Eden Prairie City Council — Transcript

Monday, May 11, 2026

Story

Prairie Bluff Commons Residential Development Gains Unanimous Approval in Eden Prairie

Minnesota River Vista Overlook

Votes (1)

Prairie Bluff Commons Development Proposal

Motion carried (unanimous)

Dissent: None

Moved by Commissioner Piper [00:35:46] · Seconded by Commissioner Kirk [00:36:31]

The proposal by Lennar Minnesota involves redeveloping an existing vacant office site into a residential community. The project includes 166 townhomes and 16 villa units, requiring comprehensive plan amendments and a zone change from office to residential. Waivers were requested for lot area, width, and density (7 units/acre vs. 6.7 max). The applicant detailed home features, open space amenities (dog park, tot lot, gazebo), construction phasing, and sustainability efforts (EV ready, solar ready for villas). Staff highlighted that the project exceeds open space and landscaping requirements and meets housing goals. Public comments, primarily from Hennepin Village HOA, expressed concerns about increased traffic on Plum Stone Drive, buffering, conservation area protection, and the feasibility of projected low HOA fees. Staff and the city engineer addressed traffic concerns, explaining that the proposed intersection alignment is safer and residents are likely to choose main routes over Plum Stone Drive.

Notable Quotes (6)

Um we're excited to be here tonight uh with what is a what seems to be a rare opportunity for residential in Eden Prairie. So, um we're presenting uh Prairie Bluff Commons.

Josh Metzer [00:04:15]
Prairie Bluff Commons Development Proposal

Um townhomes probably targeted towards um buyers in their 30s, 40s. They could be single people, uh young families. Um even we've we've seen some uh empty nesters or snowbirds uh purchasing our townhomes. The villas will be age-targeted uh to 50 and up.

Josh Metzer [00:07:34]
Prairie Bluff Commons Development Proposal

Um we're close to the airport, so um our windows will be glazed for noise attenuation on the inside. Um we'll we'll be sure to meet city standard on that. Um residents will be required to sign a disclosure, which states that you are near an airport, there will be noise.

Josh Metzer [00:10:04]
Prairie Bluff Commons Development Proposal

Staff reviewed the waivers and and kind of looking at our code in terms of what our goals are with the flexibility from a PUD perspective and we're looking for a project that enhances um or meets certain goals of the city in this situation. It exceeds our required open space requirements. Project also exceeds our landscaping and buffering requirements between different land uses. And this project also does meet certain housing goals in terms of not just the inclusionary and affordable housing, but just a housing style because we don't do a lot of town homes as as Josh had mentioned earlier.

Jeremy [00:15:37]
Prairie Bluff Commons Development Proposal

I mean our our dues in our HOA are 525 a month and we do everything we can to keep the dues low there. So, I'm just I'm just not seeing any way that the math could work out to have low 200s dues dues there.

John Miller [00:27:03]
Prairie Bluff Commons Development Proposal

I think that the applicant um Wha- while they're certainly maximizing the uh density of the site opportunities in the zoning districts that they're changing it to um with the uh park and open space that they have scattered around uh at their areas and the street system which apparently uh serves this redevelopment concept quite well. Um In terms of handling the additional traffic um I'm in support of this.

Commissioner Farr [00:30:17]
Prairie Bluff Commons Development Proposal

Ordinances & Resolutions (7)

Comprehensive plan amendment from office to medium density residential on 23.59 acres and from office to low density residential on 4.82 acresPlan

Proposed change in land use guidance for the development site.

Planned unit development concept plan review on 28.41 acresPlan

Conceptual review of the overall development plan.

Planned unit development district review with waivers on 28.41 acresPlan

Detailed review of the development including specific requests for waivers from zoning code standards.

Zone change from office to RM 6.5 on 23.59 acres and from office to R1 9.5 on 4.82 acresOther

Proposed rezoning of the property to accommodate the new residential densities.

Preliminary plat of 28.41 acres into 166 lots for the town home units, 16 lots for the single family units, nine lots for common open space and eight outlotsPlan

Subdivision plan for the new residential lots and associated common areas.

Site plan review on 23.59 acresPlan

Review of the layout and design of the proposed development.

May 11th, 2026 staff reportOther

Official report from city staff recommending approval of the development.

View Source
Eden Prairie City Council - Hennepin County Recorder