Jan. 18 -- BYRON, Minn. -- If you're looking for housing outside of Rochester -- something affordable in a different school district -- Al Roder says Byron has an option for you.
"We have been very proactive on housing development in particular," said Roder, Byron's city administrator. "We're focused on providing workforce for Olmsted County in general. It is one of our strategic initiatives to build out our housing stock."
Roder said Byron hopes to offer a little something for everyone. Lots available and other projects under construction show just that. Drive along Fourth Street Northeast in the west Olmsted County city and you'll see a 52-unit apartment complex going up across the street from the Fareway grocery store. Behind that to the north, the Stone Haven Townhomes subdivision continues to grow.
Single-family home lots are available in East Village, Timberview and Somberby subdivisions at various price points.
With housing at all levels being needed in the Rochester area, Byron is certainly doing its part.
According to the Minnesota Department of Housing's 2023 report, the state is short about 50,000 homes thanks to underproduction from 2006-2016.
"Until Minnesota has completely filled the production hole created from 2006 through 2016, the state will have an overall housing shortage, which will put upward pressure on rents and home prices," according to the "Key Housing Needs and Issues" report. That shortage means one in four Minnesota households are cost-burdened by their housing payments.
Olmsted County is listed as one of the worst counties in Minnesota when it comes to the cost burden for lower-income households paying for their housing costs, the report states.
Within Rochester, new subdivisions and new apartment complexes try to keep up with the demand. For example, in July 2024, the Rochester City Council approved $4 million of sales tax support to help build 201 homes by 2027. All of this is part of the effort to make up for the shortage of housing.
According to Rochester Community Development, the market needs 5,600 new housing units constructed between 2020 and 2030, which comes to an average of 560 a year.
Rochester met that quota in 2024. The city issued 196 permits for 193 single-family housing units in 2024. Add to that three permits for six duplex units and 25 permits for multi-family permits for 689 units, or a total of 888 new housing units. Rochester issued permits for a total of 793 housing units in 2023, and added another 990 in 2022.
But not every community in the region is adding housing at such a booming rate.
Stewartville City Administrator Bill Schimmel said the city has had "a little slower 2024 year for housing" compared to previous years. The city issued permits for six single-family homes and no permits for duplexes, townhomes or apartments.
Michele Peterson, city administrator in Chatfield, said that the city issued eight single-family construction permits in 2024, and approved a subdivision with eight single-family lots. But the city also did not add any multi-family housing.
North of Rochester, Pine Island issued 14 single-family construction permits, according to City Administrator Elizabeth Howard. As for available lots, the city approved 52 lots in 2022 -- so there is room to grow -- and many of those are still available. The city added 14 lots in 2024 zoned for townhomes.
Farther from Rochester, Plainview issued permits for just two single-family houses in 2024, and the city added no new available lots to its stock.
With the need for housing high, some local leaders are eager to get new development projects started in their cities. But not everyone is ready to accept major deals.
Jim Phillips, a member of the Oronoco City Council, said he voted against the 136-unit Cedar Crest Pointe development near Minnesota Avenue at Second Avenue and Cedar Pointe Road Southeast because -- despite wanting to see Oronoco grow -- the development was wrong for the city.
The mixed-use commercial and residential project would have included both medium-density -- R2 -- housing and low-density -- R1 -- housing along with some commercial lots in a project named Cedar Crest Pointe.
It was the four-unit R2 housing units in an area currently zoned for R1 that brought opposition from many neighbors.
Phillips said 219 people signed a petition against the development, and about a dozen showed up to planning commission and city council meetings in July 2024 to express their opposition.
"When people respond that way in the community, you listen," Phillips said. He added that if people want senior housing or high-density housing, Rochester is 2 miles down the road. But people move to Oronoco for what it is -- a community where people are spread out.
The R2 housing, he said back in July, did not fit into the character of the neighborhood that currently exists. Two separate surveys, Phillips said, have shown residents don't want apartments in Oronoco.
That's not to say he doesn't want to see the 43-acre plot developed into housing in the future.
"We're not against the Hamilton deal (Hamilton is the name of the current property owner) at all," Phillips said. "It was zoned for what it was zoned for at R1, and that's what the people wanted to have it, and that's it."
Phillips said since the property was bought by Hamilton when it was already zoned R1, the developer shouldn't have been surprised by the opposition to the proposed changes.
Oronoco isn't the only area town that has said no to large development proposals. The city of Kasson has passed on two deals -- both by the same developer, Troy Schrom of Schrom Real Estate -- in 2024.
In December, Kasson City Hall was packed with neighbors who opposed a zoning change -- again, from R1 to R2 -- for a proposed 121-unit Reagan Addition development -- which would have included 13 single-family homes and 108 townhomes, in a combination of four and eight-unit buildings -- north of 12th Street Northwest and east of Eighth Avenue, which is Dodge County Highway 21.
Kasson Mayor Dan Eggler, who was a member of the city council last year, said, "We need to increase housing, but we need to increase so it works for everybody. We need to grow responsibly."
Eggler said there were some things to like about the project. The townhomes would have been rental units going for anywhere from $1,350 to $1,900 a month.
"People who will work in town, teachers for example, we're trying to attract more housing for them," Eggler said. "Not everyone can afford a single-family home, and not everyone knows where their career is taking them. So you need variety."
Kasson does have some variety in its housing stock. A 47-unit apartment built in 2023 on the city's southwest side will soon be joined by another 50-unit apartment complex next door.
Kasson resident Christina Screeden, who lives right next to the proposed development, said she was concerned about the traffic along Fifth Avenue, 12th Street and "the dump road," or Highway 21/Eighth Avenue.
Screeden said she thought the rent values were too high for the area -- Kasson being nearly 15 miles from Rochester -- and the developer would have been adding well over 100 vehicles to the daily traffic count in what is already a too-busy area for a residential neighborhood.
And like residents in Oronoco, Screeden said she felt like a zoning change amounted to a bait-and-switch.
"When we moved here, we'd done our due diligence," she said. "We knew that would be low density. Now they're trying to reclassify that as medium density, it very much feels like a slap in the face."
She added that she doesn't trust traffic studies the city has cited. She works from home and looks out over Fifth Avenue, which can get busy during morning and evening commute times, as well as when school lets out at nearby Kasson-Mantorville High School.
Screeden said she was present last April when developer Troy Schrom again asked for a zoning change -- this time in northeast Kasson -- to build 84 townhomes and 34 duplexes for rent on about 40 acres of land east of 12th Avenue Northeast in Kasson.
That development, as well, did not receive the planning commission's endorsement nor an upvote by the Kasson City Council.
The fact that Schrom is so interested in Kasson -- and that other developments such as the southeast apartments have been built -- shows that better proposals are likely, Screeden said.
"Developers are interested in Kasson for sure," she said. "Every town needs to grow. I just don't think it needs to grow exponentially."