This land is your land, this land is my land

Star Tribune Wed, 21 May 2008 16:17:14 GMT
Plan for senior home riles Bloomington neighbors

A church wants to sell some of its land -- which is now green space -- to a senior housing developer to fund its own expansion. Seven active kids grew up in the Grobel house on Thomas Avenue in Bloomington. The fields behind it were an ideal playground, with a baseball diamond and a makeshift hockey rink that their dad flooded in the winter. But the almost 10 acres of grass and trees wasn't a city park. The land belonged to Southtown Baptist Church, which for 50 years has welcomed use of the green space that surrounds the church at 2600 W. 82nd St. Now the church wants to pay for much of the cost of a new building by selling about half of its land for a senior co-op development. But United Properties' plans for a four-story building in a neighborhood of 1950s ramblers have upset some neighbors. The church and developer are trying to find a compromise that will satisfy everyone. United Properties and the church's architect are redoing their plans and hope to approach the city again in the next two months. "The neighborhood response has taken us aback," said the church's pastor, Stan McFall. "We are listening to them. ... We just need to step back, take a breather and redesign to address the concerns of the City Council and the neighbors." About 200 people signed a petition objecting to the project, and opponents started a website. Brian Pahos, who has lived in his Thomas Avenue home for eight years, is one of the organizers of Bloomington Residents for Appropriate Development. His street to the west of church property. "They're trying to fit something in that's absolutely out of character with this neighborhood," he said. "They're going for high density. ... This area was zoned single-family residential, and we assumed if anything was built it would be in that character."

[[keywords: Parks;Housing;Metro;]]