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4a <br />Lake Elmo Old Village Master Plan <br />Section One — Introduction <br />Background: <br />In the summer of 2005, the City of Lake Elmo retained a team led by Robert Engstrom <br />Companies to prepare a master plan to guide anticipated development in and around the <br />historic Old Village. Fresh from an agreement with the Metropolitan Council, the City <br />focused on the need to preserve the character of the Old Village as it prepared to accept <br />440 units of new housing, with a bonus system to allow an increase to 600 units. With <br />the extension of sanitary sewer into the Old Village as part of the agreement with Met <br />Council, it became apparent that the amount of land poised for new housing could — if <br />Improperly developed — dramatically alter the landscape of the Old Village, forever <br />compromising Its unique scale and charm. <br />The design team, which also included Jerry Mazzara of Design Forum and Bob Close <br />and Bruce Jacobson of Close Landscape Architecture, was charged with two areas of <br />focus —1) to prepare a physical plan with associated guidelines and 2) to provide a <br />strategy for determining the number of units that should be allotted to each land <br />owner/developer. This two -pronged approach, the City posited, could conceivably unite <br />developer and City interests, resulting in a development pattern that would relate to — <br />and strengthen — the community character. <br />IIfft7_N <br />