East Bethel • Mayor 2026
Joe Reiter for Mayor of East Bethel
Preserving Our Character. Protecting Taxpayers. Planning Responsibly.
East Bethel is growing. I want to keep rural areas rural, direct new growth to Highway 65 and sewered areas, and make sure roads, utilities, and taxes support the growth we approve.
Meet the Candidates
Join the East Bethel Chamber of Commerce for a public candidate forum focused on the business community and the issues affecting East Bethel’s future.
October 8 — Public Candidate Forum
Thursday, October 8 • 6:00 PM
East Bethel City Hall
Sponsored by the East Bethel Chamber of Commerce and hosted at City Hall. The discussion will give candidates an opportunity to address issues important to East Bethel’s business community, including development, infrastructure, the local economy, and the relationship between businesses and city government.
Please consider this your official invitation to attend.
City staff will record the forum and make it available on-demand on the City of East Bethel’s YouTube channel. The official schedule, format, and participant rules are established by the Chamber.
Hi, I’m Joe.
Navy veteran. Blaine High School and St. Cloud State. Career at Bobcat, Polaris, and 3M. East Bethel resident since 2017. Former East Bethel Planning Commissioner.
I’m running because the next few years will decide whether East Bethel preserves its rural character while directing growth where infrastructure and a stronger tax base can support it.
The problem is not a lack of planning. It is unfinished implementation.
- The 2040 Comprehensive Plan required zoning and subdivision updates within nine months. That work was not finished.
- The city is already paying a consultant to write the 2050 Comprehensive Plan.
- If 2050 is drafted against today’s incomplete code, the mismatch can become the starting point for another decade.
Implement the 2040 official controls first. Then write 2050.
The map rule
East Bethel does not need growth everywhere. It needs different rules for different parts of the city.
Rural East Bethel
Low density, real open space, and no sequential lot-split strategy that slowly converts rural land into suburban lots.
Highway 65 & Sewered Areas
Commercial, industrial, mixed-use development, and housing choices such as townhomes belong where transportation and utilities can support them.
Infrastructure
Utilities follow the adopted plan. A development proposal should not become the reason to redraw the plan around the project.
First 100 Days
- 2040-to-code conformance audit
- Rural and agricultural official-control package
- Mixed-use official-control package
- Financial and contract baseline
- Infrastructure sequencing rule
- Emergency-service demand and public-safety outcomes
The Reiter Test
When a major proposal comes before the city, residents deserve straightforward answers:
- Does it preserve our community character?
- Does it strengthen the tax base?
- Does infrastructure support it?
- What does it cost residents?
- What problem does it solve?
- How will we know whether it worked?
Where I stand
East Bethel 2035
Stronger without becoming somewhere else.
That choice has a real tradeoff: preserving rural land means some parcels have less subdivision potential, while more housing choices belong in the planned growth areas where roads, utilities, and services can support them.
The actions behind the plan
Instead of sending a dozen disconnected projects through the process, I would organize the implementation work into coordinated packages.
Rural & Agricultural Official Controls
Density, lot splits, conservation subdivisions, open space, and agricultural fragmentation addressed together as Package 1.
Mixed-Use & Master-Planned Growth
Use mix, commercial phasing, connected streets, and master planning for the areas intended to absorb growth.