06-30-14-R - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION APRIL 21, 20143 While the property is owned by the Pamela Couch Trust and the JGC Trust, under the terms of the lease, Walgreens is responsible for paying all property taxes, including special assessments. The lease agreement also obligates the Trusts to support Walgreens in their appeal of any taxes. The trustee is concerned that by agreeing to waive their right to appeal, the Trusts could be put in a position where they are not able to fulfill the terms of the lease if Walgreens were to appeal the B-2 District streetscape improvement assessments. Associate Planner Bachler stated that other than these two items, the Amended and Revised Development Agreement accurately reflects the conditions and approvals as approved by the City Council in Planning Case 09-011, Planning Case 10-008, Planning Case 11-016, and Planning Case 13-010. It should be noted that several conditions included in the previously approved agreements that were subsequently satisfied by the property owners have been removed from the revised agreement. Associate Planner Bachler explained that due to the substantive changes that have been proposed, formal approval of the Arden Plaza Amended and Restated Development Agreement by the City Council will be required. Staff has shared a draft version of the Agreement with the Arden Plaza property owners and they do not have any additional objections. Following City Council review of the document, the City Attorney will complete a property title search to ensure that all relevant individuals and entities sign the document. The agreement would then be brought to the City Council for final approval. Staff requested that the Council provide feedback. Mayor Grant summarized that when the Trust bought this property they never saw the agreement backing them because it was never filed. Associate Planner Bachler stated that this was the case. He reported that the Trust supports the document, except for one condition. He noted that the current draft has been reviewed by Arden Plaza, LLC and the Trust. Mayor Grant asked how the City failed to file the four documents and questioned what steps staff will be taking to ensure this does not happen in the future. Associate Planner Bachler explained that with the four documents related to Planning Cases 09- 11, 10-08 and 11-16, there was an attempt to record them with the County in February of 2012. However, they were not recorded properly and therefore did not show up on a title search. He reported that he was not on City staff at the time and was not certain why the documents were recorded with such a delay, following the previous approval. City Attorney Jamnik stated that part of the problem could be that the project was a moving target, where the developer was continually changing plans. There was discussion about revisions and changes, which necessitated another plan. The plans should have been recorded or filed, and for some reason, they were not. He reported that this was not much of a problem unless the properties changed hands. Mayor Grant stated that if the forms had been filed properly in February of 2012, then the Trust would have seen all of this information when they purchased the property in October of 2012.