North Highland extension nears completion

New roadway

extends North

Highland to Oak Street, permitting

housing development

By CHRIS VETTER

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- A cornfield is giving way to new road and housing development in town.

Work on a new road and lots is near completion off Highway 27 and North Highland in New Ulm. The expansion in the northwest corner of town will mean housing development in the near future.

"We're pretty much completed with the work," said Steve Koehler, city engineer. "We've still got some grading and graveling to do. It should be done by Nov. 1."

North Highland has been extended about 1,800 feet from where it previously ended at Highway 27 and now stretches to Oak Street.

Dave Schnobrich, New Ulm planning development director, said the additions on North Highland are the best place for the city to grow. City staff members have been exploring the possibility of new housing in that neighborhood since the late 1980s, he added.

With the extension of North Highland, a new housing development will soon begin on the east side of North Highland, north of Highway 27. Water, sewer and utility lines have been extended to the area, which is owned by the Diocese of New Ulm.

"There are about 30 single family lots plotted," Koehler said. "Later this fall, they could build something. Realistically, it will begin next spring."

The diocese, which owns about 120 acres along North Highland, sold a strip of property to the city in 1997 for road placement, said Paula Marti, director of communications with the diocese.

The diocese owns the lots and can begin selling them, said Dave Maroney, consultant with Northfield-based Community Partners. Maroney has worked with the diocese in developing land-use possibilities and presented plans to the city council.

The city paid the costs of extending utilities and waterlines to the plots. City officials will hold an assessment hearing in January or February to set up reimbursement costs, which will be paid by landowners in the new development.

The new lots are on a U-shaped road. Seventh North and Eighth North streets will connect to North Highland, while Loretto Street will connect Seventh Street and Eighth Street.

Loretto Street will be near the bluffs, Schnobrich said.

Unlike the paved North Highland extension, the new roads will be gravel, Schnobrich said.

"You won't see curb and gutter and blacktop for a while," he said. "It is not in any way, shape or form a finished road section."

Eventually, the city would like to extend North Highland from Oak Street until it connects with Highway 14, adjacent to the airport, Schnobrich said. The city previously purchased right-of-way property to continue the project.

"It would be a logical extension of that road," Koehler said. "Until a property owner or developer wants to move forward, phase two is indeterminant."

Tom MacAulay, assistant city manager, agreed.

"I don't think anyone is stepping up to the plate other than the diocese," MacAulay said.

The city will "systematically expand" North Highland every year, depending on dollars available," MacAulay added.

According to city documents, the entire North Highland area is 457 acres, with space for up to 700 lots. A housing report from last year addressed the possibility of growth in the Highland area.

"Like Broadway Street in downtown New Ulm, Highland Avenue can become a street with civic importance and provide a unique identity to the area that helps to orient visitors and residents," the report states. "While Broadway creates its identity through buildings and businesses, Highland Avenue would create its identity through the use of vegetation."

The city does not anticipate adding other roads connecting housing on the bluffs to the rest of town, meaning that Fifth Street North (which goes past New Ulm Medical Center) could become a more-traveled road, Schnobrich said.

That traffic increase would be somewhat alleviated when North Highland eventually connects with Highway 14 at the airport, Schnobrich added.