While confessing that I'm not well-versed in housing sizes, 17 bedrooms in four units on a 10,000 square foot lot sounds pretty decent to me with my two-story house that has about 1300 square feet and four bedrooms. How many stories is this proposed building?
And if it's a four-unit building located on a bus line, is there really a need for more than four or five off-street parking spaces? Perhaps some of those 17 bedrooms would be occupied by children - they don't need parking spaces, do they? And given our already-congested metro freeways, do we really need to be encouraging more 2-car families? The no basements is something that would concern me, since that means potential living space gets used for mechanicals like furnace and washer/dryer and there's less storage space overall, but other than that, I'm not sure I see the big problem here. Was there any reason given for why no basements? Since one of the current/previous occupants of the site was reportedly a transmission shop, were there concerns about digging and finding contaminated soil? If so, that's something that should be addressed before any building gets underway. However, adding density in our neighborhoods can be a GOOD thing, provided it's not landlords pulling sleazy stunts like what apparently happened to Sean Ryan's girlfriend or the latest saga with Eischens Management. Part of the problem we have in Minneapolis as far as I can see is that people seem to want suburban-style homes with the big lots here in the city. There's a fair number of those kinds of homes located in the area around 33rd and Stinson. My suggestion for those who want such homes or to live amongst them is that they go live in the 'burbs rather than interfere with opportunities to make smart use of available land. Given the location, I'm tempted to suspect that the concerns lie less with the actual building being proposed and more with prejudices related to the fact that Minneapolis Urban League is involved and it's part of the Hollman decree. I'm sure there are more than a few Waite Park residents who aren't really excited about "those" people coming into the neighborhood. I saw the same kind of thing recently at a Windom Park meeting where a housing project was being discussed. Lots of grandstanding about too much traffic and such that the project would bring, when it was apparent that more of the discomfort came from the fact that supportive services would be available for single-parent families that have had problems with disabilities or homelessness (aka "those" people). Mark Snyder Windom Park REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
