Update (5/3): The East Harriet Neighborhood Association has filed an appeal of the CPC decision to approve this project. They are saying that this will have negative impacts on traffic, walkability & cyclist safety, as well as “neighborhood character”. See below for how to help.
Update (4/23): This project was approved! Thanks to everyone who sent in some words of support.
Bryant and 36th is a proposal for a new 41-unit residential building with underground parking located at 3612–3616 Bryant Avenue South. It will replace a one story building and surface parking lot. It is located on the Bryant Avenue Community Corridor and within a Neighborhood Commercial Node. The 41 units range is size from 405 to 903 square feet from efficiencies to one- and two- bedrooms. The underground garage will provide spaces for 20 vehicles and 21 bicycles. This location is well served by four bus routes along with the Bryant Bike Boulevard and 36th St Protected Bikeway.
The project will be coming before the City Planning Commission on Monday, April 23rd. It needs your support. Nearby residents have concerns, mostly about parking; they are requesting at least 41 parking spaces. This is unnecessary. This location is great to live car-free or car-lite because it is transit rich and has access to two bikeways. Smaller scale projects like this have been made possible due to the City not requiring unnecessary parking. There are better locations to live if you want to drive everywhere. Each additional parking space here would add tens of thousands of dollars to construction costs, which would then simply be passed onto the tenants. If anything, this project lacks enough bike parking.
If you’re available to attend the meeting in person on the 23rd it starts at 4:30 pm in City Hall, Room 317. You can read the project’s staff report here.
How to help: deny the appeal
Send a short email in support of this project (even two or three sentences will do) to Hilary Dvorak, and consider copying CPC commissioners (listed below). This appeal’s hearing will be at the City Planning Commission on Monday, May 3rd at 10:00 AM, so make sure to get your email in reasonably in advance of that. The meeting agenda is available here.
Hilary Dvorak (Principal City Planner) — hilary.dvorak@minneapolismn.gov
Lisa Bender (Ward 10 City Council) — lisa.bender@minneapolismn.gov
Talking Points
- I support this project, please deny the appeal.
- This area is served well by transit and bike options, so it’s a great location for a project like this.
- I support the staff recommendation, but would like to request more than 21 bike parking spaces.
- Minneapolis has an acute housing shortage and low vacancy rates, we need to support more housing.
- This is an area designated for mixed use, the first floor should be designed so it can be adapted to retail/mixed use space in the future.
- The project has more than enough parking and will not add any additional parking demands to the area. It is a good location to use transit, walk, and bike.
- I’d like to see bike racks on the Bryant Ave S facing side of this project.
- Please approve the conditional use permit to increase the height of the building from 2.5 stories/35 feet to 5 stories/50 feet.
- Grant the variance to increase the maximum permitted Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of the building from 2.04 to 2.38.
- Allow the variance to reduce the south interior side yard setback from 13 feet to 11 feet for the building.
- Approve the site plan review for this new 41-unit residential building.
- This fits in within the Community Corridor and Neighborhood Commercial Node, as well as the draft comprehensive plan’s land use designation.
- Allowing more people to live in the city can help us tackle climate change.
- This is a much better use of limited space and a good infill development.
- Let’s welcome more neighbors.
- By building in areas with many available transportation modes it encourages people to use those modes (walk, bus, bike).
