Hastings City Council discusses 2024 Community Development

By Graham P. Johnson
Posted 1/30/25

The Hastings City Council met on Tuesday, Jan. 22 to discuss a grant for land acquisition for the first water treatment plant as well as an overview of the 2024 Community Development Report from …

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Hastings City Council discusses 2024 Community Development

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The Hastings City Council met on Tuesday, Jan. 22 to discuss a grant for land acquisition for the first water treatment plant as well as an overview of the 2024 Community Development Report from Community Development Director John Hinzman.

MPCA Grant for WTP Land Purchase
The city council unanimously authorized a $1.4 million grant agreement from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for the purchase of 1292 North Frontage Road, the future site of the central water treatment plant.
“Although we’ve been talking about land purchase, we’ve been talking about relocating businesses, we’ve really been waiting on this piece to come forward. It’s a big milestone,” said City Administrator Dan Wietecha.
This grant is the first of the funds from the 3M settlement fund that will go towards the treatment of Well 5, one of the wells that will be included in the central water treatment plant. Almost a third of this grant, $415,000, is set aside for the relocation of the two businesses currently located on the property: Carbone’s Pizzeria and Stacy’s Stars. Both of these businesses have indicated that they are interested in remaining in Hastings, according to Wietecha.
The city is also undertaking the first phase of an environmental site assessment on the property as part of due diligence before the purchase. These results are expected to be received in February.

2024 Community Development Annual Report
Hinzman spoke before the Hastings City Council on the happenings of community development in the city over the past year, a similar presentation to that he gave before HEDRA at their Jan. 9 meeting.
First Hinzman highlighted the overall goals of community development. The 10-member department is charged to: “take care of city planning, zoning, building inspection, code enforcement, [and] historic preservation,” said Hinzman.
To that end, in 2024 Hastings saw 43 single family homes constructed, a high-water mark for recent construction. According to Hinzman, that figure is the “most we’ve seen in Hastings in 20 years.”
Hinzman also discussed several completed and ongoing apartment complex projects in Hastings during 2024. The two completed projects highlighted by Hinzman were the Current 33 Apartments, a 211-unit complex composed of two buildings at 325 33rd St. and 355 33rd St. as well as Lake Isabel Flats, an 89-unit apartment building at Third and Bailey streets.
Ongoing projects include Heritage Ridge, a housing development with 60 of 80 homes completed; Vermillion Acres, a 75-unit senior housing facility; Villas at Pleasant, a townhome development with 32 of 38 villas completed; South Oaks of Hastings fourth addition, a housing development with two of 35 homes under construction; and finally Walden at Hastings, a 500-unit site development that largely did not see movement in 2024.
“It’s a wait and see situation,” said Hinzman about Walden.
For commercial development, while there were no new commercial developments, there were 81 permits for commercial or industrial expansion totaling nearly $20 million in valuation. These expansions included the United Heroes League Stadium and Locker Room, Rio Gran Trucking, Regina Assisted Living, and Dakota County Law Enforcement.
The major project being undertaken by HEDRA concerns block 28, a project lacking a proper name but often referred to as “the gateway project.” Block 28, located at the southwest corner of Fourth Street West and Vermillion, has been slowly acquired by the city, which now owns the entirety of the block save the for Spiral Pizza.
“Enough to develop the block,” said Hinzman.
The goal of the project, and the origin of its moniker, is to “present [travelers] with a better image of Hastings than what’s there presently as they cross over the bridge and enter town,” said Hinzman. Planned for the block as laid out in the Vermillion Street Corridor study is a mixed commercial and residential building for the site.
“The plan this year is to meet with developers and have a purchase agreement signed for a mixed-use development,” said Community Development Coordinator Alex Menke.
According to Menke, that mixed-use development would ideally include retail space for Spiral Pizza.
Finally, Hinzman spoke to the potential development at the ponding basin at Pleasant and North Frontage Road where a “national retailer” was looking to move into the space. That project has since failed and the national retailer has backed out.

Tobacco licensing
City councilors referred for discussion the proliferation of tobacco licenses within the city to the Public Safety Committee. The issue was raised by council member Lisa Leifeld over a thread of Facebook comments discussing the number of tobacco stores in town.
“Right now, we have five tobacco shops, not including businesses that sell tobacco products. We have five tobacco shops and two more that are in the process of getting their approvals through the city […] I’m not saying that’s something we need to regulate, I’m saying that’s something we need to talk about,” said Leifeld.
While the city does not currently cap the number of tobacco stores in town, Leifeld speculated that the increasing number of tobacco stores might be positioning themselves as eligible to sell certain cannabis products, depending on how the Office of Cannabis Management rolls out its licensing protocols.
Despite this topic being referred for further discussion, Leifeld repeated the same line often used when discussing the Cannabis Ordinance that went into effect at the end of 2024: “We do not want to make it difficult to do business in this town.”
For more information about the Hastings City Council and to watch the full meeting, visit Hastings Community TV’s website at https://www.hastingstv.org/