The Village is a 133-acre area located within the heart of the City and for many years was the primary commercial and residential corridor. In the mid to late 1980's, the City noticed a steady decline in this area as a result of the movement of the commercial corridor to the west and the multitude of issues surrounding the multi-family apartment complexes within the immediate area. By the mid 1990's, the most visible sign of the decline of this area was the deterioration of the Village North Shopping Center. 

In the early 1970's, Village North was a thriving sub-regional mall with two primary anchors, a grocery store and a junior department store. At the time, Brooklyn Park was the closest urbanized suburb and hence Village North was a convenient draw for shoppers from Osseo, Maple Grove, Champlin, Brooklyn Park and other second and third-ring suburbs, which were devoid of commercial shopping opportunities. But by the early 1990's, this 188,000 sq/ft, enclosed walkway mall, was 60 percent vacant and had become economically and functionally obsolete. The shopping center had hit a critical low point, which spurred the owners to be more willing to look at all redevelopment possibilities.  

                                                                                     

To address all the components that had contributed to the decline of The Village, the City’s Economic Development Authority (EDA) commissioned a consulting group to assist in the creation of a Redevelopment Plan for the area. The Consultants, in conjunction with a community based Task Force, created the following Mission Statement as the impetus for undertaking the planning process:

 

 

Based on this Mission Statement, the goal in creating this Plan quickly became to develop an integrated strategy in which residential, commercial, recreational, transportation and employment areas could be coalesced in a better fashion than is typically found in a suburban community. A focal point of the overall redevelopment strategy of The Village was to incorporate new urbanism and neo-traditional approaches to create a town center that is pedestrian and transit friendly and will reestablish the area as a primary focal point within the community.