Edina approves street reconstruction plan for aging neighborhood
The Edina City Council approved a major street reconstruction project for the President's neighborhood on Monday, moving forward with plans to replace 60-70 year old roads and utilities while adding bike lanes and sidewalks. The decision came after a contentious public hearing where residents raised concerns about costs, parking loss, and safety.
The council voted to advance the 2025 Street Reconstruction Program for President's neighborhoods A and B, with Council Member Agu moving the motion and Council Member Jackson seconding it. Council Member Risser initially questioned the timeline for public feedback but ultimately supported an amended motion to extend the online input period.
The project targets streets with a pavement condition rating of 26 out of 100—far below the citywide average of 78—and includes replacement of aging water mains, sanitary sewers, and storm sewers. The city is proposing narrower streets (24-27 feet) designed to slow traffic, along with new sidewalks and shared-use paths to connect residents to parks, schools, and the nearby light rail station.
Under the city's revised assessment policy, property owners will pay 57.86% of roadway costs, with the city covering expenses related to poor soil conditions. The estimated cost is $8,600 per residential unit for roadway work and $1,300 for alley reconstruction. Mayor Hubin noted this represents a shift from previous policy where residents bore the full cost.
Residents expressed significant concerns during the hearing. They questioned the loss of on-street parking near Alden Park, worried about safety with narrower streets and bike lanes alongside heavy truck traffic from the nearby UNFI industrial facility, and asked for more transparent data supporting traffic calming claims. Some also objected to paving a gravel alley and requested alternative landscaping options beyond sod.
City staff provided data showing that similar "living streets" projects have reduced speeds by 1-5 miles per hour on local streets. Council Member Risser advocated for promoting sustainable landscaping alternatives aligned with the city's climate action plan, suggesting the city highlight water conservation and cost savings in materials sent to residents. The council extended the online public input period in response to concerns about the feedback timeline.
Our proprietary artificial intelligence agent analyzed publicly available documents including meeting agendas, minutes, and transcripts to write this story to help inform local residents. Feedback helps us improve, so please consider rating how we did with the thumbs up or down below.
Go deeper on this topic
Research related meeting documents and build a brief — without rewriting the story.
Full analysis
Votes (1)
Public Hearing for 2025 Street Reconstruction Program - President's Neighborhood (A & B)
Dissent: Council Member Risser initially questioned the short timeline for online feedback, but ultimately supported an amended motion to extend the online public input period without formal dissent.
Moved by Council Member Agu [1:49:16] · Seconded by Council Member Jackson [1:49:18]
The public hearing initiated with staff presentations detailing the necessity of the project due to aging infrastructure (60-70 year old streets, deteriorating water mains), the shift in assessment policy (now 57.86% assessed to property owners for roadway costs), and proposed design changes including narrower streets for traffic calming, full utility replacement, and new multimodal facilities. The Transportation Commission's recommendation for separate bike and pedestrian facilities on Washington Avenue was noted, differing from staff's shared-use path proposal. Residents raised concerns about increased assessment costs, reduced on-street parking, the burden of sidewalk maintenance, safety of bike facilities on Washington Avenue (especially with semi-trucks), potential impact on mature trees, and construction inconvenience. There was a request for more transparent data supporting traffic calming and property value increases, and for considering alternative landscaping options beyond sod.
Notable Quotes (9)
we've changed the the methodology that we use for Street reconstruction uh assessments over time uh you're going to be the beneficiary of that he's going to talk about that that changing methodology a little bit where we switched uh from several years ago where we charged everybody for uh the roadway reconstruction everything under the street being paid for by all of us together uh as well as KB and gutter...
this really ties back to the budget work plan right pillar number one that you guys see and developed was the strong Foundation we want to make sure our infrastructure meets the community needs now and into the future.
the Citywide average pavement condition index rating is 78 and the present a andb neighborhood average pavement condition rating for the streets is 26.
there was a lot of kind of industrywide uh research that was done to come up with those Street widths for that rationale since then as we've implemented living streets we've done post reconstruction uh traffic counts and volume counts on these streets and we have seen you know anywhere from 1 to 2 m per hour to as much as a 5 m hour reduction in uh speeds on these local streets so we do have the data to support that there is a traffic calming uh benefit.
our climate action plan specifically notes that we really need to reduce dependence on Turf and grass and you know I think this is a wonderful opportunity to try to give people some more options it may even save the city some money certainly it would save on the amount of water that's being used so it would be great if that language could be put into information going out to Residents.
that was our recommendation that we felt strongly we put in front of you for this particular project but it leaves us with probably some questions for future reconstruction as well.
my primary concern right now is timing uh the proposed start time I believe would be in May and will take approximately 12 weeks to complete that is my concern because uh I'm pregnant and due April 12th so that will basically cover my entire maternity leave of dust noise I won't be able to go outside pretty much.
but my concern is I had several ash trees that were covering our property which were fantastic and then they had emerald ash bore and we had to cut them down I have one remaining tree that provides shade uh on the south side of my property which gets beaten with sun and that's the one thing that helps reduce some of my energy costs.
the risk of hitting hit by a car is way greater I mean it's not even my opinion that's the fact then if you're on a sidewalk where a bike and a pedestrian would happen to interact the risk of a getting hit by cargo 30 plus of death is a is a big number of the percentages so I would prefer to keep the interested and families off the street and have a wider facility off the street which would allow parking on the street which would also allow parking that's why we kind of came up with that Balan solution...
Ordinances & Resolutions (13)
Guiding document for project design.
Guiding document for project design.
Guiding document for project design.
Key guiding document for multimodal facility recommendations.
Guiding document for project design.
City budget pillar emphasizing infrastructure development.
Plan developed in 2014-2015 that informed street width standards.
State Statute governing special benefit tests for assessments.
Improvement number for roadway improvements.
Improvement number for alley improvements.
Plan used to guide the development of pedestrian and bicycle facilities within Edina.
Hopkins' plan, consulted for regional multimodal connectivity, recommends a bike boulevard on Third Street and Second Street which Hopkins staff no longer support.
City's plan for capital projects, currently does not include further south Washington Avenue improvements.
Source document
Was this story helpful?
Other Topics from This Document
Assessment Policy and Funding
Multimodal Transportation and Street Design
Resident Concerns and Project Impacts
Want to know when new stories arrive?
Enter your email to receive updates.
We will not use your email for any other purpose. You can unsubscribe at any time.