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BusiNFSS'JoiffiNAL BUSINESS PULSE SURVEY: Who's to blame for the Twins stadium impasse? Mixing civic buildings and private developments Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - July 14, 2005 by Sam Black Staff Writer Back in 1998, when Ramsey city officials first considered a plan to build a 370-acre mixed- use project, no one even considered a public component, except for maybe a commuter rail train station. But when the ribbon gets cut in October, the development will include a brand spanking new $16 million city hall and police station. It wasn't until 2002 -- when the city was attempting to land a Metropolitan Council livable communities planning grant for the project headed by developer John Feges -- that City Administrator Jim Norman got the idea to move the growing suburb's cramped city hall into the development. Over the past few years, Norman has become a huge advocate of putting civic buildings into mixed-use projects. "I've come to believe it's critical," he said. The concept is starting to become the rule, rather than the exception. Large, mixed-use projects in the Twin Cities typically include a significant new public building -- a city hall, library or a recreation center -- along with the commercial and residential components. Burnsville, Forest Lake, Maple Grove, Ramsey, Lino Lakes and Brooklyn Park are all examples of suburbs with public features in large mixed-use projects that are either recently built or in development phases. City officials and developers agree that mixing the public and private uses within a project comes with special challenges, but they also say it provides long-lasting benefits to the success of a development.