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Staff recommends no immediate changes to Old Village zoning; larger review to wait for 2026 comp plan
Summary
Planning staff presented Old Village zoning review findings and recommended deferring substantive future-land-use changes until the 2026 comprehensive-plan update, citing shoreland constraints, survey results favoring traditional neighborhood character, and the need for broader community engagement.
LAKE ELMO, Minn. — City planning staff briefed the Lake Elmo Planning Commission on the Old Village study and recommended postponing major changes to zoning and the future-land-use map until the city’s 2026 comprehensive-plan update.
Planning staff said the Old Village review drew on a 2024 study and a visual-preference survey of residents. Staff described three subareas examined for potential changes and said the recommendation is to “not do anything between that time” and the next comprehensive-plan process because a change now would require extensive community engagement and cost. “Our ultimate recommendation is to not do anything between that time because we’re gonna spend considerable money and time with, you know, going through this process and community engagement involved,” the planner said.
Staff walked commissioners through a West Village parcel that lies in a shoreland buffer and noted development constraints: for a Planned Unit Development (PUD) in a shoreland overlay district, about half of the area must remain open and roughly 25% of the site needs to remain open, making a shift from current village low-density guidance to medium density challenging. Staff also noted that several parcels are owned by Easton Village Owns LLC and the Screton Family Trust and that developers were advised to submit concepts that meet shoreland and zoning guidelines.
Residents who spoke raised site-specific concerns: runoff from new grading and development that could affect adjacent cemeteries and properties; lighting that may not conform to the city’s dark-sky preferences; and questions about wildlife corridors that residents said have been fragmented in places. Staff responded that a public-space corridor remains in place and that survey results generally favored traditional neighborhood development.
Commissioners and staff discussed survey methods and outreach; staff said much of the input came through an online visual preference survey with QR-code access and that paper responses were accepted and entered manually.
Planning staff emphasized that the recommended approach preserves residents’ opportunity to weigh in through the comprehensive-plan process and cautioned against piecemeal regulation changes that would bypass broader engagement. No formal action to change Old Village land-use designations was recommended by the commission during the meeting.
The planning commission will continue to consider how the Old Village recommendations fit into the broader 2026 work program and the upcoming comprehensive-plan process.
