Update (4/9): The City Planning Commission approved most of the applications, and some variances were returned to the applicant, otherwise the project was approved pending appeal (10 days grace period). The applicant will be required to work with the city to improve the sidewalk, and, as a condition of sale of the city lot in this project, 20% of the units must be housing affordable to people at 60% area median income or less. There is now more at stake in this project’s approval beyond market rate housing.
The Jackson Lofts are a proposal for 16 homes at 750/754/756 Jackson St NE. The project will contain 6 surface parking spaces, and 14 bike parking spaces (split between indoor and outdoor). The project is in a walkable area of Northeast, near to jobs, schools, and transit. It is two blocks from a high frequency bus route, and the same distance from another bus route and other transit connections. It will replace a 1.5-story house with a 4-story building. The first floor will contain live/work units, and ADA accessible units.
The neighborhood organization representing some people in the area has published their own call to action, asking people with “concerns” to email (which will invite the usual suspects to send emails in opposition). The project will be coming before the City Planning Commission on April 9th.
How to help
Send a short email in support of this project (even two or three sentences will do) to the City Planning Commission members. This project’s hearing will be at the CPC on April 9th at 4:30PM, so make sure to get your email in reasonably in advance of that. The meeting agenda is here, and the full staff report is here.
If you don’t want to copy/paste, click here to CC both.
Shanna Sether (City Planner) — shanna.sether@minneapolismn.gov
Steve Fletcher (Ward 3 City Council) — steve.fletcher@minneapolismn.gov
Talking Points
- I support this project.
- This project conforms to the approved St. Anthony East Neighborhood Small Area Plan, which calls for “higher density, mixed-use development of four to five stories along Northeast Broadway Street” (p. 35)
- This project conforms to the proposed Minneapolis 2040 comprehensive plan, which specifies the lots on the south side of Broadway Ave NE as Neighborhood Mixed Use / Corridor 4 on the Land Use and Built Form maps. Like the Small Area Plan, this classification calls for mixed-use buildings of up to four stories, with active uses on the ground floor and residential uses above.
- I support the rezoning from R1A to OR1. This project is on Broadway, near to Central, and can stand to have more intense uses, as called for in the Small Area Plan and proposed Comprehensive Plan. While the south side of Broadway is primarily single-family and duplex zoning, there are non-conforming apartment buildings of this approximate scale sprinkled throughout, and the north side of Broadway is industrially zoned and contains buildings significantly larger than this proposal. OR1 is an appropriate zoning classification for this site.
- I support the Conditional Use Permit for added height. While the immediately surrounding properties on the south side of Broadway are two-story residential, this project is significantly set back from adjacent buildings, and will rarely if ever shadow them. Across Broadway is a 3.5 story commercial building of approximately the same height as this proposal. This project is not out of scale with the surrounding neighborhood.
- The project has more than enough parking, and will not add any additional parking demands to the area.
- There is increasing demand for housing in Northeast, this project is very close to jobs, parks, schools and high-frequency transit. It is also connected to the U of M, and a very short transit ride to downtown.
- The project is two blocks from the 10, a high frequency route going up and down Central, and two blocks from the 17, and on the 30, a route connecting to the Green Line in St. Paul
- This project does not remove the existing alleyway serving this block, but relocates it to the south side of the proposed building. The developer is required to maintain alleyway access and truck maneuvering room within the redevelopment site.
Small Area Plan notes
The St. Anthony East Small Area Plan supports building housing of this type, by explicitly calling for: mixed use along Broadway, “comparatively higher density” along Broadway, and 4–5 story buildings between Washington and Jackson. This is important to note, because some are interpreting the Small Area Plan to oppose this development. It also recognizes that “change over the next 20 years is inevitable”, and one of the trends is mixed-use residential.
