Pine Island
Pine Island is located primarily in Goodhue County (with portions in Olmstead County), 65 miles south of the Twin Cities. Located close to the growing Rochester area on the banks of the Zumbro River, Pine Island faces increasing development pressure.
The city features a number of city parks and state trail connections, an historic downtown and a sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure, making it attractive for both business and residential growth. Pine Island recently annexed a large area of land which will be the future home of a biotechnology center, currently under development.
CGO provided planning expertise and assistance to rewrite the city’s plans to help manage future expansion of its borders and to create community continuity.
CGO Project Overview
Pine Island faces increasing development pressure, in particular the development of 2300 acre biotechnology center, annexed into the City in recent years. Embarking on an industrious plan to integrate the biotechnology facility into their community, CGO has helped the city to completely re-write their comprehensive plan, negotiate transportation plans, develop ordinances and devise ways to connect existing infrastructure with the new expansion. To gather input and generate support, the city held many workshops and public meetings during the writing of the plan, and created a new regimen for creating and updating a contact list that included all the residents in the surrounding townships, where growth would occur.
Following an effort funded by the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (the Healthy Community Partnership program), CGO worked to leverage citizen interest in building connectivity and identity between the new and old sections of the city. In particular, CGO helped to support the updated zoning and subdivision ordinance to allow for protection of natural resources as specified in the comp plan, and to expand shoreland protection and adopt regional and state plans to protect natural waterways and open areas and to incorporate the city’s Wellhead Protection Plan into the zoning code.
Additionally, CGO helped Pine Island incorporate a new focus on sustainability. This had its roots in Healthy Community Partnership program, and was embraced by the city during the course of the CGO project, resulting in a sustainability chapter in the new comprehensive plan. This chapter includes policies such as water usage reduction, promotion of alternative energy, composting and green living; and outlines how the other city systems can increase their sustainability
CGO Project Goals
- More efficient land use
- Natural resource protection
Project Objectives
- Rewrite and adopt a new comprehensive plan for the city.
- Expand the number of zoning districts and clarify ordinance language to manage the anticipated growth.
- Update existing and add new maps for the city, including land use, zoning, flood, transportation, and wetland maps.
- Engage various groups to educate and include in the planning process by holding outreach and public meetings to inform the community and seek input on comprehensive plan update.
Project Deliverables
- New comprehensive plan for the community
- Public workshops
- New map series for the city
- Updated ordinances
Maps of Pine Island
Several maps showing Pine Island’s geography are provided below. The maps are 11” x 17” (but can be printed at 8-1/2” x 11”) and in PDF format.