Davis Station 5th Avenue Bridge, Davistown, Minnesota
HEV Course 102 Case Study
The Davis Station 5th Avenue Bridge is a critical component of a major development
known as Davis Station (138 acres) located on a former brownfield site in the northwest
part of downtown Davistown, Minnesota. The bridge provides essential transportation
accessibility between the redevelopment site at the conjunction of Interstates 55 and 65
(I-55/65) and the Midtown of Davistown, linking Southside Drive with Appletree Street.
The success of this complex project derives from its ability to combine transportation
accessibility, public outreach, transit and pedestrian-oriented development, complete
remediation and redevelopment of a blighted brownfield site, and promotion of highly
compatible land use concepts desired by the city.
The Davistown metropolitan area was classified by the US EPA as a non-attainments
area with regards to air-borne pollution, caused largely by vehicular travel, which under
the Clear Air Act requirements prohibited adding any new highway infrastructure. The
site is full of contaminated soil that would need to be removed before development of
the 138-acre sit could occur, which would require up to $50 million.
There has been a need for mixed-use development containing housing, retail,
commercial, and open space since the late 1990s. The problem is that the
redevelopment site is on the western side of I-55/65 and lacks direct accessibility to the
more vibrant central business district of downtown Davistown. The relative isolation of
the site has promoted its decline into a blighted, industrial area with little economic
activity and an eyesore to the rest of the city. Continued inaccessibility would doom any
proposed redevelopment.
The solution is to design and build a bridge to span the six lanes of Interstate highways
to the east of the site, just below the confluence of I-55 and I-65. This will provide the
essential linkage between the Davis Station redevelopment project and Midtown
Davistown, costing $55 million. The proposed facility was designed as a multi-modal
bridge consisting of three 11-foot wide lanes in each direction serving automobiles,
buses, and trucks. The bridge is a facility delivered through a design-bid-build contract
managed by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and funded
through federal, state, and local sponsors.
A legal hurdle to the project and ultimately the bridge is the incompatible zoning of the
site. The site is classified as heavy industrial with an adjacent single-family residential
area known as Home Square. To allow the redevelopment to occur, including the
construction of the 5th Ave Bridge, the city needs to rezone the redevelopment area,
which will allow for a mixed use development with attached conditions and maximum
development limitations. This zoning change will be compatible with the city’s
comprehensive plan and building codes.
Another feature of the zoning changes and environmental approvals for the site is the
provision of a conservation easement, which requires the developers to apply the same
environmental protection, zoning, building code, and development standards that is
applied to the Davis Station development for any additional property that is acquired for
development adjacent to the current site without the need for special permits or
notification.
As word spread about the project, skepticism and sometimes outright opposition from
local community members and environmental groups questioned the impacts on their
neighborhoods and the ability/sincerity of the project sponsors to uphold their
commitments to the environmental mitigation measures incorporated into the
development plan. Local groups also expressed concerns over the amount of traffic that
such a huge new development would produce in downtown Davistown, adding to urban
congestion and air pollution. Another concern of environmental and community groups
was the additional amount of energy the huge new development would consume,
thereby contributing to the amount of thermal, air, and water pollution the on-site
buildings would produce.
Discussion Questions:
Natalie Weber has just been named the project manager at MnDOT for the Davis Station
5th Avenue Bridge. There are a few issues Weber needs to figure out to complete this
project. These issues include: deciding the level of environmental review required, who
should be responsible for public engagement, and the documentation process during
each phase of the project. Weber is sitting at her desk and has a mountain of papers,
what should she do to begin this project? What is the level of environmental review
required to begin this project? Who should be responsible for public engagement, and
what techniques should be used? What should she do to ensure this project is
successful for Davistown and MnDOT?
Discussion Notes: not to be included in final
Project stakeholders should maintain a spirit of openness and cooperation, soliciting
inputs and communicating with each other and the public along the entire development
process. The developers and major public agency stakeholders regularly share
information with all groups involved in the project or likely to be affected by its
completion through a series of meetings, briefing, and reports during the formative
years of project development. This will promote trust among the stakeholder groups
interested in the project. The developers and MnDOT are committed to continuously
monitoring numerous performance measures and annually reporting on the progress of
the redevelopment project and the achievement of defined performance targets
relating to emissions, groundwater quality and runoff, and transportation volumes and
modal use.