Champlin, Minnesota

“Most folks would consider us a bedroom community,” says Community Development Director, Scott Schulte. “A predominance of our neighborhoods are single-family residential, built mostly in the mid-‘80s, progressing into the ‘90s. We’re a 95-percent developed community, and most of our growth has been single-family residential, so redevelopment is pretty much what we’re looking at.” A major redevelopment project that the city is embarking upon is called Mississippi Crossings - 160 acres in Champlin that abuts the Mississippi River south of the historic Anoka-Champlin Bridge, which has been identified as a prime redevelopment locale. In the mid-1800s, the Crossings was a landing area for migrating steamboats and home to the Anoka-Champlin ferry service. “There’s a lot of history to this area,” says Schulte. “We’re a riverfront community, and at one time, we had a small business district in the heart of Mississippi Crossings, adjacent to the river, that included typical, small-town businesses centered on service and retail, but there was also a river connection. We had an historic flour mill; there was logging, and other types of river-related activities in this area.” More recently, however, the Crossings has consisted of obsolete commercial structures, dilapidated apartment buildings, and vacant lots; since 1980, the area has seen limited re-investment. “It wasn’t a thriving core, but it was what we consider the historic downtown of Champlin,” Schulte adds. “The redevelopment that we’re doing there is trying to bring somewhat of a downtown aspect back to Champlin.” “In the late ‘90s, we went through a fairly extensive planning effort,” Schulte continues. “There was a 24-member task force that looked at Champlin and identified this area as one with redevelopment potential. Over time, plans have been refined, adjusted, and amended. Meanwhile, the city has been active in acquiring property; we took advantage of the depressed real estate market in the mid-2000s to acquire quite a bit of