Minnesota Suburb Divided Over New Urban Plan
A suburban town just west of Minneapolis is debating a plan to bring a bit of New Urbanism into a proposed housing development that would otherwise just be houses. The planned mixed use development has enticed some residents and worried others.
The small town of Chaska is on the verge of becoming 1,000 homes bigger. And while the population is sure to increase greatly, the size of the town itself will face only a slight expansion. That's because the new housing development is being designed in the New Urbanist style. Compared to the rest of the suburban town, housing density will be high in Clover Ridge, the new development. Another stark difference will be the inclusion of mixed land uses, siting retail on the first-floor and housing above. This is an exciting prospect to some residents who foresee a needed boost in the local economy. But many other residents are opposed to what they see as an unwelcome change.
"Residents of the new neighborhood are divided into two camps: Those who love the ideals of new urbanism but worry after years of delays that the neighborhood won't fulfill them, and those who think the kind of urban density envisioned doesn't belong in Clover Ridge."
"The main dispute is over the neighborhood's most radical venture, still unbuilt: A Minneapolis affordable housing provider, Central Community Housing Trust, recently proposed a 115-unit apartment complex called Clover Field Marketplace, with 10,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor."
"The new urbanism idea 'intimates to us that there's something wrong with suburbia,' resident Bill Thompson told the city Planning Commission reviewing the Marketplace project. 'We like the quietness. We like the lack of traffic.' "
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classism in suburbia
This article notes some interesting poitns. For one, when one resident of this community notes that new-urbanist development "intimates to us that there's something wrong with suburbia," my reponse to him is, "yes, actually. That is the case. There is something wrong with suburbia, in case you haven't heard yet."
The most outrageous part of this, however, is the fact that residents "worry about the fact that half of the complex's 115 units will be subsidized, affordable to low- and middle-income renters." This is nothing but classist and, as we know, anything classist can potentially cary racist and xenophoic undertones.
What is wrong with creating housing for people who otherwise can't afford it? NIMBYism should not be allowed to extend to affordability, even though we know it does. This fear of affordable housing reflects the trends of suburbia using exclusionary zoning in order to push certain classes into centralized poverty. They (suburban champions and seemingly the residents of this neighborhood) haven't learned the lesson yet, and seem to want to perpetuate exclusivity at the expense of social progress. I for one find that outrageous and insulting.