Letter to the editor: City embarking on bad development plan

I just finished reading the article from the Star Tribune of Nov. 17, 2012 titled “Woodbury opens farmland to residential development.” Although I was disappointed by the plans that the City Council has pushed through for development of agricultural land in Woodbury, I was not surprised. The city of Woodbury has welcomed the development of strip malls and homogeneous single-lot housing for years, at the detriment of its remaining greenfields.

The article states the city is planning a phase of development that “will also include … a smaller commercial center at Woodbury Drive and Dale Road.” According to the municipal code and zoning map, this type of use is only allowed at the northeastern portion of the intersection, and only with a conditional-use permit. By allowing this use to exist in an overwhelmingly undeveloped area, the city is very literally leapfrogging a random development there, which in turn will spawn additional development. While I’m certain this is the city’s intention, I would strongly argue that Woodbury’s goals and values need to be reassessed.

Development should follow rooftops, not the other way around, and open land should be valued more highly than it is. The zoning for the majority of the surrounding area maintains that it is to remain agricultural, however these actions by the city lead me to believe there is no intention of such preservation. These bad development patterns negatively impact some of Woodbury’s oldest residents the most, people I would think that the city would choose to value.

In the meantime, I encourage Woodbury to embrace some of the new planning tactics that are being implemented in other cities and counties that have chosen to maintain a better relationship with their remaining open land.

Alyssa Knutson – Glendale, Colo. (formerly of Woodbury)

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion, updates