Small lots and how they should be developed is the hot issue in this fall’s mayoral race in Grant, where two sitting City Council members – Tom Carr and Jeff Giefer – are facing off.

Giefer said he was spurred to run for mayor halfway through his term on the council  because he is concerned that Carr wants to institute a zoning change that he says is inconsistent with the city’s comprehensive plan and Met Council lot-size agreements.

Grant City Council members Tom Carr, left, and Jeff Giefer are running for mayor in the Nov. 5, 2024, election. (Courtesy of the candidates)

The issue arose in May when a property owner who has a one-acre lot appeared at the Grant City Council meeting; the city’s minimum lot size is 5 acres with a 10-acre density. The property owner asked for feedback regarding the possibility of applying for a variance, but it was the consensus of the council that they would not necessarily be supportive for a variance to build on a one-acre lot, according to the meeting’s minutes.

The council revisited the issue in June. According to a memo from City Planner Jennifer Haskamp, staff identified six parcels in the city that are less than 2.5 acres and do not abut an adjacent parcel of the same ownership – a number less than .2% of all parcels within the city.

The council discussed amending the city’s zoning requirements to make it easier for property owners to build on the smaller lots – many of which were plotted and recorded in the 1960s and do not conform to current standards – but voted against amending the current zoning requirements.

“For me, the issue becomes if we remove the variance process that we have in place for these lots that were created before our current zoning and make it easier for homes to be built on those lots, then there’s potential unintended consequences that could happen,” Giefer said. “We don’t want to become another Lake Elmo.”

Carr says the issue is moot since the council decided not to pursue the proposed changes. He said that the owners of the six non-conforming lots in the city “have land rights, and I don’t think it would end well if we did not allow them to do anything with their land,” Carr said. “I think we’ll get sued, and I think we’ll lose.”

Carr, who grew up in Grant, has served on the Grant City Council for 22 of the past 24 years, including stints as mayor from 2001-2004 and 2007-2016.

Giefer, a retired IT professional who worked at General Mills for 24 years of his 35-year career, was elected to the Grant City Council in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. He served two years on the city’s planning commission prior to that.

Land rights vs. lot sizes

Grant, which has private wells and septic systems, is bordered by Stillwater Township and the city of Stillwater to the east, Lake Elmo to the south, Pine Springs, Mahtomedi, White Bear Township and Dellwood to the west, and Hugo, Withrow and May Township to the north.

Though there are neighborhoods with smaller lot sizes, zoning in the city mandates an average lot size of 10 acres and a minimum lot size of 5 acres, according to the city’s website.

Property owners who have parcels under the 5-acre minimum can apply for a variance in order to build on their property. “The variance process is respectful of landowners’ rights … while also giving (the council) control as to whether or not we deem that particular lot buildable,” Giefer said.

Different factors come into play, he said, including primary and secondary septic locations. “My contention is that anything that we do to change our zoning would incorporate a risk along with it, so that’s why I’m opposed to it,” he said. “From a legal aspect, once you let someone build on a small lot with no restrictions, then you can’t say no after that because it would set a precedent.”

“The fact that these lots were created many years ago is immaterial,” Giefer said. “I also agree with our City Planner that this would open the door to what happened in Lake Elmo: The Met Council was forced to bring public sewer and water to rescue the failing private septic system and wells of small substandard lots, which led to the high-density housing you now see in Lake Elmo.”

In 1983, Grant went from a 2 1/2-acre minimum lot size to a 5-acre minimum lot size — with a 10-acre density — for new developments. The city had an ordinance that said property owners who had smaller contiguous lots “had to combine them to get at least 2 ½ acres,” Carr said, “but what they didn’t address is, What about the person with the 2.3-acre standalone lot or less that can’t be combined with any acreage because all the lots around it are small? That’s what we’re dealing with now.”

Carr, a Realtor, said the issue came up recently because there are currently two lots that are smaller than 2 ½ acres for sale in Grant. City officials in 2023 allowed a property owner in the same situation to build without variances, Carr said.

Carr said he asked the council in June to discuss the issue so the property owner “wouldn’t have to go through the variance process and pay all this money and come before the council” only to find out the lot wasn’t buildable.

“But at the end of the day, at the meeting on June 25th, after Jennifer said, ‘No, they could be buildable, but you just have got to go through the variance process,’ I said, ‘OK, just making sure I know where you’re at,’” he said. “I made the motion to say, ‘OK, I vote to end the discussion because I heard what I needed to hear.’

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“Somehow this has turned into ‘Tom is looking for 1-acre lots that he wants to develop,’” Carr said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m just saying, ‘Why don’t we address them and be proactive rather than reactive? We have two that are reactive. I want these people who have the lots to be able to build on them with the same exemptions that the 2 ½- acre lots have.”

Carr charges that Giefer wants people either “to not build on them or charge residents more money to get variances,” he said.

“I just wanted to have a discussion, so that’s what we did,” Carr said. “I didn’t vote to do anything; I didn’t push to do anything. I just wanted to have a discussion. It’s a total nothing burger, and you can quote me on that.”

Mayor Jeff Huber decided not to run for re-election.

Three candidates are running for the two open council positions: incumbent Ben Cornett and Lindsay Cremona and Tina Lobin.