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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes January 6, 2004 Page 5 1 property is immediately available in St. Anthony Village including commercial property. Passed 2 over was the property the taxpayers of St. Anthony Village already owned, such as the Public 3 Works site and the old Custom Liquidators (bowling alley) site located half a block south of the 4 old fire station on Kenzie Terrace. Not only was the City Council willing to pay$500,000 for 5 the Silver Lake Road site, it also took this site from the tax rolls. 6 7 Consolidation of fire operations at one central location was stated as another advantage of the 8 Silver Lake Road site. That is, the Fire Department kept one fire truck at the Public Works 9 facility because the old fire station was too small to house all the fire apparatus. The new fire 10 station design would be large enough to house all the Fire Department apparatus,regardless of 11 whether it would be located in a residential or commercial zone. The need to consolidate fire 12 operations at a central location at the expense of residential property values remains to be 13 demonstrated as a significant advantage to the community. 14 15 Reinforcing the critical nature of the site selection decision, the last advantage was that the new. 16 fire station building will be located on Silver Lake Road, in the middle of an R-1 Single-Family 17 District, for the next 50 years. The petitioners do not see that as an advantage. In fact, the 18 petitioners do not find in any of these cited `advantages' a valid reason to locate a fire station in 19 an R-1 Single-Family Residential District. 20 21 The decision by the City Council to grant a conditional use permit for a fire station at 3501/05 22 Silver Lake Road already has had devastating effects on families and homeowners in the 23 immediate vicinity, and it may be instructive for the City Council to understand these 24 unfortunate results which are all to apparent to the petitioners. 25 26 Ms. Helen Paulno, who lives at 3507 Silver Lake Road,immediately north of the fire station site 27 had plans to move to northern Minnesota and put her home up for sale last summer,but there are 28 no buyers. She says that when prospective buyers learn the City Council decided to build a fire 29 station next door, they walk away. A view of her home and the fire station site illustrates the 30 problem she faces. (Mr. Lindgren displayed a picture of Ms. Paulno.) 31 32 Across the street, Tim and Shannon Madden invested in a nice home at 3508 Silver Lake Road 33 that was built in 1989, thinking it would be a desirable place to raise their new baby, Cosette. 34 (Mr. Lindgren displayed a picture of the Madden family and asked Tim and Shannon to stand in 35 the audience.) They never dreamed the City Council would decide to build a fire station right 36 across the street, and when this happened last summer they immediately decided to move out, 37 although they had no prior plans to relocate. They had their home listed for an appraised price, 38 but the bids from prospective buyers have been substantially lower,meaning they have lost not 39 only their peaceful home setting but their home investment, as Well. 40 41 The home owners at 3516 Silver Lake Road,Darrel and Vicky Chilstrom, feel their property 42 value has been diminished because of the fire station location and are unhappy, as are other 43 property owners in the immediate vicinity who also fear that fire truck noise will invade their 44 right to privacy and who face lower property values. (Mr. Lindgren displayed a picture of the 45 Chilstroms.) They wonder if the City Council ever considered the disadvantages of locating a 46 fire station in an R-1 residential area when it was considering the advantages.