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Shardlow wasn't aware of any projects in the Twin Cities where that has been a problem, but he still recommends cities keep their design guideline approval process completely separate from the project approval process to avoid the perception that there's a conflict of interest. Not always as easy as it seems The public component in Burnsville's Heart of the City mixed-use project hasn't been a sterling success of private and public interests, however. Burnsville had a lot of success luring new residential and retail developers to build in the mixed-use area, but has run into a significant snag trying to find a developer willing to fill its vision for a $35 million, i,ooo-seat performing-arts center. This month, city officials plan to release a third request for proposals to find someone who will develop the center. The city hopes that by putting the center on about 1 acre of a larger 6-acre site and opening the door to the possibility that the city will own and operate the facility, it can find a development partner. Size merits public pieces One of the biggest developments in the history of the state, the $1.75 billion campus being planned by Minneapolis-based Target Corp. in Brooklyn Park, has a significant public component. The overall project, which is being developed by Target, will include 8 million square feet of office space, 2 million square feet of retail space, 3,000 units of housing and potentially two hotels. Brooklyn Park city officials negotiated with Target for land in the project that would be donated to the city for a new Hennepin County library, a water tower, a police substation and a park. Having a public component such as the library in this project was natural and necessary because of its size, said Bob Schreier, Brooklyn Park's director of economic development who negotiated with Target to get the public spaces into the development. The police substation, which will not be a stand-alone building, will be necessary one day because there will be 30,000 office workers in the project. The library, which is in early planning stages, came up because the city had been looking for a site in that vicinity. Schreier asked Target to include space for the water tower and library because it was such a big area and because it would have cost the city money to find other sites. There was a little push-back from Target but in the end, corporate officials agreed to both components.