UPDATE: From Baldwin to Greater Minnesota: Whither the Big Box?

Posted at 10:19 AM on April 6, 2010 by Dave Peters (2 Comments)
Filed under: Baldwin Township

NEW INFORMATION ABOUT TODAY'S VIRTUAL CONVERSATION. JOIN US AT 3 P.M.

Baldwin Township has a decision to make. Residents there love the rural nature of the town and want things to remain the same. But some leaders say that infrastructure improvements need to be done - and that might mean inviting in development.

MPR's live online forum will tackle the question: How do you know when the "big box" development is right?

On Tuesday at 3 p.m., we invite two representatives from Baldwin Township to talk about how their community is grappling with decisions about land use and development. They are:

Jeff Holm, town board chairman for Baldwin Township.

David Patten, member of the Princeton Area Visionary Committee

Then at 3:30 p.m. we'll invite two panelists who can broaden the question out to greater Minnesota. They are:

Chuck Marohn, president of the Community Growth Institute in Brainerd

Ben Winchester, demographer and sociologist specializing in rural development at the University of Minnesota's Extension program

You have a place at the table too. Just pose a question to the panel and join the conversation.

THIS IS THE ORIGINAL POST FROM MONDAY

Minnesota Public Radio's focus on Baldwin Township continues with an online discussion. And the topic of this virtual forum was prompted by comments at the Baldwin community discussion held last month .

Growth, of course, was the topic of discussion, more specifically, how to handle infrastructure in light of the growth. Everything from incorporation to merger to annexation with the nearby city of Princeton came up.

But many residents who attended this forum talked about keeping the rural character of Baldwin as unchanged as possible. They talked about the fresh air, seeing the northern lights and not needing street lights.

The rub of maintaining that bucolic setting with needing public financing was articulated at the end of the meeting by Town Board Chairman Jeff Holm. He pointed to the main road that cuts through Baldwin - Route 169. He asked, what's going to happen if it's not maintained?

Jeff Holm: "Access to employment - that's what really going to matter. Maybe we do need some job growth and some industrial growth....(A)re we going to be able to go up and down 169 and travel to the Cities, economically. (So) that people are going to want to live here."

If you lose the commuters, your tax base erodes, Holm said. A few minutes earlier Charles Marohn, president of the Community Growth Institute in Brainerd, put a finer point on this. He called this the clash of two values.

Charles Marohn: "(A)s a town supervisor you are pulled in two different directions. We want to keep taxes low and we want to keep services where they are at. The problem is, the big box becomes the solution then. Because what happens is the roads are deteriorating and we don't have the tax base to maintain it."

So the question we'll pose on Tuesday at 3 p.m. is this: "How does a small community decide when to beef up its tax base by doing commercial/industrial growth?"

Holm and Marohn will be in the mix. We've also invited Ben Winchester, a demographer and sociologist for the University of Minnesota Extension program, who studies rural areas. And we'll have someone else involved in Baldwin planning to round the talk.

You are invited too. Just plug in your email address for a reminder to attend online. And then make sure to have questions and comments.

Come back to this blog post on Tuesday afternoon and join the discussion.

---

Comments (2)

I want to thank Michael Caputo and the folks at MPR for organizing the online forum today. I would also like to thank Charles Marohn, Dave Patten, and Ben Winchester for taking time out of their busy schedules to participate in today's discussion about Baldwin Township.

I would like to mention that Baldwin does not currently have any plans in place for future development at this time. We are currently in the process of establishing a shared community vision and working towards developing a comprehensive plan for Baldwin Township. The discussion today has included ideas about future commercial development. The ideas that were discussed today and over the past two months are meant to stimulate thoughts and generate questions about how we should shape our future in Baldwin Township.

Please feel free to share your thoughts here or at any of the visioning sessions that will be held this summer as part of the Healthy Community Partnership program with the assistance of the Initiative Foundation.

You are also welcome to contact me directly. My contact information is available on the township's website

Posted by Jeff Holm | April 6, 2010 6:14 PM

---

Thanks to Mike and MPR for hosting this informational meeting. I was not able to attend but found it worthwhile to read over the copy and understand the core ideas carried through. A little difficult to maintain thread of response to each topic line being discussed, but still it was helpful as I plan on contributing to our towns visioning process. The extra links offering further background in big box and small community issues also are appreciated.
Thank you Jeff H and Dave P for your efforts in continuing outreach for township involvement.

Posted by Dean Kleinhans | April 10, 2010 8:01 AM

---

Post a comment

The following HTML tags are allowed in your comments:
+ Bold: <b>Text</b>
+ Italic: <i>Text</i>
+ Link: <a href="http://url" target="_blank">Link</a>
Fields marked with * are required.

Name*:

E-mail Address*:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments*:

Comment Preview appears above this form upon pressing the "preview" button. Edit your comment and press "preview" again, until you are satisfied with your comment.

Your comment may not appear on the blog until several minutes after it was submitted.

• E-mail this page
• Print this page
• Tweet this page
• Share this

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories