Continued: Big decision on Bloomington SuperTarget is today

Seventeen months of fiery meetings, petitions and warring websites come to a head today when the Bloomington City Council makes a critical decision about the proposed construction of a SuperTarget at one of the city's most congested intersections.

Hundreds of people are expected to attend the meeting at City Hall, where officials say the uproar over Target's proposal to build a store at Normandale Boulevard and Old Shakopee Road is unprecedented. Every department or commission connected to City Hall that has looked at the project has recommended denial, including city planning staff, the city engineer, the Planning Commission and a transportation advisory group.

The City Council will conduct the public hearing tonight beginning at  7 p.m. The meeting will be held at Bloomington Civic Plaza, 1800 West Old Shakopee Road.

As of Friday, phone calls, e-mails and letters from more than 1,700 individuals were running 5 to 1 against the project. Because the Target proposal requires amending the city's comprehensive plan, more than a simple majority of council members is needed to clear the way for the project. Five of seven council members must support the change.

But Target hasn't given up. It has pushed hard for the project, sending mailings to city voters promising that the $40 million development would create more than 350 new jobs and increase shopping convenience. The board of directors of the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce voted unanimously to support the development, though an earlier survey of chamber membership earned only 67 percent support.

"We have worked hard to partner with the city and the county and the neighborhood," said Amy Spencer, a Target spokeswoman. "We hope the City Council will be favorable to what we think will be a phenomenal project for Bloomington."

From industrial to retail

The new store would occupy part of a 22-acre site at the southwest corner of Normandale and Old Shakopee, now the site of a vacant warehouse. The area is designated for industrial use in the city's comprehensive plan and would need to be reclassified as community commercial.

While city planners say the development would weaken nearby retail areas and remove a needed industrial zone, the strongest objections from neighborhood residents have been about traffic congestion. The intersection already has serious rush-hour traffic jams that city staff say will worsen if a SuperTarget is built there.

Target argues that 20 modifications to roads and the intersection, which the firm would pay for, would ensure that traffic flows as it does now. But an analysis done for the city says that to widen roads for turn lanes, strips of land 10 to 12 feet wide would have to be taken from private owners that include a condo association, some single-family homes, a day-care center and a gas station.

Neighbors object to traffic

John Williamson lives in the Manor Homes of Normandale, a 156-unit condominium development on the intersection's northeast corner that would lose land. Williamson, chairman of the residents' Stop Target Committee, said his group already opposed the project because of traffic and tax implications. The need to give up land for road expansion that would bring vehicles closer only strengthens that opposition, he said.

"Our big concern is we've got a corporation making changes to public streets to facilitate their development, and forsaking what people and the neighbors think of it," he said.

Pat Reichert lives in one of the condos nearest the intersection and is on oxygen for chronic lung disease. She said a retaining wall that would need to be built if the road was expanded would trap pollution near her residence and create a health threat.

"I have nothing against Target, but this is a real health issue for me," she said. "I wouldn't even be able to open my window."

One of the neighborhood residents who has led opposition to the project and who plans to attend Monday's meeting is Vicki Wisniewski. She lives 1.3 miles from the intersection, helps run an anti-development website and said she has probably worked an average of an hour a day on opposition to the project for the past 16 months.

"It's going to take away from the quality of life for everybody in this neighborhood," she said. "That intersection is the only way for several thousand residents to get from the east side to the west side of the city. I use it to get to the grocery store, to my son's school, to the post office, to friends' houses. ... Traffic is already a D there. It will go down to an F, and that is just not acceptable."

A voice of support

Karen Jenks, who lives a couple of miles from the project site, also will be at the meeting, but she wants to testify in support. Jenks said she considers the existing industrial park "an eyesore" and thinks the new store and other amenities such as a new Starbucks would improve the area.

"I want our community to look nice again," she said. "Target is willing to invest $40 million to improve it. ... That's an investment that in my opinion the council can't turn down."

Jenks said she believes that traffic to a SuperTarget would be more desirable than the dozens of semitrailer trucks that could be back each day if the warehouse was used again.

Mary Jane Smetanka • 612-673-7380