Star Tribune du lieu suivant : Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page W12

W12 WEST STAR TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 2006 Village will bring easy access to buses Southwest Village will be built on a 10-acre site at the northeast corner of Lyman Blvd. and Hwy. 101, south of the proposed path of Hwy. 212. It will be smaller than Southwest Station.

The Chanhassen site will feature a somewhat smaller parking ramp and less retail and restaurant space about 17,000 square feet in two buildings. Southwest Metro Transit, which is run by the cities of Chanhassen, Chaska and Eden Prairie, is also planning to build a parking ramp in downtown Chanhassen, perhaps alongside the site of a new Chanhassen Dinner Theater, in late 2009. The transit executive director, Len Simich, said he is seeing in ridership and use of parking ramps. Ridership increased almost a third from 2003 to 2005. running out of room for everybody right Simich said, noting that Southwest 900 parking spots were often full last winter.

Developments like Southwest Station and Southwest Village offer advantages for a bus service, Simich said. First, developing housing nearby can attract young professionals or other residents who are likely to become bus riders. Also, businesses nearby provide services to bus users, such as coffee shops, dry-cleaning or dinner at night. And, by becoming a master developer of a site or working with local cities, Southwest Metro Transit often benefits financially. Income from the development can offset the cost of building the parking ramp.

Or, cities can provide free land in exchange for use of parking at off-peak times. The Chaska parking lot, for example, will be convenient for users of city trails in the area. Buses will be able to ride on the shoulders of the new Hwy. 212 to avoid back-up. Simich said it should take about 10 minutes to travel from Southwest Village to Eden Prairie.

The typical commute to downtown Minneapolis is about 15 minutes shorter that driving a car because buses have access to special lanes and can use shoulders to avoid backups, he said. time is going to be drastically shortened by taking a Simich said. Transit officials are meeting with Carver County officials to discuss transit needs elsewhere in the county, especially in fast- growing cities such as Carver, Waconia and Victoria. Simich said he is talking with local officials about other places in Carver County where parking lots or transit- oriented developments similar to Southwest Village and Southwest Station could be located to meet the expected increase in demand. Ben Steverman 612-673-7168 BUSES FROM W1 Plymouth might open rural area to building The Met Council says it needs enough new housing to pay for sewer service being extended to the area, and to absorb some of the 1 million new residents expected in the metro area in the next 30 years.

In May, the city staff proposed three alternatives that would have allowed 2,300 to 7,800 housing units to be built in the area. Density ranged from 2.17 to 6.21 units per acre. The staff proposed new zoning categories for the area that would be less dense than zoning elsewhere in the city. In May, the Planning Commission proposed a much denser plan up to 11,198 new housing units, with a density between 5.15 and 8.8 units per acre. But the council discarded that plan and came up with its own proposal last week.

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