Regional thinking

Star Tribune Thu, 01 May 2008 03:40:56 GMT
Suburban sprawl: Is there another way?

Most of Scott County's open land is slated for subdivisions, but a group with a different vision is gaining momentum. A grassroots effort to force a major last-minute change in Scott County's plan to cover most of its remaining open land with suburban subdivisions is gathering allies. Officials from the University of Minnesota and the U.S. Department of Agriculture offered research support this week to a group that already includes experienced planners and leading figures in the county's organic farming community. "Everyone who comes out here wants to live 'in the country,' " farmer and landscape architect Charles Wood told supporters of the approach during a meeting Tuesday night in a stone-walled room in Jordan's historic brewery building. But under the county's current plans, he added, "they will never know what freshly cut alfalfa smells like." ... A fusion of sorts is taking place between members of the Jordan Area Visioning Alliance, concerned more by growth issues within that city at first, and the Local Harvest Alliance, a countywide farming group whose issue is mainly preserving local food production. Both oppose the idea of mass suburbanization of the county as envisioned by the Metropolitan Council. Woods and the others envision higher densities in cities like Shakopee to help accommodate growth, coupled with compact settlements in the country without huge space-wasting yards but with farm fields next door. "It would be the kind of place," Wood said, "where you could send your daughter on her bike to pick up some sweet corn for dinner."

[[keywords: LandUse;Living;Metro;]]