Residents of Northeast Minneapolis have worked for years on reshaping the look and feel of Central Avenue, which has fallen on hard times since its heyday as a prime cruising strip for hot-rodding teens in the Fifties and Sixties. So it was ironic to note the recent hubbub over a retro-styled Porky’s drive-in proposed for a vacant piece of property next to the Second Precinct police station at 19th and Central.

It seems the developer of the new Porky’s required a zoning change in order to legally build the hamburger joint next to the police station, but due to the city’s Byzantine zoning code, that zoning change was not possible without also rezoning the police station.

Of course, rezoning the city’s own property for the benefit of a private developer did not sit well with the opponents of the proposed Porky’s, who were not happy about that fact that the new restaurant wasn’t actually going to be a drive-in, but more of a drive-thru. This raised issues of increased traffic and noise at a time when the neighborhood organization was working to make Central Avenue more pedestrian-friendly.

Supporters of the plan, like Council Member Paul Ostrow, argued that the decision to rezone the city’s property was not simply for the benefit of Porky’s and added that there would be plenty of time for the residents to weigh in on the matter. After all, the developer will have to come back through the appropriate committees for conditional use permits and such. “There’s plenty of time to address those issues,” he said. “Let’s make this project a model.”

Or maybe not. Prior to the final vote, Council Member Gary Schiff questioned whether city officials had allowed the 60-day rule governing zoning applications to expire, thereby automatically granting permission. Had someone sent out an letter to the developer extending the deadline for deciding the matter? he asked.

No one was sure, so Ostrow moved to return the matter to committee while the staff figured it out. That passed on an 8–3 vote.

Later, we learned that the deadline had, indeed, passed and that the rezoning of the police station would go forward, thus allowing Porky’s to go forward, thus vindicating the system after all.