Opening the Southwest LRT route to development

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Although a key panel of west metro leaders delayed a vote Wednesday on a final Southwest Light Rail Transit plan, several embraced some project features that would encourage development in the region.

Most of the project’s Corridor Management Committee, a group of local officials and Metropolitan Council staff, showed support for a $60 million plan to shift freight tracks to the north of the route. The LRT tracks would then run along the southern part of the corridor, allowing for more convenient access and development of St. Louis Park and Hopkins land near the line.

“It’s really based around core principles of the project: transit-oriented development and ridership,” St. Louis Park City Council member Jake Spano said of the proposal, which is known as the “CP swap” because Canadian Pacific owns the tracks.

The committee didn’t vote on the Southwest LRT project staff’s newly recommended design, opting instead to give its members more time to make tweaks to the $1.56 billion plan.

Economic development officials have repeatedly emphasized the importance of the freight rail shift. Kevin Locke, community development director for St. Louis Park, said Wednesday that the real estate in his city just isn’t as appealing to the north of the corridor.

“If you kind of look at how the corridor lays out and where opportunities for redevelopment are, they tend to be on the south side of the corridor,” he said. Parts of the corridor are so close to Highway 7, he said, that stations to the north would create a “no-man’s land” of small, hard-to-develop properties between the stations and any transit-oriented development.

Locke also said that Methodist Hospital, one of the largest employers on the line, is about a block south of the planned LRT platform at Louisiana Avenue.

Hopkins officials also have touted the benefit of shifting freight traffic to the north of the line. The city has already identified at least one property at the planned Blake Road station that could be jointly developed, but that’s also to the south of the line.

Brad Meier, president of the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce, said his members support options that best encourage development — in this case, the freight track shift.

“For us, it’s all about economic development and being able to grow that,” Meier said. “Whatever optimizes growth and the ability to get workers to our businesses in the west metro is what we want to see.”

Despite the proclaimed benefit, the swap wouldn’t come for free. It would cost about $30 million to push the existing Canadian Pacific tracks north and another $30 million to replace a southerly connection severed by the swap. Some have questioned whether that $60 million expense is necessary for a project already criticized for its price tag.

Mark Fuhrmann, Metropolitan Council head for new rail projects, said Wednesday that project staff added the shift to their recommended budget in part because of Federal Transit Administration guidelines which prioritize funding for projects that encourage redevelopment.

“By moving freight to the north and sliding in light rail, that is where primary transit-oriented development opportunities exist,” he said. “Having the best, closest access to those developments from the platforms will maximize the ‘developability’ of these corridors.”

Canadian Pacific would have to sign off on the plan, but Fuhrmann said that shouldn’t be a problem. He called the rail company a “willing partner.”

The committee took up the swap amid discussion of the Southwest LRT staff’s recommended project scope and budget.

A plan released Tuesday night would include LRT tunnels through Minneapolis’ Kenilworth Corridor, a popular recreation area, rather than redirecting existing Kenilworth freight traffic onto new St. Louis Park berms.

The design also includes building a required maintenance facility in Hopkins and shortening Southwest LRT’s Eden Prairie route by about 1.3 miles, making the total project 14.5 miles long.

The committee discussed aspects of the recommendation at length Wednesday, but came short of voting on the plan because of concerns raised by Minneapolis officials. The meeting culminated with comments by Peter Wagenius, an aide to Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who called it a “sad” and “disappointing” day.

“For the city of Minneapolis, this project flunks the fairness test,” Wagenius said of the tunnel and reroute options. “Both of these products we are choosing between are not the products of a fair, transparent and rational process. They are simply what’s left.”

Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin disputed Wagenius’ assertion about the process, but later said that the committee should be given more time to go over the latest design and see what adjustments can be made.

Met Council chair Susan Haigh granted the request and asked the committee to plan a vote for Oct. 9. Haigh said after the meeting that the Met Council’s planned decision for that day will now likely be delayed until Oct. 16.