Plans for new affordable housing and business development projects are starting because of the route proposed for the Southwest light rail line.

Minnetonka, Hopkins, Eden Prairie and St. Louis Park voted in favor of the project. On August 20, Hennepin County also officially consented. Minneapolis, the last city to give consent, voted in favor as well on August 29.

Laura Baenen, the communications manager for the light rail project, said one of the next steps will be the completion of a more detailed draft. The public will be able to see and comment on those plans most likely in early 2015, Baenen said.

“At that point we try to find out what people’s needs are, and try to build that into the design and construction plans,” Baenen said.

Anne Mavity, a St. Louis Park City Council member, said she has high hopes for future development along the Southwest route, especially at the Belt Line Boulevard station.

“I think Belt Line in another 25 or 30 years is going to look quite different from how we see it today,” Mavity said. “But only if we really lay the foundation right now, create that walkable, bikeable, accessible station area that we want.”

Mavity is against the idea of building a large parking lot at the Belt Line station. Instead, she said the station should have a mix of structured parking, housing, offices and businesses in order for it to be less of a “park-and-ride” and more of a community area.

The Metropolitan Council is funding new development projects in the light rail corridor, according to James Brimeyer, the Metropolitan Council member representing St. Louis Park.

St. Louis Park received a $100,000 transit-oriented development grant to redevelop the empty McGarvey coffee plant, which is adjacent to the proposed light rail station at Wooddale. The development will include affordable housing.

“There’s going to be all kinds of neat things they’re going to do with that project,” Brimeyer said about the McGarvey site. “And they’re doing it because Southwest is coming.”

Mavity also said the development opportunities brought on by the route, specifically at the Louisiana and Belt Line stations, could be huge.

“We’ve done a lot to envision what these station areas could look like,” Mavity said. “We’re trying to make [it] into a development opportunity, so that it’s not just a big parking lot.”

Baenen said the location of the Wooddale station was arranged to be in an area where there had already been some housing development, such as new apartments and condos.

“It just makes sense to build the light rail tracks closer [to] where we expect more traffic to be coming from,” Baenen said. “That’s something that we’ve worked on with the city.”

Junior Daniel Takata said the light rail is a good idea in theory, but the price tag is still too large to be worth it.

“These benefits of the new light rail are not nearly enough to justify the costs,” Takata said.

Sophomore Chloe O’Gara said the project seems a little risky because of the cost, but still will provide accessible transportation that will be useful to the community.

“It sounds like it will have a lot of payoff in the end,” O’Gara said. “It will draw attention and draw in business to areas around [the stations].”

O’Gara also said she thinks it will make students more independent and help them get around the Metro area.

“I know the light rail goes straight to the Mall of America, it’d be nice to be able to get there without having to take a bus,” O’Gara said. “You can be less dependent on your parents or other friends’ cars.”