Planners Eyeing More Sites for Southwest LRT Maintenance Facility

Eden Prairie now has a little more competition for the Southwest Light Rail Transit operation and maintenance facility that few want.

The project’s draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) identified just six possible sites where the facility could be located—five sites in Eden Prairie and one in Minneapolis.

However, planners decided that the start of preliminary engineering was a good time to take a look at more sites. They’ve now identified 18 sites. That includes three more sites in Eden Prairie—but it also includes additional sites in Hopkins, Minnetonka and St. Louis, as well as an additional site in Minneapolis.

The original DEIS sites in Eden Prairie are:

• The Highway 212 right of way between West 78th Street and Eden Prairie Road
• 8000 Wallace Road
• The City Garage, 7975 Wallace Road and 8001 Wallace Road
• The City Garage and a piece of 14900 Technology Drive east of the City Garage
• 8014 Mitchell Road, near the site of the proposed Mitchell Road Station location

The new sites are:

• A parcel at the southwest corner of Mitchell Road and Technology Drive
• A piece of 7075 Flying Cloud Drive, near the proposed Golden Triangle Station location
• 6685 and 6745 Flying Cloud Drive and 6775 and 6801 Shady Oak Road

(Click on the PDFs to the right to see a map of the locations in Eden Prairie, as well as a list of all 18 proposed sites.)

Communities along the line are not exactly welcoming the proposed facility. Although Hopkins officials have said they’d be willing to accept it on a site that’s currently a landfill, proposals at other sites along the line have prompted worries about the loss of tax base and redevelopment potential.

The Southwest LRT design team will next narrow the possibilities to five or six sites and seek input from project committees in late April and early May. Public open houses will take place in May in the cities where the sites are.