New 50th and France Parking Lot Surmounts Environmental Hurdle

Edina is one step closer to getting more parking in the 50th and France commercial district.

Plans for the city to buy a property near Edina Realty at 3930 West 49-1/2 Street for $2.65 million have been on hold since April as Edina contracted with an engineering firm to determine the level of soil contamination at the site.

The property, located on land formerly occupied by a dry cleaning business, was found to have relatively safe levels of contamination that have not reached the ground water.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will soon give the city a letter absolving it of responsibility for existing contamination.

Bill Nuendorf, Edina’s economic development director, said that the contamination does not pose a health risk either for the planned parking lot or for retail space.

“If we were to develop that site for parking, we basically clean up what’s in the soil, you pour a concrete slab and you’re okay,” he said. “If the first floor is occupied, depending on the level of contamination, you might have to do an underslab vapor barrier, a piece of plastic that prevents vapors from coming up through the concrete.”

The type of contamination generally seen from dry cleaning facilities would be more of an issue of the property was zoned residential, Nuendorf said.