Timing of Belt Line Highway Construction

Many retail and service establishments are neighborhood-oriented. Their growth has depended for its stimulus upon nearby residential development. Maximum development of shopping center uses has occurred in the oldest, largest, most densely built tongues of residential neighborhoods which project northwest and southwest from Minneapolis across the Belt Line study strip (Maps, Figures 15-17). The Belt Line cuts across those two established residential spokes in Robbinsdale, on the north, and in the southern part of St. Louis Park and the adjacent northern part of Edina. The southwest spoke, extending into St. Louis Park and Edina, was the wider and better developed of the two. Commercial strip developments were already partly established on two radial routes within that spoke--Lake Street and Excelsior Boulevard (Figure 19). Thus, when the Belt Line was built, development near the major intersections was increased in the established commercial strips on the radials, and it was inhibited by the existence of partly built-up residential areas along the Belt Line (Figure 20).

In recent years, commercial uses have replaced residential uses for a short distance south of Excelsior Boulevard. This is evidence that Belt Line frontage so near a major intersection is valuable enough to justify redevelopment from residential to commercial uses (Figure 21). The "late arrival" of the Belt Line in that area, cutting through a district in which residential development was already underway in 1928, has forced commercial growth along the Belt Line to await re-zoning and redevelopment, and it has favored commercial development along pre-existing radial highways.

5. Zoning Policy

There have been great variations in zoning policy among the different municipalities through which the Belt Line passes. Edina has permitted only one commercial establishment--a large motel-restaurant--to front the Belt Line. According to the village planning director, there is a policy against extending that zone except in the southern part of the village, where the Belt Line approaches the future interchange with T.H. (I.R.) 494 (Figure 2). Thus, in Edina there is an avowed intent to emphasize or "advertise" the predominantly residential character of the village by encouraging that residential image along the major through traffic artery. In Edina it is often said that "The Belt Line is our front yard." (Figure 22).