Agenda Packets - 2005/06/27 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council June 20, 2005 Special Meeting Page 7 Larry Huff, 5512 Erickson Road, stated he has lived in the City for 25 years and expressed 1 concern about the traffic and noise on County Road I and Erickson Road. He stated he did not 2 want to deal with more traffic. He stated Medtronic was a good company, but believed their 3 employees would commute. He stated he worked for another City as a plan reviewer and he did 4 not know if Mounds View Staff could handle the amount of workload this project would entail. 5 He stated he did not understand why Medtronic would come to such a small community and 6 expect “the world”. He stated in Maple Grove, none of their TIF financing was over ten years. 7 He noted in 25 years very few people in the room would be alive to benefit from this. He stated 8 he did not golf, but he was concerned about the noise and the decrease in peacefulness they 9 would no longer have if this development went through. 10 11 Tom Belisle, 2515 County Road H, asked if New Brighton had turned down Medtronic. He 12 stated he did not believe there would be a negative impact to property values if this was 13 approved. With respect to TIF, he stated if they went any other route, there would be a cheaper 14 development on the site. He stated he could not see maintaining the golf course that could not 15 maintain itself except for the billboards. 16 17 Steve Larson, 2150 Arden Court, New Brighton, Mayor of New Brighton, stated they had been in 18 negotiations with Medtronic, but New Brighton could not meet all of the needs Medtronic 19 required. He stated New Brighton could not afford to go any further and negotiations fell 20 through. 21 22 Eric Bakke, 5250 Jeffery Drive, presented a petition from 135 students from Irondale objecting to 23 this proposal. He stated the high school students cared about the golf course. He noted the golf 24 course benefited youth in that it taught golf, fitness, and healthy living. He stated the golf course 25 also provided the youth with something. He indicated this business would not generate people 26 coming into the City to do something on a Friday night or weekend. He stated it was hard to 27 believe that $100,000 would “save” the Mounds View schools. He noted Mounds View was no 28 Edina and he did not believe Medtronic employees would move into the City, but would move to 29 surrounding cities. He asked what the salary range was for the new employees and asked what 30 the average household value in Mounds View was. City Administrator Ulrich responded the 31 average salary at Medtronic, excluding executives would be $70,200 per job and the average 32 household median value household in the City was $168,000 to $170,000. 33 34 Dan Mueller, 8343 Groveland Road, hoped the Council/EDA had not already made up their 35 minds and had listened to all of the residents. He expressed concern about the increase in traffic. 36 He stated if the City wanted to pick up an extra $44,000 in taxes, why not take some of this land 37 for house lots and collect taxes that way. He stated the City needed a grocery store and other 38 businesses including restaurants and not more drug stores. He stated if his taxes only went down 39 $1.00 per year, he would rather subsidize the golf course and see the wildlife instead of large 40 buildings and parking lots. Ms. Kvilvang noted this was not only the $43,000 annually in taxes, 41 but that the first year there would be a 6 million dollar surplus brought into the City. 42 43 Dennis Hammes, 5511 Quincy Street, expressed concerns about traffic and noise. He stated the 44 City would need to hire additional police officers and suggested Medtronic fund these extra 45