URBAN SPRAWL ERODING FARMLAND?
Saving a five-generation farm has become the focus for Jeanne Pichner of rural Owatonna as she attempts to keep it from being gobbled up by urban sprawl involving the proposed East Side Corridor. Pichner and her family raise beef cattle and produce corn and soybeans in Owatonna Township. Staff photo by Rick Bussler
-Jeanne Pichner, Owatonna Area Farmer
Jeanne Pichner isn’t going down without a fight.
She is battling to save her five-generation farm spanning more than a century on the east edge of Owatonna from getting gobbled up from urban sprawl as the City of Owatonna and Steele County attempt to build the East Side Corridor right in the heart of the family’s acreage.
She’s likely living up to a wall banner hanging in her living room encouraging to “be strong and courageous, do not be afraid.”
“I’m passionate about farming and being out in the country,” Pichner said with tears in her eyes. “That’s my love. I don’t want to live in town.”
The proposed roadway would impact 64 acres of farmland, including 7.5 acres of Pichner land located about a quarter mile east of their house. In addition to the Pichners, 21 other property owners would be impacted by the East Side Corridor. “Ours is the biggest part of land it affects,” said Pichner, whose family produces crops and raises beef cattle.
With emotion cracking into her voice, Pichner said, “It’s heartbreaking. It’s going to affect one of our primary parcels of land.” She added the roadway would cut into their highest yielding field of corn and soybeans.
“Our yields are going to be forever lost,” she says. Besides lost yields, Pichner is concerned about drainage issues that will likely result from the corridor expansion.
She calls the proposed project excessive, pointing to the $2 million for curb and gutter and storm sewer. Pichner also wonders why additional trails are needed when the city already has 31 miles of paved trails. “Isn’t that enough miles of trails? Let’s just stick with the roadway,” she said.
Steele County in general, she said, has some of the most prime farmland in the state. “The less we can take away from this farmland is what I am encouraging,” she said.
Pichner has taken her fight to public meetings regarding the roadway where she shows how passionate she is about what this means to their family. “I cried, and I still do,” she said. “I got emotional (at the meeting).”
Pichner and others against the location of the East Side Corridor speculate there are future development plans tied to the proposed roadway that haven’t been disclosed.
If the roadway ends up on the Pichner land, she pointed out how they will be hauling manure on it and semis would be utilizing it to haul grain and other commodities. “It would make things very challenging,” she said.
While Jeanne and her husband, Doug, have lived on the farm for 49 years and continue to farm, their son, Matt Pichner, is the fifth generation to join in the family operation. At one time, there were five farm places occupied by the Pichner family. “When I married into this family, I called it Pichnerville. We were all related,” said Jeanne.
Today the Pichners farm about 1,300 acres in Owatonna Township. During the summer months, cattle graze through pastureland going right up to nearby Bixby Road.
“I’m very proud of the Pichner heritage,” said Jeanne Pichner. “They worked hard, and we work hard. This is history for us. It’s affecting us on the Pichner farm.”
Pichner, who grew up a few miles south of their current farm, loves the country lifestyle. “I love farming. I love this land. I love this farm. I just love being out in the country on this farm and that’s what motivates me to be on this farm,” she said.
She scoffs at the notion of building roads on their land. “I don’t like concrete. I live in the country, and I want earth under me,” Pichner said. “I just like the rural area,” she added.
What’s troubling to Pichner is the fact that an existing road, 34th Avenue, is less than a mile east of the proposed roadway. She pointed out how 34th Avenue had at one time connected to Highway 14. “Why build more roads when you have an existing road there,” she said.
Pichner is alarmed about what cities and counties are doing to the rural areas. “It’s just concerning that more and more of our farmland is being taken away on all these projects,” she said.
She’s not about to step away from fighting to keep urban sprawl from eroding rural land.