business

t was 1981, and a Canadian development company had received approval from the Edina Planning Commission for an office-warehouse complex on a mined-out gravel pit near France Avenue and Interstate Hwy. 494.

Gordon Hughes, then the city planner, had a last-minute meeting with the developers and said something like: "This whole thing complies with our plan and our zoning, and I think you're going to get it approved, but don't you think this property has a lot higher potential than this?"

More than 20 years later, as he sat outside the Two Guys from Italy restaurant across the water from the Centennial Lakes putting course and condominiums, Hughes -- now Edina city manager -- said he never would have believed his development dreams for the old gravel pit would be realized during his career -- much less that they would become a national model for "new urbanist" development in the suburbs.

But as communities ranging from Apple Valley to Eden Prairie to Coon Rapids to Woodbury work on ways of creating suburban places where residents can live, work, shop and play without driving, their city officials will probably visit Edinborough/Centennial Lakes -- granddaddy of suburban projects known by various names: mixed use, smart growth, pedestrian-friendly and new urbanist.

Urban planners say the bedroom communities of yesterday are evolving into more than that by adding developments that look like the Edina complex of office buildings, senior high-rise, condos and townhouses tied together by walking trails and recreational amenities such as paddleboats and golf in the summer and ice skating in winter.

The planners say this pedestrian-friendly approach is a better way of suburban living than the old way of life, which revolved around auto trips to work in the city and to shop in large stores or malls built next to vast parking lots. In the past few years, developers in the Twin Cities and around the country have begun to detect a demand for something different: suburban developments where shops are small and shoppers walk from place to place, to their homes and even to their place of work.

The Metropolitan Council and suburban officials are encouraging new-urbanist thinking that has yielded plans for Legacy Village in Apple Valley, Southwest Station in Eden Prairie, Port Riverwalk in Coon Rapids, City Walk in Woodbury and similar projects on redeveloped land in older suburbs, including one at Excelsior Blvd. and Hwy. 100 in St. Louis Park and another at 66th St. and Lyndale Av. S. in Richfield.

Quality community

Geoffrey Booth, who wrote a book on transforming suburban commercial districts for the Urban Land Institute, said these developments are a result of many social trends, including a feeling in the suburbs that people deserve more than big boxes along congested highways.

"Why is it that Europeans can enjoy this choice of places and the greatest country in the free world can't?" Booth asked. "So you've seen the Europeanization of retailing: town squares, main street, vastly improved architecture. We're wealthy. We're well-traveled. We're well-educated. We don't have to put up with this homogenization we've had to put up with for some time."

Hughes, of Edina, felt that way in 1981. Mary Hamann-Roland, mayor of Apple Valley, feels that way now as she shows off plans for an urban village just blocks from Cedar Avenue and County Rd. 42, Apple Valley's concession to the auto-oriented big-box shopping district that has evolved there over the past 20 years.

"We're really committed to a quality community," Hamann-Roland said in a recent interview. "And we see that our people want to have that kind of connectivity, that life, that vitality that a town gives to its citizens. And they want to be able to see one another. They want to go out and go to a restaurant and maybe walk on a street and connect with their neighbors and visit unique little shops."

Legacy Village at Apple Valley is the first phase of a project called Central Village planned for 65 acres of agricultural land just blocks from the center of what the city calls its downtown -- Cedar and 42. Cars carry shoppers at high speeds along those two divided highways to acres of parking that serve acres of retail space, including a Target Greatland, Cub Foods, Rainbow Foods, a Kmart (now closed), Menards, Sam's Club, Kohl's and more.

Apple Valley's old downtown, city officials admit, would not be described as pedestrian-friendly. They say the decisions to build the old way in the past and the new way now are both in response to the same force -- the market.

"When it comes to big-box development I guess we pretty much have most of it now, and the issue is what do we do as the next phase," said Rick Kelly, Apple Valley's community development director.

The market is ready for developments like Edinborough/ Centennial Lakes, said Kelly, who is quick to add that Legacy Village won't be just like Edina's urban village. But Legacy, like its Edina counterpart, will feature housing, shops, restaurants, office space and senior housing around a central lake with all elements connected by walking paths. Legacy Village will offer ice skating in the winter, a place to operate remote-control model boats in the summer and a multipurpose amphitheater for concerts and other events -- words that pretty much describe the components of Centennial Lakes.

"It really gives us the heart and soul of a community," Hamann-Roland said.

The lead developer of the Apple Valley project, Elizabeth Kautz, also is a fan of Centennial Lakes, but she prefers to talk about a similar development she's spearheading as mayor of Burnsville. It's called Heart of the City and will feature parkland, shops and restaurants in a European-village atmosphere, housing for seniors and others and lots of places for strolling and mingling. It's being built along an old commercial strip on Nicollet Av. S. and Burnsville Parkway.