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Traffic and this hill on Eighth Avenue Northwest in Pipestone were among the reasons Pipestone County Highway Engineer Nick Bergman cited for denying a permit request for six driveways on the east side of the street. The driveways would have served six lots the Pipestone Development Company plans to build on land it owns in the area.
Photo by Kyle Kuphal
Pipestone County Commissioners during their June 10 meeting supported Pipestone County Highway Engineer Nick Bergman’s decision to deny a permit requested by the Pipestone Development Company (PDC) to build six driveways that would enter onto Eighth Avenue Northwest in Pipestone. The driveways would have served six lots on land the PDC owns on the east side of Eighth Avenue.
Bergman said he denied the permit because adding driveways onto a busy county road increases the probability of a crash, the driveways could have a negative impact on the Safe Routes to School project the city of Pipestone is working on and there is a hill to the south that would impact the visibility of the driveways. The PDC didn’t agree with Bergman’s decision, so he checked with Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) engineers and they concurred with his assessment.
PDC President Jeremy Whipple said Eighth Avenue is a residential street with a 30 mph speed limit and many existing driveways. He also took issue with following guidance provided by MnDOT.
“We could talk about what the state wants and that’s great,” Whipple said. “The state isn’t paying our property taxes. The state doesn’t help us develop our communities.”
This map shows the location of the six lots the Pipestone Development Company has proposed building on land it owns east of Eighth Avenue Northwest. Pipestone County recently denied a request to add six driveways for the lots onto Eighth Avenue, citing safety concerns. Source: Pipestone County
He said the PDC wants to develop its land in that area because there’s already a water line in the boulevard along Eighth Avenue Northwest and a sewer line could be added to serve the six houses for which the driveway permit was requested. He said the development would eventually include two more rows of six lots, with a new road in between them, for a total of 18 lots, with additional development phases after that.
“Phase one would be 18 lots, phase two would be 18 lots, phase three would probably be 12 lots, and then we’d continue,” he said. “At that Hurd property, there’s probably potential for 80 lots out there. We’re just trying to maximize the usage of utilities under there.”
Whipple said the houses the PDC plans to build on the lots would be 1,000 to 1,500 square-foot ranch style homes with four bedrooms and two bathrooms that would potentially cost around $300,000 to $400,000. He promoted the potential economic impacts of the proposed development, including a larger tax base, added spending within the community, additional families with children that could generate additional funding for the school district and others.
Commissioner Dan Wildermuth said an alternative would be to add a north and south road to the east of the six lots proposed along Eighth Avenue Northwest with driveways along that street. Whipple said that would add to the development costs.
“It’s about cost,” he said. “What’s the most economic way of doing it? If I’ve got to put a road in, I don’t do it because I can’t get my money back from building houses. That’s really where the problem lies. This layout is the most economic way of building this many houses to get the most bang for our buck.”
The Pipestone Development Company is interested in building six residential lots on this land on the east side of Eighth Avenue Northwest in Pipestone. Photo by Kyle Kuphal
Wildermuth said he appreciates the PDC’s development efforts, but that he supported Bergman’s position. Commissioner Dallas Roskamp also supported Bergman’s decision and said he didn’t want to create a traffic problem.
“Just because there are some other issues in town where it was done wrong, we shouldn’t add to the problem,” he said. “We should go by state guidelines and the guidelines of our engineer.”
Commissioner Luke Johnson said he was torn on the matter and that building the driveways probably wouldn’t matter much. He made a motion to allow the six driveways and Commissioner Chris Hollingsworth, who said he could see both sides of the matter, seconded the motion. Johnson and Hollingsworth voted in support of the motion, but commissioners Wildermuth, Roskamp and Doug Nagel voted against it and the motion failed 2-3.