Edina affordable-housing plan passes, but few are happy

After almost two years of community debate, Edina has approved a comprehensive plan update that rejects denser, more urban-style development as a way to rejuvenate the aging suburb filled with expensive single-family homes.

Dozens of public meetings, hard work by citizen volunteers and the guidance of a professional consultant steered Edina through one of the most deliberate and open comprehensive plan updates in the Twin Cities.

Yet, at the recent meeting where the City Council unanimously sent it on to the Metropolitan Council for review, the mood was decidedly sour, both among the council members and the audience.

A dozen residents came forward to castigate council members for reducing goals for affordable housing in the plan, which will help guide development in Edina for the next decade.

Before the council vote, Mayor Jim Hovland complained that the final plan "eviscerated" recommendations calling for more multi-story, affordable residential development, which he said was key to luring younger people into the city.

"To me, this plan does not reflect the majority opinion of this council. It is a document fashioned to satisfy the requirements of the Met Council," Hovland said. "It doesn't reflect my vision, frankly, and I don't think it reflects the vision of many other people in this town. It just reflects the vision of those who chose to show up."

But Council Member Joni Bennett said the plan, while a compromise, reflected the voice of residents she heard at meeting after meeting saying they did not want more high-rises in Edina. While most people did not oppose change, she said, "an overwhelming majority" wanted to make sure the city remained the place they moved to -- "not be an urban environment, a suburban environment."

Bennett and fellow Council Member Linda Masica, who is leaving the council next year, were determined that the plan should reflect what they saw as the overwhelming sentiment among residents against dense development. The plan couldn't pass with their opposition.

Drafts of the plan had included a proposed new high-rise residential neighborhood of buildings up to 16 stories high in the now-industrial area between Cahill Road, the Bloomington border and Hwy. 100. Taller buildings were proposed in other areas of the city, too, and affordable housing goals included about 500 new rental or owner-occupied units.

The proposal for "Cahill Gardens" vanished when the council decided that existing light industry there was thriving and providing a good mix of jobs. Proposed building heights were dropped in other neighborhoods, and the goal for affordable housing dropped to 212 units -- the number the Met Council had suggested for Edina.

After facing a barrage of criticism last spring from residents who didn't like proposals for density and high-rises, the council, in its final meeting about the plan, faced people like Sharon Ming, a member of the housing task force that met 40 times over two years.

"I don't know why you created that public process and then ignored it," Ming said. She said the plan "has a lot of history, a lot of words, and very little vision, very little strategy, very few ideas about what this city needs to do."

"The original draft was a reflection of the vision of the consultant, whose focus was largely urban development," he said. "I went to many of the public meetings, and to say this doesn't reflect public sentiment is incorrect. I applaud the council for its work."

After the meeting, Hovland said the requirement for a council supermajority had diluted innovation in the plan. While he said he was pleased with new ideas for transportation, he was concerned that Edina had missed a chance to develop housing that could attract young families who later would fill single-family homes, which have a median price of about $450,000. Edina residents are, on average, among the oldest in the Twin Cities.

"You can't ride these relentlessly aging people into the future. You have to figure out what is coming behind," Hovland said. "So how do we get young people in town?"

He said he reluctantly voted for the document because "it was the plan that could be approved."

Bennett said Edina has affordable housing but needs to be more aggressive in using existing programs to help young families buy single-family homes. "There are strategies we can use that do not mean transforming the city into something residents don't want," she said. As approved, she said, the plan "reflects much better ... what the community wants for itself."

"Do we all agree on everything? No, we don't," he said. "But do we agree on a document that we can get four votes on? Maybe five? I think that's what this is. I don't think it's perfect.

"It's sort of a reflection of where Edina is right now. We're at a transition stage. ... At the end of the day we struck a balance, an equilibrium where we aren't all 100 percent satisfied but that as a council we can move forward with."