Hennepin County’s Southdale library and Edina Arts Center design advances; council keeps public comment open and continues hearing to April 16

Hennepin County and its design team presented a revised plan for a new regional library and an Edina Arts Center at 7001 York Avenue South and the Edina City Council agreed to leave public comment open until noon April 6 and to continue action on the conditional use permit, site plan and a building-height variance to the council meeting on April 16.

City staff said the county proposes to demolish the existing regional library and associated service center and replace them with a smaller, more compact facility on the north half of the 7.75-acre site: a proposed 43,000-square-foot library and a 16,000-square-foot Edina Arts Center as a tenant, for a total of roughly 59,000 square feet compared with the current combined footprint on site. Assistant City Planner Emily Dalrymple told the council the proposed use is conditionally permitted in the R-1 zoning district and that staff believes the project meets the conditional-use standards, with the exception of building-height requirements.

The main land-use variance needed is for building height. The R-1 district allows three…