East Grand Forks housing development derailed after neighbors object

May 21—Homeowners in a southeastern East Grand Forks subdivision worry that the twin homes a developer hopes to build there might not fit in with the rest of the neighborhood.

Roberton Construction asked city leaders earlier this year to rezone three single-family lots along Riverview Lane Southeast and then divide those lots into four parcels, upon which they'd build a total of two twin homes. City Council members on Tuesday, May 18, denied that request, which means the developer will either need to change the proposal or attempt to achieve it via a special permit that would give city officials a chance to attach specific conditions to the project without actually rezoning the land.

MORE FROM THE HERALD:

Gov. Doug Burgum, Grand Forks leaders tout career center vision, promise of boosted workforce

It's like Netflix for education: UND considers subscription tuition model

Names released in fatal I-29 crash, pursuit near Hillsboro

The council's decision is mostly the result of a concerted effort by neighbors along Riverview Lane, who nearly universally opposed the developer's plan. Angela Perdew, who's lived in the neighborhood for about six years, said she felt the new houses would be squeezed too closely together in the space allotted for them.

"It's already tight for us having one home on our little lot," she said.

In all, the two twin homes would take up about 9,352 square feet, according to East Grand Forks City Planner Nancy Ellis, and the lots upon which they'd be built are a combined 33,406 square feet. Properties zoned for single-family housing can have up to 40% of their area occupied, Ellis said. By the figures she presented, Roberton's twin homes would take up about 27%.

But there were other objections: some neighbors worried the twin houses might lower their property values, especially if they turned into rental properties, and that building them might discourage developers from putting single-family houses in the remaining lots there. Others said they bought their house there partly because it was zoned exclusively for single-family units.

Barry Traub, who's lived in the neighborhood since 2013 and is one of the first people who bought a house in the Riverview subdivision, felt that the proposal would be a late-in-the-game change to the neighborhood, which now only has a handful of undeveloped lots.

"We're at the finish line of development in the neighborhood, and all of a sudden there's a request to rezone by a developer," he told the Herald. "It just felt like they were trying to just finish up the development of the neighborhood without giving those lots, I guess, a chance to have the single-family home developed on it."

The lots are owned by Crary Development, Inc., according to Polk County property records, but staff at Crary said the project is mostly under Roberton's aegis.

Staff at Roberton did not return a Herald request for comment earlier this week, but Ellis said she suspected that the company hoped to build twin homes, rather than single-family ones, in Riverview because the company has built similar ones in other parts of East Grand Forks over the past four or five years, all of which have sold.

"So I think, right now, that's something that is a good option for them, that they know is selling right now," she said.