| The Whittier neighborhood is sensitive to the important and delicate balance that exists in healthy neighborhoods, including the availability of good jobs, mix of housing and safe, convenient transportation. Lake Street was built on that foundation and it flourished as a successful commercial trolley street with industry and manufacturing immediately next door along the 29th Street rail corridor.
Working with the South Whittier Redevelopment Task Force and the Whittier Alliance has led to several approaches to development. These strategies should concentrate on taking full advantage of premier sites to develop demonstration projects that inspire the community, catalyze additional reinvestment, establish strong links to the new Greenway, and shift thinking away from single-use function to a mixed-use village that integrates with the scale and character of the neighborhood. Because of land use and building orientation, continuous access along the Greenway rim is a difficult challenge in this neighborhood.
There are numerous opportunities for adaptive re-use and infill development at a finer-grained scale that historically characterized Lake Street. Filling in the missing pieces and focusing attention at key intersections will strengthen the sense of place and reinforce the business presence along Lake Street. Other important sites, such as the Soo Line Gardens property, lie directly alongside the Greenway, providing outstanding redevelopment opportunities and the unique potential for integrating neighborhood open space with private development and the more public Greenway.
A neighborhood redevelopment strategy needs to take advantage of the numerous vacant/underutilized properties while providing an overall approach that creates strong connections to activities at Lyndale/Lake to the west and Nicollet/Lake to the east. | | |
