Some outer Twin Cities suburbs don’t like a Met Council proposal to make them more dense

On the edge of the Twin Cities suburbs, clusters of homes along major roads give way to big lots with long driveways and plenty of elbow room, then to wide open spaces.

A Metropolitan Council proposal would encourage more dense development in cities along the suburban fringe — and it’s not going over well everywhere.

Under the proposal discussed at a committee meeting last week, some cities designated “suburban edge,” including Lino Lakes and parts of Hugo and Forest Lake, would be asked to build more houses per acre, four instead of three at minimum.

Advocating for the higher density standard, Met Council Member Peter Lindstrom listed lower greenhouse gases, better access to jobs, higher transit viability and less pollution runoff from road salt, among other benefits, as reasons he supports higher density.

“More compact development is going to help with all of these things,” said Lindstrom, who represents an area that stretches from Blaine to Falcon Heights to North Oaks.

But in a letter to the council, Lino Lakes Community Development Director Michael Grochala called the proposal a “one-shoe-fits-all” approach to communities' density requirements.

“Lino Lakes would now share the same designation as more fully developed communities like Maple Grove, Shakopee and Woodbury,” he wrote.

The density debate comes as the Met Council drafts its plan for the region for the coming decades. That document, dubbed “Imagine 2050,” outlines goals for housing, land use, parks and trails, transportation and water for the seven-county Twin Cities metro. After the Met Council approves its plan this year, cities will be required to update their comprehensive plans to fit into the regional picture.

Lisa Barajas, the Met Council’s community development director, said regional planning is critical for making sure the metro is pulling in the same direction, with streets and trails that connect to one another, and smart allocation of resources like water and sewer.

Under the draft plan, Forest Lake, Hugo and Lino Lakes have moved all or partway into the “suburban edge” category, which requires them to meet a minimum density of four to eight housing units per acre. That’s more than the three to seven units per acre they were required to hit under the existing plan.

Barajas said the community designations were based on deep analysis of cities' plans and on-the-ground development. She said staff analyzed low-, medium- and higher-density scenarios and found the last met many more regional goals.

The Met Council allows cities to carve out certain areas, such as land protected from development, from their acreage total.

Four units an acre is different in St. Paul than in Bloomington or Forest Lake, Barajas said. The expectation is for cities to meet the requirements across the city, but local officials can choose where to put more dense development and where to allow more space.

“How do you lay out your neighborhoods? How wide is your street? Do you put trees in the boulevard or not? Do you have sidewalks or not? Do you have driveways in front or not?” she said. ”All of those things are local decisions.”

Abbi Jo Wittman, Forest Lake’s community development director, said it’s not so simple.

“Forest Lake understands the need to plan regionally. We get that,” Wittman said. But she said the Met Council’s proposal doesn’t factor in community characteristics that make higher density challenging.

For example, Forest Lake is discussing a development with 61 homes on 20 acres. The result is lots between 6,500 and less than 10,000 square feet, netting out to just over three units per acre, Wittman said.

“These are still relatively small lots in a very car-dependent community. We have no Metro Transit services,” she said.

Wittman said the Met Council lets cities deduct some things, like wetlands or steep slopes that can’t be developed, but it doesn’t let them deduct unbuildable areas such as future roads and storm ponds, she said.

“If the Met Council was willing to be more flexible in some of the things that local communities can net out, you’d actually start to see that our communities are more dense,” she said.

In Hugo, meeting even three units per acre has been challenging at times because of environmental rules protecting natural amenities like flood plains and shorelands, said Rachel Juba, the city’s community development director.

Beyond that, she said, without transit, more people would add more cars.

“If we do have additional density, we’re going to have more cars that are going to be driving, and that goes against their other goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” she said.

Last week, the Met Council committee discussed the possibility of more flexibility in how density is calculated, something communities expressed interest in.

“They haven’t told us what those flexibilities are, and I might be comfortable with going to four if I knew what those were,” Juba said.

Met Council Member Gail Cederberg, who represents parts of Anoka, Ramsey and Washington counties, including Lino Lakes, Forest Lake and Hugo, said the proposed 2050 plan lumps cities together in ways that don’t make sense.

“We’ve got three little kumquats in this basket and we’ve got a grapefruit, and there’s no flexibility,” she said, comparing smaller cities in her district and Woodbury.

In a phone interview, she urged Met Council members to listen to communities.

The Community Development Committee will discuss density again at its Jan. 21 meeting before the proposal goes to a Met Council vote Feb. 12.