Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 12/31/2002

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THE REPORTING ENTITY In accordance with the Governmental Accounting Standards Board requirements, the financial reporting entity includes all funds and account groups of the City as well as all of its component units. Component units are legally separate entities for which the primary government is financially accountable. Blended component units, although legally separate entities, are in substance, part of the primary government's operations and are included as part of the primary government. Accordingly, the Economic Development Authority is reported as a Special Revenue Fund of the primary government. The City provides a full range of municipal services. These services include: general government, public safety (police & fire), public works (streets & fleet), parks and recreation, conservation of natural resources (environmental & solid waste abatement), public improvements, providing and maintaining sanitary and storm sewer, water infrastructure, and two enterprise funds, the water and sewer funds. ECONOMIC CONDITION AND OUTLOOK The City of Lino Lakes is a growing community in the southeast corner of the County of Anoka. It covers an area of 33 square miles and has a population of approximately 18,000. The population has more than doubled from the 1990 census figure of 8,807. Within the City's borders lies the 2,550 acre Rice Creek Chain of Lakes Regional Park. Access to St. Paul and Minneapolis is provided by I -35W and I -35E. The economic development effort established in 1993 by the City Council has begun to have an impact in the diversity of the City's tax base. Since 1993, the City has added more than $55 million in additional commercial /industrial market value. The Apollo Business Park on I -35W and the Clearwater Creek Development Center on I -35E continue to attract industrial development. A new comrnercial retail center on Lake Drive and Apollo Drive in the Town Center area, known as the Lino Lakes Marketplace, has begun development and the two anchor tenants, Target and Kohl's, were completed and opened in 2002. With the many wetlands and regional parks, environmental issues are important to the City. In 1999, the City approved its first Preservation Development subdivision, a large step forward in the implementation of the City's overall environmental inventory and management plan. This plan will preserve the valuable open spaces and wetlands within the City. MAJOR INITIATIVES Commercial development in Lino Lakes has been the focus of a city- initiated development called the Town Center on the I -35W interchange area. This innovative project incorporates mixed -use development that includes professional buildings, civic facilities, commercial development and a mix of housing types. The City received a $220,000 Livable Communities grant in 1998 from the Metropolitan Council to hire Peter Calthorpe Associates, a planner on the cutting edge of urban and suburban neighborhood development, to refine the City's plan for the Town Center. An additional grant of $450,000 was awarded in 2000 to begin implementation of the housing initiatives outlined in the Calthorp plan. The part of the Town Center area located on the northeast quadrant of I -35W and Lake Drive began developing as a commercial retail center known as the Lino Lakes Marketplace in late 2001. This development includes a Target Super Store and a Kohl's Department Store, both completed and opened in 2002, and several smaller retail buildings which are expected to be completed by 2004. An adjacent development in the same quadrant include a McDonald's restaurant, which opened in 2002, and several retail buildings expected to be completed by 2004. The development has spurred the need to upgrade Lake Drive from I -35W to 77th Street and to complete Apollo Drive east of Lake Drive, along with the installation of underground utilities and traffic control systems. The cost of the project was assessed against the new development. 4