Blaine, SLP meet to discuss Cemstone
by Tim Hennagir
Life Editor
Blaine City Council members met with Spring Lake Park city leaders last week to discuss joint property development issues near the 85th Avenue Cemstone plant.
Blaine City Council members met with Spring Lake Park city leaders last week to discuss joint property development issues near the 85th Avenue Cemstone plant. (Photo by Tim Hennagir)
Bryan Schafer, Blaine’s community development director, reviewed plans for the area, which have been jump-started by a land-use application from Kwik Trip.
The privately held convenience store company based in La Crosse, Wis., wants to locate a new store on northwest corner of Highway 65 and 85th Avenue N.E.
Spring Lake Park City Administrator Barbara Nelson and Blaine City Manager Clark Arneson also attended the Jan. 24 meeting at Spring Lake Park City Hall.
The joint council get-together was short (45 minutes), but it was packed with information and included Schafer using a large map to show what was proposed.
“The clock is ticking for Blaine and our council needs to make some decisions in the not too distant future,” Arneson said.
“[This development] will not only affect Blaine, but it will indirectly affect Spring Lake Park. In the long run, it will affect us all,” he said.
Kwik Trip currently has store locations in Andover and Coon Rapids.
Schafer told the councils that Blaine had received a land use application from Kwik Trip for property on the north side of the Cemstone concrete batch plant.
“My understanding is Kwik Trip is purchasing everything north of 85th Avenue. That includes the cement plant’s towers, the two buildings and two vacant residential lots,” Schafer said.
Cemstone would be left with a long, narrow parcel of land in Blaine and a triangular piece in Spring Lake Park, he said.
According to Schafer, when Kwik Trip came in and submitted its land-use application to the city, his department sent a copy of its site plan to the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) as a legal requirement.
“That’s because of the service road and Highway 65 access,” Schafer said.
MnDOT sent a letter back stating if Blaine wanted to redevelop the corner, regardless of the use, the city would have to make improvements at the intersection of 85th Avenue and Highway 65, Schafer said.
“There needs to be a median added from west edge of the lanes all the way back through the Cemstone site,” he said.
Schafer said Blaine’s reaction to MnDOT’s finding was three-fold.
“We understood the addition of the median,” he said.“That’s going to impact Spring Lake Park, because people come down Highway 65 and want to take a right to get into Nicklow’s or the other businesses. That won’t be possible with a median.”
For example, Schafer said if a motorist left one of the businesses and started going southbound, they would have to negotiate the median.
“We know there is an access opening at 87th Avenue, but that could be MnDOT imposed at some point,” Schafer said, adding 85th Avenue is a principal area access point.
“We presented all of that information to Kwik Trip and it also had a second development issue,” he said. “As we looked at this access and looked at the service road and not being able to get to Highway 65, you would have to travel west, go around and come back, we said we have to find a different way to reroute the service road, like we’ve done in other parts of Blaine.”
Kwik Trip changed its plan to a smaller station and included a redesigned service road, Schafer said.
The tentative, proposed planning map presented by Schafer showed a concept to provide an alternative access for SLP businesses south of 85th Avenue.
Schafer said Don’s Barber Shop, 8496 Highway 65 N.E., and the bottom of the Cemstone conveyor would be graded out (removed) and converted to raw land.
Nelson asked about the status of the barber shop.
“The barber shop is closed,” Schafer said. “Cemstone owns it and it would take it down. The barber shop was a tenant of Cemstone for years.”
Arneson said the Blaine-Spring Lake Park city boundary runs right through the middle of Cemstone’s service building.
Spring Lake Park Councilmember Jeanne Mason asked what would happen to the Dairy Queen at 8528 Central Ave N.E. Schafer fielded that question.
“Let me talk about schedule for a minute,” Schafer replied. “We don’t have any immediate plans to move the service road. As long as the median goes in, and the lanes go in, MnDOT is satisfied. And as far as MnDOT is concerned, it doesn’t have a problem with us retaining the service road in its current location.”
However, Schafer said retaining the service road in its current configuration doesn’t work well for the overall business area.
That’s because Blaine has a long-term goal of moving the road in two years.
“It’s not immediate,” Schafer said. “What Kwik Trip is considering is providing the right of way for the service road from 85th Avenue to the north end of its property, then building the beginning of that service road so it could get access from the west, leaving the rest of the service road for someone else to deal with.”
Schafer said the Dairy Queen could continue to have access until the new road is built.
Spring Lake Park Councilmember Dale Dahl said anything is better that looking at what’s currently on the Cemstone site.
“That thing [the plant tower] is the most unattractive thing in southern Blaine and northern Spring Lake Park,” he said. “It’s a good thing it’s going. There has to be something done with the intersection, because it never did make any sense.”
Blaine Councilmember Katherine Kolb asked if Kwik Trip had a secured an option on the property.
Schafer said Kwik Trip site proposal now requires a plat because it is going to subdivide the property.
As a development item, Kwik Trip’s land use application will go back to the Blaine Planning Commission to be reheard, he said.
“That has one additional advantage,” Schafer said. “The neighborhood behind the service road was part of the conversation when this was first heard. So, it will be reheard with that information and when it’s renoticed, neighbors will understand it’s a different plan.”
A tentative schedule would place the item before the Blaine Planning Commission in March and full city council in April.
Kolb said the Blaine City Council had talked about meeting sooner as opposed to later with Spring Lake Park city leaders about the Cemstone development.
For a long time, the Blaine council has considered the property as a southern gateway to Blaine and Spring Lake Park to the north, Kolb said.
“This is a prime piece of property to showcase both of our cities, and all of a sudden, it’s going to become a gas station,” she said. “It’s a nice gas station, but we’ve been hoping for development with a lake view. That would be really nice and two cities could share a good tax base.”
According to Kolb, Dairy Queen has franchise territory options and could eventually be bought out.
Nelson asked if the city of Blaine had any other interested property owners.
Arneson replied: “At this stage, we have a complying application.” However, he said if the station project didn’t work at the proposed location, the city would assist Kwik Trip in find another Blaine location and the Blaine Economic Development Authority might purchase the site.
Mayor Tom Ryan said the Spring Lake Park side of the site had better development potential.
“We don’t know how long Nicklow’s is going to stay in operation,” Ryan said.
Nelson said several years ago, Spring Lake Park joined the Anoka County Housing and Redevelopment Authority, so the smaller city would have some outlet or relationship where it could gather money
for redevelopment.
“We’ve been talking about stepping it up regarding redevelopment,” Nelson said. “These are some of the oldest buildings in the city. Aesthetically, Nicklow’s needs to do something.”
Councilmember Barbara Carlson said she was always pushing for more green space in Spring Lake Park.
“Especially that corner,” Carlson said.
Nelson said Spring Lake Park’s latest comprehensive plan has the property listed as commercial, not residential.
“I’m not sure the citizens of Spring Lake Park could actually afford not to have this commercial, but I think past city councils have been open to mixed use,” Nelson said, adding it would be nice if city could get a new shopping center with apartments above it or a similar type of development.
Ryan said he could not visualize Nicklow’s rebuilding on its current location. “It’s still one of the best places to go to eat in the area with the best people,” he said.
According to Schafer, one of the reasons why the city of Blaine presented a preliminary development drawing last week was to show a key restraint existed in terms of the two cities trying to work together in terms of development.
“There is no redevelopment scenario that I can imagine that doesn’t have the 85th Avenue road connection,” Schafer told both city councils. “The Spring Lake Park side is a much better site [for development] because you are right next to Laddie Lake.”
Tim Hennagir is at tim.hennagir@ecm-inc.com
