions and comments to corrickcidna@gmail.com.
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