by Rich Larson
On Tuesday night, the Northfield City Council approved the preliminary plat for the Kraewood Housing Development on the former Paulson
Tree Farm. The 12-acre development will offer 22 single family homes, two twin homes, a four-plex and a 100-unit apartment building. The developers, Rebound Partners, Schmidt Homes and the Stencil Group say 40% of the residences will be marked for affordable housing.
The Northfield Planning Commission had advised the council to approve the plat if certain conditions were met regarding the width of streets, sidewalks and right of way, as well as the construction of a sidewalk on the south side of Lincoln Parkway. All conditions were agreed to by the developers.
Much of the discussion centered on dedicated park land in the area. The Park Board had recommended part of the property be dedicated park, and indeed the Land Development Code requires a certain amount of any development have a specified park area. While city staff had recommended an option allowing the developers to pay cash in lieu of setting the park land aside, the council decided that a park area would be required.
Kraewood has been a controversial development that has been strongly opposed by many of the local neighborhood residents, and about twenty-five people spoke out again on Tuesday night for several different reasons, including safety and environmental concerns. Bob Thacker, a local resident who has been outspoken against the development even called the integrity of certain members of the council into question, outlining what he deemed to be problematic relationships between the councilors and the developers. City attorney Christopher Hood addressed Thacker’s concerns. He said the city talked with each of the councilors Thacker identified and found there to be no conflict of interest.
While discussing the re-zoning of two sections of the area, many of the neighborhood residents spoke against the density of the number of people that would be living in the development. This, however, is something the city has sought out. City administrator Ben Martig said the N2 zoning looks to move away from exclusive single-family home divisions and create more mixed living neighborhoods.
“So, all of the new, growing residential areas have what we call the N2 zoning. It allows, and actually encourages in our Comprehensive Plan, to do mixed densities. It does also allow for commercial serving residential. So in some new growth areas, if there’s an apartment building, you could have on the main level a small sandwich shop or a small grocer.”
The next step for the Kraewood Development is city consideration for Tax Increment Financing for part of the development. The Housing and Redevelopment Authority is scheduled to discuss this at their meeting next Tuesday at 4pm. The Council will then take it up at their next meeting on November 2nd.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig can be heard here
Northfield Historical Society outlines goals for the coming year
The Northfield Historical Society has made its funding request from the city for 2021, and the organization has outlined its immediate goals to enhance the work they are already doing to preserve Northfield’s heritage.
Cathy Osterman, the NHS Executive Director, appeared before the City Council last week with a presentation discussed the services her organization is supplying to the city and where she believes they can immediately improve.
Since 2015, the Historical Society has had contracts with the City of Northfield to serve as a storage and archiving entity for the city and to make documents and records available and accessible to the public. She said there are many more building and house records that they would like to start digitizing to better serve researchers, particularly the Heritage and Preservation Commission.
While the largest part of the museum is devoted to the 1876 James Younger Gang bank raid, Osterman pointed out more than once that that is only seven minutes in the city’s history, and there are many more stories to tell. There is keen interest in looking at the experience of the indigenous people of the area that were here when European settlers arrived, and the historical society would like to do a much better job with that aspect of things. Osterman said there are private collections around town of native artifacts and stories that they would very much like to incorporate into their exhibits.
Finally, she said there needs to be more contact with the school district, particularly with the third graders as they study Northfield history. Currently, less than half of the city’s third graders are brought to the museum on a school field trip. With the wealth of knowledge and experiences they can provide the students, Osterman said they would like to subsidize bussing for those field trips and give them something that deepens the roots to their hometown.
“Whether that is dealing with the raid or whether it’s dealing with some other piece of Northfield history, that’s certainly for the teachers and the educators to figure out and determine what is best for them. But we would like to get them in the doors, so they know that there is a place where they can see themselves in the town.”
Osterman said the one-year funding request of just over $29,000 will help the organization reach all of these goals.
The city council will vote on the next city budget in December.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
