Cul-de-sacs lose charm for cities, not for residents

MINNEAPOLIS — Joanie and Craig Aasen wanted to run from their newly purchased home after discovering $60,000 worth of hidden mouse damage.

Now, a year later, they're thankful they didn't. Their now mouse-free home has a feature that was worth every headache: It's on a cul-de-sac.

"We don't know what our lives would be like if we hadn't moved here," said Joanie Aasen, 36, an oncology nurse. "Our social life is here."

Like many suburban families, the Aasens prize the quiet and child-friendly lollipop-shaped street in Vadnais Heights, Minn.

But not everyone shares that affection. Across the nation, concerns about traffic congestion and increased road-maintenance costs are causing a growing backlash against these icons of suburban life.

Local governments across the country, including some in Minnesota, have passed zoning ordinances to limit cul-de-sacs. In Oregon, which embraced "smart growth" land-use concepts decades ago to combat sprawl, 90 percent of the state's cities have ordinances limiting new cul-de-sacs.

Permissive cities

Minnesota cities are more permissive, but some are taking steps to limit new ones. City councils in St. Cloud and Northfield, for example, prefer to routinely deny new cul-de-sacs unless there is a physical necessity for them.

In Blaine, Minn., a fast-growing suburb, "all things being equal, we try to minimize them when we can," said Bryan Schafer, the city's community development director.

"But the market likes them, and people like living on them," Schafer said. "Developers like them because they can get more for them. It's all a balance."

The Metropolitan Council, which oversees development in the Twin Cities, also isn't a fan of the dead-end development.

John Kari, a council planning analyst, said the agency isn't necessarily against cul-de-sacs but prefers interconnected neighborhoods with multiple routes to a place.

Kari also thinks there's a social advantage to minimizing cul-de-sacs.

"You may get to know the neighbors in your cul-de-sacs, but you don't get to know your broader neighborhood," Kari said.

Major concern

An oft-cited concern with cul-de-sacs is that they often result in overly congested connecting streets. All those cars from neighborhoods of dead-end streets have to go somewhere, critics say.

But traffic isn't the only concern.

When truck salesman Josh Tenney, 27, moved into his "sweet little cul-de-sac" in the northern suburb of Hugo, Minn., two springs ago, he never thought about winter.

"Where does all the snow go?" he asked. "Spread across all the yards. Where does the sand and salt go? Spread across the yards. Where do all the rocks, gravel and winter trash go? You guessed it, spread across the yards."

But Tenney remains convinced that the positives outweigh the negatives.

Supports ban

Not so, says Joe Imholte, maintenance supervisor for the St. Cloud Public Works Department. He thinks the difficult-to-negotiate streets should be banned.

"We can plow one-and-one-half to two miles further down the road in the same amount of time (it takes) to clean a cul-de-sac," Imholte said. "Where do you push the snow? People complain because they have more snow than the neighbor. We have gone so far as to pile it up in the middle. Very time-consuming."

The limitations on cul-de-sacs have led to a growing debate among developers and city planners.

"They argue that it's taking away a more marketable property," said Matt Glaesman, St. Cloud's planning director. "Does that impact outweigh the public cost?"

But Michael Noonan, vice president of the Builders Association of the Twin Cities, thinks there are issues beyond profit. Not only are buyers willing to pay more to live on a cul-de-sac, Noonan points out, they also strongly prefer to.

There's research to back him up. A 2004 National Association of Realtors survey showed that one-quarter of buyers were willing to spend more for a home on a cul-de-sac.

Buyers prefer them

Another poll, done by a California-based market-research firm, showed that buyers preferred them to regular, gridded streets by a ratio of almost 2-1.

"We're here to serve the public and market, and planners have to bear that in mind," said Noonan, a planner by training, and the Minnesota division president of Toll Brothers, one of the largest home-building companies in the United States. "Planners are of a philosophical mind-set that's out of step with the market."

Noonan objects to planners acting as social engineers trying to impose their world view on the market at large.

"They say cul-de-sacs don't build good neighborhoods," Noonan said. "I live on a cul-de-sac. It's private. We feel comfortable with our kids playing in both the front and backyards, and we have strong relationships with our neighbors. It's a wonderful environment."

Looking out at the lively scene outside her front door, Joanie Aasen agreed.

"We would have sold this house and run as far away from it as we could if it hadn't been for the kindness of the new neighbors," she said. "Every day, I am thankful for this little street of ours."