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Renting an Apartment in Minnetonka
What You Should Know
Minnetonka is a suburban community located eight miles west of Minneapolis in
Hennepin County. Its 2000 population of 51,301 makes it the thirteenth largest
city in Minnesota. The word "Minnetonka" comes from the Dakota Indian mni tanka
meaning "great water".
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 28.2
square miles (73.1 km�)—27.1 square miles (70.3 km�) of it is land and 1.1
square miles (2.87 km�) of it (3.83%) is water.[1] Part of the city includes the
Eastern tip of Lake Minnetonka, one of the largest lakes in Minnesota. The
outlet of Lake Minnetonka is Minnehaha Creek, which winds through South
Minneapolis before ending at Minnehaha Falls and flowing into the Mississippi
River. Minnetonka is located 8 miles west of Minneapolis in Hennepin County.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 51,301 people, 21,393 households, and
14,097 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,890.0 persons
per square miles (729.8/km�). There were 22,228 housing units at an average
density of 818.9 per square mile (316.2/km�). The racial makeup of the city was
94.40% White, 1.50% African American, 0.20% Native American, 2.29% Asian, 0.03%
Pacific Islander, 0.57% from other races, and 1.03% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.28% of the population.
There were 21,393 households out of which 29.1% had children under the age of 18
living with them, 56.6% were married couples living together, 6.8% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 34.1% were non-families. 27.3% of all
households are made up of single individuals and 9.3% had someone living alone
who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the
average family size was 2.92.
In the city the population was spread out with 23.1% under the age of 18, 6.0%
from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 28.4% from 45 to 64, and 14.0% who were 65
years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there
were 91.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $69,979, and the median income
for a family was $85,437. Males had a median income of $57,439 versus $38,605
for females. The per capita income for the city was $40,410. About 1.5% of
families and 2.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.3%
of those under age 18 and 4.1% of those age 65 or over.
History
Since the mid-1800's Minnetonka has evolved from heavily wooded wilderness
through extensive farming and thriving industrialization to its present
primarily residential suburban character. The Dakota and Ojibway Indians were
the first people to settled in the area. They believed the land around Lake
Minnetonka (minne meaning water and tonka meaning big) was the legendary home of
an extinct race. The first recorded exploration of the area by European settlers
was in 1822, when a group from newly constructed Fort Snelling made its way up
Minnehaha Creek (then known as Brown's Creek or Falls Creek) to the lake. In
1851 the Dakotah sold the area including Minnetonka to the United States at
Traverse des Sioux. The first census, the Territorial Census of 1857, lists 41
households. Twenty-nine of the heads of households are listed as farmers. The
occupations of the remaining twelve are associated with the operations of
Minnetonka Mill and a nearby hotel.[2]
In 1852 a claim was staked on Minnehaha Creek near McGinty Road. The sawmill
that was constructed in the thick woods of maple, oak, elm, red cedar and
basswood was the first privately-operated mill in Minnesota west of the
Mississippi River. Oak timbers from this mill were used to build the first
suspension bridge across the Mississippi River at St. Anthony Falls in 1853. The
settlement of Minnetonka Mills that grew up around the mill was the first
permanent European-American settlement west of Minneapolis in Hennepin County.
In 1855 a two-story sawmill was constructed with a furniture factory on the
second floor. A building for varnishing furniture was built on the south side of
the creek, at the present Bridge Street. Production consisted mainly of chairs
and bedsteads. The Minnetonka Republican at St. Anthony published a short
article describing the area. The February 12, 1857 issue said:
Minnetonka, Minnesota
Minnetonka City - We have already called attention to the thrift and activity of
that little town. Large investments are made there. On January 1, 40 hands were
being employed turning out weekly 500 chairs and 200 bedsteads. By April it will
be 2000 weekly. One million feet of lumber is in the pond, half of it nicely
seasoned. Machinery is on the way for a flour mill. J. P. Miller is erecting a
new hotel.
Minnetonka, Minnesota
But competition from the mills at St. Anthony, the drowning of the mill's
manager in 1857 and a fire in 1860 dashed the lofty hopes. From 1860 to 1869 the
mill area had no active mill. In 1869, Thomas Perkins constructed a 3� story
flour mill and an ad joining cooper shop. At the peak of its production, around
1880, the mill ground about 400 barrels of flour daily and employed 18 men. One
of its brands, "Snow Ball," was priced at $3.00 per hundred pound, and local
farmers were paid $1.00 per bushel of wheat. From 1874 to the mid-1880s, Charles
Burwell managed the Minnetonka Mill Company's operations.
Milling played a major role in the development of Minnetonka and Minnehaha Creek
provided power to operate these mills. Most of the earliest settlers were from
New England and other eastern and central states, with Irish people settling in
northern Minnetonka later. In the 1860s Scandinavians came where the climate and
terrain reminded them of their native land. Immigrants from Czechoslovakia
settled in the southern part of Minnetonka from 1854 to 1871. They contributed
greatly to the professional, business and agricultural segments of the
population. The raspberries they grew in Minnetonka for sale in Hopkins prompted
Hopkins to call itself "The Raspberry Capital of the World."
In 1860, after only 8 years of operation, the sawmill closed. In 1869 a flour
and grist mill were constructed and operated until the late 1880s. In 1874
Charles H. Burwell came to manage the Minnetonka Mill Company, and he built a
Victorian home on the north bank of Minnehaha Creek (Minnetonka Boulevard at
McGinty Road East) for his family the. The Burwell house is now on the National
Register of Historic Places and is owned by the city. There were two other mills
in Minnetonka. The St. Alban's Mill, which was less than a mile downstream from
Minnetonka Mills on Minnehaha Creek, operated as a flour mill from 1874 to 1881.
A grist mill built on Purgatory Creek was washed out in a flood shortly after
construction. Minnetonka Mills, with its post office and port for Lake
Minnetonka, was the principal business and trading center for a large area until
the 1870s.
Between 1883 and 1956 the area within the original 36 square mile township grew
smaller as Wayzata, Hopkins, Deephaven, Woodland and St. Louis Park incorporated
or annexed portions of Minnetonka. Excellent transportation facilities to
Hopkins and Minneapolis began to transform Minnetonka township's economy. Train
service to Minneapolis had been available since the 1880s and in 1905 streetcar
service began. The attraction to become a city wage earner was great and rapid
transit made it possible. In 1956, as a maneuver to prevent neighboring villages
from continuing to annex portions of Minnetonka township, residents in 1956
voted to establish a village out of the remaining twenty-eight square miles and
the area was incorporated as Minnetonka Village. However, Minnetonka Village
lasted only thirteen years. The complexities and the heavy demands of
administering a rapidly developing community required professional management
and larger representation. In 1969 a city charter was approved to serve the
35,000 residents.
Education
Public schools
The city of Minnetonka is covered by three school districts.[3] The Hopkins
School District, which ecompasses the central and eastern part of Minnetonka;
the Minnetonka School District, which covers a small portion of the western part
of city; and the Wayzata School District, which covers a small area along the
northern border.
The Minnetonka School District serves approximately 7,700 students in grades
K-12 in all or part of 10 communities: Chanhassen, Deephaven, Eden Prairie,
Excelsior, Greenwood, Minnetonka, Shorewood, Tonka Bay, Victoria, and Woodland.
The school district is governed by a seven member Board of Directors, elected at
large in November of odd-numbered years. There are six elementary schools, two
middle schools and one high school.
Private schools
There are three private schools in Minnetonka:
* Accell Academy, an accredited private college prepetory school serving grades
K-12
* Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School, preschool through eighth grade
* Minnetonka Christian Academy
Government
The City Council of Minnetonka consists of the mayor and six council members. Of
the six council members, two are elected at large and the remaining four are
elected from wards. The council exercises the legislative power of the city and
determines all matters of policy. It has the responsibility of basic decisions
for the community, including appointment of the city manager. The city manager
is responsible for putting council policies into effect and administering
affairs of city government.
Some Things to Consider When Looking for an Apartment...
When searching for a new apartment make sure to take your time to
think through what are the most important things to you in an apartment
and plan your search based on those priorities. Here are some things to
consider when planning your move:
1. Consider the areas where you would like to live
* What is the crime rate?
* If you have children - what rating does the local school system have?
* Is there area convenient shopping, health and recreation services in
the area?
2. Make a list of your housing priorities
* Do you have pets?
* Do you need parking?
* Do you need to be on the ground floor?
* What amenities are important to you - swimming pool, fitness room, in
unit laundry?
3. Evaluate the building
* What is the condition of the unit and building?
* Are the grounds maintained?
* Are windows, steps, and railings in good condition?
* View the property at night. Is it safe and well lit?
4. The security of the property
* Are there security service? When is the guard on duty?
* Does the building have controlled access?
* Does each unit have secure door and window locks?
5. Talk to the neighbors
* Ask other residents whether they are satisfied with the building.
6. Amenities
* Who is allowed to use the amenities?
* When are they open?
* Are the fees charged to use those facilities included in rent?
7. Ask about Utilities
* Does the owner or tenant pay the utility bills?
* Are any utilities included with monthly rent?
* Do units have separate thermostats to control heat and air
conditioning?
8. Review the lease
* How much notice must you give before moving out?
* Can the rent be increased? If so, by how much and how often?
* Are pets allowed?
* What is the security deposit and cleaning costs upon move out?
* What is the responsibility of tenants for damage to property?
* Is there a penalty for breaking a lease?
9. Information too bring to a lease signing
* Credit Report
* Pay stubs/tax returns
* Reference
* Application
More Apartment Information
An apartment (or flat in Britain and most other Commonwealth
countries) is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a
building. Apartments may be owned (by an owner-occupier) or rented (by
tenants).
Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments, either as co-ops, in which
the residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or
development; or in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments
and share ownership of the public spaces. Most apartments are in
buildings designed for the purpose, but large older houses are sometimes
divided into apartments. The word apartment connotes a residential unit
or section in a building. Apartment building owners, lessors, or
managers often use the more general word units to refer to apartments.
Units can be used to refer to rental business suites as well as
residential apartments. When there is no tenant occupying an apartment,
the lessor is said to have a vacancy. For apartment lessors, each
vacancy represents a loss of income from rent-paying tenants for the
time the apartment is vacant (i.e., unoccupied). Lessors' objectives are
often to minimize the vacancy rate for their units. The owner of the
apartment typically transfers possession to the occupant by giving
him/her the key to the apartment entrance door and any other keys need
to live there, such as a common key to the building or any other common
areas, and an individual unit mailbox key. When the occupant move out,
these keys should typically be returned to the owner.
Apartments can be classified into several types. Studio, efficiency,
bed-sit, or bachelor apartments tend to be the smallest apartments with
the cheapest rents in a given area. These kinds of apartment usually
consist mainly of a large room which is the living, dining, and bedroom
combined. There are usually kitchen facilities as part of this central
room, but the bathroom is its own smaller separate room. Moving up from
the efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments where one bedroom is a
separate room from the rest of the apartment. Then there are
two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have
only one entrance/exit. Large apartments often have two entrances/exits,
perhaps a door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the
building design, the entrance/exit doors may be directly to the outside
or to a common area inside, such as a hallway. Depending on location,
apartments may be available for rent furnished with furniture or
unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in with his/her own
furniture. Permanent carpeting is often included in an apartment.
Laundry facilities are usually kept in a separate area accessible to all
the tenants in the building. Depending on when the building was built
and the design of the building, utilities such as water, heating, and
electric may be common for all the apartments in the building or
separate for each apartment and billed separately to each tenant
(however, many areas in the US have ruled it illegal to split a water
bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the premises).
Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in
apartments. Telephone service is optional and is practically always
billed separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar
amenities are extra also. Parking space, air conditioner, and extra
storage space may or may not be included with an apartment. Rental
leases often limit the maximum number of people who can reside in each
apartment. On or around the ground floor of the apartment building, a
series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location accessible to the
public and, thus, to the letter-carrier too. Every unit typically gets
its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large apartment
buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and
provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location
accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a
doorbell) for each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such
as two- or three-flats, or even four-flats, garbage is often disposed of
in trash containers similar to those used at houses. In larger
buildings, garbage is often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster.
For cleanliness or minimizing noise, many lessors will place
restrictions on tenants regarding keeping pets in an apartment.
In some parts of the world, the word apartment is used generally to
refer to a new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a
building, whereas the word flat means a converted self-contained unit in
an older building. An industrial, warehouse, or commercial space
converted to an apartment is commonly called a loft.
When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's
family member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny
flat, though these (sometimes illegally) created units are often
occupied by ordinary renters rather than family members. In Canada these
suites are commonly located in the basements of houses and are therefore
normally called basement suites.
Staying in privately owned apartments rather than in a hotel is quickly
becoming popular with travelers.