After building a highly impressive resume out in the desert, Waseca’s new planning and zoning coordinator has spent the first month on the job adapting his wealth of knowledge of how cities can work to the unique needs of a Minnesota small town.
Froke joined the city as planning and zoning director last month after a lengthy period in Arizona, where he grew up, went to university and served in a planning director role in Glendale, which has grown to be one of that state’s largest and most prominent cities.
During Froke’s tenure as Planning Director, the Phoenix suburb of roughly 250,000 gained a new identity as home to State Farm Stadium, which hosts the Arizona Cardinals football team, and has hosted the Super Bowl three times along with numerous other high profile games.
Prior to State Farm Stadium’s opening, Glendale was known for the Arrowhead Towne Center, a mega-shopping center which opened in the 1990s with roughly 1.2 million square feet of space and 180 retailers.
After leaving Glendale in 2018, Froke started up his own consultancy firm and held various planning-related positions before accepting a job in 2022 as City Planner in Litchfield Park, a tiny suburb of Phoenix which is in fact smaller in population than Waseca.
Though his entire career to this point had taken place in the Phoenix area, Froke says he began to long to come to Minnesota to be closer to family members, in particular his kids and their wives who had settled throughout the Midwest.
Working in Minnesota has come with its challenges and differences - not least the much greater prominence of natural bodies of water. In contrast to famously dry Arizona, dealing with lakes is a key part of the job of many City Planners in Minnesota, including certainly Waseca’s.
“We didn’t have to deal with water very much in Arizona,” Froke said. “I’m having to learn all of the rules from the DNR.”
Also to contrast to dry and sunny Arizona, city planners in Minnesota need to consider whether potential design ideas are well suited to accommodate impacts of the state’s famously volatile climate, especially heavy snow and intense storms during the winter.
In contrast with the gaudy projects pursued by a large, wealthy suburb like Glendale, Froke’s work in Waseca is much more humble, requiring a planner to field calls from local residents with questions such as where they can legally park their RV.
Though it might be a small Minnesota town at heart, Waseca has big plans and ambitions, hoping to take advantage of its relative proximity and ease of access to Mankato as well as the Twin Cities to establish itself as a regional economic hub.
Central to that ambition are the city’s dogged efforts to expand its housing supply by whatever means may be necessary, including through aggressive municipal led efforts to spur development such as the Gaiter Lake development.
Underpinning that vision is Waseca’s Comprehensive Plan, the current version of which was adopted in 2013. While the plan remains strong even at over a decade of age, city staff are updating it to ensure that it remains a fresh and dynamic guide for future development.
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