Asia Mall, with its wide assortment of pan-Asian foods under one roof, has proven to be a busy place since its opening 1½ years ago. At times, perhaps too busy.
Its popularity on weekends and at other peak times has the mall and Eden Prairie city officials looking for more parking stalls. It’s a challenge they feared might arise when the food hall was approved by the city in 2021.
Why it matters: At its busiest, the mall’s parking lot fills, turning customers away or forcing them to park in unsafe areas, such as along Technology Drive or at nearby Costco, which has also experienced traffic issues.
The Eden Prairie Planning Commission this week voted 5-3 to endorse a plan put forth by Asia Mall representatives that, according to city staff, adds 122 parking spaces but still falls short of what city code would normally require.
The plan now advances to the city council for a public hearing and decision.
Here are some of the key points of the debate:
- Suspecting a future parking shortage, the city council, in its 2021 approval of the project, required Asia Mall to construct a parking structure if the parking provided in the 2021 plan proved inadequate.
- Instead of building a parking ramp, Asia Mall is proposing to rebuild an existing stormwater management pond on the east side of the property. There, stormwater management features would be built underneath an extended, at-grade parking lot.
- City staff, in recommending approval of the plan, say it would increase the total number of parking stalls to 424, about 95% of what city code requires. Current parking is only about 75% of code requirements.
- Commissioners favoring the plan this week described it as an imperfect but adequate solution that could be implemented fairly quickly. Opponents said they doubted it would provide a final solution and questioned whether Asia Mall had provided the critical data to support their plan.
“In my opinion, the right thing to do is support this,” said Commissioner John Kirk, who voted in favor of Asia Mall’s plan. “But that’s not without some pretty big reservations.”
Go deeper: You can read more about the 2021 debate over Asia Mall parking by reading EPLN’s coverage at the time.
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