Lauderdale Backround Report 5232017.Indd

DRAFT Background Report May 24, 2017 City of Lauderdale 2040 Comprehensive Plan Update Prepared by TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction, Context & History Community Character Socio-Economic Conditions Housing Land Use, Redevelopment & Zoning Transportation Parks, Trails, Open Space & Natural Resources Community Facilities Introduction, Context city staff, policymakers, stakeholders and residents throughout the 2040 Plan & History development process. This background report is the first step As the planning process progresses in the 2040 Comprehensive Plan (“2040 perspectives from Lauderdale’s residents, Plan”) update process, and it will be refined stakeholders, policymakers, employers, throughout the process as needed to ensure visitors and staff will be solicited to ensure that it captures the current characteristics of that the adopted 2040 Plan reflects the long- the community. The intent of the following term vision and goals of the community. This inventory and analysis is that will help planning effort will focus on the needs of facilitate the development of a 2040 Plan that Lauderdale’s residents and businesses, and is based in reality, is responsive to current will work to balance the desire to maintain and anticipated market trends, and respects the existing small-town character while the community’s vision for the future of allowing for and accommodating change 1 Lauderdale. and redevelopment in strategic areas of the community. The purpose of the background report is to provide a comprehensive ‘snapshot’ in time of Lauderdale today by providing a baseline of Community Location and Designation information, data and analysis about the community. Coupling this information with The City of Lauderdale is approximately local and regional trends will help inform and 270-acres and is generally bound by Como guide the planning process by establishing Avenue/Hoyt Avenue on the south, Fulham a foundation from which the Plan can be Street on the east, Ryan Avenue on the developed. north, and 33rd Avenue SE on the west. The City is bisected by State Highway 280 which The following sections will discuss the runs north-south in the western third of the people, the businesses, the facilities, parks, community. Larpenteur Avenue is the major open space and natural resources, and east-west connector through the city and has the transportation system that make up a major interchange with Highway 280 which the community. This report will serve as connects directly to I-94 just south of the city a resource for the Steering Committee, and I-35W/Highway 36 to the north. The City is designated as “Urban” per the The Village of Lauderdale was officially Metropolitan Council’s System Statement, incorporated on January 21, 1949 with an which describes the community as fully area comprising approximately 270 acres. developed. Communities designated as Urban The Village took its name from William Henry are further defined by the Metropolitan Lauderdale, a Minneapolis land dealer who Council as, “Urban communities experienced donated the land for the City’s school and rapid development during the post-World park. When the Village was incorporated, War II era, and exhibit the transition toward the community was an industrial community the development stage dominated by with strong industrial businesses and land the influence of the automobile.” (Map 1: uses with a population of approximately Community Designation) 1,500 residents many of whom worked in the local industrial businesses in the Village. The presence of the railroad running north- History of Lauderdale south on the western edge of the community contributed to the industrial land use pattern 2 Lauderdale was originally Rose Hill which was and viability of businesses located within a part of the larger Rose Township, which was the community. The first Village boundaries formally organized in 1859. Rose Township were Roselawn Avenue on the north, Fulham included portions of today’s Roseville, Falcon Street on the east, Hoyt Avenue on the south, Heights, Lauderdale, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and Emerald (33rd Avenue SE) on the west. and St. Anthony Village. Rose Hill joined the The water and sewer systems were installed larger Rose Township and was organized as shortly thereafter in the 1950s. a voting precinct, which allowed them to elect town officers and levy its first taxes. In Lauderdale annexed the land between 1871, Rose Hills’ first school opened when Roselawn Avenue and Ryan Avenue on Herman Gibbs of Gibbs Farm Museum fame February 15, 1954 adding approximately donated the land for the school. By 1895 30-acres to the community, for a total of Rose Township had a population of 1,028 and 270-acres which is the modern-day City of was steadily growing. Around 1899 the first Lauderdale. On March 20, 1956, Lauderdale telephone lines were installed along Eustis adopted a “weak mayor-council” form of Street serving residents of the area. government, and in April 1961, a $75,000 bond issue was approved for a new Village DRAFT - Background Report City of Lauderdale Comprehensive Plan 2040 Hall. In 1954, the plans for Trunk Highway miles from Lauderdale. The City is connected 280 were approved, and the Highway was to major highways and interstates (I-94, 35W, eventually connected to I-94 in the late 1960s Hwy 36) via Highway 280 which provides which improved the community’s accessibility quick and easy auto access to surrounding and made it more desirable for residential communities. The city is also connected to the development resulting in an increase of the regional mass transit system by bus routes City’s population throughout the 1970s and that provide connections into nearby Light 1980s. In 1973, the Village of Lauderdale Rail Transit (LRT) and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) became the City of Lauderdale. Lauderdale’s lines that provide transportation mode choice only public school, “Lauderdale School,” closed to Lauderdale’s residents and employers. (See in 1974. Currently, Lauderdale children attend Map 2: Regional Context) Roseville Area Schools, Independent School District #623. Community Character 3 Regional Context The City of Lauderdale has retained its small-town charm over the years despite Lauderdale is positioned centrally in the development pressure and changes in region with proximity to major and secondary adjacent communities near the City’s job centers, access to major freeways and borders. As places like Roseville and transportation infrastructure, and adjacency Falcon Heights became increasingly more to regional and local retailers and service suburban, Lauderdale managed to retain its providers. The City is located approximately diversity and mix of businesses, industry and three miles east of the downtown Minneapolis residential areas. For such a small community, Central Business District (CBD), six miles Lauderdale really offers it all – opportunities from the Saint Paul CBD, adjacent to several to live, work, recreate, worship, and secondary job centers in neighboring cities, congregate all within its borders. While many one-and-a-half miles to the University of characteristics of a community contribute Minnesota east and west bank campuses, and to the character of a place, there are certain a half mile to its Saint Paul Campus. Regional physical and social characteristics that start to shopping is available along the Highway define a community and become the fabric of 36 corridor in Roseville, which includes the the city. Rosedale Mall located approximately three In the 2030 Comprehensive Plan (“2030 Plan”) Eustis that could benefit from better the City conducted a city-wide survey to pedestrian environments. There was a better understand what residents identified general ‘neighborliness’ tone throughout as key community characteristics , and responses that captured the desire to help to identify opportunities and challenges out one another and to acknowledge that that existed which should be addressed as not everyone’s position (whether it be the city planned for the future. Since the financial, age, profession, etc.) is the same, last planning period many of the issues/ and that the community should be flexible opportunities identified in the survey enough to recognize and accommodate those have been accomplished or addressed, differences. Finally, residents recognized while others remain outstanding. The that the Larpenteur Avenue corridor was community survey topics included: City underutilized and could be redeveloped, Curb Appeal, Building a Healthy Community, though there was no clear consensus on what Environmental Responsibility, Transportation the corridor should be developed into or what Options, Larpenteur Avenue Development/ types of businesses should be there (with the 4 Redevelopment, and Internet Access. Many exception of a coffee shop, which received of these topic areas are still relevant to this multiple votes). planning period and will be further developed and refined during this planning process. Though indirect, the survey topics began helped to define the character of the The community survey results were community and provided a starting point informative about how the community from which a vision for Lauderdale’s future wanted to move forward, what aspects of the could be developed. Eventually communities city that they wanted to retain, and which that are fully developed begin to experience parts could be improved or enhanced. First some changes in their land use patterns as and foremost, residents expressed pride businesses move out, and

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