Scott County, Met Council have a cautious encounter

As the DFL-dominated Metropolitan Council moves to place its own imprint on plans for the future of the Twin Cities area, civic leaders in Republican-dominated Scott County are reacting with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity.

A group of council members and senior staffers went to rural Jordan late last week for a prolonged discussion with local civic leaders and activists, peppered with cautious questions from each group to the other:

"What do you want us to do?" "Well, what are you fixing to do?"

The room was packed, notably with officials and activists from the rural townships — so much so that a county official said in a joking whisper, "We told 'em the council wants to abolish townships."

Townships often feel most vulnerable to the changing winds of Met Councils. They all feel eyed as sites of future development, and can either feel in danger of being ignored, if they want more development, or overrun, if they don't.

"All you people care about is downtown," said one township supervisor who'd like to see more jobs farther out in the countryside.

But farmland preservation folks — perhaps the most organized of all, brandishing multi-page documents — fear the opposite: a lean toward business interests seeking to pave over paradise. When a tableful of officials at a table devoted to farming kept drifting off to discussions of roads, Ann Houghton of the Local Harvest Alliance interjected:

At stake is the latest round of long-range planning for sewers, roads, transit, affordable housing, water supply and the like. The Met Council has been blown back and forth between political parties over the last 10 to 15 years, but no party — and certainly not Republicans — has managed anything better than a troubled relationship with Scott County.

DFL Gov. Mark Dayton's council is calling its push for new plans "Thrive 2040," stressing the notion of collective prosperity.

Council official Libby Starling, kicking off the session, tried to assure the locals that her bosses aren't seeking to be dictatorial.

"We have a keen interest in flexible policies to meet individual community needs," she said. " 'One size fits all' does not work."

On the other hand, she said, along with "prosperous," other key terms for this council are "livable" and "sustainable."

One topic of special interest in farm-heavy Scott, Carver and Dakota counties is the council's posture on farmland preservation. Gary Van Eyll, who represents Scott County on the council, urged farm interests to make a showing at last week's session.

Council analyst Dan Marckel, leading sessions on farmland, reminded participants that farmland is unlikely to be completely off-limits to future development.

"There are another 900,000 people coming," he said, "and they need to live somewhere."

On the other hand, he said, he senses no eagerness for any massive expansion of the metro sewer system to suburbanize wide stretches of the countryside.

Internally, the council is watching development trends and noticing, according to a memo last week, that construction of even more new housing units is taking place within the inner metro than many would have predicted.

That momentum to develop closer in worries many development-friendly outer-metro officials, who fear that their needs for roads, sewers and more will be neglected.

Ted Kornder, who leads the St. Lawrence Township board, sounded a key note for many: "Let the jobs come out to where people are living, and that way the traffic won't be as bad."

The council has created an extensive public process, including room for online comments. Details can be found at www.metrocouncil.org/Planning/Projects/Thrive-2040.aspx.