[Music] welcome to agenda Edina a program summarizing the actions taken at City Hall that affect you most I'm your host dorothia Marty one of the largest proposed redevelopments Ina in the past few years has cleared its first hurdle Enclave companies is proposing to redevelop the current Macy Southdale Furniture and Mattress Gallery at 7235 France Avenue the developer plans to tear down the existing store and build an 11-story mixed use building with offices senior condominiums retail and restaurant space and a parking garage on the Southwest parcel a seven-story mixed use building with offices Apartments retail space and a parking garage on the northwest parcel a seven-story apartment building with parking garage on the northeast parcel and a seven-story apartment building with r or restaurant space and a parking garage on the Southeast parcel the value of the buildings that will replace the current store is estimated to exceed $300 million we very much followed the greater saltdale District guidelines for this project which uh the intention of those guidelines is to break down these larger known as super blocks into smaller pedestrian friendly pedestrian first walkable blocks that's what we did here that really is at the heart of what happened so this is a mix use development that's centered around pedestrians pedestrians first for walkability and a a mix mix of uses the city council granted preliminary resoning and approved a preliminary site plan and plot last month council members requested several changes to the plan before developers bring the proposal back for final approval owners of the South Metro Public Safety Training Facility will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the training center and break ground for a new building there later this year a new Tactical training building will be built on the south side of the property on Brar Boulevard with garage doors at each end the majority will be one level but the building will feature a mezzanine with multiple sets of stairs for training scenarios that include a second level three vehicles will be able to drive through and fit in the building at one time which will come in handy for training during winter months about half of the building will have movable panels that can be arranged to assimilate a house or commercial property areas where police have to go in and search for hostages drugs and other Contraband they will be able to manipulate those walls to assimilate an apartment or a second floor of a residence with the new Tactical training building they'll have the ability to create a space exactly that size or what they want uh officers that are going into apartment buildings uh private residences commercial buildings Office Buildings um they can create the exact type of scenario they're going to encounter out in the field this building will be used by the training facilities owner agencies Edina Bloomington Eden Prairie and the Metropolitan airports commission other local and federal agencies will be able to rent the new facility for an hourly fee all types of training will be conducted in the building including building searches use of for techniques and traffic enforcement last month the din city council approved a conditional use permit with a height variance for the project concerts paddleboats farmers markets winter festivals Centennial Lakes Park really has a little something for everyone in every season but 40 years ago the future sight of the park was significantly different thanks to a recent Roundtable discussion attendees had the chance to hear how plans for the Park came together from the people who were the most involved before there was this there you go there was a big mound of gravel here back in the ' 50s and 60s and then uh Hedberg who owned the property essentially stopped uh mining it it was a open mining uh excavation uh they had a uh movie theater Outdoor Theater across the street but basically was industrial type usage in 1986 when the owners of the 100 Acre Site decided to put it up for sale it was the last developable commercial plot in Edina and we had to amend our our zoning ordinance to make a project like this uh work plus the city had a variety of expectations like affordable housing we wanted housing we wanted commercial we wanted office space and of course we wanted a public park we wanted to create something for all the people of Edina so this property had a a massive requirement of uh storm water storage and of course the question became how can we turn that into an amenity on the site development started in the mid1 1980s and we didn't finish until the year 2000 so about 11 years we had to go through a few different ups and downs in the markets here with the Office Buildings but it all came together in 11 years all of the thoughtful planning has resulted in an oasis in the middle of Edina the uh storm water retention Pond actually became a great amenity for the park between you know paddle boating in the summertime as well as fishing we do some great kids fishing programs here and do like the farmers market then you also have it for the uh ice skating rink in the winter time so you're going to hear from each of these men tonight about the decisions in the development of Centennial Lakes we all could have turned out so differently which is why the city of Edina in conjunction with United properties and Centennial lak's Office Park decided to host this oral history event so you know other things before Centennial Lakes that were that were considered Believe It or Not were um office warehouses it developed of course over the years to what we see now and I think uh people really come to appreciate it let's hope the city keeps that vision and maintains this park system that's really second to none in the United States as far as I'm concerned for din TV I'm Tom Cornell if you were unable to attend the Centennial Lakes oral history event you can view it during the month of July on Comcast channel 813 as well as an din TV's YouTube channel thank you for watching this episode of agenda Edina I'm your host dorthia Marty [Music] but [Music]