On a 6-1 vote on August 3, the Blaine (MN) City Council approved an actual high-density housing development.
As of 11 days later, the world hasn’t ended (even if there are signs it’s trying to get there).
Of course, there are caveats to how this unlikely thing occurred after years of bizarre hand-wringing over putting high-density housing in other locations, like in The Lakes development.
1. The site is next to a Gun Club. Arguably, this is not where you want your next golf course community, am I not right?
2. The “affordable” units will be for seniors, because poor seniors are okay, while poor single parents are obviously drug users. (The seniors probably cannot afford their medications, so may or may not be drug users. Depends on their Medicare D option.)
3. Beyond the senior housing component, there are few specifics about the 32-acre development yet.
4. They somehow believe they’ll get the magic new grocery store some council members want on the site as part of the retail component, even though there’s already a Super Walmart, an Aldi and a Cub right there.
5. Did I mention the Gun Club?
There was also concern about the lack of mass transit near the site, as though that isn’t true for pretty much everywhere in Blaine.
Nonetheless, it is good to see that Blaine realizes that we need some higher density development. Even if it has to be via putting affordable senior housing next to the Gun Club. (Note: They’d also talked about putting a K-4 school next to the Gun Club, which obviously was also a great idea.) Next thing you know, they’ll build sidewalks, and we’ll have an explanation for the crumbling of society’s foundations.
