City starts casting vision for Minnesota Avenue redevelopment

Minnesota Avenue north of downtown is ripe for redevelopment.

That’s the conclusion of a city planning process that looked at the blocks from Russell Street south to Third Street.

“There’s a lot of single-family zoning in this area, higher homeowner occupancy rates than we would have expected,” urban planner Fletcher Lacock said.

“We were thinking there would be resistance for redevelopment, and in fact … there was actually support for larger redevelopment areas. So that was a surprising finding.”

Here’s how the city is proposing Minnesota Avenue could redevelop. The yellow area indicates a maintenance property, where there could be some new town homes built but mostly improved single-family housing is envisioned. The orange is a transition area, where there could be some residential development with a higher density. And the red is the most intense redevelopment, where mixed-use projects might include commercial on the main level and residential above, or there might be entirely commercial development.

“This is really a document which guides redevelopment and provides a basis for staff and the Planning Commission and City Council to make recommendations on land-use decisions in this corridor,” Lacock said.

An example of how North Minnesota Avenue could redevelop

It’s also a timely guide. The city’s Public Works Department is wrapping up major road improvements in this area, which will help further define Minnesota Avenue as a corridor coming in and out of downtown, especially from the Sioux Falls Regional Airport.

“The big things they’ve done are really creating an identity for the Minnesota Avenue corridor with some unique branding to the streetscape as well as putting in wider sidewalks … more street trees, lighting and aesthetic enhancement. It will look nicer and be a safer roadway because the median they’re putting in will reduce left-turning traffic in the corridor,” Lacock said.

“But what really helps with redevelopment is updating aging infrastructure, so we’d hope to see higher-density developments where we’re investing city dollars in infrastructure.”

The City Council is scheduled to approve the plan in December.

From there, the Planning Department is starting to study Minnesota Avenue farther south. Property owners from Third Street to south of 14th Street near the railroad tracks will be mailed a link to a survey talking about what improvements they’d like to see in the area.

“Our hope is now that we have kind of a template that we can start cranking these out and try to get it done as quickly as possible,” Lacock said. “We hope the associated reconstruction of Minnesota Avenue will trigger a look at redevelopment in this area because there’s a limited amount of land downtown and this is on the exterior of the downtown business district, so there’s potential. If there’s not interest right now, hopefully this will garner additional interest in redevelopment.”

Ultimately, the city plans to identify redevelopment opportunities on Minnesota Avenue all the way south to Interstate 229.