February-March, 2010

Like many communities in the fast-growth "collar" around the Twin Cities, Baldwin Township in Sherburne County faces choices: Control growth? Put more housing on smaller lots? Fix more roads? Incorporate? Annex to nearby Princeton? Keep taxes low? Residents' answers may determine whether a place some consider God's country can retain the characteristics that brought thousands to live there.

MPR News conducted a public forum on these issues on March 4 at Princeton High School. Read more on our blog.

Cattails amid the housing

As housing transformed a piece of exurbia north of the Twin Cities, at least one landowner laid plans for preserving his part of it.

Building identity

Without a downtown or a Main Street coffee shop, Baldwin Township tries to define what exactly it is.

Recession wallops housing

The housing boom screeches to a halt, changing the complexion of a long-running conversation about annexation and incorporation.

Choosing the future

Ideas abound for handling growth if it resumes and for dealing with consequences of growth already here.

Ground Level is a Minnesota Public Radio News project shedding light where residents are seeking ways to improve the communities they live in.
More about the project

Baldwin Area News and Information

• Princeton Union Eagle
• Baldwin Township government
• Princeton city government
• Zimmerman city government

Minnesota Data Sources

• Minnesota Compass
  Wilder Research has pulled together hundreds of ways to measure quality of life in Minnesota communities.
• Atlas of Minnesota
  The Center for Rural Policy and Development has mapped many social and economic characteristics of the state.