Plats recommended for city approval

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In an area with consistent growth, a few developments are one step closer to construction after Dickinson’s Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval during a meeting at City Hall, Wednesday morning.

A final plat for Painted Canyon Subdivision, a portion of a gated community in conjunction with Painted Canyon Estates, was recommended for approval after a few cul de sacs were removed from initial plans.

The final plat would then need to be approved by the City Commission.

During initial Planning and Zoning meetings, developer Brian Kjerstad deemed the project sort of a “neighborhood within a neighborhood.”

“What we’re really trying to do is create what truly goes on across America, which is the selected few entrances into a place to cut down on the shortcut,” Kjerstad said in March.

Located on a 34- to 35-acre piece of land east of Dickinson, the development will be marketed as a family-oriented, low-traffic area with its own park, a landscaped berm and common areas maintained by homeowners association dues.

The main subdivision is big enough for 78 homes.

A call to Kjerstad went unreturned.

Another addition, slated to be phased over a few years, is the State Fourth Addition, which was brought to the commission as a sketch plat, a very preliminary idea.

“That one’s big,” said Walt Smith, P.E., a municipal group leader for Kadrmas Lee & Jackson, Inc., a Dickinson engineering firm. “That one’s a little over 80 acres, 81 acres or so.”

The development, consisting of about 82 single-family homes, 108 twin homes, about 18 acres of multi-family zoning and 13 acres of commercial zoning, would be located south of land recently purchased by St. Joseph’s Hospital and Health Center’s parent company, which purchased property west of the West River Community Center and south of Interstate 94.

“It’s going to consist of some pretty substantial multi-family, commercial on the north edge,” said City Engineer Shawn Soehren.

Soehren said the project is being proposed by Roers Development, Inc. of Bismarck and Fargo.

“As soon as it is through the process ... if everything goes smoothly, approximately two and a half months they’ll have City Commission approval and we will be pushing dirt as soon as possible this summer,” Smith said.

Industrial space could expand as well.

A sketch plat for North Industries Addition, located between Tooz Construction, Inc. and Wal-Mart in north Dickinson, was also presented.

“That one is a 160-acre development that is kicking off,” Smith said. “Light industrial with a little bit of R3, which will be apartments, multi-family, but the majority of it is light industrial.”

All final plats must now be approved by the City Commission and all sketch plats will again be presented to Planning and Zoning.

While the last few planning and zoning meetings have had several new plats brought up, things could slow down.

“I’m not anticipating I guess a lot more coming before them,” Soehren said. “There is a lot of work yet with the ones we have here in front of us.”

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