Three Years Later: Centerville Rezoning Still Causing Ripples

Thank you Deb Barnes, for bringing this to the attention of the Citizens!
Three years ago, Mayor Mary Capra envisioned “the biggest change to the community in the past 150 years” as the city adopted its Master Plan and Development Guidelines for the city’s Downtown Redevelopment Plan.
City officials worked closely with Anoka County on the reconstruction of Main Street. And then the economy went belly up. When the recession comes to an end, Centerville leaders are hopeful that their planning may yet bear fruit in the realization of the city’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan, which established a goal of “sustaining a population above 5,000.”
But in the meantime?
When the recession comes to an end, Centerville leaders are hopeful that their planning may yet bear fruit in the realization of the city’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan, which established a goal of “sustaining a population above 5,000.” But in the meantime? Most of the grant money has had to be returned, unspent. Bond payments for the Main Street improvements will be paid out of the tax levy for the foreseeable future instead of from TIF District proceeds. For the owners of the 40 or so nonconforming residences in that area, the plans they may have had to expand their homes to meet the needs of their growing families are now prohibited under zoning rules.
One family...
That dream came true in 2006. It wasn’t long, however, before they heard about the city’s plans to build townhouses where their home, originally built by the La-Motte family in 1953, now stands. “I just sat on the steps and cried,” Wasiloski, who received her first communion at St. Genevieve’s one block away, told The Citizen. “We want to put a full front porch on the front of our house, maybe a 3- season porch on the back,” she said. “We have blueprints that my dad drew up before he passed. A house is a house: [but] it takes a family and many years to create a home.” Her husband, Bryce, concurs. “This whole idea of tearing our property down and building something else makes no sense to us,” he said.
Another family...
Lewellen said he was surprised to find that the new design guidelines for his block, guided for multifamily units, limited him to a 100-square-foot deck. “I would have liked it to be bigger,” he said. Lewellen’s sales job may soon require him to put his home at 1721 Heritage Street on the market. He is concerned that the city’s zoning rules will make his property less attractive to buyers. That may be: the last “arms-length” sale—that is, a sale between two disinterested parties—of residential property to occur in the rezoned area occurred on July 20, 2007.
Another family...
Tom Neisius is disappointed that nothing is happening in his neighborhood: he was poised to sell his property to Beard Group with the intention of rebuilding in the area. If forced to stay in his 94- year-old home, Neisius said, he would like to reconstruct his garage and move it back away from the road.
Another family...
Richard (Dick) Kinning, 79, has lived at 7059 Progress Road for 53 years. Kinning saw the downtown project as an opportunity for him to continue to live in Centerville while downsizing to “something easier to care for.”
Another family...
Together, the Lees’ blended family numbered seven. The couple needed more elbow room, and they considered selling. In consulting a realtor, the news wasn’t good: the recommended sale price wouldn’t begin to pay off the mortgage, Margaret, now 40, said. “How am I supposed to sell my property, when [the city] is telling the community that this area is blighted?” she asked. The couple then hoped to add on a great room, where the family could all be together. But the city’s newly zoning code will no longer allow the Lees to expand the use of their home.
When cities adopt new zoning rules for an area, City Administrator Dallas Larson told The Citizen, it doesn’t make sense for the city to allow the nonconforming uses within that area to grow. New decks, swimming pools, tool sheds and fences are now allowed “to a limited degree,” Larson said. And maintenance of nonconforming structures can continue. “They can put on new siding, a new roof.” But there is a limit. “Specifically,” Larson said, “you can’t expand the nonconformity, so if you had a three bedroom home, you can’t add a fourth bedroom, you can’t add a story.”
“They’re cheating us out of time,” Margaret Lee said. “Where we want to spend our money, we can’t. Is it the role of government to control your standard of living?” But Mayor Mary Capra doesn’t see it that way. She said allowing nonconforming uses to expand would cost taxpayers money in the long run. “We also need to look out for the rest of the community, and that’s my role,” she said. “We’re not trying to push anybody out. I understand the hardship this causes.

Three years later, Beard Group has yet to complete a property purchase. The city, however, has acquired additional land adjacent to the old public works site west of Centerville Road. Capra reports that the city is “still progressing” with the project, and is now focused on building affordable housing. “We’re still looking for additional funding to make that happen,” she said.

Meanwhile, City Council Member Linda Broussard Vickers admits that she is thinking about the rezoning impacts on area residents. “There was a good plan or a vision,” she said. “[But] the vision was always bigger than I thought we could achieve in our town in a short time.”

Full story here