Residents Skeptical of Brooklyn Park’s “Project Hotdish”
As CCX News reported on Friday, Brooklyn Park’s so-called “Project Hotdish” is on hold. At least until next year. However many residents think it’s only a matter of time before their neighborhood will experience a significant change.
“The sunsets, the openness,” said Brooklyn Park resident Genevieve Loberg. “It used to be all fields.”
Project Hotdish might be on hiatus, but some people are skeptical about the prospects of a mammoth fulfillment center occupied by an unnamed Fortune 500 company. If plans proceed, it would take up a quarter of the 227-acre NorthPark Business Center. Many residents speculate the future tenant will be Amazon.
“I would be against it,” Loberg said.
“As a neighbor we are not too crazy about it as a neighborhood,” another resident told CCX Reporter Eric Nelson.
Traffic Jams, Home Values Are Concerns
The mega facility would be the largest industrial building in the Twin Cities, creating 2,500 jobs. According to city documents, Project Hotdish would put more than 2,000 trucks and 5,300 vehicles a day on nearby roads, which residents believe are already at capacity.
“It’s going to be mad,” said the same resident who lives just a few yards from the eastern boundary of Project Hotdish. “Getting out of here is going to be crazy and we don’t know what else they are going to bring in. Part of it is the unknown.”
“If a person’s got to be some place or get to work,” Loberg said, “you don’t want to have to sit there for 10 minutes or so before you can get out.”
If Hotdish does become reality, people are bracing for change. They know the pumpkin patches, farm fields and geese will be replaced by a four-story facility. With new housing developments close to the site, there is also a fear that home values will go down.
“[The Cove at Northwoods Park] just went up and the homes across on Oxbow Creek just went up,” Loberg said. “There’s some really nice homes and if people move out, there would be a lot of homes sitting there.”
The northern border of this project is 109th Avenue which separates Brooklyn Park and Champlin. BP’s neighbor would clearly be impacted by Hotdish too.
