Karen House with Jonathan Association sign

Jonathan, Minnesota is a homeowners' association that is a remnant of a

planned community A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

development within the city of Chaska,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

in Carver County. It was named for Jonathan Carver, for whom Carver County also is named. In 2008, it is the largest homeowners' association in the State of Minnesota, with 2,300 households.HERÓN MÁRQUEZ ESTRADA - Clothing, manicures and charges of theft. Ex-bookkeeper for the Jonathan Association in Chaska is accused of misusing the group's credit card. Star Tribune, August 19, 2008 It was planned by the Jonathan Development Corporation and begun in 1967.Meltzer, Jack - City Planning. World Book Encyclopedia, 1976, Volume 4 p460b It was the idea of Minnesota State Senator and real estate developer Henry T. McKnight. The planners chose a site outside the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in stat ...

urban area and

Interstate 494 Interstate 494 (I-494) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway making up part of a beltway of I-94, circling through the southern and western portions of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area in Minnesota. The road is coupled with I ...

/694 belt line. The town site was centered on the intersection of

Minnesota State Highway 41 Minnesota State Highway 41 (MN 41) is a highway in Minnesota, which runs from its intersection with U.S. Highway 169 in Jackson Township near Shakopee and continues north to its northern terminus at its intersection with State Highway ...

and the Pacific Extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.

History

A large single town center was envisioned to straddle the railway between McKnight Lake and Jonathan Lake, and have shops, businesses and higher density housing. Surrounding the center were to have been smaller villages. It was expected to have a total population of 50,000 by the 1980s. In 1970, Jonathan became the first new town in the United States to receive a guarantee of financial assistance from federal government as part of Title IV of the

Housing and Urban Development act of 1968 Housing refers to a property containing one or more shelter as a living space. Housing spaces are inhabited either by individuals or a collective group of people. Housing is also referred to as a human need and human right, playing a cr ...

.Hauser, Philip M. - City. World Book Encyclopedia, 1976, Volume 4 p453 In 1971, Jonathan hosted the very first Minnesota Renaissance Festival, then known as the Minnesota Renaissance Fair and promoted as "A Celebration of Nature, Art, and Life!" It would later move to nearby Shakopee, and grow into one of the largest

Renaissance Fair A Renaissance Festival (medieval fair or ren faire) is an outdoor gathering that aims to entertain its guests by recreating a historical setting, most often the English Renaissance. Renaissance festivals generally include costumed entertainers ...

s in the nation. The development corporation folded in 1979, and Jonathan was annexed by the city of Chaska. Between 2005 and 2007, a majority of the Jonathan Association Board of Directors supported an effort to break up the homeowner Association by allowing some neighborhoods to leave. In October 2007, the majority of the board members voted to go to court for a declaratory judgment as to whether or not neighborhoods brought into the association after the 1979 demise of the Jonathan Development Corporation were annexed properly.Francisco, Mollee
Jonathan board votes for court
. Chaska Herald, October 11, 2007 In February 2008, six (6) of the nine seated board members, all of which supported seeking a declaratory judgement were voted out of office at the Association's Annual Meeting.

Personnel

Minnesota State Senator and real estate developer Henry T. McKnight was the chief executive. Chaska resident Julius C. "Jules" Smith served as counsel during the development and later served on the Metropolitan Council. Current Chaska city council member Robert J. ("Bob") Lindall was the president of the Jonathan Development Corporation from 1974 through 1979. Other board members included J. F. Deckenbach, Lewis Krohn, J. Kimball Whitney, Mandell L. Berman, Robert J. Dahlin, Ben C. Cunningham, Duane E. Joseph, and H. Richard Korsh.

References

Bibliography

*Downie, Leonard (Jr.)
The Midwest: An Unlikely Laboratory for New Towns
The Alicia Patterson Fund. September 27, 1971 *Hawkins, Beth
Arrested Development - How Minnesota philanthropist and developer Henry McKnight's utopian vision of suburbia became a blueprint for modern exurban nightmares
Citypages. July 13, 2005 *Martin, Frank Edgerton (Jr.)
Although Chaska's 'new town' development failed, it transformed how we live
Star Tribune. June 18, 2016 *Pub. L. 90-448, title IV, Aug. 1, 1968
NEW COMMUNITIES ACT OF 1968
(Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968) - GUARANTEES FOR FINANCING NEW COMMUNITY LAND DEVELOPMENT. United States Department of Housing and Urban Development *Saylor, Thomas
Jonathan: Planned City of Tomorrow
Minnesota History. Fall 2013 *Sturdevant, Andy
'Ex-town' Jonathan still has distinct touches of its futuristic beginnings
MinnPost. May 30, 2012

External links

Chaska City WebsiteJonathan AssociationExecutive Summary
February 1970 (PDF of scanned typed document) {{Minnesota Populated places in Carver County, Minnesota Planned communities in the United States Neighborhood associations 1967 establishments in Minnesota Neighborhoods in Minnesota Chaska, Minnesota