Star Tribune
Minnesota DNR goes to court to stop Minneapolis man from building riverfront house
State environmental regulators sued the city of Minneapolis this week to stop a landowner from building a house on a protected bluff of the Mississippi River.
The bluff is far from pristine, on a narrow wooded lot between a massive concrete plant to the south and a three-story apartment complex to the north. The proposed 1,600-foot house would be dwarfed by the stacks of concrete slabs, industrial trucks and cement mixers parked at the plant next door. Its footprint would be much smaller than the apartment complex’s 40-car parking lot that stretches almost to river.
But the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the National Park Service worry that allowing the small home to go up would set a bad precedent for the state’s Mississippi River bluff protections, opening the door for homes, mansions and apartments to be built throughout a protected 72-mile stretch of the river. The building would also permanently alter the area, removing vegetation and habitat in “one of the few remaining bluffs in the area,” the DNR argued in its lawsuit.
New structures have been banned from being built within 40 feet of a Mississippi River bluff in Minneapolis since 1988, when Congress created a national recreation area along its shorelines.
Owner Andy Wattenhofer has been trying to build on the site since 2021. The lot, on Marshall Street about a half-mile north of the Lowry Avenue bridge, already has a duplex and a detached garage. Wattenhofer submitted construction plans to the city, showing he would keep the duplex, and add a one-story home between it and the river. Wattenhofer asked the city for a variance that year, which would be needed to give him an exception to the bluff-protection rule and allow construction to go forward.
The surrounding concrete plant and apartment complex were built decades before bluff protections were put in place. In Wattenhofer’s application, he argued that any damage to the bluff that the protections hoped to prevent had, essentially, already been done.
“The view from the water cannot get worse than it is today,” he wrote. “It is dominated by 20′ retaining walls on the neighboring properties. And pavement on the slope has prevented tree and vegetation growth for decades.”
Wattenhofer declined to be interviewed for this story.
The City Council denied Wattenhofer’s request in 2021 after the DNR and National Park Service objected to it.
The owner resubmitted his request in the spring of 2023 to a new City Council. The proposal was almost unchanged from the one that had been rejected two years earlier. In addition to the DNR and Park Service objections, the city planning commission denied the variance, saying Wattenhofer’s property was long enough that he could add a second house on the site and still comply with the 40-foot buffer.
He appealed to the City Council in August.
DNR officials told city council members at a hearing that the project did not meet any of the needed criteria for a variance. The rules did not cause unique or undue hardship, for example, because Wattenhofer could still build on the property without harming the bluff, the agency argued.
“The variance request is being solely driven by the design preferences of the property owner,” Jennifer Shillcox, a land use supervisor for the DNR, wrote.
She added that if a request to build directly on top of a bluffline was approved it would be difficult for the city to ever deny another variance request in the future.
Council Member Elliot Payne, who represents the area, said in the hearing he was concerned about setting a precedent, but added that the situation was unique.
“This is complex project and I think that we need to be thoughtful about the implications of it,” he said. “And we need recognize that it’s a truly unique case, so whatever precedents we’re concerned about setting with this about this project, it’s very unique.”
Payne, now the council president, didn’t return phone calls and emails seeking comment.
Council members did not speak again about any of the DNR’s concerns in the hearing, and voted unanimously to overturn the planning commission and grant the variance.
The lawsuit was filed in Hennepin County District Court. The city has not yet responded to the state’s complaint.
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.