Edina Y finds an unusual but fitting partner

When the YMCA began planning to replace its busy but aging Southdale branch in Edina, it looked to an unusual partner: a group that wants to build affordable housing aimed in part at people with multiple sclerosis (MS).

The YMCA's proposal for a new 73,000-square-foot center is moving through Edina City Hall now, along with a planned companion building with 130 apartments that would be both affordable and accessible to people with physical disabilities.

"When the 'Y' wanted to bring housing back into their strategic vision, they naturally thought of us," said Deb Sakry Lande, director of community relations for CommonBond Communities based in St. Paul. "They said, 'We've got the land, you guys do housing, well, we can partner.'"

Preliminary redevelopment plans for the YMCA's existing site at 7355 York Av. S. were approved last month by the city's Planning Commission. The City Council will hold a public hearing on those plans on Tuesday.

The Edina YMCA is one of the state's busiest, with more than 14,000 members and equal numbers of nonmembers who use the facility, said Harold Mezile, president and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Minneapolis. But the 1970s-era building is dated and inefficient, he said. Though a new building would be only 3,000 square feet bigger, more efficient use of space means the YMCA would be able to run 20 percent more programming there.

Instead of the one large pool and small therapy pool that exist now, the new $16 million building would have a pool for lap swimming and a second one that could be used for lessons and by children, Mezile said. Plans also include a larger gym and aerobic areas.

But the innovative part of the project is the partnership with CommonBond, a nonprofit that since 1971 has developed and managed affordable housing in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. The group already has three developments in Edina, which Lande described as a city that has been receptive to its projects. Two of those developments -- Summit Point and South Haven -- are aimed at seniors. The other, the 90-unit Yorkdale Townhomes, stands next door to the YMCA.

In an e-mail to the Star Tribune last week, Edina Police Chief Mike Siitari said, "Over the last few years there has been significant improvement out there, including a drop in calls for service. The property management is cooperative and we work closely with them."

At the commission hearing, Yorkdale resident Steve Olson told commissioners that living there had allowed him to be able to afford to attend college while he was also working. He said proximity to transit allowed his wife to work too, even though the family has only one car.

"I feel safe," he said. "We leave our bikes outside, my grill outside. We don't ever see the police there."

If the new project is approved, the old YMCA building would remain open while a new Y is built in what is now the parking lot. Then the old Y would be torn down and the 130-unit apartment building would be built.

The apartments, which would be adjacent to a parking deck that would also serve the Y, would feature open floor plans, doors that have handles instead of knobs, electrical sockets that are high enough for people in wheelchairs to easily reach, and lower closet rods. Units would have one, two or three bedrooms, and 80 percent would be available at affordable rental rates. Half of those affordable units would be set aside for people with some kind of physical disability, including families with disabled children.

Steve Korngable, director of programs at the National MS Society, Minnesota Chapter, told the Planning Commission that there is a "terrific need" for more housing aimed at people with MS. An earlier CommonBond development aimed at people with disabilities, Kingsley Commons in north Minneapolis, is full and still has 40 people with disabilities on its waiting list, he said.

The Edina development "can be a national model," Korngable said. Water therapy is an important component of MS treatment, he said, and the proposed project's proximity to the Y pools makes it an ideal location.

The project still has several procedural hoops to clear, including another visit to the Planning Commission and eventually the City Council with a final development plan.