Those of us who purchased homes in this neighborhood chose to be
neighbors to industrial business, not a big box retail development.
Most of the neighboring homeowners and residents oppose Target Corporation's proposal. Bloomington’s
comprehensive plan provides land use balance of all the area's needs, and Bloomington roadways have been planned accordingly. To disregard the hard work and planning of 40 years of city employee's seems like a throw away of taxpayer's money.
Bloomington City Planners, staff and traffic
departments agree that Target Corporation's proposal is wrong for this
area. City Council must now vote a supermajority for the project to
proceed.
Unfortunately, Target Corporation still thinks it can make
traffic work to its benefit, by adding more lanes, lengthening turn lanes,
and adjusting traffic signals to allow more cars to move faster. Engineers have
already run and rerun traffic studies and simulations and found this to be an
impossible scenario. Complicating the mix further is the fact
that no alternate east-west route exists for thru-traffic to avoid this
intersection. About 95 % of the City of Bloomington is closer to a freeway than this
land site.
Target Corporation's published Traffic Study proposal estimates
2.8 cars per minute will be generated by its retail AND food store
combined in morning peak hours, and 5.7 per minute in peak afternoon hours. In
other words we are to believe Target expects no more than 1.4 customers per
minute to each of its retail and grocery store at the busiest time of
morning or 2.85 customers per minute in afternoon peak. Stand in
front of your local Target store or Cub Foods and see if these numbers add up
to you. These numbers might be accurate on a cold January day in Minot, but not in a metro
Super Target Store. If engineers can't make traffic work with Target's lowball
projections, what will happen when the real traffic arrives?
If the comprehensive plan is amended by the City Council or later in court action as threatened by Target Corporation, it will set a legal precedent and ANY land, and any neighborhood throughout our city becomes easier prey to the next developer. Who dictates our city's land use plan? Is it the city planners and the residents or is it the developers? Bloomington has gained a reputation in recent years of trampling the rights of local businesses and homeowners. It is debatable whether this reputation is justified. But at this time let's stand up for the rights of vulnerable homeowners and local businesses in our neighborhood. We do not want Old Shakopee Road to become a haven of fast food shops and big box stores. City staff has done a great job studying the issues and making strong recommendations against rezoning. This rezoning is not about one intersection. It
is about all the surrounding neighborhoods too. It's about being able to safely
turn left and right from Nord, Morris, Little, Kell, Johnson, Rich
Road, Old Shakopee Circle, 110th street, Nesbitt, 102nd, Heritage
Hills and a dozen more that would be adversely affected. It’s
about our city staying the course on the comprehensive plan; it’s about
Target Corporation being respectful to the needs and rights of the
residents, and our government plan for our fine community.
We already have 9 Target Stores within ten miles of this
proposed location. Do we really need another one right here?
