Cottage Grove, along with much of Minnesota, has struggled with housing affordability and availability over the last few years. We have seen tremendous growth in the greater Twin Cities area and numerous cities, including ours, collaborate with builders to offer zoning exemptions. These exemptions promote smaller lots, thereby increasing access to affordable homeownership although the promise of lower price points has yet to materialize.
The proposed multifamily housing development bills (HF 4009 and SF 1370 and similar bills) have recently sparked intense debate among both legislators and cities. While the bill aims to diversify housing options, there is significant concern about the removal of local autonomy and the cost to cities across Minnesota.
As mayor of Cottage Grove, I am deeply concerned with provisions in these bills that broadly preempt city zoning and land use authorities, ignore comprehensive plans and lack consideration for how cities utilize zoning and land use to ensure the health, safety and welfare for residents, and scale infrastructure to support new housing density. This one-size-fits-all approach fails to account for local nuances, varying infrastructure capacities, and community-specific goals. Cities should retain the ability to tailor zoning regulations to their unique needs.
While housing is a statewide issue, solutions must be locally driven. Rigid state-mandated frameworks that lack consideration for how cities pay for and plan for infrastructure to support new residential density will create serious consequences for cities across the state. Cities have implemented innovative changes at the local level with community engagement to address their individual zoning and land use ordinances, provide local resources to ensure affordability, and create opportunities for new development across the housing spectrum.
Here's an example of what the bill means if it passes from an everyday perspective. I own a home in a single-family neighborhood in Cottage Grove and my neighbor decides to sell his single-family home. The person or company who buys the house next to me decides to tear down the house and put in a four-plex housing unit on the small lot next door with no regulation on height, set-backs, or materials. There are also no regulations on parking requirements for the development, so they could build multifamily housing with no onsite parking and all the residents in the four-plex would be able to park in the street year-round. If the bill passes, there is nothing the city or I as a resident can do to stop it from developing into a four-plex.
If you don’t want the potential of multi-family housing being able to be put on the lot right next to yours, please reach out to your local legislators to let them know you oppose these bills. I have.
