Letter to the Editor SPOTLIGHT: Seeking Growth, cities confront zoning hurdles
This LTE was originally published in the Star Tribune on February 2, 2025 in response to the article “Twin Cities suburban zoning favors single-family homes. Some cities want to add more options“.
As a planning commissioner involved with this process in St. Louis Park, I learned a lot about what got us into a nationwide housing crisis (“Seeking growth, cities confront zoning hurdles,” Jan. 26). I worry that needed changes will not come fast enough if we rely upon individual cities to contribute millions of dollars and thousands of hours to these efforts. I’m grateful to the Metropolitan Council for offering grants to cities, but these resources could be much better spent if the state could pass legislation to allow duplexes, triplexes, townhomes and fourplexes in communities across the state. Exclusionary zoning has forced people to sprawl out into our farm and forest land that should have remained undeveloped, but it was the only affordable option for new homes.
This sprawl puts immense stress on our utilities, transportation systems and community connection. We need to do more to prevent sprawl from being the most financially affordable option because it is no longer affordable for our planet. Those opposed to statewide reform think that local control should not be taken away from cities. The only reason cities have this control in the first place is because it was granted to them by the state. Also, any legislation passed by the state should require that cities establish an administrative design review process. This would relieve planning commissioners, who are often volunteers like me, from involvement in a process that was only ever meant to prevent people of lower socioeconomic status from living in our city.
Sylvie Hyman, St. Louis Park
