Red Wing City Council Meeting, May 26, 2026

Kim Biese was absent. All other council members were in attendance. The Mayor attended virtually.

There was a presentation of a new sculpture coming to Levee Park, the result of a collaboration between the City and the Honoring Dakota Project. Everyone involved was introduced and images were shown of the design as it is being developed. Installation should happen sometime this fall.

Public Comments: This part of the meeting took over one hour, and almost all comments dealt with the re-zoning proposal. There are three sites where the Planning Commission has recommended changing the zone from RM-2 (5-8 units per acre; medium density residential) to RM-3 (24-80 units per acre; high density residential.)

—Bay View Nursing Home

—Jefferson School

—Briarwood (The owner wants to switch two of the planned areas—changing one high density area to a lower density and doing the reverse in another area.)

Most of the comments were against the re-zoning of the Jefferson School. Some spoke of needing to keep the green space in the neighborhood— the playground of the old school is serving as a park for the neighborhood. Some hoped that the building would be used for housing rather than being torn down to make room for a larger building. 

Later in the meeting Kyle Klatt (Community Development Director) gave a long report on the re-zoning recommendations.

The Planning Commission had recommended that 25% of the Jefferson site be retained as public park space. Kyle was asked how much is currently in green space and he said 25%, which brought some very negative grumbling from the audience. Apparently they believe it is higher.

Janie and other members spoke in support of doing something with the existing building, and keeping some green space. Vicki Jo suggested changing the language from “up to 25%” for green space to something more, such as “a minimum of 40% preserved as a city park.” Other members worried this would tie the Council’s hands prematurely.

Both Don and Janie pointed out that developers won’t even look at a property unless the zoning has been changed, so they believe Council needs to go ahead and re-zone. Don said the Council could use its RFP (Request for Proposal) to establish the guidelines and boundaries about green space, etc.

Vicki Jo made a motion to table the discussion until the next meeting, and the motion passed, 4-2, with Janie and Don voting no.

Observation: I’m by no means an expert on the housing situation in Red Wing, so I found the comments and discussion interesting. But when I heard the people hoping the green space could be kept while the school was turned into housing, I asked myself: If I’m buying a $300,000 condo in the old building, would I want a busy park right outside my window? No. This just highlighted to me the huge problems the city faces in balancing different property uses. 

Meeting ended around 10:30.