BLOOMINGTON, MN — The Bloomington City Council has adopted the Lyndale Avenue Retrofit Strategy, a plan to shape the future of this Gateway Development District corridor. Developed by Stantec, this suburban retrofit strategy culminates a year-long community-led process focused on transforming Lyndale Avenue into a thriving central spine within the community, offering increased access to housing options, neighborhood services, parks, transit, cultural amenities, and restaurants.

“Adopting the Lyndale Avenue Retrofit Strategy today means we are well-positioned to take advantage of opportunities to build a new and better center of community for future generations,” said Bloomington Mayor Tim Busse.

The vision for Lyndale Avenue’s future is conveyed through a series of achievable core principles for managing growth and change over the next decade, backed by strategies that provide a framework to help attract investment and vitality to the corridor and surrounding communities. The strategy aims to reflect priorities as defined by the community, including community image and amenities, equity and inclusion, high-quality services, focused renewal, environmental sustainability, and engagement and transparency.

“By outlining both near- and long-term actions, our plan establishes a roadmap for this corridor — informed by community values and needs — to establish a mixed-use, walkable center that can become the social, economic, and civic heart of Bloomington,” said Beth Elliott, Senior Urban Planner with Stantec’s Urban Places team. “As communities face challenges in managing the rapid pace of change, the Lyndale Avenue Retrofit Strategy allows this community to prepare and proactively shape its future as a 21st century center for economic activity, livability, and resilience.”

Guiding principles within the strategy include:

• Reimagining Lyndale Avenue as a complete street that accommodates pedestrians, bikes, cars, and transit and invites people of every age and ability to safely and conveniently move throughout, and enjoy the corridor.
• Introducing interactive and innovative forms of public art — along with public events — that tell the stories of those who live in or near the neighborhoods along Lyndale Avenue, promote interaction, and invite strangers to become neighbors.
• Creating a compact critical mass of housing, jobs, and services in designated nodes — planned and designed to be good neighbors — to support existing and new businesses, as well as entertainment to enhance livability for the neighborhoods along Lyndale Avenue and all of Bloomington.
• Creating a public space network throughout the corridor that connects existing parks and the Minnesota River Valley with a series of new parks and public spaces enlivened by adjacent restaurants, cafés, beer gardens, and similar activities.
• Ensuring that Lyndale Avenue redevelops in a greener, more sustainable manner by adding trees, a variety of landscaped spaces, and stormwater facilities that bring people and nature together, as well as encouraging energy efficient and low-impact design practices throughout the corridor.
• Tapping Lyndale Avenue’s roots as a historic “Main Street” in ways that are authentic to the 21st century community it serves: transitioning to adjacent neighborhoods while respecting their scale and character, embracing notable places like the clock tower, while creating new notable places like a public square.