Monday, January 14, 2013

Planning Commission Seeks Resident Feedback on Zoning Issues

Edina, Minn., Jan. 9, 2013 – The Edina Planning Commission and City staff are looking for resident input on www.SpeakUpEdina.org and at two public meetings to address zoning and residential redevelopment issues affecting the City.

“Single-family home massing, or large ‘McMansions’ replacing smaller homes has become a controversial issue in the City,” said Cary Teague, Edina’s Community Development Director. “The City of Edina has attempted to address this issue in the past by making changes to zoning regulations; however, the issue has been raised again. What we want now is to hear what problems and issues residents are experiencing with new home construction and what they think might be good solutions.”

The Planning Commission established a working group to identify residential zoning issues and suggest possible changes to current zoning codes and policies. To accomplish this, the working group is soliciting public feedback online at www.SpeakUpEdina.org/discussions/residential-redevelopment/.

In addition, two public meetings will be held to gather additional resident input: 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, Jan. 26 and 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31, both at the Edina Senior Center, 5280 Grandview Square. Residents are welcome to attend one or both meetings to provide comments and suggestions. The format will be similar for both meetings.

“When we are considering changes to the existing code, we want to make sure we fully understand the issues at hand,” said Michael Platteter, Planning Commissioner and member of the working group. “We know there are issues from the feedback to date. In 2012, for example, the issues were escalated because of the high number of new homes being built. We want to get feedback directly from residents on what they have seen as far as issues and what they think are good solutions.” According to the Building Inspections division, 101 new home permit applications were accepted in 2012.

The working group has found that most issues fall under two themes – construction project impact and new home sizes, heights and setbacks.

“These are issues we have seen brought up over and over,” Teague said. “By soliciting feedback, we hope we can find solutions and maybe uncover problems we didn’t even know existed.”

Online feedback will be taken until Feb 15. Findings from the public meetings and online discussion will be presented to the Planning Commission at a meeting in February. The Planning Commission will then make a recommendation and determine the next steps with the City Council at its March 5 joint work session.

For more information, call the City’s Planning Division at 952-826-0369.

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The City of Edina
4801 W. 50th St., Edina, MN 55424
mail@EdinaMN.gov 952-927-8861

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