The corner of McKnight and Lower Afton roads could become a hub of housing and retail. So could the intersection of Cleveland and St. Clair avenues, or for that matter, Maryland Avenue at Dale Street.
St. Paul wants and needs to grow, and to do that, city planners have pinpointed 56 intersections where denser new housing, retail, transit stops and other important services could happily co-exist. That may mean lifting zoning and density restrictions, or taking advantage of zoning that already exists, to incorporate these future “neighborhood nodes” into local planning.
“We want to have a range of services, from retail to doctor’s offices, within a 20-minute walk of everyone in this city,” said principal city planner Lucy Thompson.
City planners will discuss the “neighborhood nodes” strategy during two public presentations on St. Paul’s proposed 2040 Comprehensive Plan, the first of which is Saturday. Comprehensive plans, required by the Metropolitan Council every 10 years, lay out how cities intend to grow, as well as how they’ll grapple with key concerns such as water quality and transportation over the next 20 years. The city’s last comprehensive plan was approved nearly a decade ago.
The Met Council, Ramsey County, the St. Paul Board of Education and neighboring cities have received preliminary copies of the 2040 draft plan, which has been hammered out over the course of 67 community meetings since 2015 and spans 210 pages. The St. Paul Planning Commission will host a public hearing on the plan, likely in January, before it goes to the St. Paul City Council for its final local review. The wide-ranging plan will be submitted to the Met Council next year.
Page 43 of the draft 2040 plan features an informative land-use map.
OPEN HOUSES TUESDAY, SATURDAY
The draft plan is separated into six major chapters on land use, transportation, parks and open space, housing, water resources, and historic preservation. The chapters touch on six themes — urban design, economic development, resiliency in the face of intense environmental changes, public health, helping residents remain in their neighborhoods as they age, and reducing racial disparities through equitable distribution of city services.
Each chapter is overseen by a different city planner, or “chapter lead,” who will discuss details at two community open houses in the next week. The first takes place from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the Rondo Community Library, 461 N. Dale St. The second open house is 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Arlington Hills Community Center, Community Room A, 1200 Payne Ave.
Housing issues are a key part of the draft comprehensive plan, which Thompson said touches on “the full range, from dealing with homelessness to market-rate housing … rental and home ownership.” While Minneapolis, which is also finalizing its comprehensive plan this year, has proposed allowing four-plex apartments virtually everywhere in the city, Thompson said St. Paul’s draft plan doesn’t specify four-plexes in any particular area. “We don’t get that specific,” she said. “We don’t say it should be everywhere. We don’t put it on a map.”
THE MISSING MIDDLE
Instead, the draft plan calls for greater density in “neighborhood nodes,” which would be distinct from the city’s 30 large-scale “opportunity sites” — designated areas such as the former Ford manufacturing campus in Highland Park or the defunct Hillcrest Golf Course at Larpenteur Avenue and McKnight Road. Opportunity sites may span dozens of acres and are ripe for major redevelopment. Page 43 of the draft 2040 plan features an informative land-use map.
Even in areas outside of major development areas, Thompson said, new types of housing could help fill in what she calls “the missing middle.”
“We’re really good at (building) single-family and duplex housing,” Thompson said, “and at the ’60-units or more’ level. But what about the eight-unit apartment? We haven’t built them for probably 50 years. They’re reasonable increases in density. … We’re looking for smaller, incremental neighborhood investments.”
In particular, the draft plan calls for the city to continue studying how to help seniors remain in their homes or neighborhoods as they age. Adjusting rules on the number of unrelated people who live together, for example, could make it easier for seniors to rent rooms out to students, a buffer against rising property taxes. The St. Paul Planning Commission plans to hold hearings on a proposal that would allow the widespread use of “accessory dwelling units,” or mother-in-law apartments.
See the plan at stpaul.gov/saintpaul4all.