AVIENDA & ROAD SAFETY
AVIENDA PROJECT UPDATE
What's the latest with Avienda?
The City has approved a master Planned Unit Development (PUD) for the development of a regional lifestyle center called "Avienda." Once fully developed, Avienda is planned to incorporate a wide variety of residential housing opportunities as well as commercial and retail businesses. To date, the City has approved development plans for detached townhomes and attached rowhomes. Both the townhomes and the rowhomes are being constructed by Charles Cudd Homes. The developer, Level 7 Development, is working on a regional stormwater plan for the Avienda development that will service the stormwater needs of a number of aspects of the overall development, including future commercial and retail development projects. As future development projects are proposed to be built within Avienda, the City will provide updates to the Avienda project page ChanhassenMN.gov/government/projects/private-development-projects/avienda . If you haven't already, please subscribe to the Avienda email subscription list to receive updates as they become available at ChanhassenMN.gov/subscribe
THE QUESTION I GET ASKED THE MOST IS...
"What is the City doing to improve traffic safety in Chanhassen?"
The one question I get asked the most revolves around traffic safety. We often receive inquiries and complaints about speeding vehicles or concerns regarding the safety of specific streets or intersections. These are tough questions to answer because, at the heart of it, is safety, which naturally is of the utmost importance to our residents, businesses and the traveling public.
Is something safe or not? And how do we measure safety? Traditionally, the metric is the number and severity of accidents. But if there are no documented accidents, does that mean it’s safe? Most often, safety—or the feeling of being safe—is an emotion, not grounded in data and metrics. That’s the rub and difficulty when answering these types of questions with the public. We need to take into consideration many factors when responding to traffic safety questions. Many times, the response we give is not the answer residents want to hear, but I can assure you that the City takes these inquiries seriously. Delivering a “safe” community is part of our mission statement, which means it’s inherently part our culture and part of the decision-making process in everything we do. The City created a Traffic Safety Committee (TSC) in 2021 to show our commitment to the importance of this topic. The TSC is not just a bunch of engineers in a room giving the same canned responses; it is made up of a broad panel of city staff from all departments. They provide recommendations on improvements and strategies to help with the traffic safety needs of Chanhassen. To learn more about the Traffic Safety Committee, please visit our website: ChanhassenMN.gov/departments/public-works/engineering-gis/traffic-concerns
Charlie Howley Director of Public Works/ City Engineer
chowley@chanhassenmn.gov
952.227.1169
ChanhassenMN.gov
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SPRING 2025 | CITY OF CHANHASSEN
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