Xcel Energy & City of Northfield Alternative Urban Areawide Review 

Overview

The City of Northfield has approved an order to complete an Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) for the Northwest Development Area. An AUAR is a tool used to understand how different development scenarios will affect the environment of your community before development occurs. The process is designed to look at the cumulative impacts of anticipated development scenarios within a given geographic area. Environmental analysis information from an AUAR can be used to inform local planning and zoning decisions. 

Location

The AUAR study area encompasses approximately 780 acres, located north of North Avenue, East of Holyoke Avenue and and west of Cedar Avenue in Northfield, Dakota County, Minnesota.

Development Scenarios

Two development scenarios are proposed to be evaluated in the AUAR. 

Scenario A represents a potential single tech user with potential additional business park elements (Figure 1). 

Scenario B represents the current scenario in the City’s 2008 Comprehensive Plan, which could be a multi-user business park (Figure 2).  

Scoping Environmental Assessment Worksheet

Download the scoping environment assessment worksheet (PDF)

Commenting on the environmental assessment worksheet

The 30-day comment period begins January 31, 2023 and ends March 2, 2023. Please direct questions or comments to City Planner Mikayla Schmidt via the Contact Us section on this web page.