D1 Board Approves Site Plan

At the February 28th Board Meeting, the District 1 Council Board heard from Mark Smith, owner of MaxIt Pawn, and from about 45 residents about Mr. Smith's proposal for 1891 Suburban Avenue. The proposal involves redevelopment of the Suburban Used Car Lot with a MaxIt Pawn shop as an anchor, along with new buildings for a Cowboy Slim's Restaurant, Chipotle Restaurant, Dairy Queen and a Starbucks. In addition, the proposal has more tentative agreements from a pet store, car repair shop and hair salon. The original proposal included a Dollar Store facing Suburban in the southeast corner of the lot. After discussion with residents, Mr. Smith pulled that potential tenant from his proposal.

Throughout the evening, the dominant sentiment was that residents did not want the pawn shop, were concerned about the image a pawn shop and dollar store presented of this community, and asked questions about how the site would be managed and the pawn shop would operate. Mr. Smith answered all questions and encouraged residents to visit any of his other stores. However, when Mr. Smith stated that the numbers of new jobs estimated for all the different shops was between 175 and 225, people's attitudes started to shift. Once he said he heard the community's concerns about another dollar store and would stop pursuing that entity as a tenant, community members said they could get behind the site plan he was proposing.

Finally, a vote of community members was taken and 28 supported the proposal and only 4 were against it (there were some abstentions). In addition to these comments, our office took comments from 12 other people, 9 of whom were against the proposal. So the final community tally was 31 for the proposal and 13 against it.

When the Board took its voice vote, it was unanimous in support of the proposed site plan. There were 11 of 13 current board members present, and one of the absent members left his proxy vote in support, given one condition.

Is this the end of the process?? Not by a long shot. Here's what happens next... The District Council will submit ALL information, both pro and con, it received to the City as the City takes up consideration of the site plan and its accompanying conditional use permits. In addition to the community comments we submit a letter with our recommendation and we will include our understanding of all the proposal entails. Our objective is to make sure that the City understands where the community stands on this proposal. Our recommendation is only given as advice to the Zoning Committee of the Planning Commission.

But we also encourage any and all community members to submit their own letters (or emails) to City staff - whether for or against the proposal. The site plan Mr. Smith submitted will be reviewed on March 8 for a variety of issues, and then the Zoning Committee will get the site plan and conditional use permit requests in late March. It is best if you submit your comments directly to the city staff person, Penny Simison at penelope.simison@ci.stpaul.mn.us or 651.266.6554. You can also send mail to her at 25 W. 4th St., City Hall Annex 1100, St. paul, MN 55102.