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DEAN & KARIN HAASE 5181 Longview Drive, Mounds View MN 55112 Home: (763) 792 - 2272 Work: (763) 574 - 7374 E-Mail: haasedean@msn.com November 6th, 2003 Attn.: Jim Ericson ( and Mounds View City Council ) RE: November 5th 2003 Public Hearing & Eichi, Inc. Longview Estates Proposal Dear Mounds View City Council, After attending the Mounds View public hearing on November 6th, 2003 my wife and I are submitting this letter after hearing the issues. (Frankly, we also are surprised that after being turned down numerous times by the Mounds View Planning Commission, Mounds View City Council, and Rice Creek Watershed District, that this issue keeps coming up.) Karin and I are both very opposed to the proposal of the Harstad Companies & Eichi Inc. to further develop the property known as Mueller Addition Lot 4, Block 1. This development is known as the Longview Estates subdivision. The reasons are listed below. 1.) Local area water table effects. This issue has been one of the largest debates of this proposed subdivision. Most people who live on Longview Drive opposite from the proposed development have witnessed a marshy wetland with standing water on the property directly across from their existing homes. Some have already had water in their basements due not to improper construction, but to unnaturally high levels of the area’s water table. Over the last 2 years Karin and I had our sump pump in our basement running every 20 - 30 minutes to take away the water that existed due to the high water table. Even with the sump pump we could still see damp spots on the basement floor where the water was trying to seep up through cracks in the concrete, (We are one of the few people in the area who even have a sump pump.) (People will say that this was the 100 year wet spring with all the snow, but what happens next time when we get this kind of winter followed by the types of melting that we saw last spring? Pay close attention to what has been happening with the flooding in the midsection of the country in the last decade and it should be painfully obvious that this is becoming a more common problem that no-one has ever planned for.) What we want assured to us is that if houses are built into this existing area that we will not have ANY problems with wet basements! Otherwise, we too want to know who our lawyer should contact as well because the damages will NOT come out of our pockets. 2.) Mueller Addition Lot 4 Block 1, soil stability & soil composition. Again, most residents along Longview Drive know the proposed subdivision land as marshy and unstable. (Reference the house just built on the South end of Longview Drive who has already had driveway settling and other building problems due to the fact that the ground underneath the property was not stable enough for the structure on top of it.) Mr. Harstad has claimed that he will have to dig out a minimal amount of land for the property to be suitable for building, have any engineers supported this claim? Also, Mr. Harstad has claimed that he will have his engineers, the city engineers, and also the Rice Creek