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PROPOSAL FROM MARY MEUWISSEN
TO DEVELOP DOWNTOWN VICTORIA
Mary Meuwissen, owner of the Vic-toria Creamery property in downtown Victoria, owner of the Counselor Realty Office in the Clocktower Building in downtown Victoria, and former four-term mayor of Victoria (1995-2002), presented a downtown redevelopment proposal to Victoria councilmembers at a workshop setting on April 13th.
"We are property owners here in Vic-toria," said Mary. "My goal tonight is to get feedback from you. It is not a formal application. I'm proposing a redevelop-ment project for downtown Victoria. If you recall, downtown planning began in 1997 with 100% support of downtown business owners."
Mary summarized the situation at that time. "Wensmann Homes was not there. Sidco was still here. The Victoria Auto Body shop and the Julianne Wartman home had not been acquired."
She said she has been working for the past few months with Mark Kaltsas, for-mer Victoria City Planner and current consultant for the City of Victoria, and also Eric Zweber, current Victoria City Planner. She said that Dave Urbia, Vic-toria City Administrator, has attended some planning meetings about the devel-opment proposal.
"In addition, many people were inter-viewed for this project," continued Mary. She mentioned at least three architects including Krause Anderson who is doing the Wayzata Bay Center project.
"We want something that is a win-win for everybody," she said. "We don't want to make anyone unhappy. I have talked to affected property owners. Rich Gannon would be affected if we have a city park. He does want to have a build-ing downtown. He'd have to be relocated and properly compensated."
Rich Gannon owns the brick building on Quamoclit Street, in back of the Vic-toria House.
Continued Mary, "We have been working diligently with the Victoria House group. They are 100% behind it. We have been in conversation with Schmitty's. Craig Lynn [owner of Schmitty's] thought it was a plan that helps his property value tremendously. He knows I'm here tonight. He's not opposed to being acquired by us. That could happen in the next 24 to 48 hours. We have been in contact with the lumber yard. They think there's an opportunity for us to purchase it. In the next couple of weeks, we'll have better direction."
With color drawings, aerial views, and elevation sketches, Mary said, "I'm going to show you two different options, one with a city park. It is not necessary unless it makes for a better plan."
She said one plan includes Schmitty's Bar as it exists in its current location, the other plan is without Schmitty's. She pointed to three new large buildings that are cornerstones of the redevelopment project.
Building One, the largest, is totally self contained, she said, with its own underground parking. The drawing indi-cates 22 condominium units in six stories. It would provide the residential units to help support new retail.
Building Two, a four-story, is depict-ed with 12 condominium units and also includes 11,100 square feet of retail space on ground level with more underground parking.
Building Three, a three-story, is drawn with two floors each containing 6,500 square feet of office space, and the ground floor also with 6,500 square feet of restaurant space, plus there would be more underground parking.
Mary's drawings also define future on-street parking space to meet 85% of downtown parking needs.
"Parking will be close to where people want to get to," she said. "It will be generally dispersed throughout. We got advice from an expert to stay away from elevated parking in small town re-development. He said it is not a place where people like to go."
Mayor Jerry Bohn said, "Until we'd knock down buildings, there is no park-ing. Why not elevated parking? I see you taking 90% of the parking downtown and not replacing it. You're taking Schmitty's parking lot and the Victoria House park-ing lot."
Replied Mary, "With all the parking we've identified, I don't believe there will be a shortage. I didn't do an exact count for you. Obviously we will do a parking count."
"That's the lynch pin," said Mayor Bohn.
Responding to another question, Mary said, "If we lose Schmitty's, we're not replacing it with another bar. Right now Schmitty's uses all of that parking lot. Right now we want to get some feed-back. We're just showing an alternative in case we do the city park."
Councilmember Kim Roden suggest-ed the tall buildings would be taking away lake views.
Mary said that, in fact, her proposal brings people to the lake. "There are lots of pavers between the buildings for walking and moving and pulling people out and moving them through the space to the water.
"The buildings we are having are all public shops on the ground level that people can walk through and walk around to the lake … There is lots of public space by the lake. This is different than the Wensmann property which is private."
Councilmember Richard Tieden pointed out that with Mary's plan there would be access to the lake. "They are not blocking off the lake," he said.
Mary said the proposed plan can fit into many different road situations. "It will take a lot of analysis by the city to see if it's the right plan for the city. We'd like staff to come up with some recom-mendations." The plan shows that part of Stieger Lake Lane would be vacated and/or moved south.
The Creamery Building would re-main in place. "This involves a remodel of the Creamery," said Mary, the owner. "It's not that it's a great flowing building, but the upper level could become a small pub-restaurant. Maybe it'd be for the Victoria House and maybe not."
Click here to continue Downtown Proposal.
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