By Sara Quam
The Luverne City Council met Tuesday night with the Planning Commission to review the 1994 Comprehensive Plan.
The purpose of the session was to determine if the document needed tweaking, an overhaul or neither.
"Is this or is this not a sound document?" City Administrator Matt Hylen said in introduction to the group.
Ultimately, the bodies informally said they thought the concepts of the plan were valid and that new statistical data should be updated by city staff.
"I don't think our goals have changed in seven years," Councilman David Hauge said.
Councilman Jim Kirchhofer said, "I think it speaks to the current situations."
Council and planning commission members paged through the report and discussed various topics that might need revisiting for the city's changing needs. Housing and economic development, as usual, were the main topics of conversation.
Luverne Economic Development Director Tony Chladek said, "We need to put on our trend glasses and see what's going on here and around the state. We need to step back and look at what the trends are saying to us, and then we can refocus on the Comprehensive Plan."
Chladek said that cities are getting more involved in housing and economic development than ever before.
Luverne has been aggressive in both but hasn’t always met with total approval from citizens who would like to see more private control and investing.
Luverne has built homes that were all sold. The theory of building these homes, using local contractors and supplies, was to create housing for some families to "move up" into.
By moving to higher-cost homes, their homes were freed up for others who couldn't afford as high a price or a newly built home.
The city hasn't made definite plans to repeat what it did before in building homes.
Zoning issues
Curt Gacke from the Planning Commission said he wondered where some new businesses could operate based on current zones and building availability.
"If a credit card company wanted to come to town, where would it locate?" he said.
It wouldn't fit into an industrial zone and couldn;t find adequate space in most downtown buildings.
Ideal locations for those types of businesses are specifically mentioned in the Comprehensive Plan as "protected areas" similar to Tri-State Insurance Company's location.
Attractive, out-of-the-way properties are usually highly regarded in insurance, information and real estate companies.
Mayor Glen Gust said zoning limits the city's potential for growth in some areas. The Comprehensive Plan refers to continuing growth on Highway 75.
Gust said, "Why limit yourself to Highway 75 south of the lights?"
He said that north of the stoplights is still a main corridor of town and should be allowed to be developed as such.
Hauge added to the zoning discussion. "We need to also look at preservation of assets. And not all assets we have are economic."
He said he knows the older, well-maintained homes on North 75 make a good impression on travelers, and that is a different kind of asset to Luverne.
The group said it would like to continue to market Luverne as a small town with a lot to offer.
The nice homes, well-maintained city, good school, hospital, high-tech infrastructure and recreation are all selling points to future businesses and families.