Ellis and Nancy Olkon owned twenty-one acres on Willow Drive in Medina and wanted to do something that sounds simple on paper: split the parcel into two lots so a second home could go up. Twenty-one acres divided by two is more land than most west metro buyers ever see attached to a single address. In Medina, it wasn't nearly enough.
The city denied the split, and when the Olkons sued, a judge sided with Medina in a 2018 ruling. The reason had nothing to do with total acreage. It came down to soil. Medina's Rural Residential zoning requires five contiguous acres of soil suitable for a standard septic system before a lot can be established, and the two lots the Olkons proposed would have had only 1.5 and 1.3 contiguous acres of usable soil between them. Wetlands and hills took up the rest. Medina's city attorney, Ron Batty, put it to the council in blunt terms: it was, in his words, "a very substantial variance, five acres down to 1.5 and 1.3."
That case settled the legal question years ago, but the underlying math hasn't gone anywhere. It still governs how much of a Medina parcel is actually buildable, and it's still the single most common thing buyers misjudge when they see a big acreage number on a listing sheet.
The Acreage on the Listing Isn't the Acreage That Counts
Most of Medina sits outside municipal sewer service. The city's comprehensive plan is direct about why: large sections of the community are designated as permanent rural area, and the intent is to keep them that way by never extending sanitary sewer service out to them. That policy choice is what makes soil, not survey acreage, the real currency of a Medina land purchase.
Here's the distinction that trips people up. A ten-acre parcel with rolling terrain, a pond, and a stand of mature trees might look more valuable than a flat, open ten acres next door. But if half of that rolling, wooded parcel sits on wetland or steep slope that can't support a drainfield, the buildable math shrinks fast. Two parcels can carry the same number on the plat map and be worth very different amounts once a soil scientist walks the site.
The zoning code splits Medina's rural land into two districts, and each treats acreage differently:
| Zoning District | How Lot Size Actually Works | Utility Service |
|---|---|---|
| Rural Residential (RR) | Minimum lot area is set by contiguous soil suitable for a standard septic system, at least 5 acres of it | Private well and septic, no planned sewer extension |
| Agricultural (AG) | One lot per 40 acres | Private well and septic, no planned sewer extension |
Note that the Uptown Hamel district is the exception to most of this. That corridor already runs on municipal sewer and water, so none of the soil math applies there. This piece is about the acreage outside that service area, which is most of the city by land area.
Why So Much of Medina Still Runs on Private Systems
The city's 2040 comprehensive sewer plan counts more than 700 individual septic systems already operating within Medina's borders. That's not a legacy number from a handful of old farmhouses. It reflects a deliberate planning choice to keep large parts of the community unsewered, which means septic performance isn't a side issue for anyone buying acreage here. It's the constraint that determines what a parcel can become.
The city's own zoning code adds another layer once you know a site has enough suitable soil: hard surface coverage on rural residential and agricultural parcels is capped at 20 percent of the lot area, counting driveways, parking, structures, and paved surfaces together. That cap can stretch to 30 percent if the design incorporates low-impact stormwater features, but the baseline assumption is that most of a rural parcel stays soft ground. A buyer picturing a long paved driveway, a detached shop, a pool deck, and a house all on a five-acre RR lot needs to run that math before assuming it fits.
The Well Question Nobody Raises Until Closing
Septic gets most of the attention because it decides buildability. Wells decide something else: ongoing cost and disclosure exposure. Minnesota law requires sellers to disclose the number, location, and status of any known wells on a property at the time of sale. The state doesn't mandate a water test as part of that transfer, but most lenders do, typically checking for coliform bacteria and nitrate before they'll fund a purchase.
If a well on the property is no longer in use, it generally needs to be sealed by a licensed contractor or covered under a maintenance permit, not simply capped and forgotten. For buyers evaluating older acreage parcels, an unused well that was never properly sealed is the kind of detail that surfaces during inspection and can stall a closing timeline if it isn't flagged early.
What to Check Before You Write the Offer
None of this means acreage in Medina is a bad idea. It means the diligence has to happen earlier than most buyers expect, ideally before an offer goes in rather than after. A short list worth working through on any Medina land purchase:
- Confirm which zoning district applies, RR or AG, since the acreage math and minimum lot size are completely different between them
- Request or commission a soil evaluation that identifies contiguous suitable soil for a primary and secondary septic site, not just total lot acreage
- If any future lot split is part of the plan, treat it as a separate diligence item entirely. The Olkon case shows that total acreage and legal splitability are not the same question
- Ask for the septic system's inspection and pumping history, since Medina expects ongoing maintenance on a multi-year cycle rather than a one-time install and forget approach
- Get well status and location documented, and if the well hasn't been used recently, confirm whether it was properly sealed
- Map out driveway, structures, and any paved area against the hard surface coverage cap before finalizing a site plan, particularly on RR lots close to five acres
A five-acre RR parcel and a forty-acre AG parcel can both fail this test just as easily as they can both pass it. The acreage number tells you almost nothing on its own. The soil report tells you almost everything.
The Short Version
Medina rewards buyers who verify before they fall in love with a lot. A property that looks like a blank canvas in listing photos might have a five-acre buildable envelope hiding inside a ten-acre parcel, or it might have the full acreage available and simply hasn't been surveyed yet. Either way, the answer exists before you write an offer, not after.
If you're evaluating acreage, a hobby farm site, or a custom build lot anywhere in Medina, The Fowke Weber Team can walk the zoning and soil questions with you before you're under contract, not after an inspection turns up a surprise. Get in touch and let's look at the parcel you have in mind together.
