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515 Little Canada Road. Little Canada, MN 55117 -1600 <br />(651) 766 -4029 / FAX: (651) 766 -4048 <br />www.ci.little-canada.mn.us <br />MEMORANDUM <br />MAYOR <br />Dill Biesener <br />COUNCIL <br />Rick Montour <br />Barbara Allan <br />John Keis <br />Michael McGraw <br />ADMINISTRATOR <br />Joel R. Hanson <br />TO: Mayor Blesener and Members of the City Council <br />FROM: Joel Hanson, City Administrator <br />DATE: October 19, 2007 <br />RE: Richie Place/Lauren Development <br />Included under separate cover in your agenda packets is correspondence from Howard <br />Rosten, attorney for the Gores, and a packet of information from Bill Schom. While I do not <br />intend to rebut all of the information they present, I believe it is important to clarify some of <br />the issues they raise. My comments are as follows: <br />• Mr. Rosten notes that the Council will be meeting as the Board of Adjustment and <br />Appeals when hearing the variance request. To do so, I would recommend we <br />temporarily adjourn from the regular Council meeting and convene as the Little <br />Canada Board of Adjustments and Appeals. After the variance hearing/decision is <br />completed, we would adjourn as the Board of Adjustment and Appeals and reconvene <br />as the City Council to consider the subdivision application. <br />• Reference is made to the concept approval granted last December for a "reasonable" <br />12 -lot subdivision on a 500 -foot cul -de -sac. First, it must again be emphasized that <br />"concept approval" in not binding on the City or the Developer. Also, a wetland <br />delineation had not been completed as of last December (it was done in May of 2007). <br />Therefore, the Developer was operating on information that was estimated from aerial <br />photographs that was found to be overly conservative once the required delineation <br />was completed. As a result, more property was potentially developable than was <br />thought at the time of the concept presentation. <br />• Density was also discussed at the time of concept approval last December. The <br />concept drawing had 12 lots, all in Little Canada on 5.49 acres or 2.18 lots per acre. <br />The preliminary plat being considered at this time has 13 lots on the Little Canada <br />property for a density of 2.36 lots per acre. This is well below the 4 lots per acre <br />referenced as "low density" in the Planner's Report dated December 11, 2006. Even <br />1 <br />