Hopkins Fights Back Against Southwest LRT Maintenance Facility

City leaders are upset about potential loss of tax base and redevelopment opportunities.

Hopkins leaders are mounting an effort to keep out the Southwest Light Rail Transit operation and maintenance facility that will service trains along the corridor. On Wednesday, the Hopkins Business and Civic Association (HBCA) board sent out an e-mail reminding members about a public meeting on the controversial facility and encouraging them to attend. And last month, Mayor Gene Maxwell sent the Southwest LRT project office a letter criticizing the way the sites were selected. “Hopkins is very interested in making this project a success, but fairness to our residents, property owners, and disadvantaged populations must be part of the discussion,” Maxwell wrote. Click the PDF to the right of this article to read the full letter and see the…

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Four Hopkins Sites Shortlisted for Southwest LRT Maintenance Facility

Hopkins officials worry that a maintenance facility could take away from the tax base and eliminate development opportunities.

Hopkins accounts for nearly half the sites on a short list of possible locations for a Southwest Light Rail Transit operation and maintenance facility that will service trains along the corridor, according to a list the Metropolitan Council released to Patch on Thursday. The project’s draft environmental impact statement identified just six possible sites where the facility could be located—five sites in Eden Prairie and one in Minneapolis. However, planners decided that the start of preliminary engineering was a good time to take a look at more sites and they eventually identified 18 sites. The latest list narrows the candidates to nine sites. Those sites are: The maintenance facility is the site where light rail vehicles will be cleaned…

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Southwest LRT Planners Eyeing Hopkins Sites for Maintenance Facility

Hopkins officials oppose the use of the sites because it would take away from the tax base and eliminate development opportunities.

Hopkins is bracing for pressure to use property in the community for a Southwest Light Rail Transit operation and maintenance facility that will service trains along the corridor. The project’s draft environmental impact statement identified just six possible sites where the facility could be located—five sites in Eden Prairie and one in Minneapolis. However, planners decided that the start of preliminary engineering was a good time to take a look at more sites. They’ve now identified 18 sites, including four in Hopkins. The sites are: (The list also includes a site made up of five parcels on K-tel Drive, just across the border in Minnetonka. Click on the PDFs to the right of this article to see maps of local sites and list of candidate …

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Matthew Kilanowski

8:08 pm on Wednesday, April 10, 2013

"Not only would the sites eliminate redevelopment opportunities, they would take a property off the city’s tax rolls." "Hopkins staff argue that the community’s four square miles is just too limited to be losing such a significant amount of commercial real estate." Wow. And where was their opposition to removing buildings from the tax rolls for the widening of Shady Oak Road? At least the light …   more ›

Met Council: Hopkins LRT Stations Would Need Over 800 Parking Spots

The Southwest Light Rail project needs park and rides so commuters can use the trains.

Early parking projections for the Southwest Light Rail Transit project estimate that Hopkins’ three stations would need to provide about 835 spots between them, the Metropolitan Council told Patch. Parking is among the City of Hopkins’ biggest concerns about the project. Officials’ response to the Southwest LRT’s draft environmental impact statement, the primary review document, focused heavily on the prospect of park and rides at the three stations—Blake, Downtown and Shady Oak. They worry that parking could create traffic problems and take land that could be used for redevelopment. The city has had particular worries about parking at the Downtown Station. Planners have long envisioned the station as a so-called “kiss and ride” that would…

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Hopkins Looks For Ways to Shield The Depot From Southwest LRT

The exact impact of the project on the coffee house isn’t yet known, but city officials want to ensure the site is protected.

Officials have begun examining how to best to protect Hopkins’ historic sites from Southwest Light Rail Transit construction. The Southwest LRT’s draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) has already identified three nearby historic places in Hopkins that likely qualify for the National Register: Hopkins City Hall, Hopkins’ downtown and The Depot Coffee House. Light rail likely wouldn’t hurt either of the first two sites, said Kersten Elverum, the city’s director of economic development and planning. But the new route is supposed to run right by The Depot—a former Minneapolis & St. Louis train depot built in 1903—as the line rises to cross over Excelsior. The line will likely need to start climbing near The Depot. Planners don’t yet know…

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Editor's Notebook

What Does SimCity Say About Southwest LRT?

Using video games like SimCity to investigate the real world can be informative, but players must also beware of the games’ underlying assumptions.

The debate over the Southwest Light Rail Transit project has been a bitter one, but it’s one that video gamers may be able to investigate from the comfort of their living rooms and home offices this week. That’s the promise offered by the quarter-century-old video game series SimCity—the latest version of which comes out Tuesday. The game offers a variety of transportation options and a development model that centers on how well a virtual community’s transportation corridors are operating. There’s just one problem, though. Just as critics and supporters in the Southwest LRT debate have their biases, the SimCity model has its own assumptions, as well as simplifications made for the sake of gameplay. The result can be a less-than-faithful …

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Sequestration Shouldn’t Delay Southwest LRT

Federal New Starts funding is still a couple years away.

The Southwest Light Rail Transit project shouldn’t face any immediate setbacks if cuts from the looming sequestration take effect. The federal New Starts grants program, which helps fund transit expansion and will pay for some of the Southwest project, would be cut by 6 percent in the event of sequestration, according to Streetsblog. However, the Southwest LRT Project has not yet received federal funding, said Laura Baenen, the project’s communications manager. It continues advancing toward that goal in the next couple years.

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How Should Southwest LRT Be Funded?

With several proposals before the Legislature, Patch wants to know what ideas, if any, you favor.

Last legislative session, the big question about Southwest Light Rail Transit was whether there was enough political will to fund the project. The tables appear to have turned this year, though. With at least three funding proposals floating around, the focus has lately been more on how to fund it than whether it deserves any money. Edina Sen. Melisa Franzen (DFL-District 49) introduced Senate File 257 and Senate File 258, which would provide $118 million and $37 million, respectively, in bonding money for the 15-mile light rail project. Watch Franzen explain her bills in the YouTube video above. Gov. Mark Dayton, on the other hand, has proposed a quarter-cent sales tax increase that would set up a dedicated revenue stream for transit—some…

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Four Hopkins Sites Among Southwest LRT’s Top Technical Challenges

Project leaders announced the issues that will require the most attention as the project moves further in the engineering process.

Hopkins accounts for four of the 25 challenges identified as the top Southwest Light Rail Transit preliminary engineering technical issues that need to be resolved. After reviewing feedback on the draft environmental impact statement, planners identified the issues that will require the most attention at a Wednesday Southwest LRT Corridor Management Committee. The Hopkins sites were: According to Finance & Commerce, such technical issues are common when engineering is still only 1 percent complete. The publication noted that the Central Corridor had a list of 37 issues and that most were worked out within six months. See the map above for a list of all 25 preliminary engineering technical issues. “Issue resolution teams” will start meeting…

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