Minutes - 2005/06/20 - 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 concern about the traffic and noise on County Road I and Erickson Road. He stated he did not want to deal with more traffic. He stated Medtronic was a good company, but believed their employees would commute. He stated he worked for another City as a plan reviewer and he did not know if Mounds View Staff could handle the amount of workload this project would entail. He stated he did not understand why Medtronic would come to such a small community and expect "the world". He stated in Maple Grove, none of their TIF financing was over ten years. He noted in 25 years very few people in the room would be alive to benefit from this. He stated he did not golf, but he was concerned about the noise and the decrease in peacefulness they would no longer have if this development went through. Tom Belisle, 2515 County Road H, asked if New Brighton had turned down Medtronic. He stated he did not believe there would be a negative impact to property values if this was approved. With respect to TIF, he stated if they went any other route, there would be a cheaper development on the site. He stated he could not see maintaining the golf course that could not maintain itself except for the billboards. Steve Larson, 2150 Arden Court, New Brighton, Mayor of New Brighton, stated they had been in negotiations with Medtronic, but New Brighton could not meet all of the needs Medtronic required. He stated New Brighton could not afford to go any further and negotiations fell through. • Eric Bakke, 5250 Jeffery Drive, presented a petition from 135 students from Irondale objecting to this proposal. He stated the high school students cared about the golf course. He noted the golf course benefited youth in that it taught golf, fitness, and healthy living. He stated the golf course also provided the youth with something. He indicated this business would not generate people coming into the City to do something on a Friday night or weekend. He stated it was hard to believe that $100,000 would "save" the Mounds View schools. He noted Mounds View was no Edina and he did not believe Medtronic employees would move into the City, but would move to surrounding cities. He asked what the salary range was for the new employees and asked what the average household value in Mounds View was. City Administrator Ulrich responded the average salary at Medtronic, excluding executives would be $70,200 per job and the average household median value household in the City was $168,000 to $170,000. Dan Mueller, 8343 Groveland Road, hoped the Council/EDA had not already made up their minds and had listened to all of the residents. He expressed concern about the increase in traffic. He stated if the City wanted to pick up an extra $44,000 in taxes, why not take some of this land for house lots and collect taxes that way. He stated the City needed a grocery store and other businesses including restaurants and not more drug stores. He stated if his taxes only went down $1.00 per year, he would rather subsidize the golf course and see the wildlife instead of large buildings and parking lots. Ms. Kvilvang noted this was not only the $43,000 annually in taxes, but that the first year there would be a 6 million dollar surplus brought into the City. • Dennis Hammes, 5511 Quincy Street, expressed concerns about traffic and noise. He stated the City would need to hire additional police officers and suggested Medtronic fund these extra