05-25-2022 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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May 19, 2022 City of Little Canada Attention: Corrin Wendell, Community Development Director/Planner 515 Little Canada Road East Little Canada, MN 55117 RE: Pioneer Commons (fka Vanderbie Commons) – Townhome Community Pre plat Update Dear Corrin: U.S. Home, LLC, (“Developer”) is pleased to submit this updated narrative and responses to City and public questions/concerns. These responses are to comments presented at the May 11th, 2022 City Council meeting where a public hearing was held for the Pioneer Commons preliminary plat application. Pioneer Commons will be located within Planning District 10 as reflected in the City of Little Canada Comprehensive Plan 2040 (“Comprehensive Plan”). Public Infrastructure According to the Comprehensive Plan the City of Little Canada is well positioned for future growth. The City has succeeded in appropriate forward planning resulting in “infrastructure able to accommodate the forecasted growth of housing”. The Comprehensive Plan also states that “all needed arterial streets exist and have unused capacity”. A common concern expressed during the May 11th public hearing was the future traffic on Vanderbie. This public right of way has been planned for a northern extension even before 694 was constructed. Many existing residents would prefer that Vanderbie not be connected to Allen. However, to maintain the City’s vision and thoughtfully planned infrastructure, this connection is necessary and does in fact create synergies between existing and future residents. Allowing for connectivity throughout this portion of the city, it increases accessibility to the City’s parks and trail system. In response to the concerns, what we propose to do is use a combination of traffic calming techniques on the furthest southern stretch of Vanderbie to encourage traffic to travel north to County Road D. These techniques include physical design elements such as narrower pavement, curb bump outs to create on street parking, and landscaping to create a visual narrowing of the roadway. These physical, design elements all tend to reduce speed and may make County Road D a more attractive route for trips from the community. While the desire to encourage all traffic north is acknowledged – it also should be understood that the ability to accurately predict future traffic patterns is difficult. Another voiced concern was the financial responsibility for the construction of Vanderbie. The expense associated with the construction of Vanderbie will be the burden of the Developer of the community. No existing residents will be assessed for this public street construction. The process for constructing a public right of way and the City’s ultimate acceptance of the road will be detailed in the development contract between the Developer and the City. The Developer will work with adjacent Vanderbie residents to ensure it is communicated how the construction process will temporarily affect their driveway accessibility.