City Facilities & Downtown Study

Golden Valley's 2040 Comprehensive Plan identified the downtown as an area that required further exploration. The downtown core is identified as the four quadrants surrounding the Winnetka Avenue N and Golden Valley Road intersection. The Downtown West planning district includes the properties between Highway 169 to the west, the Golden Valley Country Club to the east, the Luce Line Regional Trail to the north, and Highway 55 to the south. 

The City's central government center campus is located in the northeast quadrant of Winnetka Avenue and Golden Valley Road.

Fire Station Location Project

In Fall 2022 the City will begin a process to select a site for a new remote fire station, a priority determined by a 2021 analysis of all of its facilities and how they meet community needs.

Learn more here.

City Facilities Study

The City is studying its facilities in the downtown area to better understand and plan for long-term building needs. The goal is to determine how the facilities can best serve the community while maximizing opportunities for a future downtown Golden Valley.

The study process and outcomes include:

  • identifying and analyzing the City's existing facilities, operations, and space needs, resulting in detailed recommendations for required facility sizes and space requirements for City Hall, the Fire Department, the Police Department, and Public Works
  • facilitation of a community task force
  • a long-term phased implementation plan that prioritizes the departments and facilities most in need
  • a proposed budget for each facility that allows the City to plan project financing that will maintain the City's debt rating, execute projects in a fiscally-responsible manner, and ensure the efficiency and quality of City services for years to come

Recommendations from the Downtown Study for long-term redevelopment of this parcel include opportunities for private development by relocating Public Works away from downtown.

  1. Future Downtown Development Opportunities

The City campus area sits at the northeast quadrant of Winnetka Avenue and Golden Valley Road, which is a desirable location that could be better configured to incorporate private investment and support businesses and activities in the downtown area. The City wishes to create a long-term plan for a phased approach to develop new facilities on a portion of its current campus, relocate Public Works operations, and make portions of the site available for private investment. An important principle guiding location decisions is keeping City Hall in the downtown area to attract and support civic, social, and business activity.

The City is in the middle of the third and final phase of a Downtown Study, which includes several concepts for how this might be accomplished. Collaboration with the Hennepin County Library to construct a shared facility is a potential opportunity. Other opportunities may also exist with the County or the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

  1. Long-Term Reinvestment Plan
  1. Community Engagement

Downtown Study

In 2018, the City kicked off the three-phase Downtown Study by working with the Urban Land Institute to investigate a number of questions around redevelopment. This included assembling a panel of real estate, development, and finance experts to help evaluate the market potential of this district and how to best position the area for future improvements and redevelopment. Phase II focused on establishing an overall vision and guiding principles for redevelopment in the downtown core, and Phase III focuses on further refining those concepts.

Downtown Study Phase I

Learn about Phase I of the Downtown Study.

Downtown Study Phase II

Phase II of the Downtown Study focused on establishing a small area plan.

Downtown Study Phase III

Phase III, the current and final phase, is focused on refining redevelopment concepts for the southwest and northeast areas as catalyst sites for downtown redevelopment, as well as public space improvements, including streets, sidewalks, trails, Bassett Creek corridor, and gathering spaces.