Developers are proposing a four story luxury apartment building, a senior living facility and a gas station with a car wash on property near the intersection of Main Street and 21st Avenue.
The Belleville Landing Apartments would have 103 units on about five acres. The NorBella Senior Living facility would have 40 units on about 4 acres. Each requires rezoning and conditional use permits from the city. After public hearings closed in April, comments continued to pour in.
“It was important to the council that the efforts of the people to express their opinions were heard and to make sure those opinions were part of the official public record,” said Centerville City Administrator Mark Statz.
So, public hearings have been re-opened, via e-mail and a Zoom meeting on May 26th. After complaining that many people were unaware of the projects, opponents were happy to see more opportunity for comment. They plan to weigh in against added noise and traffic the developments may bring, along with the apartment building’s height, and the loss of commercial acreage.
“When Centerville has such a small amount of commercial spots, it’s such a small city, so why take that commercial spot and move it to residential,” asked nearby resident Bridget Como.
“What we care about is, is it appropriate for our area? Is this what we need as a community,” asked Jeremy Como.
Opponents say they prefer a well planned commercial project over residential.
“I think that’s something that would be so valuable to Centerville residents and it’s something that’s lacking right now is the commercial aspect. That’s what residents need. That’s what they want to see,” said Andrea Mattlin.
Supporters say population growth sparked by the apartments will help attract future commercial and retail stores. City Administrator Mark Statz says they’ve heard many opinions on both sides.
“I want to thank members of the public who were very specific about that in saying, ‘we support this part of it but we have concerns with this other portion,’ or ‘we’re against this portion but we see the need for this type of facility,'” said Statz. “And so there was a lot of members of the public that did say those things. They had concerns with one element of it but were looking forward to the other elements coming.”
The City Council did approve a site plan for the Kwik Trip gas station to be located on Main Street. Critics had pointed out there are already others stations nearby. While the gas station meets the zoning code, a proposed connected car wash does not. So for now, the car wash is excluded from the site plan approval until after the public hearing and the council votes again later this month.
Comments can be included in the public hearing by e-mail: Info@Centervillemn.com. The e-mail deadline is May 20. Or you can appear at a public hearing on Zoom on May 26.
