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Conclusion
<br />TIF is a valuable redevelopment tool when used properly. TIF
<br />districts can help to attract development to blighted areas,
<br />encourage the cleanup ofenvlronmentally contaminated areas,
<br />and provide incentive for infill development rather than the
<br />development ofgreenspace. Still, TIF districts have to be
<br />accompanied by sound planning practices, including needs
<br />assessment, land-use planning, and plans for the effective
<br />management of the districts. If sufficiently planned, TIF will
<br />provide economic benefits to a municipality and environmental
<br />benefits to a region as a whole.
<br />
<br />Sinking Shopping
<br />Center to Become
<br />a Wetland
<br />
<br /> Occasionally, APA's Planning Advisory Service is asked to
<br /> provide examples of shopping center revitalization techniques.
<br /> Options usually include varying the tenant mix, renovating the
<br /> facade, improving the landscaping and parking, and/or
<br /> redesigning the signage. For the Phalen Shopping Center in St.
<br /> Paul, Minnesota, the selected alternative has been more
<br /> dramatic---demolish the majority of the site and convert it to a
<br /> lake and wetlands. By spring 1999, St. Paul hopes to transform
<br /> the site back into Ames Lake, surrounded by wetlands and
<br /> 'community open space.
<br />· Opened in 1960, the 200,000-square-foot shopping center
<br /> was expected to provide an economic boom to the Phalen
<br /> Village neighborhood. Builders speculated that a highway
<br /> proposed for the neighborhood would link it to the regional
<br /> retail market. But residents opposed the highway, which
<br /> ultimately stopped short of the neighborhood. Another highway
<br /> intended to traverse the area was built a mile and a half away,
<br /> creating a more suitable site for a regional retail center
<br /> elsewhere, xYghile the Phalen Shopping Center operated well for
<br /> a time, it never quite captured the community's retail market
<br /> and suffered from high vacancy rates.
<br /> And then there was the problem with the site. The center
<br /> was built on what was then the outskirts of St. Paul on the only
<br /> available vacant land--Ames Lake. To create a buildable site,
<br /> the developers drained and ill(ed the lake, in some places to a
<br /> depth of 80 feet. The shopping center site was never trul7 stable
<br /> and began sinking right from the start. Cattails began to grow
<br /> through broken-up parts of the extended parldng lot that was
<br /> paved for an expansion that never occurred.
<br /> The structural situation, coupled with the vacancies and a
<br /> Iack of major maintenance work over the years, made it
<br />
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<br /> apparent that the community needed to act. Finding a solution
<br /> for the shopping center became one of the catalysts for
<br /> developing a neighborhood plan.
<br /> In 199 I, a neighborhood task force was established to
<br />identify strategies to revitalize the neighborhood, including the
<br />center, and develop them into a plan. The Phalen Village Small
<br />Area Plan Task Force includes representatives of residents,
<br />property owners, businesses, and two members of the St. Paul
<br />Planning Commission. When it acknowledged that the
<br />shopping center needed some help, the task force originall7
<br />decided to add some aesthetic amenities to the site to create
<br />some neighborhood open space, says Alan Torstenson of the St.
<br />Paul Department of Planning and Economic Development. It
<br />was not initiall7 conceived as a wetlands restoration site. The
<br />idea for converting the site back to wetlands came from Sherri
<br />Buss, who was studying landscape architecture at the University
<br />of Minnesota when the city approached her adviser, offering
<br />the shopping center as a student project. As she studied the
<br />site, examining factors such as its history as a lake, the
<br />concave topograph7, and hydric soils, "all the information
<br />pointed to it being a wetland," says Buss. She developed a
<br />wetlands restoration plan, which also became her thesis
<br />project. When Buss presented her proposal to the
<br />neighborhood task force in 1992, "I thought the
<br />neighborhood group would laugh at us," she says. But many
<br />of the residents remembered fishing in Ames Lake and
<br />became excited. The task force included the idea in the
<br />neighborhood plan.
<br /> Not all of the site will be returned to Wetlands. Jerry's
<br />NewMarket, a successful grocery store tenant, has purchased
<br />50,000 square feet of the shopping center, which includes his
<br />store and six other storefronts. Renovation of these stores is
<br />expected to occur next year. In addition, Prosperity Avenue, the
<br />hopeful-sounding road that originall7 led to Phalen Center, will
<br />be rerouted around the wetland, creating a new commercial
<br />corridor to the north.
<br /> The $2 million restoration is being underwritten by
<br />several contributors, including the city, the Metropolitan
<br />Council (through its Livable Communities fund), the
<br />Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources (using
<br />lottery funds dedicated to environment), and the watershed
<br />district.
<br /> Site excavation is scheduled for this summer. Initial wetlands
<br />vegetation plantings will occur this fall, with the final plantings
<br />completed next spring. The hope is that it will be a fully
<br />functional wetland that serves primaril7 as an environmental
<br />amenity and wildlife habitat. When completed, Ames Lake will
<br />contain from seven to nine acres of lake and wetlands. It will
<br />link to neady five acres of wetlands restored in 1997 at Lake
<br />Phalen, located approximately one-quarter mile from Ames
<br />Lake, and become part of the Phalen Chain of Lakes bird
<br />flyway. According to the small area plan, it will also serve as a
<br />environmental education resource for school and youth
<br />programs.
<br /> The Phalen Center project is part of an overall community
<br />revitalization effort, says Torstenson. "The community has
<br />always had stable areas, but has had pockets that were troubled,"
<br />he say~. The city hopes that the desire to live near green space
<br />will help attract higher-quality housing and mixed commercial
<br />uses, stabilizing the Phalen Village economy. Buss sees the lake
<br />and wetland as "natural resources acting as an aid to economic
<br />development." Already there are new townhomes being
<br />developed in the area. Megan Lewis, AICP
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