Minnetonka Lots Are Too Big*

When you talk about Minnetonka housing, you’ve gotta understand sewage.

Back in the day, Minnetonka didn’t have a sewer system and the state required lots to be at least half an acre to have a septic system, Mayor Terry Schneider said. When the city later joined the Metropolitan Council’s sewer system, there was no longer any technical or legal reason for the half-acre requirement. But by that time, the standard had become ingrained in residents’ minds: Minnetonka is a community where each home has at least half an acre to call its own.

Like a typewriter layout persisting into the computer age, standards from yesteryear continue to shape Minnetonka.

This happens even as housing trends are changing. Between 1990 and 2000, more than four-fifths of regional homebuyers were looking to upgrade. But between 2010 and 2030, forecasters expect about two-thirds of homebuyers to be looking to downsize. In Minnetonka, the median size of new homes decreased by 30 percent over the past 10 years.

• Related: Watch Minnetonka Changing Over Time in This Animation

A city snapshot of homes for sale in June found that homebuyers in Minnetonka generally get more property than if they spent the same amount of money in neighboring communities. But they also get smaller, older homes.

That’s a challenge as the city seeks to entice new families and encourage existing residents to stay. Councilman Tony Wagner noted that Minnetonka is competing with neighboring communities for young families looking to live in the suburbs, not the exurbs, while Councilman Brad Wiersum added that the city is also competing to remain relevant to aging baby boomers.

Wiersum noted that his wife had already started perusing places for seniors to live. The list of options available was pretty short compared to the large numbers of big houses.

Schneider said Minnetonka needs to avoid the situation of a community like Orono, whose $610,000 median home value is about twice Minnetonka’s $309,000, according to Metropolitan Council figures.

On the surface, simply favoring smaller lots over larger ones would solve the problem. After all, smaller lots are cheaper than larger ones and tend to have smaller homes.

But that’s not always the case. Developers can put bigger houses on smaller lots or build higher-quality homes instead of larger ones to hit a high-end price point.

Even if a price point could be guaranteed, smaller lots must be brought in the right way. Councilman Dick Allendorf pointed to Lone Lake Highlands, a development of 21 homes on five acres that sold well but stands out from Minnetonka’s older developments.

“Goodness, gracious that isn’t my idea of what Minnetonka should look like in 15 to 20 years,” Allendorf said.

Minnetonka actually has more small lots than many people think. About 42 percent of the lots in the city are smaller than 22,000 square feet, or about half an acre. More than a quarter of the lots are less than 19,000 square feet.

Yet neighbors often like their elbowroom and have come to see half-acre lots as the norm.

“We need to transition from a 22,000-square-foot city, but we haven’t gotten comfortable with that and neither has our populace,” Wiersum said.

The council is taking a high-altitude look at what’s needed to create the best balance between the feel of existing neighborhoods and the demand for denser housing.

Community Development Director Julie Wischnack suggested a special type of residential zoning that would allow the city to approve smaller lots provided the development brought certain valuable improvements to the city.

That could also persuade residents that the city was moving forward in a deliberate way, especially since there would be substantial “pre-zoning” that would delve into key questions before implementation.

“Residents do need something to hold on to,” Wischnack said.

Officials have much work ahead of them to find the appropriate balance. The city’s Community Development Department will start by coming up with some conditions under which smaller lots would be worthwhile.

But if it all works out, Minnetonka could have a much more flexible, pragmatic process than one still haunted by sewer standards of days gone by.

“The council should say, ‘We’re open to good ideas. Bring ‘em to us, and we’ll fit them to the design performance standards we have,’” Schneider said.

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