For cities, recession offers time to think long-term

Change is coming to Corcoran, but the recession has brought a pause, and city leaders are making the most of the lull.

The western Hennepin County town is planning for a nearly tripled population by 2030 and for the increased development that will come with it. Corcoran Mayor Ken Guenthner hopes that, through careful planning, the city will be able to grow while retaining much of its rural character.

Corcoran isn't alone. Around the metro area, even as budget woes have taken a toll on city staffs, some are getting help to beef up their planning operations. Officials say that taking the forced breather gives them an opportunity to preserve what's best about their communities while making room for an improved quality of life.

"Markets are cyclical," said Sally Wakefield, program director of the Growing By Design program at 1,000 Friends of Minnesota, a smart-growth advocacy group that has worked with Corcoran and other cities.

"It will come back in some form, so we're encouraging them to take this time to do some planning, to get a vision in place, so you can control development once it comes back. Certainly, cities were feeling out of control [during the boom earlier in the decade]; things were going kind of fast and loose."

The 1,000 Friends group and Community Growth Options, based at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota, are working with small cities on the urban fringe, some of which have small or nonexistent planning staffs. Some examples of where they're heading:

• Corcoran is making plans for a high-density downtown area to raise its average density to Metropolitan Council standards while maintaining the pastoral feel of the rest of the town.

• Minnetrista, in Hennepin County, is studying the impact of development on water quality and is working on development criteria that include things such as pervious concrete to minimize runoff into Lake Minnetonka.

In the not-too-distant past, some Corcoran residents worked under the belief that the city was fine the way it was, that high-density suburban development, just across the town limits in Maple Grove and Plymouth, could just bypass the city of less than 6,000 people.

Sharing tax burden

But taking a pass on the tax-base growth that comes with development is an expensive way to run a city, Guenthner said. He and others realized that commercial and industrial development would be a boon to property owners, who up to this point have shouldered the lion's share of the tax burden, he said.

"We had to balance that prevailing feeling in the community, which is a large-lot hobby farm community, with something that is economically sustainable," he said. "We're almost 36 square miles, and a lot of dirt roads. You find out fast that a residential tax base at some level doesn't pay for itself."

Still, Guenthner and others didn't want to see the community of rolling farmland and old-growth forests turn into a landscape of geometric cookie-cutter lots. So they tried to think creatively. Their answer: a proposed high-density downtown area at the intersection of Hwy. 10 and County Road 116, characterized by industrial development, human-scale retail and multifamily and smaller-lot residential housing.

Armed with a grant from 1,000 Friends and Community Growth Options, the city hired Tina Goodroad, a project manager with Bonestroo Inc., to sharpen its comprehensive plan and eventually put the town's vision into the city code. The matching grant helps pay for planning assistance for five years -- Corcoran agreed to pay for the sixth -- during which the city also hopes to create a green corridor and work out a plan for development in "greater Corcoran." Most of that area now is envisioned as farmland and open space.

Second looks

Some city officials look at previous development for possible missteps they'd rather not repeat.

When he views the back edge of the Bridal Creek development in his town, Jordan Mayor Pete Ewals sees a lost opportunity. What years ago was a low, oak-covered bluff now is terraced back yards, he said. Much of the vista and many of the trees are gone.

Jordan is getting Community Growth Options' help to preserve the character of its historic downtown, but also has plans to link old and new development with a network of trails.

"It's nice to have this time to redefine where we're going to be," Ewals said. "We don't have the money to spend right now, but we do have the time to plan for it."