Coon Rapids completes plan for Port Riverwalk

A group of Coon Rapids residents put finishing touches Tuesday on a document of principles to guide development of the Port Riverwalk site in the city.

About 75 people participated in a series of four meetings that included discussions on values and feasibility and interaction with developers and city planning officials.

By the end of Tuesday's 2 1/2-hour meeting, residents agreed that the development, along Coon Rapids Boulevard between Egret Boulevard and Avocet Street, should have a threefold set of priorities:

• To create a distinctive sense of place in the city, highlighting and linking the city's historic, commercial and natural assets.

• To forge links between transit, retail, parks and trails.

• To strengthen the city's tax base with mixed-use development, retail, office and a range of residential options.

In small-group discussions, residents tweaked language in a draft document created from their previous meetings.

The site had been approved to hold 300 units of townhouses and senior housing. But the plan was scrapped last year as the housing market faltered.

City officials then decided to offer residents an opportunity to weigh in, with the caveat that projects had to be financially feasible, and that the city would like to recoup its $15 million investment in 32 acres on the 80-acre site.

The city worked with Corridor Housing Initiative (CHI), a Minneapolis-based group that helps cities gather community input into development along major corridors.

CHI coordinator Gretchen Nicholls noted that she has watched residents learn to balance between dream developments and reality.

The hope, she said, is that the process will help people understand that important priorities may require a tradeoff.