City Council members have granted northeast Minneapolis residents a little more time to work through their concerns about two multistory apartment developments planned near the Grain Belt complex.
CPM Properties, which has built many of the large new apartment complexes around the University of Minnesota, has proposed 110-unit and 95-unit buildings less than a block apart at the intersections of Marshall Street and 13th and 14th avenues. But the council's Zoning and Planning Committee voted Thursday to delay a decision on the projects for a couple of weeks after a neighborhood official appealed their approval by the Planning Commission.
Joy Smallfield, vice president of the Sheridan Neighborhood Organization, said she was "cautiously optimistic" that there was room for further compromise with the developer before the city reconsiders the development.
"As a neighborhood, we're transitioning. Part of that is very exciting for us. It's exciting that we have someone who wants to develop in our neighborhood. ... We just think it could be better," Smallfield said.
The two housing complexes would sit on either side of Dusty's Bar on sites now occupied by a used-car dealer and a parking lot. Residents are concerned about lost parking, traffic congestion and the possibility that the buildings, designed to rise up to six stories, would dwarf surrounding properties.
The developer has made various concessions to neighbors, including adding parking, reducing the height of one building to five floors and adding retail at the other building, CPM Properties co-founder Daniel Oberpriller said.
He nevertheless agreed to continue discussions with residents, which he said likely will be about housing affordability. A 544-square-foot studio would rent for $1,257, Oberpriller said. Neighbors have been focused on adding parking, he said, but that is "off the table."
Parking is expensive, City Council Member Jacob Frey said, and developers can't dramatically add parking and keep housing affordable. Minneapolis has a housing shortage and the city needs more dense development, Frey said, but he wants some insurance that rents at the two buildings "are not going to be raised sky high."
