UPDATE: From Baldwin to Greater Minnesota: Whither the Big Box?

NEW INFORMATION ABOUT TODAY'S VIRTUAL CONVERSATION. JOIN US AT 3 P.M.

Baldwin Township has a decision to make. Residents there love the rural nature of the town and want things to remain the same. But some leaders say that infrastructure improvements need to be done - and that might mean inviting in development.

MPR's live online forum will tackle the question: How do you know when the "big box" development is right?

On Tuesday at 3 p.m., we invite two representatives from Baldwin Township to talk about how their community is grappling with decisions about land use and development. They are:

Jeff Holm, town board chairman for Baldwin Township.

David Patten, member of the Princeton Area Visionary Committee

Then at 3:30 p.m. we'll invite two panelists who can broaden the question out to greater Minnesota. They are:

Chuck Marohn, president of the Community Growth Institute in Brainerd

Ben Winchester, demographer and sociologist specializing in rural development at the University of Minnesota's Extension program

You have a place at the table too. Just pose a question to the panel and join the conversation.

THIS IS THE ORIGINAL POST FROM MONDAY

Minnesota Public Radio's focus on Baldwin Township continues with an online discussion. And the topic of this virtual forum was prompted by comments at the Baldwin community discussion held last month .

Growth, of course, was the topic of discussion, more specifically, how to handle infrastructure in light of the growth. Everything from incorporation to merger to annexation with the nearby city of Princeton came up.

But many residents who attended this forum talked about keeping the rural character of Baldwin as unchanged as possible. They talked about the fresh air, seeing the northern lights and not needing street lights.

The rub of maintaining that bucolic setting with needing public financing was articulated at the end of the meeting by Town Board Chairman Jeff Holm. He pointed to the main road that cuts through Baldwin - Route 169. He asked, what's going to happen if it's not maintained?

Jeff Holm: "Access to employment - that's what really going to matter. Maybe we do need some job growth and some industrial growth....(A)re we going to be able to go up and down 169 and travel to the Cities, economically. (So) that people are going to want to live here."

If you lose the commuters, your tax base erodes, Holm said. A few minutes earlier Charles Marohn, president of the Community Growth Institute in Brainerd, put a finer point on this. He called this the clash of two values.

Charles Marohn: "(A)s a town supervisor you are pulled in two different directions. We want to keep taxes low and we want to keep services where they are at. The problem is, the big box becomes the solution then. Because what happens is the roads are deteriorating and we don't have the tax base to maintain it."

So the question we'll pose on Tuesday at 3 p.m. is this: "How does a small community decide when to beef up its tax base by doing commercial/industrial growth?"

Holm and Marohn will be in the mix. We've also invited Ben Winchester, a demographer and sociologist for the University of Minnesota Extension program, who studies rural areas. And we'll have someone else involved in Baldwin planning to round the talk.

You are invited too. Just plug in your email address for a reminder to attend online. And then make sure to have questions and comments.

Come back to this blog post on Tuesday afternoon and join the discussion.

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