Minneapolis blocks building permits at Sabri-owned Village Market mall

The city of Minneapolis on Monday rejected permits for new work at the Village Market mall after several homeowners in the Phillips neighborhood pleaded with the Planning Commission to take action to alleviate concerns about traffic, litter and crime.

Owner Omar Sabri wants to complete construction of a covered porch and walkway that was begun without permits last year, and he also wants to build a new lane into the parking lot for the building, which is home to about 125 Somali businesses and is known as the 24 Mall.

The lengthy, emotional public hearing Monday was the latest episode in a continuing saga that pits the Sabri family against the mall's neighbors. Council Member Abdi Warsame joined the battle earlier this month, pledging to build a new mall for East African merchants to give them an option that isn't owned by the Sabris.

Ultimately, planning commissioners said, the problem is that the busy mall has outgrown its neighborhood.

"This is a regional destination, retail, where people are coming in every couple minutes, or whatever the case is," Commissioner Nick Magrino said. "I'm not sure that there's a way that we really can deal with this."

Sabri said the permits were not for expansion, but for measures that will help address neighborhood concerns.

Neighbors, who say mall management hasn't responded adequately to years of complaints, wanted the commission to deny what they view as an expansion by owners who have flouted city rules and refuse to hire an off-duty police officer to help bring order to the chaos on nearby streets.

"People congregate on that porch. And not just two people," said Lawrence Benson, who lives nearby.

Commissioners questioned the structure's purpose, which Sabri said would be for merchants to load products into the mall and a way for customers to enter the building. They also expressed doubts about Sabri's good faith, given that he started construction without approval and still hadn't provided architectural drawings to demonstrate the purpose of the porch.

"This isn't a case where some poor guy built a deck on his house and didn't realize he had to pull permits because he'd never done it before," Commissioner Alissa Luepke Pier said. "This isn't his first rodeo."

Sabri said the covered porch would help alleviate congestion on 24th Street by preventing trucks from parking on the street to unload.

"It is strictly for delivery," Sabri said, "instead of us always having conflicts of them parking in the middle of the street."