Bloomington residents fight cut-through road in quiet neighborhood

Residents of a Bloomington neighborhood are fighting a noisy battle to preserve their peace and quiet.

When a developer proposed to connect two separated sections of Overlook Drive and allow cut-through traffic, hundreds of people mobilized. They packed public meetings to overflowing. They carpeted the area with signs. They sent letters by the score to City Council members and put more than 1,300 signatures on a petition against the plan.

The council yielded to the intense opposition, voting 5-2 last month to deny the proposal for a 13-home subdivision and road connection bordering the Dwan Golf Course on the Minnesota River bluffs.

"They're counting noses," said Mayor Gene Winstead, who voted in favor of the road. "We're still political animals, and there are elections."

But in rejecting the proposal, the council appears to have overstepped its legal bounds. Under Minnesota law, once a city creates a comprehensive plan and zoning laws, it can't reject projects that fit within the guidelines. The new subdivision, christened Dwan Bluff, meets every code requirement.

Council members are scrambling to come up with a solution that will both pass legal muster and satisfy agitated voters. The council has rescinded its vote against the project and will reopen public comment on the proposal at its next meeting, set for Oct. 13.

"This is democracy. This is how this should play out," said Council Member Andrew Carlson, who voted against the road. "This should play out in a public setting where people have a chance … to be heard."

Last remnant of Dwan estate

The area in question is the last remnant of the Dwan estate. The late Dr. Paul Dwan was a pioneer in pediatric cardiology at the University of Minnesota and an early resident of the river bluff area. Dwan, who died in 1983, donated land for the golf course named in his honor, which opened in 1970.

Overlook Drive, which runs for several miles along the bluff, was never completed through the estate. It dead-ends on both the east and west sides of the Dwan property, leaving a gap of about 300 yards and preventing traffic from passing through the neighborhood.

Overlook Drive features large homes set well back on spacious, leafy lots. Residents of the street and the surrounding area say they moved there for the feeling of a country enclave. That sentiment extends to people from the surrounding neighborhoods, who walk and bike on the quiet street.

"We have coyotes, deer, raccoons, red fox," said Andrea McGauley, who lives with Mike Mulligan, an Overlook Drive resident for more than 40 years. "We have bluebirds, eagles, owls, wild turkeys. There are neighborhoods in Bloomington that should be protected from the growth and the concrete."

But now Dwan's daughter, Roberta Laird, is subdividing the last 15 acres of her father's estate for homes that will sell for $800,000 and up. Peter Jarvis, who's developing the property, said the project follows every requirement the city placed on it.

"We attempted to design a very responsible plan that did not require any variances from the city," he said. "And we succeeded in doing it."

Leader of the opposition

Tony Schoenecker and his wife bought their home on Overlook Drive only eight months ago. Formerly the caretaker's residence on the Dwan estate, the house features a barn and a windmill. They keep chickens in the yard. By all accounts, Schoenecker has been the leader of the fight against the proposed road.

"We went back in there and fell in love," he said. "It's a little oasis in Bloomington, and that's why everyone is fighting so hard to keep it that way."

Bloomington has relatively few east-west routes, Schoenecker said. Opening Overlook Drive to through traffic will create "a major thoroughfare for commuters. The concern is that people will use this as one of the main cut-throughs from Highway 169 all the way to [Interstate] 35W."

Jarvis, the developer, commissioned an engineering study showing that projected traffic would be well within acceptable levels for a typical residential street. The opposition group fired back with its own study projecting higher levels of traffic.

Winstead said it's a matter of fairness and good planning.

"In good city planning, it's best to have residential streets go through. It spreads out the traffic," he said. "Definitely, the traffic patterns in that area will change. It has to, going from nothing to something. But it's not going to be anything off-the-chart nuts."

And besides, he added: "Legally, we don't have a choice."

John Reinan • 612-673-7402