This is a planning map of the City’s Market Center Area. Sometimes we refer to it as the Major Center Area. We really ought to pick one name and use it consistently. [Note to self] Actually, we refer to it more commonly as the “MCA”, so I guess we cover both names with one acronym.
It’s a little hard to tell from this map, but the MCA is bounded by Valley View Road on the north and by Prairie Center Drive all the way around the east, south, and west, with a couple of adjoining neighborhoods added in for good measure. The heart of the MCA is the Eden Prairie Center. The area with the most redevelopment potential is probably the commercial area directly to the west of the Eden Prairie Center between Prairie Center Drive and Flying Cloud Drive.
The City Council met in joint session last night with our Planning Commission to receive an update from the consultants that we’ve hired to study the future of the MCA. We launched a planning initiative late last year for this area of our city. We want to analyze its current status and plan for its future.
The Council appointed a special task force to provide staff and the consultants with guidance on what the direction the community might want to nudge the MCA towards for the future. The task force has had two meetings to work with the consultants on the project. The meeting last night with the Planning Commission and the Council was a check-in point for the consultant to make sure that the Planning Commission, City Council, staff, and task force were all on, roughly, the same page as far as the general direction the study seems to be heading.
Short answer: We are.
The study has got a ways to go yet. In the end, it should provide us with a guide to the future of this area. It will be a guide that includes both regulatory and financial incentive tools to encourage outcomes that what we hope will be in the best interest of Eden Prairie for the future.
