Wednesday May 30, 2018
By David Chanen
State Appeals Court upholds Minneapolis' authority to restrict proposed additions.
Karmel Mall in south Minneapolis is home to one of the largest collections of Somali-owned businesses in the United States. LEILA NAVIDI • Star Tribune
The city of Minneapolis
won another legal battle against property owner Basim Sabri on Tuesday
when the state Court of Appeals denied his expansion plan at the popular
Karmel Mall.
Opened in
2005, the mall at Pillsbury Avenue and 29th Street in south Minneapolis
is one of the largest collections of Somali-owned businesses in the
United States. Sabri has been attempting since 2015 to expand the
structure’s north-facing third and fourth floors for retail, restaurant,
offices and outdoor seating.
The city
initially said Sabri could not proceed with an expansion unless the
extra space is used for offices or other non-retail functions, and that
he must do something to alleviate traffic and parking problems. The city
later decided to block the entire north-side expansion.
In
Tuesday’s unanimous ruling, the Court of Appeals said the conditions the
city placed on Sabri’s plan weren’t arbitrary and that the city had
authority to do it. The court also agreed with the city’s concerns about
increased traffic.
“We are
pleased with the ruling,” said City Attorney Susan Segal in a statement.
“The Court of Appeals affirmed that the City’s actions were based on
solid factual grounds and were well within the authority of the
Council.”
Sabri has
argued that the conditions placed by the city on his site plan review
“effectively denied his application in part,” according to the ruling.
Robert Speeter, Sabri’s attorney, didn’t return a telephone call for
comment Tuesday.
Sabri, who owns many
properties in south Minneapolis, is no stranger to City Hall attorneys.
He has long been involved in Minneapolis politics and went to federal
prison for bribing then-Council Member Brian Herron in 2001.
He also
owns the city’s other large ethnic market, Village Mall, better known as
the 24 Mall, at E. 24th Street and Elliot Avenue S. The city has cited
the mall for regulatory violations 182 times since January 2010,
rejected applications to expand the 24 Mall twice in the past several
years, and has forced the building’s manager, Omar Sabri, who is Basim
Sabri’s nephew, to install more restrooms in recent months.
Karmel
Mall started as a two-story ethnic market in 2005. At the time, it was
classified as a farmers market, a permitted use in an industrial zone.
The next
year, the city changed the zoning code, which now classified the mall as
a shopping center. That is not allowed in an industrial zone, meaning
the mall is grandfathered under the old zoning but is considered
“legally nonconforming.”
Karmel Mall owner Basim Sabri talked with Imaam Sheikh Sa'ad Musse Roble after Friday prayers at the new mosque inside the Minneapolis mall in 2015. Leila Navidi - Star Tribune file
From 2010
to 2015, the city approved applications for first-floor additions to the
mall as well as construction of third and fourth floors and a parking
ramp. Basim Sabri also built a new 5,000-square-foot mosque at the mall.
In approving construction of the floors in 2014, the city required a
setback on the north side of the building. This was based on concerns
about increased shadows on the adjacent Midtown Greenway, the ruling
said.
In 2015,
Sabri proposed an amendment to his existing site plan for a
5,613-square-foot expansion of nonconforming use to fill in the
third-floor, north side setback. The City Council had approved smaller
additions on the south side of each floor that would connect the parking
ramp to the existing structure. City staff recommended approval of the
expansion plan with about a dozen conditions.
The city’s
planning commission held a hearing in December 2015. Council Member
(and now Council President) Lisa Bender, who represents the ward where
Karmel Mall is located and serves on the commission, expressed concern
about expanding the intensity of commercial retail use in a
noncommercial zone. At a later commission meeting, staff suggested
prohibiting more retail in the expanded mall, which Sabri opposed, the
ruling said.
The
commission ultimately denied expansion on the mall’s north side but
allowed south-side plans to proceed. Sabri appealed the denial, but the
City Council and Hennepin County District Court both rejected his
appeal.
As one of
his arguments to the Court of Appeals, Sabri said the city’s findings to
deny expansion weren’t supported by a “factual basis.” In its findings,
the city included an opposition letter from the Whittier Alliance and a
map of parking tickets around the mall that demonstrate the congestion
issue. Even with the addition of a parking ramp, the number of tickets
increased.