Golden Valley Mayor’s Minutes: Hwy. 55 Redevelopment and Fire Station Plans
Golden Valley Mayor Shep Harris sat down with Dave Kiser to discuss redevelopment news along Highway 55 and updates to the planning of a new fire station in this Golden Valley Mayor’s Minutes. They also talked about some upcoming changes to the city council residents can expect this election year, and a reminder about Run the Valley.
Downtown Redevelopment
The city of Golden Valley and the city council, with a great deal of community input, have been working with the Urban Land Institute on a downtown study. The focus of the study is to investigate a number of questions around redevelopment. Now, initial moves are being made to allow for some of that redevelopment by doing different rezoning.
“And so, southeast corner of Highway 55 and Winnetka [Avenue], where it’s been single-family homes for many, many decades, we’re now looking to increase that density a little bit. So there could be townhomes or even potentially an apartment in the future,” said Harris.
Similarly, higher density housing could also be moving into the northwest corner of Hwy. 55 and Winnetka Ave. where the Wells Fargo bank and former Park Nicollet clinic sit.
“We’re rezoning that, and we’ve already seen the proposal,” said Harris. “The idea is that the Wells Fargo building will move over to the old Park Nicollet site. And where Wells Fargo is now, you’ll see roughly a 300-unit apartment with some affordable housing in it.”
The apartment complex proposal still needs to be approved by the Metropolitan Council.
Proposed Sentinel Apartments on the Northwest Corner of Hwy 55 and Winnetka Ave.
Fire Station Planning
The search continues for the site of a new remote fire station that would replace Fire Station 2 and 3. However, Harris had good news for concerned residents.
“Residents will be happy to know–some specific residents will be happy to know–that we, the city council, decided to move away from looking at using eminent domain to take some residential homes,” Harris said.
He added the council’s primary focus now is on the MnDOT facility located west of Hwy. 100 and north of Duluth St. The intention is to potentially use a portion of the MnDOT facility.
City Council Changes
April is an unusual time to discuss the fall election season, but Harris had a couple important announcements regarding the city council.
Earlier this year, council member Kimberly Sanberg announced that she and her family are going to be moving out of the country in June. Harris said there would be a process for appointing someone to replace her until the end of her term which ends at the end of this year. Her seat will then be up for election, along with one other council seat, this fall.
Additionally, Harris announced the mayor’s seat will also be open and up for election this fall.
“I will not be seeking reelection. Twelve years has been…it’s been a wonderful ride, but my family’s made some sacrifices for me, and now my wife’s going back to graduate school. Now it’s my time to make some sacrifices for her and give more attention to the family and my day job,” said Harris.
Run the Valley
Lastly, Run the Valley is coming up soon on Saturday, Apr. 15. The event includes a Kids Fun Run, followed by a 10K, a 5K Run and a 5K Walk. Courses begin and end at Brookview Golden Valley. Register online or in person the day of the event. For more information, go to Golden Valley’s Run the Valley webpage.
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