Council holds presentation on Dunes housing project, begins process of acquiring 33-acre riverfront park at Mississippi Dunes

For somebody with millions of dollars at stake in the matter, Mississippi Dunes property owner David Gustafson was conspicuously absent from the October 7 Open House put on by the city to present the Mississippi Dunes Master Plan for southwest Cottage Grove.

“No, he has not been here,” Cottage Grove City Administrator Jennifer Levitt confirmed after newspaper staff arrived slightly late to the City Hall training room. Inside the room various city employees and council members along with ISG (tasked to design the park) could be seen by displays, chatting with residents and seeking to dispel rumors through disclosure of information—but not David Gustafson, the principal investor in same.

At the same time, Levitt was able to confirm that Representative Keith Franke had been at the Open House earlier that night. Meanwhile, developments have been coming fast and furious down at the former Mississippi Dunes golf course off of Grey Cloud Trail South.

In the first case and meeting Wednesday October 6, the Council passed a consent agenda resolution to begin the process of acquiring 33 acres of the Dunes property from Gustafson for a riverfront park, along with 12 acres adjacent to this for the purpose of expanding the Grey Cloud Dunes Scientific and Natural Area.

Following this on Thursday, October 7 the City held an open house in the city hall training room to solicit resident feedback in person.

On Monday, October 11, the Plan Commission toured the former golf course property, being led in by Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources Director Zac Dockter. Come October 25 at 7 p.m., the same Plan Commission will hold its next meeting, this in the council chamber, with a plan review likely to come in November following by a City Council vote in early December to decide yay or nay for the current master plan for the housing project, following review by the Parks and Plan Commission review.

Is your head spinning yet? Not sure where to start? That’s what the October 7 Open House for Mississippi Dunes was meant in part to address, replacing rumors with information and put on by city employees with ISG present as the project’s park designer. So how’d it go?

“That’s what local government is here for, to talk about these things,” Senior City Planner Emily Schmitz replied to one open house attendee as she kept up good spirits and went on to explain a point related to the planning process as such for city developments. Schmitz and fellow senior city planner Mike Mrosla were both on hand to talk with residents and offer their expertise at the October 7 Open House. Schmitz shared that there was a long process ahead. Pressed for specifics that process includes another roll of the plans through the Parks Commission, then through the Plan Commission, followed up with a Council vote to put the plans on file, in December. Examples of housing on site showed low versus medium density, with low density considered to be three lots per acre, or in line with the 232-lot plan on 77-acres before the medium density part is added by the railroad tracks.

Mrosla, for his part, shared that the Metropolitan or “Met” Council at https:// metrocouncil.org guided the process of deciding what kind of housing was needed and just where, while other nearby communities also had a say as well. The Met Council representative for Cottage Grove is Jake Reilly, with listed phone number of 651-602-1822 on the Met Council website. Reilly also represents Grey Cloud and Denmark Townships, while St. Paul Park and Newport are represented on the Met Council by Patrick Boylan, listed phone number of 651602-1438 per the Met Council website.

Among those present from the public to give their opinion was Sarah Werz, who spoke at the May 19 open forum and seemed to be more convinced by the open house.

“In a dream world, it would all be park,” she said, going on to say that she understood realistically this wasn’t going to happen. Werz spent time with Schmitz and having questions answered on the process going forward. Some still held out for more park space, as was evident in conversation October 7. Council member Dave Thiede was talking with Colleen O’Connor Toberman from Friends of the Mississippi River.

“You guys don’t want to see that whole piece of property…” he began.

“We’d like to see as much as possible for a park,” O’Connor Toberman finished. “We can’t buy it, but we can help.”

As to housing at Mississippi Dunes, the revised site plan with an additional 13 acres for development or 90 total, with 232 lots and a medium density strip, wasn’t set in stone, it seemed.

“This is just sort of a master plan the city developed,” a consultant for ISG said as the plan’s park designer.

“So who develops the real plan?” we asked.

“A developer,” the reply came back. Well that sounds easy enough. So what’s the city view on the matter?

In short, the city has been vocal that “the property owner has legal rights,” as Bailey put it September 1 insofar as these related to Mississippi Dunes owner David Gustafson and current plans for housing. The is also currently administering the Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) for the site, while lot fees set to come in if the development goes forward could be seen as a conflict of interest in administering the process.

Showing as yet no indication that it will use its powers of review and oversight to influence the zoning process beyond stipulating “single family housing” (a term considered to mean ‘low-density’ but open to interpretation as at Settler’s Bluff), the Council has nonetheless allowed aggrieved residents the opportunity occasionally to speak beyond the technical three-minute limit per speaker in open forum, while keeping the overall time of 15 minutes for open forum intact.

In the meantime and with landowner Gustafson a confirmed no-show to the October 7 open house, the ground-level workers and city staff tasked with making Gustafson’s dream of profits come true were left to do the explaining for the somewhat shy landowner.

“Keep in mind that we were only tasked with designing the park,” ISG representative Amanda Prosser said somewhat defensively, saying that the housing plot designs on the plans with a city and ISG stamp had been pulled from Pulte Homes, the only developer tied so far directly with the project by Gustafson.

“We feel Pulte has done a good job working with the city and coming up with a master plan that is a good fit for the property, and includes a very generous 40 acre Riverfront Park,” Gustafson shared via email August 24, his only substantive communication to date with newspaper staff. Another from September 11 simply offered, “no further comment at this time, thank you.” So if Gustafson is choosing to use his right to stay quiet as things move forward down at Mississippi Dunes, what might be otherwise knowable regarding the controversial project off the Mississippi River in southwest Cottage Grove?

“Obviously the Plan you saw tonight was put together by the City,” Mayor Myron Bailey shared when it was all over, disputing that the lot plan was pulled from Pulte Homes and being confirmed in this disputation by City Administrator Levitt. Going on to say that the 33-acre park and 12-acre addition to the SNA down on the riverfront was “pretty much a done deal,” Bailey balanced this with the housing report.

“But in the end will there be some homes on the site? The answer is yes,” Bailey closed out as the city has reportedly had internal discussions about trying to increase the amount of park space near the river. Following the open house the City plans to take feedback to go and revise the plan, with an online portal open until October 15. City staff showed appreciation for the turnout, at any rate.

“Thanks for coming,” Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources Director Zac Dockter said as things ended.

While several examples were shown in photos October 7 to contrast low-density with medium density, those seeking out a real world example can go check out the R-5 medium density plat of Settler’s Bluff off Hadley Avenue, currently being marketed as “lawn and snow maintained single-family homes. No parking is allowed on the street by the construction site, the photo above being obtained from a walk. Photo by Joseph Back