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EDA hears annexation, grocery and restaurant plans tied to Alton Avenue access study
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Summary
City staff reported a late-2025 annexation and rezoning application for a parcel at Alton Avenue and County Road 1319 proposing two drive-through restaurants and a roughly 17,000 sq. ft. grocery/retail building; staff said a three-month Alton Avenue access study with county and township partners will determine intersections, driveway access and a trunk sanitary sewer needed to support development.
Ken, a city staff member, told the Economic Development Authority the city received a late-2025 application from Java companies to annex and rezone a property owned by Mayo at the northeast corner of Alton Avenue and County Road 1319, describing plans for two quick-serve restaurants with drive-throughs and “a roughly 17,000 square foot grocery store or retail concept.”
Ken also reported that ANA Investment purchased the former Speedway at 435 West Main, obtained a tobacco license under the business name Snack Attack and has a signed permit to rebrand the site as a BP station. “It’s gonna be BP Gas over there,” Ken said during the business updates.
City staff said the EDA and county township are kicking off an update to a 2004–05 Alton Avenue study; the roughly three-month process will evaluate where intersections and drive access should be allowed, how to meet MnDOT rules that limit direct driveways from a state highway, and where a new trunk sanitary sewer should be located to open the east side of town to residential and commercial development. Ken said MnDOT has been “very forthcoming on not allowing driveways directly from State Highway,” which makes alternate access and coordinated intersection placement critical to moving projects forward.
EDA members asked how much of the parcel the proposed uses would occupy; speakers noted a 17,000-square-foot store would not alone use an eight-acre site and that early concept plans appeared inefficient and would need refinements. Ken said the study’s findings will inform whether and where drive access and sanitary-sewer infrastructure can support proposed commercial uses and future residential development along the corridor.
The EDA did not take final action on the annexation or rezoning application; Ken said staff had no public drawings to share yet and that additional details will come back to the EDA as the study and the developer’s design work progress.
