Breck School - A Long-Range Plan for the Future

A PUD (Planned Unit Development) is a tool that helps the City and neighbors understand how an institution like Breck plans to use its land over time. It covers things like building placement, parking, traffic flow, and green space. Breck’s current PUD was adopted many years ago — and now we’re updating it to reflect today’s needs and tomorrow’s goals.

June 2025 Update:

• Breck hired consultants including traffic engineers, architects, wetland specialists and civil engineers to advise and consult on how Breck can make improvements to its campus within the confines of both the City Code and neighborhood expectations.   
• On June 24th, the City’s Technical Evaluation Panel (TEP) will be on campus to review the wetlands on site. The TEP is a panel of wetland professionals that determine whether a wetland requires protection or can be replaced or filled. The TEP ensures compliance with the Minnesota Wetland Conservation Act.  
• Further engineering and design work can continue after the TEP panel has made its decision. The site plan will be updated at that time. 

May 2025 Update

Changing a PUD requires two steps: approval of a preliminary development plan and approval of a final development plan. At this time, Breck has not prepared or submitted a preliminary development plan application to Golden Valley. Breck has hired consultants including traffic engineers, architects, wetland specialists and civil engineers to advise and consult on how Breck can make improvements to its campus within the confines of both the City Code and neighborhood impacts. When Breck submits a preliminary development plan, the school and the City will call a neighborhood meeting to be held at City Hall. We will post that application here once submitted. The City will set a public hearing for Breck’s future application at the Planning Commission who will make a recommendation to the City Council. Mailed notice will be provided by the City for these meetings. Please reach out to Breck staff or the City with any questions about this process. 

A key focus of our planning is to improve the safety and efficiency of how cars, buses, bikes, and pedestrians move through and around campus. A traffic study, prepared by SEH, a third party engineering consultant, is currently underway.  In March and April of 2025, SEH collected data on parking, number of cars and vehicle speeds both on campus and within the surrounding neighborhood. SEH will use that data to make recommendations on daily operations and physical improvements to campus that can benefit the neighborhood as well as faculty, staff and students. SEH is preparing recommendations based on the data collected and neighborhood feedback received on May 27th. 

Preliminary recommendations will be shared with the neighborhood prior to PUD application submission.   Please attend our traffic-focused neighborhood meetings to learn more, provide feedback and ask questions. 

Thanks for your interest! We appreciated the opportunity to hear from many of our most impacted neighbors earlier this spring. This website will be updated with additional engagement opportunities, city meeting dates, and information as the project progresses. We are committed to listening and responding as the process continues.  For now, please join us at our summer meetings focused on park improvements and traffic control plans. 

Contact information for City of Golden Valley Staff
Planning: Chloe McGuire: cmcguire@goldenvalleymn.gov 
City Engineer: Michael Ryan: mryan@goldenvalleymn.gov

Yes. After the neighborhood meeting in May, Breck met with its consultants and design team. The most significant change to the plans so far is to ensure that there is a softball field located on Breck property. Breck is still interested in partnering with the neighborhood to consider investments in Natchez Park.
Breck is continuing design work with its traffic engineering team and hopes to have additional plans to present on the traffic study and proposed mitigation strategies this summer. 

Breck delayed its application to the City for a preliminary PUD in order to further study these issues.  
 

We heard the neighborhood clearly — there is broad concern about structured athletic use of the public park space. In response, we are now exploring options to relocate the softball field onto Breck Property. 

Our design team is reviewing space, access, grading, and water management to identify a suitable on-site alternative. This approach respects neighbor input while still meeting the school’s athletic needs and provides an opportunity for collaborative investment in park improvements, guided by neighborhood priorities. Please attend our park- specific engagement meetings or reach out to the Breck team to provide additional feedback or comments. 
 

Changing a PUD requires two steps: approval of a preliminary development plan and approval of a final development plan. At this time, Breck has not prepared or submitted a preliminary development plan application to Golden Valley. Breck has hired consultants including traffic engineers, architects, wetland specialists and civil engineers to advise and consult on how Breck can make improvements to its campus within the confines of both the City Code and neighborhood impacts. 

When Breck submits a preliminary development plan, the school and the City will call a neighborhood meeting to be held at City Hall. We will post that application here once submitted. The City will set a public hearing for Breck’s future application at the Planning Commission who will make a recommendation to the City Council. Mailed notice will be provided by the City for these meetings. Please reach out to Breck staff or the City with any questions about this process. 
 

A neighborhood meeting to discuss Breck School's proposed updates to their Planned Unit Development (PUD) was held on Thursday, November 20, 2025. The meeting was held at Golden Valley City Hall to continue the conversation about Breck's 2050 Comprehensive Site Plan. The next meeting will be a public hearing with the City of Golden Valley Planning Commission on December 8 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Contact for more information:

Jacquelyn Kramer, Senior Planner, City of Golden Valley
763-593-3987
jkramer@goldenvalleymn.gov

Mike Thorson, Director of Facilities, Breck School
763- 381-8100
mike.thorson@breckschool.org

Stay Connected
Please continue to check the website for updates and share this information with your neighbors who may want to get involved. If you have questions or would like to schedule a one-on-one conversation, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Breck parents/caregivers and students are asked to follow the guidance in this video for how to navigate Breck's car line.