ROCHESTER, MINN. — Olmsted County commissioners this summer took the extraordinary step of acting as their own developer for 10 smaller-than-usual houses, aiming to prove buyers would snag them in a city where housing demand is red hot.
They gave their contractor a tight timeline to finish the first two 1,100-square-foot homes; from final construction permit to an open house event yesterday took 84 days. They were also built on smaller lots to hold down costs.
“We specified that two of them had to be finished this fall and the remainder of them have to be finished next spring,” said Gregory Wright, who is up for re-election next week after eight years as an Olmsted County commissioner. “The payoff is that we can show the community, builders, developers and the zoning commissions that this can work.”
Gregory Wright, who is running for re-election to the Olmsted County Commission, in front of two small-footprint houses the county built to demonstrate market demand for an alternative type of single-family home. (Evan Ramstad)
More housing is needed across Minnesota, but the issue dominates the scene in Rochester and surrounding Olmsted County.
“We had some forums with local business leaders,” said April Sutor, a longtime human services executive who is challenging Wright for a seat on the board of commissioners. “And when we asked them what could local government do to help you, they didn’t say, ‘Lower my taxes.’ They said, ‘We need housing.’”
The reason is no surprise: Rochester is the second fastest-growing city in Minnesota since the 2020 census. It was outpaced on a percentage basis only by Mankato, which is less than half the size. I visited last week to get a sense of the political scene. I also visited the fastest-shrinking place in Minnesota and will write about it in my next column.
Across the country, a trend has been visible for several election cycles: Democrats prevail in growing places and Republicans in shrinking ones. Nationally, 53% of all counties lost population in the 2010s. In the 2020 election, Republican former President Donald Trump won 90% of them.
Voter sentiment in 81 of Minnesota’s 87 counties shifted to the right in the 2022 election as more of the state’s counties and towns tumbled from slow growth into decline. That shift had little effect on state policies, though, since DFLers in that election picked up a trifecta through the re-election of Gov. Tim Walz, a one-seat margin in the Senate and a six-seat majority in the House.
