Continued: Roadwork has Jordan at crossroads

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ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST

• Members: 850
• Built: 1889
• Anniversary: Plans are underway to celebrate the parish's 150th anniversary in June.
• Pastor: The Rev. Timothy Yanta
• School: St. John the Baptist Catholic School, grades K-6

"This church is Jordan." ¶ Herb Baldwin is neither Catholic nor a member of St. John the Baptist, but his feelings echo widespread sentiment about the church's importance in the Scott County community. ¶ As the parish approaches its 150th anniversary, it has found itself at the center of a very modern debate as the growing city of 5,000 plans to replace street signals and widen the intersection of two state highways next to the church. The city calls it a needed upgrade, but critics worry that the project could damage not only the church's foundation, but also the charm of downtown Jordan. ¶ "Do you want to be a community that is merely an interchange, or do you want to be a community that is known by its people, its businesses, its schools, its churches and so on?" asked Baldwin.

As of last week, St. John's and the city were scheduled to air their differences in a Feb. 13 court hearing on an eminent domain action the city started last fall to obtain an easement for the project.

Key among the church's fears are that rumblings from the construction project and increased traffic could damage the church's foundation.

Built in 1889, the church rests on a bed of loose rocks held in place by the compacted earth around it, and an architect who did recent work at St. John's warned the church that the intersection project could compromise the integrity of the building.

Nestled under bluffs near the Minnesota River, with a creek and a railroad traversing the town, Jordan is blessed with a unique charm that has, so far, escaped the worst of suburban blight. "It is so set with all the ingredients you need to make it a very special place," said Baldwin, a founder of the Landscape Architecture Department at the University of Minnesota who lives outside of Jordan and has volunteered for the church in the debate over the intersection.

But the city has grown by 2,000 people since 1990, and its population could reach 11,500 by 2030, according to the Metropolitan Council.

With that growth, traffic on Hwy. 282 near the intersection of Hwy. 21 has increased by nearly 50 percent in the past six years, and the city's engineer and the Minnesota Department of Transportation estimate the crossroads will drop from a "B" to a "D" grade in the next five or 10 years.

Even though city officials concede the intersection isn't failing now, concern about future traffic problems prompted the city to ask MnDOT to help pay for intersection work several years ago. With that funding in hand -- and a deadline by which to spend it -- the city plans to add turn lanes and widen the intersection this summer, with work to be completed by the end of the year.

The plans incensed residents, prompting some to picket City Hall last fall and about 800 to sign a petition opposing the work, said Deb Ewals, a church member who helped coordinate opposition to the intersection. In response, the city and MnDOT came up with revised project plans that keep the widened road and new signals a few feet farther away from the church, a compromise St. John's attorney Larry Martin called "the lesser of two evils" in a recent memo to the city.

Some argue the city is going the wrong direction by widening an intersection that already segments the town instead of planning for the kind of walkable downtown that could spare Jordan from becoming a bypassed stop on Hwy. 169.

"We would like people to come into town and stay," said Eileen Hoy, a church member who was baptized there 65 years ago.

"It's a wonderful concept," said Mayor Ron Jabs, "but the reality is that it is the intersection of two state highways, and MnDOT owns the right of way, and they're charged with moving the traffic through the area."

Some residents who opposed the intersection work are forming a group called the Jordan Area Visioning Alliance to study the future of downtown, Baldwin said.

City officials are already trying to plan for the future, and the city has applied to a volunteer program that sends experts in community development and design to advise Minnesota cities, said City Administrator Ed Shukle. And while St. John's is an important piece of the picture, "It's not the sole focus of downtown Jordan," he said.

As for the church's foundation, city officials said a geologist analyzed the impacts of noise and vibrations and found no cause for concern. But Martin has advised St. John's to have a structural engineer examine the building, and some parishioners, including Hoy, still fear the project's worst-case scenario could result in "the church falling down."

Even if those worries prove unfounded, the church is a historic landmark that won't just get up and walk away. And as long as that doesn't change, Martin said, "Things will have to be planned around that structure."

Sarah Lemagie • 952-882-9016

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