County aims to ease concerns about planned $30M highway shop

Apr. 13—By Mark Fischenich

mfischenich@mankatofreepress.com

MANKATO — After facing fierce opposition to their initial proposed location for a new highway department facility, Blue Earth County is hoping for a more contented reaction to its revised plan to build about a mile farther south of Mankato.

A public meeting could come in less than three weeks where people could view details of the proposed $30 million Public Works Facility, ask questions and voice concerns.

The County Board wants to settle on a location so design work can be completed by late fall and construction can begin in spring of 2024.

"We're excited to get this project moving, but we know we have some work in front of us," County Administrator Bob Meyer said.

The original plan would have had construction well underway already, but objections from residents of a rural subdivision were a major factor in driving the county to drop plans to build the sprawling complex at the intersection of County Road 16 (Stoltzman Road) and 200th Street, which is about a half-mile south of Mankato city limits.

That site was within a third of a mile of dozens of homes in the Lexington Court/Buckingham Road/Stoney Creek Road area that are generally valued between $330,000 and more than $600,000. About a half-mile from the previous site were even pricier properties in the Red Oak Lane area that consistently top $500,000 with some assessed at more than $1 million.

The new site is a mile farther south at the northeast quadrant of the County Road 16/County Road 90 intersection. There are no rural subdivisions immediately adjacent.

Meyer, speaking to the Mankato-Blue Earth County Intergovernmental Committee Thursday morning, said the county is working hard to generate a more favorable reaction to the new location.

"We want to do everything in our power to show that we can be a good neighbor," he said, adding the county has demonstrated that for decades at its current Public Works Facility on Map Drive, which is within Mankato and bordered on three sides by residential neighborhoods. "I've been in this role for a dozen years and have never had a complaint from anyone in that area."

But the nearly 50-year-old facility is undersized for modern snowplows, dump trucks and other heavy equipment. Equipment operators also have to travel busy Stadium Road to reach plow routes or work sites. And there's no room for expansion on the 15-acre site.

The proposed site, which the county is negotiating to purchase for $2.5 million, totals 67 acres and would be home to a 97,000-square-foot main building containing offices and climate-controlled garages. A 30,000-square-foot cold storage building and additional storage for sand and salt would be constructed as well.

"We're also talking about how we might be able to build in some amenities for the South Route Trail," Meyer said, adding that parking spaces dedicated to trail users would eliminate the potentially unsafe practice of parking on the shoulder of County Road 90 to access the trail.

The county already has come up with a strategy to ease concerns expressed by opponents of the previous site on 200th Street — that the presence of the highway shop, and the city utilities that would be extended to it, would pave the way for other industrial development in the area.

County officials are in discussions with the city of Mankato to provide a sewer line with no additional capacity beyond what's needed by the Public Works Facility. Previously, the plan was to extend a larger sewer main along Stoltzman Road so that the rural subdivisions could be annexed into the city, and tie into its regional sewage treatment plant, at some future date.

"It would be sized just for our facility rather than being sized for the whole area," Meyer said. "We're prepared to make that part of our project cost."

He also emphasized the construction jobs the project will support, pointing to the estimated price tag of $30 million or more.

"So it certainly brings a lot of economic development to the construction trades here in Mankato," he said.

Mankato Council member Jessica Hatanpa, a member of the Intergovernmental Committee, quizzed Meyer extensively about the project. While the project site is well outside city limits, Hatanpa's south-side ward is closest to the rural subdivisions in the area and she said rural residents might have been contacting her.

"I have probably gotten more feedback from your residents in the county than from my residents for any project in the city," Hatanpa said, asking whether the county could guarantee the highway shop won't lead to more industrial development south of Mankato.

Meyer said Mankato Township has jurisdiction over land use and zoning, but the county is not seeking any changes to land-use plans — just a conditional-use permit to construct its facility.

Hatanpa, noting that the new facility will include a fuel island for county vehicles such as Sheriff's Office squad cars, suggested it could be more efficient to put the Public Works Facility on Mankato's east side where courts, the Sheriff's Office and the jail are.

"Why isn't this closer to the Justice Center?" she asked.

Meyer said sites were considered on the east side, but land prices were much more expensive. In addition, a site close to County Road 90 would allow plows and maintenance trucks to more quickly get to the roads along the northern portion of Blue Earth County. Other parts of the county are served by smaller highway shops in towns such as Good Thunder, Mapleton, Lake Crystal, Vernon Center and St. Clair.

"This puts us right in the middle of the service area," he said.

Hatanpa also wondered about the numerous county roads within the city and the inefficiency of plow trucks needing to drive along Stoltzman Road from well south of the city limits to reach those roads.

Public Works Director Ryan Thilges said the county actually has an agreement with the city of Mankato for municipal plows to clear snow on county roads within the city.

"We don't anticipate many if any of our pieces of heavy equipment going back into Mankato via Stoltzman Road," Thilges said. "We really don't anticipate much traffic going north."

While county officials appear prepared to respond to most of the potential criticisms of the proposed site, Hatanpa suggested they should also be prepared for some pushback from residents living south of Mankato near Stoltzman Road.

"I think that neighborhood feels they're not being listened to," she said.

A website about the project, including an opportunity to offer comments, has been set up at https://www.blueearthcountymn.gov/pwfacility. The site provides background information on the project, the sites considered, the anticipated additional traffic the facility will generate and more.

A public open house is being planned for early next month with a tentative date of May 2 being considered.