Lake Minnetonka may be known across the state as a place with grand houses and sprawling lawns, but the city of Excelsior wants to stay different.
With relatively small residential lots, the city nestled on the lake’s south shore wants to keep its quaint atmosphere — and the cottagelike houses that make it distinct from its neighbors. City officials aim to put new limits on house size, adding to zoning codes that are already among the strictest in the state.
“Getting the scale right is important so everyone can enjoy living here,” City Council Member Jennifer Caron said, explaining that too many big houses on small lots mean the community will be packed too tightly.
About a decade ago, Excelsior started seeing some of its older split-level houses and small cottages torn down and larger ones built in their place — something zoning codes were not prepared to handle.
“Some rather large homes went in,” Caron said. The problem wasn’t the houses themselves, or the newcomers who lived in them, she said, but how close they were to their neighbors.
“People feel crowded,” Caron said.
The city instituted zoning regulations in 2020 setting limits on how far back from the edge of a lot a house had to be, and how much of a lot could be covered by house. The city’s “good neighbor guidelines” provide a list of dos and don’ts for builders to stay in line with existing Excelsior houses.
But the big new houses keep coming, said Julia Mullin, Excelsior’s community development director.