In a cityscape dominated by single-family homes, a proposal to allow four-unit residential buildings virtually everywhere in Minneapolis is stirring strong and conflicting feelings among neighborhood leaders.
A draft of the city's updated comprehensive plan won't be published until March 22 or completed until December, but the City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey were recently briefed on the high-level concepts, one of which is a historic rewriting of the zoning rules that would allow property owners to build fourplexes on any residential property in the city.
The city's current zoning prohibits them from roughly two-thirds of Minneapolis and more than 80 percent of its lots.
Frey and Council President Lisa Bender are both advocates of housing density as a means to diversify the city's housing stock, drive down rental prices and accommodate a growing population.
But many homeowners in neighborhoods are skeptical that density will do anything to keep the city affordable — or even that people want to live in multifamily buildings.
"Apartments are good for young people going to college and old people who can't keep up a yard, but most people in their middle years want a home of their own," said Nancy Przymus, who's lived in Windom Park for 34 years and works for the Bottineau Neighborhood Association. "People don't want to live in an apartment their whole lives. They want to buy their own place, plant their own rosebush and grow vegetables and have a dog."
Constance Pepin, a Linden Hills resident who has fought developments over the years in southwest Minneapolis, called the proposal "unfortunate" and suggested it favors developers over residents.
"That just seems unthinkable to me," she said. "That's not going to solve the affordable housing problem."