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We are unable to attend the Little Canada City Council meeting on February 28th <br />in regard to the proposed Pine Tree Ponds development. Please forward as <br />needed and read at the meeting for the minutes. <br />Jan and Mike Bilek <br />We own the property at 2925 Labore Rd. and have lived there nearly 27 years. <br />Our property abuts 155 feet of parcel #1 along the north and 217 feet of the 33 <br />foot street easement next to parcel #4 on the east of the Pine Tree Pond proposed <br />development. <br />Four of the 15 proposed lots in the development wrap around the north and east <br />boundaries of our property. The back of all four proposed houses face our house <br />and three of the four properties are planned with only the minimum setback of 30' <br />to the house pad from the border of our property. The lots surrounding our <br />property are the most dense of the proposed development with lot #11 barely over <br />the minimum. <br />A 33' street and utility easement along the east border of our property is assumed <br />to be vacated by the City of Little Canada with the easement ownership awarded <br />to Masterpiece Homes and is included in the development plan. House pad #11 is <br />partially in the easement. Acquisition of the easement would be required to fit a <br />lot in this location. <br />In order to protect the privacy of our property, the former owners of parcel #4 <br />included a clause in the sales contract with Gordie Howe of Masterpiece Homes <br />stating the buyer's intent to preserve the trees (62 white pines plus deciduous <br />trees) in the west border of their property along the street and utility easement. <br />Although Mr. Howe has continued to assure the former owners that the trees will <br />be preserved, after a new survey of the trees on parcel #4 and review of the <br />grading plan for drainage, the city engineer determined that, at a minimum, 42 of <br />the 62 white pines would need to be removed with the current proposal. The <br />pines to be removed are on proposed lot #11 and are also located within the <br />proposed house pad. The pines are over 50 years old and at least 50 -60 feet tall. <br />They are a habitat and jumping across point for owls, pileated woodpeckers and <br />dozens of species of birds. If these pines are removed along with the trees that <br />border our property on the northeast for the proposed rain garden, drainage and <br />road, we will lose 60 -100 trees bordering our property alone. The proposed <br />landscape plan only calls for 103 total replacement trees of 2 inch caliper or less <br />on the entire seven acre site. <br />I am asking that the trees be preserved as agreed to in the sales contract with <br />Masterpiece Homes and the previous owners of parcel #4, with additional <br />plantings of coniferous trees to replace trees lost and block the impact of this <br />development on the privacy and value of our property. <br />6 <br />