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St. Joseph planners weigh allowing smaller septic‑served lots to expand single‑family housing; staff to draft options
Summary
Commissioners discussed three paths to allow smaller lots not served by full city sewer — requiring city water with septic, allowing private well and septic, or amending rural residential to permit conditional use/ new zoning — and asked staff to return next month with draft language and engineer input; no binding vote was taken.
The St. Joseph Planning Commission spent an extended portion of its Jan. 12 meeting discussing how the city might permit smaller single‑family lots that would rely on private septic systems and, in some cases, private wells.
Planning staff framed the issue as a response to developer interest in smaller lots where city sewer extensions and lift stations are financially infeasible. Staff outlined three possible approaches: (1) allow septic systems but require connection to city water, (2) allow private wells and septic on slightly larger lots, or (3) amend the rural residential district to permit smaller lots through a conditional‑use permit (CUP) or create a new zoning district with specific qualifications.
Staff warned that septic suitability depends on site conditions and recommended early coordination with the county, which reviews septic designs. "There's not like a golden minimum size per se," staff said, adding septic design requires primary and secondary locations and site‑specific review.
Commissioners pressed on long‑term infrastructure consequences, asking about lift‑station cost, grant availability and whether approving septic subdivisions could create isolated pockets without utilities. A speaker identified as Andrew said available grants for market‑rate single‑family infrastructure are limited and typically small compared with the cost of a lift station.
Developer Corey Ellard outlined a preliminary plan for about 32 lots with lot sizes commonly ranging from about 1.4 to 2.3 acres and said a CUP could be a practical evaluation tool for unique properties. "Our intentions here are to have low‑impact, lower‑density, nice sized lots that we can sell to a client base" in roughly the $400,000–$800,000 purchase range, Corey said.
Adjacent resident Joe Beck told the commission the site contains black sand and coarse gravel that complicate septic design and described proximity to the Sauk (Sock) River as a constraint. Staff and commissioners discussed precedents and developer agreements (for example, Cedar Ridge) that required buyers to accept future city hookups if and when sewer became available, sometimes with super‑majority thresholds for connection requests.
No formal policy was adopted. Commissioners asked staff to return next month with sample ordinance language and stipulations (including caps on maximum lots per development, minimum lot sizes, and developer‑agreement provisions) and to invite the city engineer to describe lift‑station feasibility and servicing areas.
