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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION – APRIL 20, 2015 4 Community Development Director Hutmacher reviewed the comments provided by Mary Bujold with Maxfield with regard to density within the three neighborhoods. She reported that Ms. Bujold was recommending more NB-2 and suggested slightly smaller and fewer lots in NB-1. Councilmember Holden indicated that the Council would have to decide what it wanted to see in the Creek neighborhood, whether this means 64 larger lots with ample room for homes or dropping the lot size to increase the density. She explained that the Council would have to determine if it really wanted to reach the 1480 unit number. Mayor Grant wanted the Creek and Hill neighborhoods to resemble a suburban style neighborhood. He explained that the majority of Arden Hills’ lots were 85 to 95 feet wide. Councilmember Woodburn agreed, stating that he wanted to see the City build TCAAP in the way that they wanted. Councilmember Holden expressed frustration that the City was being asked to ignore the previous Maxfield studies and their findings. She believed that the County was taking TCAAP in an entirely different direction than the previous findings. Mayor Grant did not think it would be wise to ignore these earlier findings. Councilmember Holden recommended that the Council go back and reread the findings from the most recent (2013) Maxfield study. Councilmember McClung stated that his vision for TCAAP was to reach the upper bookmark with regard to density. He wanted to see TCAAP to be a high class, different destination that drew people to the site. He was hoping that a high-caliber development would take shape. He anticipated that higher density would lead to more mass transit options. He wanted to see high grade commercial development, along with retail, which also required density. He supported Fit Test Option 2 as he believed this closely aligned with this vision. Councilmember Holden indicated that the County has committed $1.7 million to the water feature. She believed that density would not ensure that TCAAP was a destination. She stated that the retail that decided to locate within the development is what would make TCAAP a destination. She recommended that the sustainability of the development be considered more valuable than it being high-class. She did not want to see the Council focusing too much on a certain density level given the fact that mass transit would not be guaranteed. She did not want to see the lots in the Hill and Creek neighborhoods to be too crammed together. She wanted to see these neighborhoods be special or unique and not typical. Councilmember Holmes was in favor of getting rid of the 110-foot wide lots in the Creek neighborhood. She believed that this was too wide. Councilmember Woodburn thought that the design in TCAAP was inconsistent with the rest of Arden Hills. It was his opinion that the density should be reconsidered. He would like to see the Town Center area pushed in between the commercial and industrial areas towards Highway 10,