Downtown Study Phase I

Golden Valley's Downtown West is a planning district including 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 downtown core is identified as the four quadrants surrounding the Winnetka Avenue N and Golden Valley Road intersection.

Phase I

The City worked with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to assemble a Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) 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. The TAP attempted to address four questions:

• What placemaking strategies can the City employ to get people to the area, entice them to stay, and to enhance the experience as a community gathering place without creating vehicle congestion and inconvenience?
• Is the City Hall Campus an attractive redevelopment site? Are there opportunities for future public/private partnerships?
• What can the City do to help position the Golden Valley Shopping Center for improvement? From a market standpoint, what are the principal land use and design elements for the repurposing and/or redevelopment of the older shopping center?
• What should the City expect from the market in terms of repurposing aging light industrial properties to the west of downtown?

The TAP met with City officials, took a walking tour of the downtown area, gathered information from staff, and interviewed key stakeholders.

In addition to specific suggestions regarding potential short-term improvements, the TAP urged the City to continue working to enhance the downtown through the development of a small area plan. The plan will focus on the four quadrants surrounding Winnetka Avenue and Golden Valley Road

As part of the exploration of the four quadrants, the City is looking to:

• Encourage more bicycle and foot traffic with the addition of bike and pedestrian facilities
• Create potential targeted redevelopment scenarios
• Design a way to better connect the downtown to the area south of Highway 55 and to Brookview
• Envision the future of the City Hall campus as buildings age and need to be replaced

Study Timeline

• January 21, 2020 - Phase II Report to the City Council
• October 21, 2019 - Open house to update community members about the study and gather public input about the small area plan
• Early 2019 - Phase II resulted in further development of a small area plan and emerging concepts for the downtown
• October 9, 2018 - Summary of the findings and recommendations shared with City Council
• Summer 2018 - Phase I of the Downtown Study resulted in a written report prepared by the ULI TAP

For more information, contact Planning Manager Jason Zimmerman.