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On Monday, Inver Grove Heights City Council will consider a plan to move forward on the paused central maintenance facility. The $52 million project faced stiff opposition from residents, who organized a petition to put it to a vote. Council is exploring a scaled back version of the facility.
The Project
What: A new maintenance facility with work space and warm storage, cold storage, mechanic bays, and more for the maintenance crew that maintains the city’s critical infrastructure, including first responder vehicles, utility vehicles, water and sewer lines, parks, and roads. An initial proposal of 131,000 square feet was paired down to 114,000 square feet (the existing facility is 35,000 square feet for the maintenance facility and 27,000 square feet for cold storage).
Why: The existing facility was built in 1985 and is too small, outdated, and has potential safety issues.
- The maintenance team had 20 employees in 1985 and 61 today, with 24 vehicles then and 72 now.
- A study found the current facility is 45% of the size it needs to be.
- It’s not ADA compliant.
- There are no female locker rooms or changing facilities.
Where: The proposed location is immediately south of the current facility on a four-acre parcel purchased in 2021. This provides room for expansion and keeps the facility close to the rest of the municipal campus.
Cost: The most recent version of the design would cost $52 million, down from an original $58 million. However, the goal of moving forward is to find further ways to reduce costs.
- “We understand that updating our central maintenance facility will impact our residents’ bottom line, but this building is not a ‘nice-to-have,’” said Mayor Brenda Dietrich in a spring 2026 city newsletter. “After delaying this critical project for more than a decade, the city can no longer wait.
The Pushback
In July 2025, the city held a public hearing for bond financing of the project, prompting a resident pushback. In August, the city received a petition with 2,000 resident signatures asking the city to put the project to a vote.
According to state law, the city has three options:
- Hold a vote on the original financing proposal.
- Change the project and go through a new public hearing process.
- Find different financing for the project.
In February 2026, City Council paused the project.
Now What?
At the October work session, Council heard a report on the facility project and potential paths forward. Klay Eckles, the interim project manager, gave a summary:
- The needs are very real and continue to be an issue.
- The proposed plan met the city’s requests.
- Community engagement was poor—the city didn’t effectively communicate the need.
- There are options to reduce the cost through right-sizing and phasing the project.
All Council members were in agreement that the project needed to be done, though Council Member Mary T’Kach had multiple questions about how this would move forward and Council Member Tony Scales expressed frustration that the original approach seemed to dismiss any suggestion to phase or scale back the project.
On the agenda: On Monday, Council is considering a multi-phase action plan to move the project forward and a citizens working group to gather input from the community. The new approach would:
- Reassess needs with an eye toward potential phasing.
- Re-engage the public.
- Look at the project in the context of other city projects and establish a long-term budget outlook.
- Develop a scaled back design that meets needs and fits the budget.
This new approach would avoid the city-wide vote on the project by scaling it back and going through a new public hearing process.
At this point, Council is not voting to build the facility but voting to re-start the process and come up with a new plan it would eventually have to vote up or down.
Timeline: There’s no specific timeline in the proposal, though it does detail a citizens working group convening in January and presenting a report to Council by March.
More: See the city’s information page for more details on the project.
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