St. Cloud City Council OK's project for new apartments

The project is comprised of two apartment buildings on Roosevelt Road and Cooper Avenue.

“Toborg Builders are a local builder in this community. If this thing was ugly and got rundown, they’re here to answer the phone calls,” City Council President Jeff Goerger said. "It won’t. They’ve built all over this community and surrounding communities."

Those 136 units, which includes underground parking, elevators, community rooms and fitness centers, are part of the first phase to be built on just under 5 acres, according to Glaesman. The entire property is 18.18 acres.

In the development plan resolution, it's detailed that the remaining portion of the site could be “developed as one or a mixture of 288,000-square-feet of light industrial use, 108,000-square-feet of industrial or commercial use, or 238 units of multi-family housing with a PUD amendment.”

It’s unclear at this time what the next phases are.

A 62-unit, four-story apartment is part of the proposed project at Roosevelt and Cooper Road that was approved by the St. Cloud City Council at its Oct. 9, 2023 meeting.

Concerns voiced by residents

At the meeting, a public hearing was held where residents in the area voiced their oppositions to the project.

One of those residents, Jerry Hagemeier, said he has lived in the neighborhood for nearly 50 years dating back to 1975.

“We’re very much against the idea of rezoning single-family lots into a huge unit … It doesn’t fit,” Hagemeier told the council. "It doesn’t fit with our community, and like I say, it was promised many years ago that this would always stay single family, and it’s a terrific compromise and I don’t think we really need it."

Dating back to 1983, the city’s comprehensive plan has shown the property as some form of attached housing.

In letters to the city council, other issues are laid out such as adding a large amount of cars to the traffic, not wanting large buildings in the neighborhood, protecting a red fox family that lives on the property and an abundance of apartment choices available.

Council member Lewis also addressed concerns about the population of those experiencing homelessness “hanging out” on the property.

Council member Jake Anderson told fellow members and the audience that the apartment complex projects are often the most controversial items that go before the city council.

St. Cloud City Council member Jake Anderson represents the 3rd Ward of St. Cloud.

“I recall one in my 11 years on several planning commissions, but one most recently one on Pine Cone Road. Same builder, those same neighbors had the same complaints about traffic and who’s going to live here and all those things,” Anderson said. “And those worries never come to fruition.”

Lewis disagreed with Anderson’s remarks, saying that the Pine Cone Road apartments have made a visual impact.

“I think we want to keep in mind a look of the city we want. It’s like we’re placing random apartment building where you’ve got some single-family homes,” Lewis said. “. If you have a nice little group or clusters of homes, then you stick in an apartment building, you’ve kind of distorted the look of your city. So what I’m trying to look at is some continuity, some conformity to the area.”

A September memo to the planning commission indicates the applicant intends to start construction in the spring of 2024 if land-use entitlement is approved by 2023.