Development can be one of the most difficult issues facing a community — and the St. Croix River. While housing is a human necessity, new construction can harm habitat, water quality, and scenery. Numerous conflicts over proposed developments along the river have caused difficult discussions over the years, including proposals that have ended up as the subject of lawsuits.

Two residential projects in northern Washington County offer examples of how development can be done in ways that minimize environmental impact. Both were included in a recent tour of conservation work in the area to help local elected officials and government staff understand the complex issues of community planning and conservation. Last week’s article about the protection of Kelley Farms was also inspired by the tour.

Both developments visited on the tour sought to balance their rural settings with an interest in preserving large tracts of open space and a reduced overall footprint. They took decidedly different approaches.

Cluster of conservation

In the late 1990s, there was a lot of disagreement in Marine on St. Croix about the fate of the Jackson farm, located atop the bluffs, as the owner sought to sell the land and different developments were discussed. Local resident Harold Teasdale ultimately purchased the property and created a subdivision called Jackson Meadow. Now 25 years old, the neighborhood has become a model of citizen stewardship.

“There was a huge controversy about what to do with this piece of land,” Teasdale said. “We started from scratch. We didn’t know what we weren’t supposed to do.”

The developer ultimately came up with a solution that would provide about 60 home sites, and permanently protected hundreds of acres. Rather than using the standard rural zoning of five-acre minimum lots for a home, the developers worked out a plan to cluster most of the houses together and use their cumulative acres for natural preservation and public access.

Arriving on Blue Heron Lane, the tour group was greeted by Teasdale and Kristina Smitten. Smitten is a Jackson Meadow resident, city planning commission member, and member of the development’s land preservation committee.

What first catches the eye at Jackson Meadow is usually the architecture — all the houses are white and share many other similar design elements. Architect David Salmela believes the matching structures actually help the development blend into its natural surroundings, the uniformity reducing its visual impact, Smitten explained. The architecture was also inspired by the area’s historic homes, which were built first by American transplants from New England and later dominated by Swedish settlers. Some of the homes are set in a traditional neighborhood grid with relatively small lots, while others are spread out around the edge of the large prairie.

Prairie and people

Looking closer, Jackson Meadow lightens its impact in several other ways. The homes are nestled among acres of restored prairie, priceless habitat for birds, pollinators, and many other creatures. It is what the land may have looked like before European settlement. The neighborhood maintains the prairies with intensive management, including trying to use prescribed fire on every piece of it every three years. An essential element to prairie, fire prevents the growth of trees and brush, while returning carbon and nutrients to the soil and opening up the ground to sunlight. Using fire requires expertise and a lot of people power to do safely, and the homeowners association has acquired the equipment needed and trained residents so their ambitious efforts can be completed.

Prairie is woven throughout the development. There are limits on how much lawn can be mowed, and many residents maintain their own native plantings, so that lots of houses have lush grassland between them and their neighbors.

“It blends the properties and common areas,” Smitten says. It also seems to bring the residences into a closer relationship with the natural world.

The latest community project has been a large shared garden in the center of the development. While it allows for residents to grow their own food, it has quickly become an important gathering space.

The final component of Jackson Meadow’s conservation is invisible to the eye. Legal easements cover most of the development, ensuring large areas will never be built on. The developers even bought building rights on a neighboring farm, so it can only be used for agriculture in perpetuity. There are seven miles of trails in the development that are permanently protected and open to the public, not just Jackson Meadow residents. The trails are used for walking and mountain biking in the summer, when the city takes care of mowing. In the winter, the homeowners association is in charge of grooming them for cross-country skiing.

Lake life

While Jackson Meadow is closely linked to the land, the next stop on the tour is most connected to water. Tii Gavo is located on the shores of Big Marine Lake in Scandia. Accordingly, the development’s environmental efforts are more focused on the water as well. Big Marine is a large, popular lake that ultimately drains to the St. Croix River. The development is situated on the northeast side, around Painted Turtle Bay.

Development planner Roger Tomten explained that the key to Tii Gavo’s environmental stewardship is how the development has been designed to reduce its impact on the shoreline. Instead of nearly 20 waterfront home sites that could have been possible, there is a broad buffer between the lake and the developed area.

This has a big benefit for the lake, greatly reducing the visual impact and much more. The absence of lawns means less fertilizer and more natural habitat for birds and other wildlife.

To provide lake access for the development’s residents, the development features a shared marina and beach area. There are 19 boat slips, a picnic shelter, swimming beach, volleyball court, and charcoal grills.

“It’s better for the environment and it creates a sense of community,” Tomten said.

The consolidated shoreline footprint is one reason the homeowners association has been able to get permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Natural Resources, the local watershed district, and other agencies to dredge a channel three hundred yards long to keep access open between their bay and the main body of Big Marine.

“The loss of natural shoreline is a big problem,” said Mike Isensee of the Carnelian-Marine-St. Croix Watershed District. It’s much easier to address such issues without having to work with dozens of different lakeshore owners.

On the afternoon of the tour, several residents were enjoying the waterfront area. One man read a newspaper on the beach, while kids jumped off a swim dock. A group walked out to their boat and motored away toward the lake.

New standards

Both Jackson Meadow and Tii Gavo take unique approaches to environmental stewardship, reflecting their local landscape and natural resources, and the community’s interests. Because sustainable developments can be very different, planning and permitting them brings a variety of challenges.

“We need to make this kind of development as easy as the usual type,” planner Tomten said.

As the area’s population continues to grow in the years ahead, additional housing will be necessary. Developments like Jackson Meadow and Tii Gavo have demonstrated it’s possible to do so while preserving what makes people want to live there.

Correction: Roger Tomten’s title has been updated to better describe his role.