Plans for a large development in Uptown are moving forward at Minneapolis City Hall despite vigorous opposition from neighbors.
The developers — Ryan Companies and Wiedner Apartment Homes — want to replace the Sons of Norway building and surface parking lots on W. Lake Street with two buildings with 319 apartments and 23,000 square feet of commercial space.
The Sons of Norway sold the building to the developers last summer, and the city Planning Commission in January approved a request to rezone part of the block from medium- to high-density residential to allow for the six-story project.
The site is four blocks from Bde Maka Ska, formerly known as Lake Calhoun, and has set off the latest in a series of battles between city leaders who want to promote housing density as an antidote to the city's lack of affordable housing, and residents who say such changes will harm their neighborhood.
Residents started a postcard-writing campaign opposing the project, and one couple — Tamara Kaiser and Erik Storlie, who live two blocks south of Lake Street — sent a 3,875-word open letter to the City Council citing "grave concerns" about the project and the city's response to their objections.
They say they understand that more housing supply should drive down rental prices, but they argue it's not happening in this case, because the development is the result of real estate speculation and is driving prices up. And they worry that their neighborhood will lose its character.
"We could put 10-story apartments everywhere, but you're destroying the very thing that over a century has made the neighborhood attractive," Storlie said.
Council President Lisa Bender, a proponent of density whose 10th Ward includes the East Calhoun neighborhood, said she's heard both support and opposition to the proposal.
