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Lake Elmo council approves 58‑unit Grovia Preserve PUD with conditions
Summary
The Lake Elmo City Council approved a preliminary plat and PUD ordinance for the 58‑unit Grovia Preserve on roughly 110 acres, granting three PUD flexibilities and attaching conditions including wetlands buffers, landscape revisions and community septic approvals.
The Lake Elmo City Council on April 7 approved a preliminary plat and PUD ordinance for Grovia Preserve, a proposed 58‑unit single‑family subdivision on about 110 acres guided for rural area development.
Planning staff told the council the proposal meets OPUD minimums and would preserve about 55% of the site as open space, above the city’s 50% requirement. The developer asked three PUD flexibilities: a 60% garage‑frontage allowance (city code requires 40%), use of batuminous trail material instead of a concrete sidewalk along home fronts, and a blanket 40% per‑lot impervious‑surface allowance (city code typically limits lots to 30%). Staff recommended approval with 14 conditions, including completion of review‑memo revisions, agreements and wetland buffer signage.
During a public hearing and follow‑up council discussion, residents and HOA representatives urged additional screening, traffic safety measures on 50th Street and careful management of the community septic plan. Staff noted the site contains 13 wetlands and the applicant proposes removing two; the plan calls for wetland buffer averaging and signage to keep wetlands within open‑space lots rather than residential lots.
Council members debated the batuminous sidewalk request and HOA maintenance obligations. Planning staff said the developer proposed the batuminous surface for a contiguous trail network and that the HOA would assume long‑term maintenance; staff recommended recording maintenance responsibilities in HOA declarations, the development agreement and trail easements so the obligation is clear to future owners. On impervious surface, staff calculated that even if every lot were built at the 40% maximum, the overall project impervious area would be roughly 19% of the site, which staff said meets the OPUD objectives for rural flexibility.
After discussion and conditions, the council approved three related actions by voice vote: resolution 2026‑021 (preliminary plat/PUD findings and conditions), ordinance 2026‑03 (PUD ordinance adoption) and resolution 2026‑022 (summary of publication). Staff emphasized outstanding items — landscape revisions, geotechnical work for community septic permitting and final engineering — will be cleared before final plat.
The council’s approval allows final‑plat work to proceed under the conditions of approval listed in staff’s report.
