12-19-01 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL DECEMBER 19, 2001 Gosman indicated that they would like some assistance from the City with putting access through to Rice Street, whether that assistance comes in the form of a tax abatement, or assistance with the purchase of the Anderson property. Scalze pointed out that once the City gets involved in providing assistance, then all the taxpayers are involved. Gosman pointed out that if the Anderson property could be acquired and combined with this site, the development potential substantially increases. Gosman reported that the Anderson property is (or sale, however, the asking price is quite high. Fahey asked if there was anyone from the general public interested in commenting on this matter. "fom Duray reported that he has discussed this development proposal with Messrs. Rustad, Harstad, and Anderson and they all agree that this is a good transitional use for the area. The area of concern, however, is access. It is their feeling that access should be via Rice Street. Duray reported that given the hill on Park Street, additional traffic on that road would not be in the interests of public safety. A Park Street resident expressed concern with additional traffic on Park Street from this development. He also asked when the property was zoned to commercial, suggested that it be rezoned to accommodate residential development rather than commercial- Scalze reported that the property has been zoned commercial for over 30 years and this zoning has been in place prior to the existence of Park Street. "fhe commercial zoning likely came to be because the property abuts Rice Street. Fahey pointed out that the City has been presented with concepts for townhome development and senior housing development on this site. The property owner is now proposing the townoffice concept. Fahey reported that the Council supported the development of townhomes on the site, and indicated that he would support the townoffice concept if access were via Rice Street. The property owner indicated that he favored a residential development on the site and indicated that traffic from a residential development onto Park Su'eet was acceptable to him, but traffic from a townoftce development was not. Fahey indicated that the issue at this point is whether or not the Watershed will allow pond relocation to provide for access to Rice Street. Fahey felt that if not, the City should consider rezoning the property to residential to allow for townhome development on the site. Fahey suggested that the developer work hard to get access via Rice Street for the townoffice development, because his