Proposed Lake Elmo housing development would be city's largest

A Lake Elmo cornfield familiar to thousands of daily commuters soon could become the city's largest housing development with connections to the forthcoming Gateway Corridor transit line.

The proposed 160-acre development, known as InWood, seeks to attract empty-nesters and single adults to "lifestyle" homes that include lawn and snow maintenance. The project, on the southeast corner of a busy intersection at 10th Street and Inwood Avenue, also would include parkland and a commercial district.

"It gives us a different kind of housing stock that we haven't seen before," said City Administrator Dean Zuleger. "It also will work within the concept of the Gateway Corridor … so maybe folks that maybe don't want to be as car-oriented and still want to get around the Twin Cities are going to be able to do that."

The City Council recently approved a development concept plan calling for a reduction in proposed housing from 695 to 537 units and adding more parkland. Ongoing work includes applications for a preliminary plat and eventually a public hearing, said Kyle Klatt, the city's planning director.

The land, across Inwood Avenue from Oak Marsh Golf Course, has been leased to farmers for years after it fell out of consideration as a site for a regional shopping mall in the 1980s, according to Tom Schuette, a representative of Inwood 10 LLC, the landowner.

InWood is the largest of several recently proposed developments in Lake Elmo. The mostly rural city of 8,800 is under orders to nearly triple its population by 2030 under a growth mandate imposed in the wake of a 2005 state Supreme Court ruling that the Metropolitan Council had the statutory power to require Lake Elmo to modify its comprehensive plan.

"In terms of pure numbers and the mixed use of residential, multifamily and commercial, it is the most significant development that we've seen since we've installed sewers under the Met Council edict," Zuleger said. "I know, based on our comprehensive planning, that we won't see anything larger than that come in. … I think the council and the planning commission were very thoughtful in ratcheting down the density."

The single-family portion of the development will aim to attract empty-nesters or single adults, Zuleger said. The project will be less than an eighth of a mile from the proposed 12-mile route for Gateway Corridor, which will run from downtown St. Paul to Manning Avenue in Woodbury.

Hans Hagen Homes of Fridley is developing the single-family portion of InWood, working with Inwood 10 LLC, which is retaining 60 acres for multifamily and commercial development. The 281 single-family lots in the Inwood Village neighborhood will feature one-story "lifestyle homes" with lawn maintenance and snow removal services included.

"It's not an age-restricted community but one for people who desire one-level living or are looking for association maintenance because they don't want to be tied to the upkeep of a single-family home," said John Rask of Hans Hagen Homes. "Having the association provide lawn care and snow removal gives them the freedom to travel or enjoy other recreational activities without all the work that goes into a single-family home."

The lifestyle home offering has been successful in a similar neighborhood Hans Hagen Homes is building in Blaine, which has sold some 40 lots in the past year, Rask said.

"When you look at household formation today, it is certainly dominated by that older demographic," said Rask, who said he approached the landowner about a year ago. "If you look at the age of households in general in the metro, only about 25 percent are husband, wife and kids, which means there are 75 percent of households out there that don't have kids at home or a husband, wife and kids. It may be a single parent, an elderly couple or a single person of any age. So there's a whole segment out there of the marketplace that desires something other than a traditional two-story home."