The boys state swim and dive meet is this week on the University of Minnesota campus.

Action started Thursday with diving prelims, with the swimming kicking off Friday with prelims. State champions — in both team and individual competitions — in diving and swimming will be determined on Saturday.

Class A’s start time is set for 12 p.m. each day, with Class 2A slated for 6 p.m. starts.

Here are East Metro swimmers and divers to watch:

Class A

Swimmers to watch: St. Thomas Academy’s Will Barth, St. Thomas Academy’s Luke Mechtel, Como Park’s Kyle Kosiak, St. Thomas Academy’s Sherman Holmstadt

Class 2A

Divers to watch: Lakeville South’s Porter Woodson, Rosemount’s Lucas Gerten, Stillwater’s Tate Sorensen

Swimmers to watch: Woodbury’s Gunnar Seversen, Lakeville South’s Gage Boushee, Stillwater’s Jackson Kogler, Eagan’s Braden Hegenbarth, Rosemount’s Quinlan Schroeder

Related Articles

Wisconsin boys hockey: New Richmond advances to Division 2 state final

State wrestling: With a chip on its shoulder and ‘no regrets,’ Simley takes aim at a sixth straight title that won’t come easy

State wrestling tournament primer

State gymnastics: St. Michael-Albertville’s Jackie Bergeron claims Class 2A all-around crown

Class 2A state girls hockey: Edina defeats Hill-Murray to claim fifth state championship

A proposed $50 million housing development in downtown Hudson, Wis., has been sent back to the drawing board, as a St. Croix County judge on Thursday morning ruled that the plans ignore state laws regarding St. Croix River protections.

A group of residents including Wild Rivers Conservancy, Ziggy’s of Hudson and several others brought forth a suit last August that challenged five variances the city of Hudson had approved for the four-story, 109-unit apartment building proposed by St. Louis Park developer Reuter Walton.

The variances included the proposed building’s height of 57 feet, altering a slope greater than 12 percent, building a structure within the 40-foot bluff line setback, reducing the need for floor elevation fill to extend 15 feet past the building and a reduction of the 25-foot rear yard setback to the property.

All five variances were reversed by St. Croix County Circuit Court Judge R. Michael Waterman.

“I think this is a really good day for the (St. Croix) River,” Wild River Conservancy Executive Director Deb Ryun said. “Our stance is still the same – we aren’t anti-development. We don’t have designs of making downtown Hudson any different than it is. We just want people to follow the ordinances in place.”

Wild and Scenic Rivers Act

The 1.7 acre site in question rests between Second and First streets and Commercial and Wisconsin streets in downtown Hudson. Part of the parcel was once home to an Associated Bank branch. To the immediate west of the area is Lakefront Park.

The St. Croix River is protected through the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers act. The law was enacted by Congress in 1968, and included the Upper St. Croix River. In 1972, Congress added the Lower St. Croix River to the Wild and Scenic Rivers system. State statutes on each side of the river further lay out specific standards, including building restrictions such as structure heights and setbacks.

Judge Waterman wrote that in the case of the building height, altering the slope and encroaching on the bluff line setback, the variances involve a Wisconsin state statute that prohibits local governments from granting variances without consent of the state Department of Natural Resources. The Wisconsin DNR had recommended the Hudson Board of Appeals deny these variances but did not issue a formal appeal once the variances were approved.

Waterman also wrote that when variances are granted, they should be due to the uniqueness of the property, and not self-created by the land owner. The structures currently on the property are in compliance with zoning, he continued.

“The developer’s preference for a structure that requires variances is not an unreasonable hardship; if anything, it is a self-created one,” Waterman wrote.

Next steps

Architectural rendering of a proposed townhome and apartment development in downtown Hudson, Wis. (Courtesy of Reuter Walton / City of Hudson)

Reached Thursday afternoon, Reuter Walton developer Ari Parritz said his team was still evaluating the impact of the ruling on the proposed development as things move forward, as well as its implications on the future of downtown Hudson development broadly.

“We remain committed to working with the city and other interested parties to address the under-supply of high quality, context sensitive, resilient housing in downtown Hudson,” Parritz said in a statement.

Hudson City Attorney Nicholas Vivian said the city board of appeals will meet in closed session at a future meeting to discuss the decision and possible next steps. The court’s determination that the board of appeals lacks the authority to grant variances without DNR consent is not how the DNR has historically participated in St. Croix River variances, Vivian said, but the city appreciates the clarification.

For her part, Ryun said Wild Rivers Conservancy is willing to work with the city to discover options that would be attractive to the downtown area but also conform to current statutes and regulations.

Protecting the river for future generations is of utmost importance, she continued, describing the wildlife along the St. Croix River and its riverbanks as an unmatched natural resource.

“There are things about this river that make it different from any place in the world,” Ryun said.

Related Articles

Eagan man convicted in 2005 stranger rape of Wisconsin college student

Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan to play Somerset Amphitheater in September

Mother of missing Wisconsin boy, man her son was staying with charged with child neglect

St. Paul’s Joe Gothard gets superintendent job in Madison, Wis.

Women’s basketball: Sophomore standout Serah Williams leads Wisconsin past Gophers

“As businesses evolve to meet changing consumer preferences, it has become clear that zoning regulations too often put up real, often unnecessary obstacles for businesses looking to make these necessary pivots as a matter of survival.”

Adi Talwar

Small businesses is in Inwood, Manhattan.

CityViews are readers’ opinions, not those of City Limits. Add your voice today!

The world has changed and so too have the ways in which people spend their time and money— but regulations are slow to change, and small businesses are suffering because of it. When New Yorkers spend our money locally, we increasingly do so on goods and services that cannot be purchased online, or on dining out at local restaurants and bars.

As businesses evolve to meet changing consumer preferences, it has become clear that zoning regulations too often put up real, often unnecessary obstacles for businesses looking to make these necessary pivots as a matter of survival. This is why the zoning modifications in the Department of City Planning’s “City of Yes for Economic Opportunity” proposal are so important—many of our regulations were written decades prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and have not been updated for the post-pandemic economy, to support small businesses in the present day.

The impacts of the pandemic on very small businesses (fewer than 10 employees), who make up 89 percent of all New York City businesses, have been particularly challenging. Whether pre-COVID or post-COVID, the fact remains that small local businesses start off with less capital than their national counterparts. JP Morgan Chase found that the median small business pre-COVID held only 27 days cash buffer in reserve, for example, and retail businesses held less: only 19 days’ reserves.

They also often lack the expertise to navigate challenging bureaucracies, resources to hire expeditors, or deep pockets to pay rent while waiting for permits and approvals. Eliminating these hurdles and helping businesses open their doors more quickly will help these entrepreneurs preserve their liquidity and better weather financial shock and irregular cash flows, which in turn saves more small businesses from failing.

New York’s City of Yes for Economic Opportunity proposal, up for a vote at the City Planning Commission next week, includes several key changes that cities across the country should learn from.

One proposal, for example, would streamline today’s time-consuming, expensive, and unnecessary public approval process for neighborhood-serving retail like bodegas. Rather than forcing these businesses to apply for a full rezoning—the same process required to revamp an entire neighborhood’s zoning from manufacturing to residential, as was done in Gowanus, for example—the City of Yes proposal would allow the City Planning Commission to green-light small corner stores through a discretionary authorization.

Another challenge for small businesses in New York comes from today’s relatively narrow definition of what kinds of uses belong on our commercial corridors. In the past, all forms of manufacturing were considered a noxious use that for health and safety reasons needed to be separated from the places where people lived. Today, small scale and artisanal manufacturing co-exist quite well with mixed-use communities—but the zoning code has failed to keep up.

Consider the fact that small bakeries are allowed on commercial strips but must find new spaces if they succeed and grow beyond 750 square feet. And consider bike shops, which are increasingly losing sales to online vendors. Many of these businesses would like to pivot to also offering bike repair, but because of zoning restrictions they cannot. Making it harder, not easier, for businesses to occupy retail spaces unnecessarily elevates our commercial vacancy rates.

New York’s zoning, as with zoning of many other cities, also closely proscribes which types of businesses can locate where—based on definitions that are as much as 60 years old. New York’s zoning code, for instance, specifically names which districts telegraph repair shops can locate in, but not cell phone stores. City of Yes would update these terms and would consolidate minor differences between commercial zoning districts to allow more types of businesses to locate in more places. It is only by expanding the types of businesses that can locate in ground floor spaces that we can create more demand for vacant spaces throughout the city.

As a former New York City Planning Commissioner, I am quite aware of the fact that zoning does not change easily. Yet in this case, it absolutely must.

In my current work advising cities nationwide on this very issue, similar circumstances are causing cities to broaden the definition of what is allowed on the ground floor to include things like makerspaces for local artisans, daycare facilities, breweries, community meeting spaces, and educational and medical uses, among others use—and yes, even housing (which, given many cities’ housing crisis, makes absolute sense!).

Cities across the country are revisiting their zoning codes to ensure that they don’t become unnecessary impediments to ground floor occupancy. New York must do the same and adopt these reforms to become a “City of Yes.”

Larisa Ortiz is the managing director of public non-profit solutions at Streetsense, a global creative consultancy. She is a former member of the New York City Planning Commission and was a Crain’s New York 2023 Notable Leader in Real Estate.

By MIKE STOBBE (AP Medical Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials are investigating whether there’s a link between two new RSV vaccines and cases of a rare nervous system disorder in older U.S. adults.

The inquiry is based on fewer than two dozen cases seen among more than 9.5 million vaccine recipients, health officials said Thursday. And the available information is too limited to establish whether the shots caused the illnesses, they added.

But the numbers are higher than expected and officials are gathering more information to determine if the vaccines are causing the problem. The data was presented at a meeting of an expert panel that provides vaccine policy advice to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Officials said they were investigating more than 20 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, an rare illness in which a person’s immune system damages nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and paralysis. An estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people develop GBS in the U.S. each year, and it’s more commonly seen in older people, according to the CDC.

Most people fully recover from the syndrome, but some have permanent nerve damage. Guillain-Barre can occur in people after they are infected with a virus, but in some instances cases have been linked to vaccinations.

RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, is a common cause of cold-like symptoms but it can be dangerous for infants and the elderly.

Last year, the CDC signed off on a recommendation made by the advisory panel, aimed at Americans age 60 and older. It was for a single dose of RSV vaccine. There were two options, one made by Pfizer and the other by GSK.

The CDC said that patients should talk to their doctors about the vaccines and then decide whether to get it.

Officials were aware that instances of Guillain-Barre had been identified in clinical trials done before the shots were approved for sale, and that different systems were watching for signs of problems.

At a meeting of the expert panel on Thursday, CDC officials presented an analysis of the reports taken in by those systems.

About two-thirds of the cases occurred in people who got a version of the vaccine made by Pfizer, called Abrysvo. But officials are also doing follow-up tracking in people who got Arexvy, made by GSK.

About two cases of Guillain-Barre might be seen in every 1 million people who receive a vaccine, health officials estimate. A CDC analysis found the the GSK rate was lower than that, but 4.6 cases per million were reported in recipients of the Pfizer shot.

Data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also showed an above-expected number of Guillain-Barre cases being reported in RSV vaccine recipients, with more among Pfizer shot recipients.

“Taken together, these data suggest a potential increased risk” in RSV vaccine recipients 60 and older that must be explored, said Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, a CDC vaccine safety monitoring official.

Officials from GSK and Pfizer made brief statements during the meeting, noting that sorting out a safety signal is complicated.

“Pfizer is committed to the continuous monitoring and evaluation of the safety of Abrysvo” and is conducting four safety studies to look into the possibility of vaccine-related GBS, said Reema Mehta, a Pfizer vice president.

CDC officials also presented estimates that the vaccines have prevented thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths from RSV, and that current data indicates the benefits of vaccination outweigh the possible risks.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.