Linden Corner Gets Its Official Debut

For all the local media attention and community discussion Mark Dwyer's Linden Corner project has generated, the hundreds who crowded into the Linden Hills Park recreation center on Sunday showed that interest in the controversial development is far from waning.

Representatives of Linden Hills Residents for Responsible Development, an opposition group, said that at Sunday's event, alone, they sold between 100 and 200 lawn signs carrying their message: "It takes a village to keep a village," with a red circle and slash superimposed over a photo of the development.

"The neighborhood seems to be uniting against it," said Linden Hills resident Tim Ackerman, who lives near the proposed location.

But for many, Sunday's open house, organized by the Linden Hills neighborhood association, was their first taste of the plan. Initial reviews appeared mixed.

Ward 13 City Councilmember Betsy Hodges said that many of the comments her office has been getting about the project were referencing incomplete plans and depictions of the plans generated by other groups based on those incomplete plans. Because of that, she couldn't actually use them—legally speaking—in forming an opinion of the development.

"I'm glad people are coming to this," Hodges said. "The City’s Planning Commission and Council are required to make a decision based on the plan itself, and as a result, public comments are more relevant if based on the plan itself."

She said she hoped more residents would be submitting comments before the Planning Commission hears Dwyer's proposal.

The Planning Commission is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 9, 2012, to review Dwyer's request for a permit to build his five-story design. The commission will base their decision on how the design's extra two stories  Dwyer has spent much of the past few months working to counter or mitigate concerns that the development would be too tall for the area and that most visitors would take up on-street parking, but many residents—and the opposition group—remain unconvinced.

"Mark Dwyer is being a good neighbor by being here," said Ackerman. "But he hasn't made the argument for why it wouldn't be profitable at a smaller scale."

See Patch's Previous Coverage of Linden Corner