Mpls. City Council Delays Moratorium On Home Teardowns

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Minneapolis City Council delayed any action on a one-year moratorium on the teardown of homes in southwest area of the city on Thursday.

City Council Member Linnea Palmisano, who represents Ward 13, declared the moratorium because of what she says are growing concerns about the large number of small homes being torn down and replaced by much larger ones.

In the popular Linden Hills neighborhood, residents have complained about construction debris and noise, and smaller homes are dwarfed by tear-down replacements.

Mike Anderson's small home is sandwiched by a larger new one and a gaping construction hole. He testified in favor of the moratorium, saying construction made life miserable.

"The worst part is that he dropped the sidewall on my house, the entire sidewall came down while I was in the bathroom," Anderson said.

Cathy Hendrickson is on the other side of the tear-down divide. Her family was three weeks from pulling permits for a complete remodel of their home when news came of the moratorium.

"We should be able to do on our land what we consciously sought out to do," Hendrickson said.

In the end, the council postponed any action on the moratorium for two weeks in an effort to give them time to come up with a compromise.

Palmisano says she would support something that offered more flexibility.

"The moratorium isn't an answer to anything," Palmisano said. "It is simply a timeout that gives us a chance to address all of those issues really quickly."

The current moratorium affects not only construction of new single- and two-family homes, but also additions greater than 1,500 square feet.