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June 25, 1999
Housing options discussedConsultants call for "visualizing" entire neighborhoodsrather than "piecemeal" developmentBy KREMENA TODOROVA Journal Staff Writer NEW ULM - Several scenarios for new neighborhoods in New Ulm were presented to the public Thursday, as planners, developers and city officials met with consultants from St. Paul-based Cermak Rhoades Architects, in a project designed to address the city's chronic housing crunch. The workshop, the second of two sponsored by the New Ulm Chamber of Commerce, was funded with a grant from the non-profit Minnesota Housing Partnership. Cermak Rhoades Architects focused on three potential development sites, along Highland Avenue, northwest of Kmart and along Cottonwood Street. They discussed several possible "looks" for each site. One alternative shows a new Highland Avenue neighborhood, intersected by a diagonal parkway and bordered by parks on both sides. It features different-sized, fairly large lots, the larger of which face a bluffline to the northeast. Other options would rotate the city blocks to generate a longer park frontage, reduce borderline parks and include a centrally located park; or "emphasize" a natural bluff and move the parkway to the middle of the neighborhood. The plans provide opportunities for mixing different types and sizes of housing, cul-de-sacs opening up into parks and small-scale businesses, such as daycare centers or convenience stores. According to consultant Todd Rhoades, this neighborhood could be developed in two phases, for total of some 680 lots. Alternatives for the Kmart site feature different mixes of industrial developments to the west, alternating with "high-density" housing (apartments, townhouses), a single-family pocket to the east, and commercial developments near Kmart's current location. They show possibilities for different street layouts, with some 230 lots. The Cottonwood Street plans picture a fairly upscale neighborhood, of mostly single-family homes. Rhoades and his partner, Teri Cermak, said they tried to build on the city's strengths, building extensions of current parks and roads and often mirroring the grid pattern of existing streets. They also sought to create "livable neighborhoods" - large enough to support services and featuring a range of housing types, rather than a single type. The idea behind the exercise is to help the community visualize entire neighborhoods that "fit within the context" of the city, said Rhoades. New Ulm's original planners paid the city on a large scale, Cermak said. As the city grew, different "pockets" were developed. "Now is the time to go back to the larger picture and lay out larger tracts of land," she said. "Otherwise you end up with a piecemeal approach." The consultants recommended strategies for the future: such as publicizing options, determining community goals, and writing guidelines for developers which fit these goals. City officials, however, displayed a degree of caution as to the immediate applicability of the plan. Development is not "a cut-and-dry process," said Community Development Director David Schnobrich. Rather, it is a "protracted process" which depends on the presence of willing land sellers, developers and the municipal infrastructure's capacity to accommodate growth. "I don't see a large developer coming to New Ulm in the foreseeable future," said Schnobrich. The project will be summed up in a final report, and drawings and summaries will be available for viewing and comments by the public at the Chamber of Commerce.
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