Note: The agenda and minutes list the meeting date as July 8, 2026, but the provided instruction specifies July 9, 2026.
The Rochester Planning & Zoning Commission met on July 9, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. in the Council/Board Chambers. The meeting included an open public comment period, approval of consent agenda, a public hearing on a floodplain development permit for a roundabout, and a discussion on native plant recommendations from the Zumbro Valley Audubon Society.
Please state your name. I don't think your microphone is on. You had to push hard on that button. The light will turn. There you go. Didn't want to break it. I'll take her if uh introductions. I'll pass these letters around. Commission members, my name is Mike Deggerstrom. I'm reading a letter on behalf of the Zembro Valley Audubon Society, or we call ourselves ZAS. Last month, we described the rapid decline of many species in our city and said we'd follow up with a fuller explanation of what we mean by a native plant. This letter is that follow-up. We define a native plant as as one that has historically grown here or in nearby areas. As a concrete example, the city of uh the city's approved boulevard tree list includes the English oak, a native to much of Europe. Uh city forestry describes describes it as very similar to the white oak, which is native to the Rochester area. Similar looking trees are not ecologically equivalent. The white oak is the far better choice for reversing wildlife decline. Here's why. Nearly all energy in our ecosystem comes from the sun captured by the plants and turned into leaves, woods, wood, and fruit. Herbivores, everything from tiny insects to white-tailed deer eat this plant matter in healthy uh in healthy ecosystems, insects and other small herbivores collectively outweigh larger animals like deer by roughly 10 to one. Those insects in turn feed the birds, fish, and other animals further up the food chain. Uh we sit or humans sit at the top of that same uh chain. The catch is most insect herbivores are specialists. They can only eat one or a few plant species because plants defend themselves with toxins that only certain co-evolved insects can tolerate. The monarch pillar's dependence on milkweed is the best known example, and it's actually the rule rather than the exception. A plant's ability to host insects generally drops off the further it is from the its native range. European oak supports only a small portion of the insect community that a Minnesota oak does. Insects that feed on many plants are called generalists, yet even they mostly cannot adapt to non-native trees in the same genus as our usual host, a genius, uh genus being a group of closely related species, um, like different kinds of oak, for example. Most insects are specialists, uh, as I recently mentioned, and very few of them can use non-native trees at all. Um, or non-native plants for that matter. An area dominated for uh by non-native plants supports far fewer insects overall with cascading effects on birds, pollinators, and other wildlife that depends on them. Uh this matters because the insect base underpins the broader food chain, crop pollination, uh water quality, soil health, and other important considerations. Replacing native plants with non non-native lookalikes weakens all of it. If you look at city-owned properties today, non-native plants are very common. We ask the commission to treat native plantings as a standing consideration in your zoning and planning decisions going forward. Looking for any opportunities, whether in landscaping requirements, approved plant lists, or site plan reviews to favor native species over non-native substitutes. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone who would like to speak in the open comment period? Is there anyone online? Uh in that case, I will close the open comment period and call the meeting to order and take roll call. Uh Commissioner Ross. Commissioner Klein. Commissioner Krull. Here. Commissioner Boyam. Present. Commissioner Yoost. I'm Commissioner Gupta. And we're missing Commissioner Ayshen, Commissioner Emad, and Commissioner Andrist today.