The proposed Pleasant Valley Farms development took two significant steps forward Monday night, Sept. 21, as the Hastings City Council determined that a more extensive Environmental Impact Statement is not needed for the project and approved an amendment to the city’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan.
Pleasant Valley Farms is proposed for approximately 158 acres between Featherstone Road and County Road 42 along the future extension of General Sieben Drive. Plans call for as many as 407 homes, including 341 single-family homes and 66 townhomes. The property is presently in Nininger Township and is expected to be annexed into Hastings as development moves forward.
The council’s first action was to adopt what is officially called a “negative declaration” on the need for an Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS. Despite the terminology, the action means the city determined that the Environmental Assessment Worksheet already completed for Pleasant Valley Farms adequately addressed potential environmental effects and that the considerably more detailed EIS process is not required.
Community Development Director John Hinzman stressed that neither Monday’s environmental action nor the subsequent comprehensive plan amendment constituted final approval of Pleasant Valley Farms.
“These are actions that are not towards the approval of the subdivision,” Hinzman told the council. “There are still a lot of work that we need to do with plan approval and review by other bodies, but these are two important steps necessary to consider those into the future
Rezoning, preliminary plat and final plat approvals remain to be considered at future meetings. The city’s environmental review documents similarly state that completion of the EAW does not authorize the development.
Environmental review completed
Hinzman explained that an EAW examines basic information about a proposed development and its possible impacts, including traffic and environmental issues. The size of Pleasant Valley Farms made an EAW mandatory under state rules.
The City Council authorized distribution of the EAW for public review Aug. 3. The 30-day comment period ended Sept. 10. Comments were received from the Metropolitan Council, Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization, Dakota County and an Eagle Bluffs neighborhood resident. MnDOT and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency also submitted comments outside the review period.
Issues raised included the need for a comprehensive plan amendment, aggregate resources, greenhouse gas emissions, traffic safety at County Road 42/Lock Boulevard/General Sieben Drive, watercourse buffers, construction dewatering, karst conditions, groundwater protection, stormwater management, PFAS, traffic-study information and wastewater design flows.
Hinzman told the council that none of the commenters said an EIS was necessary.
“We’re comfortable that the environmental assessment is complete for us to cease environmental assessment, not move forward to what’s termed an EIS, which is a greater level environmental review,” he said. “I will note that we did not hear from any of the commenters that an EIS was needed at this time.”
The city’s formal findings concluded that the EAW generated enough information to determine the project’s potential environmental effects, that identified impacts can be addressed through mitigation and regulatory requirements, and that Pleasant Valley Farms does not have the potential for significant environmental effects under the criteria established in state rules.
Traffic draws questions
Traffic was a central topic both during public comment and the council’s discussion.
Earlier in the meeting, resident Lorraine Naisen, who lives near the hospital at First Street and Featherstone Road, questioned where traffic from potentially 407 additional homes would go.
Naisen said First and Second streets already have traffic and parking challenges, particularly around the hospital and nursing facilities. She also questioned how Featherstone Road would accommodate additional vehicles.
“Putting those 407 homes there, those who are going to go to Highway 61 — how are they going to get there?” she asked. “Either they’re going to go down Second Street, they’re going to go down First Street. Neither one is a good option.”
Council Member Lisa Leifeld later raised similar questions with Hinzman, asking what the EAW actually determined about traffic from a development of that size.
Hinzman said a separate traffic impact study was completed based on a maximum of 407 units. It considered the expected number of trips, the direction those vehicles would travel and improvements that could be needed.
A significant piece of the transportation plan will be extending General Sieben Drive north through Pleasant Valley Farms. Hinzman said that will give residents routes both north and south rather than funneling all of the development’s traffic through existing neighborhoods.
“The traffic impacts analysis did not recognize any severe impacts towards traffic within these highways that would be serving this area,” Hinzman said.
He added that growth west of the existing city had been anticipated when Hastings prepared its comprehensive plan, including planning for roads, sewer and water infrastructure.
Leifeld also asked whether Featherstone Road could eventually see improvements toward Jacob Avenue. Hinzman said that is likely as additional development occurs, but Pleasant Valley Farms does not extend all the way to Jacob Avenue, limiting what improvements the city can require from this developer.
Existing dead-end streets near the development will connect into Pleasant Valley Farms, Hinzman said, although the street system is being designed so those neighborhood connections do not become attractive shortcuts for large volumes of traffic.
“There will be connection opportunities, but we hope to make it a little bit circuitous, so it’s not a good direct route on any of these,” Hinzman said.
Leifeld said the discussion was important because residents have expressed both concern and excitement about the proposal.
“We know there is a need for housing,” she said, adding that the city also needs to balance the interests of the community with those of landowners seeking to develop their property.
Development could take 10 years
Council Member Dawn Marie Vihrachoff asked what would be gained by proceeding with the more extensive EIS.
Hinzman said an EIS would be unusual for a residential subdivision of this nature and generally follows a determination that potentially significant environmental effects warrant the additional investigation.
“We do not believe that this development rises to that level,” he said, adding that an EIS would involve “tremendous, tremendous more work” examining environmental impacts.
Mayor Mary Fasbender also clarified that General Sieben Drive will not immediately be extended all the way north to County Road 42.
Hinzman said the first phases of Pleasant Valley Farms are expected to begin on the south end of the property, with General Sieben connecting to Featherstone Road. It could be a number of years before the roadway is extended through the entire development.
Vihrachoff asked Hinzman to put the projected 407 homes into perspective for residents concerned about the immediate impact.
Hinzman said the developer anticipates roughly a 10-year buildout, potentially averaging around 40 homes annually. Hastings has generally seen about 30 to 40 new single-family homes constructed annually over the past 10 to 15 years.
“This would be significant,” Hinzman said. “This would, you know, almost double the output that we’ve had within the city elsewhere.”
He cautioned that actual construction will depend on the housing market and is difficult to predict.
The council then unanimously approved the negative declaration on the need for an EIS.
Comprehensive plan amended
Immediately afterward, the council approved a related amendment to Hastings’ 2040 Comprehensive Plan.
The amendment changes the future land-use designation for the development area to low-density residential and designates Oakwood Cemetery as institutional. It also expands the Metropolitan Urban Service Area, or MUSA, boundary to include the annexation area. The MUSA designation establishes where metropolitan sewer service can be provided.
Hinzman explained that Hastings has long anticipated development to the west and planned sewer, water and road systems accordingly. The complication is that the current comprehensive plan formally covers land within Hastings’ municipal boundaries, while Pleasant Valley Farms remains in Nininger Township.
“We’ve anticipated and we’ve planned for in our utilities plans, our sewer plan, our water plan, road plan, etc., growth to occur west,” Hinzman said.
He described the amendment as essentially formalizing growth the city has already anticipated.
“We’re basically amending the plan to adopt a plan we’ve already agreed to,” he said.
The low-density residential designation allows generally three to six units per acre and is consistent with the mixture of single-family homes and townhomes proposed by the developer.
Hinzman said the city’s 2040 plan had anticipated sewer service to portions of the area between 2020 and 2025 and farther west between 2025 and 2030. He said trunk sewer, water and other infrastructure planning already accounted for growth in the area and that capacity is available.
The comprehensive plan amendment still requires Metropolitan Council approval. A Sept. 3 neighborhood meeting on Pleasant Valley Farms drew approximately 25 people, with questions about trails and sidewalks near Oakwood Cemetery, buffering from existing neighborhoods, blasting and rock excavation, development phasing and construction access. The Planning Commission subsequently recommended the comprehensive plan amendment 7-0 on Sept. 14.
Highway 61 streetscape work moves ahead
In other business, the council authorized another $23,500 in design work connected with the Highway 61 reconstruction project.
TLAL-LI Collaborative will prepare a conceptual streetscape design covering the Highway 61 corridor through Hastings, along with quantities and preliminary cost estimates. Potential improvements include landscaping, streetscaping, ornamental lighting, banners, wayfinding signs and other placemaking features.
City Engineer Brent Thompson said the city’s Visual Quality Committee has been meeting over the past several months and is expected to bring its recommendations to the council Oct. 5.
“The vision established by the Visual Quality Committee will now be taken forward into a detailed streetscape design,” Thompson said.
The $23,500 cost for the first phase can be paid from the city’s Municipal State Aid funds. A second $14,000 phase involving additional illustrative graphics was not authorized at Monday’s meeting.
Hastings Terrace receives sewer adjustment
The council also approved a $3,697.05 sewer bill adjustment for Hastings Terrace after a major water leak earlier this year.
City Administrator Dan Wietecha said approximately 735,000 gallons leaked between March and May before the problem was discovered and repaired. Because the water soaked into the ground rather than entering the sanitary sewer system for treatment, staff recommended removing the corresponding sewer charge.
Leifeld clarified that Hastings Terrace remains responsible for the water itself and other applicable utility charges. The credit applies only to the sanitary sewer portion.
Vihrachoff questioned the size of the leak and asked whether the city has systems capable of identifying such problems. Wietecha said the leak occurred over an extended period rather than all at once. Smart-meter information can allow property owners to observe usage, he said, while city staff may also contact customers when unusually high consumption becomes apparent during billing.
Vihrachoff also asked whether the $3,697 credit could go directly to manufactured homeowners rather than park management.
“It’s credited back to the entity that the city bills,” Wietecha said. “So if we bill the management company, we are crediting their utility bill.”
The council approved the adjustment.