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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes <br />September 10, 2019 <br />Page 4 <br /> <br />additional greenspace and requested the Council take this into consideration. He then provided 1 <br />the Council with a 3D model of the proposed housing development noting the construction 2 <br />would take approximately 21 months to complete. 3 <br /> 4 <br />Councilmember Stille requested further information regarding the parking. Mr. Doran stated it 5 <br />was his experience the proposed number (1.65) was a good number. 6 <br /> 7 <br />Mayor Faust opened the floor for public comment. 8 <br /> 9 <br />Jamie Voss 3417 31st Avenue, explained his family has been St. Anthony residents since 2015 10 <br />and commented on how there was a growing need for affordable housing in the metro area. He 11 <br />researched affordable housing on the Met Council website and was surprised to learn St. 12 <br />Anthony had added 415 housing units since 2005 but only three were categorized as affordable. 13 <br />He encouraged the Council to consider adding affordable housing to the community through this 14 <br />development. 15 <br /> 16 <br />Councilmember Stille stated he was not sure where Mr. Voss had received his information. He 17 <br />reported 20% of the units within Silver Lake Village were affordable at 50% AMI. He explained 18 <br />The Legends development was 100% affordable and that was completed in 2010. He indicated 19 <br />the City had completed a number of affordable housing projects in recent years and noted the 20 <br />Council has made this a priority. 21 <br /> 22 <br />Mike Bird, 3416 Edward Street, stated he did not want more tax subsidized housing in St. 23 <br />Anthony. He believed that affordable housing was another name for tax payer subsidized 24 <br />housing. He explained he moved into the bottom of a 60-year-old duplex when he was a student 25 <br />and began saving money for a house. Mr. Bird did not believe it was the government’s job to 26 <br />subsidize housing for residents. He reported St. Anthony was one of the highest taxed 27 <br />municipalities in the State of Minnesota and he did not want his taxes going even higher. 28 <br /> 29 <br />Lindsey Kieffaber, 3108 Wendhurst Avenue, commented on the grade changes that would occur 30 <br />on the proposed development. She asked if additional parking could go under the amenity deck 31 <br />in order to eliminate some of the surface parking. She encouraged Doran Companies to 32 <br />reconsider the 20-foot retaining wall and questioned what impact the City would see tax-wise by 33 <br />changing this property from commercial to residential. 34 <br /> 35 <br />Mayor Faust reported the property was currently valued at $14 million with a 2% tax capacity 36 <br />and residential was at a 1% tax capacity. He indicated the value of this property would be closer 37 <br />to $80 million or even higher after the project was completed, which would increase taxes 38 <br />received for the City. 39 <br /> 40 <br />Mr. Doran commented on the proposed retaining wall and noted the site would have 1:1 parking 41 <br />under the building. He explained if this ratio were to increase, the costs would become 42 <br />misaligned and rents would have to go up. He stated the taxes being paid on this site currently 43 <br />were $500,000 and Phase I of this development would net $1 million per year in taxes. He 44 <br />estimated over $2 million a year in taxes would be paid once the development was complete. 45 <br /> 46 <br />4