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minnesota.uli.org 11 • Redevelop existing city-owned properties as housing. St. Anthony is a market ripe for more housing, and the commercial success of the Gateway South District will be enhanced by its value to nearby residents, both existing and new. Developing City-owned properties is likely the quickest way to get new residents into the area. • Consider purchasing additional parcels as they become available. Simply put, if the City owns a parcel, it controls that parcel’s destiny. This approach is likely to be most necessary for the office condo structure where redevelopment seems less likely without a controlling interest in the building’s units. Other ideal opportunities include the gas station, the parcels on the site’s southwestern edge, and the single family homes to the south which seem likely to be redeveloped by the existing senior housing developer. Question 4 ARE PARTICULAR DESIGN ELEMENTS SUCH AS MIXED USE APPROPRIATE FOR THE AREA? • The area needs an identity, placemaking, and an improved public realm. The Gateway South District today lacks a sense of place and a recognizable identity. The City should do what it can to create welcoming arrivals to the area, especially at the southwestern corner that serves as the entry point to the city. It should be more connected to the surrounding neighborhoods to feel more like a local amenity. Kenzie Terrace, in particular, seems overbuilt for current traffic counts and would benefit from a more pedestrian-oriented scale and design. It should be redesignated and designed as a neighborhood street rather than a regional road. Narrowed and/or reduced lanes, fewer curb cuts, wider sidewalks, and streetscaping would help encourage new pedestrian activity. This would enable better connections to nearby residential neighborhoods that stand to be big users of commercial uses in the area. Street parking along Kenzie could be compatible with an improved pedestrian experience to help mitigate loss of public parking that is likely to occur as land uses densify. The City may have less control over what happens along other corridors, but to the extent it can influence design decisions in those places it should look to do so. The intersection configurations at St. Anthony Blvd are challenging for pedestrians and the biggest opportunity on Hwy 88 creating connectivity to the Minneapolis Diagonal Trail bike route for completion of the Grand Rounds as outlined in more detail below. • Completion of the Grand Rounds “missing link.” The proximity of the Minneapolis Diagonal Trail to the Gateway South District seems like a logical connection opportunity to resolve the “missing link” in the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway. This could be routed through some of the existing, underutilized rights of way in the study area or perhaps along Kenzie Terrace. • Vertical mixed use is not likely to be feasible. While the panel believes a mix of uses will be successful in the Gateway South District, it does not view vertical mixed use–i.e. ground floor retail with residential above–to be likely in this location. Communities often desire vertical mixed use as both an efficient use of space and aesthetically pleasing, a view the panel largely shares. Unfortunately, it is expensive to build and difficult to lease outside of areas that have very high levels of pre-existing foot traffic.