Metro Transit's proposed Orange Line bus rapid transit line from downtown Minneapolis to Burnsville via Interstate 35W isn't forecast to open until 2019, but already opposition is emerging about key planning decisions.
One such decision that will have a big impact on the entire 16-mile project is how it will connect with American Boulevard in Bloomington — a stop that will serve the city's Penn American redevelopment district, where city officials have had success attracting new housing, hotel and retail projects in an area once dominated by vacant car dealerships.
An alternative that has gained traction with planners as the best way to serve bus rapid transit (BRT) riders, however, has drawn the ire of a major commercial real estate player in the district — Kraus-Anderson Realty Co., owner of the Southtown Shopping Center.
Ken Vinje, director of properties and redevelopment for Kraus-Anderson Realty, says emerging plans could hamper the company's long-sought goal of redeveloping the easternmost portion of the Southtown property.
The decision on how to route the line is complicated by the fact that it is linked with two other major planning efforts: the eventual rebuilding of the I-35W/I-494 interchange and the city of Bloomington's vision for the Penn American district.
For years, it was assumed that an American Boulevard stop would likely be placed in the median of I-35W where the boulevard crosses over the freeway, much like at 46th Street in Minneapolis. But those assumptions proved to be erroneous, said District 5 Metropolitan Council Member Steve Elkins.
"It turned out there wasn't sufficient horizontal clearance under the bridge," he said.
To address that problem, an alternative was drawn up in which BRT buses would exit the freeway at 82nd Street, and enter the Penn American district on Knox Avenue, which is now a private road through Southtown maintained by Kraus-Anderson that dead-ends at I-494.
Under the scenario, buses would go through Southtown's parking lot, then run underneath I-494 via a new underpass, emerging at the other side in Richfield near the Best Buy corporate campus.
New BRT stops would be constructed on the Bloomington and Richfield sides before the route re-enters the I-35W freeway median at 76th street.
MnDOT's technical advisory committee on the I-494/35W interchange project has endorsed the idea, touting a Knox Avenue underpass as a boon for bus commuters, bicyclists and pedestrians seeking better links between the cities.
But Vinje said an underpass would "create a trench as it ramps down to go under the freeway, which would create a barrier between the main part of Southtown and our property to the east of Knox." He added that the plan would "basically dissect our property, with a retaining wall in between. If you're on one side, you wouldn't be able to walk directly across to the other." He said the company has been trying to develop the property for 15 years.
He instead suggested that rather than run on Knox Avenue, the BRT buses be routed over the freeway on the existing Penn Avenue bridge, just like the current bus route 535.
During a question-and-answer session with the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, Metro Transit Senior Planner Christina Morrison responded by saying the underpass wouldn't need to have a steep slope, instead calling it an "at-grade" underpass.
"It would dip down as it goes under the freeway, but I think there's a lot of ways we could do that," she said. "For instance, we've done that in St. Paul near the Capitol [on the Green Line light rail], where the retaining walls were terraced so that it doesn't feel like a trench. It's a similar grade to what Knox Avenue could be."
Morrison also said routing the BRT onto Penn Avenue would result in delays due to congestion and traffic lights.
"That's the big issue with Penn," she said. "We're out there in mixed traffic competing with every other vehicle, and it makes it difficult to stay on schedule."
Don Jacobson is a St. Paul-based freelance writer and former editor of the Minnesota Real Estate Journal. He has covered Twin Cities commercial real estate for a decade.
