River Falls’ City Council approved the final plat and developer’s agreement for The Preserve, a 12-twin home, 24-total unit development off of Powell Avenue, during the July 22 meeting.
Ten of the 12 twin homes will be accessed through a new offshoot off of Powell Avenue, with the final two to be placed at the corner of Powell and E Woodridge Drive.
The approval essentially sets the project into motion, expected to begin construction in late 2025 or early 2026. A few details are still to be determined pending some engineer investigation including stormwater management.
With Collins Park right across Powell from the project, city engineers are doing a study on the potential for an enhanced crossing on the street for pedestrians.
“The specifics are still pending,” Senior Planner Harley Mehlhorn said. “Any crosswalk is going to be reviewed by our city engineer for safety standards, considering things like visibility, speed, traffic volume. Potentially it could be lighted, flashing lights like we have on Main Street, but that’s uncertain as of right now.”
In most instances, the development would require the addition of a park space in the area; however, in this instance, the proximity to Collins Park allowed the Park Board to explore waiving the requirement. Instead, the developer is expected to pay a fee in lieu of land.
“The Park Board and Plan Commission evaluated the subdivision, and, upon staff’s recommendation, recommended that Council collect a fee in lieu of land for this project due to its proximity to Collin’s Park and the developer’s commitment to construct an enhanced crossing across Powell Avenue,” city documents state.
Mehlhorn encouraged anybody interested to read the city documents to get a full understanding about the approved item.
“I just encourage everybody to read the memorandums,” Mehlhorn said.

Traffic Control Updates
City Engineer Todd Nickleski came to the table with four proposed amendments to the city’s traffic control map.
The first of the four proposed amendments residents can watch out for is a dedicated right turn lane and yield sign for traffic turning from eastbound Highway 35 to E Cascade Avenue. Second is an update to the traffic control map to match the no parking signage on a segment of Second Street, also allowing one more No Parking sign to be added.
East Johnson Street has a no parking sign from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., but makes no mention that it is from Nov.1-March 31. The change would remove the date span on the map to align with current signage. Spring Street was the final amendment, proposing the same change as Johnson Street.