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Project Status Memo 5 <br />Alatus’ plan would increase the tax value “significantly,” Lux said. <br />“We believe with the development we are proposing that we will increase the value … in the <br />hundreds of millions of dollars, if we can execute on it the way that we’re planning, the way that <br />this team has committed to doing,” he told planners. <br />The Joint Development Authority, Arden Hills City Council and Alatus will continue to meet <br />through September to iron out the details before a final draft is released. As of Tuesday, the <br />developer was already beginning to refine plans in response to the feedback Alatus received, Lux <br />said in a statement Tuesday. <br />But not all parts of Alatus’ draft proposal Monday elicited concern from planners. The developer <br />wants to create a walkable environment with an underground parking system throughout the <br />town center and hopes to attract a bus rapid transit line to the site to draw more tenants and <br />visitors. <br />A pedestrian-friendly bridge would be built over a major road that runs through the development <br />to keep the site feeling like one cohesive development. The stream running though the property <br />would be fashioned similar to the Chain of Lakes in Minneapolis, which includes lakes Harriet <br />and Calhoun, with bike trails that connect to other regional paths. <br />Lux likened the proposed town center to St. Louis Park’s West End shopping and entertainment <br />center, but noted that the developer was taking lessons from the commercial development to <br />make the Rice Creek Commons even better. <br />“When you drive by [West End] they’re putting up six-story, after six-story, after six-story <br />development, and that to me is not very exciting,” he said. “It’s not looking at it in a visionary <br />fashion … and none of this plan is designed as just building a building.” <br />Alatus is working with RSP Architects on the project, which also designed the West End <br />development and is helping to distill those lessons, Lux said. <br />David Sand, chair of the Joint Development Authority, said Monday he was on board with the <br />principles Alatus is using for the first phase of development. <br />“That is a good mix of development that will attract people that live there in close residential <br />[neighborhoods], plus people … who want to utilize the commercial and recreation area,” he <br />said.