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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 2, 2023 4 <br />Mr. Lux said the goal is to have a wide variety of for sale product and a wide variety of for rent <br />product. There is about a year to 18 months of mass grading and infrastructure before they go into <br />the ground so there will be further evolution of the product during that time. Stage one is get the <br />density decided on, get the lot sizes established, building materials finalized, and then get into the <br />mix of units. <br />Councilmember Holden stated there was a lot of positive at the open house but also a lot of <br />negative. People couldn't get their questions answered, or get up to the boards to see them. There <br />still hasn't been an Arden Hills open house to help answer questions and she thought it was <br />important. She couldn't imagine they wouldn't want to bring the community along. The closest <br />example she could give when asked about the lot sizes was Frogtown, that has 42 foot lots. Small <br />lots create connection and sidewalks but also a lot of other issues. She wondered how close the <br />houses would be to each other, and felt it was hard to support 1,960 when they don't know that. <br />They should know the lot sizes and the costs before they sign on to anything. She wondered if <br />they were sincere in having the open house to listen to what the people say or was it just an <br />exercise? Isn't it morally responsible to be honest with the people at the meeting and say they <br />don't care what they say they're going forward with it. <br />Mayor Grant said he encouraged people to fill out the survey form, a number of them said they <br />weren't going to fill it out because it was already a done deal and nobody would listen. He was <br />asked where the plan the community created with 1,460 units, but a presenter said it was gone. It <br />was disconcerting to him that they were responded to that way. He felt they community hasn't <br />been able to come along with this project. <br />Mayor Grant said as he understands it, Alatus needs to enter into an agreement with the County <br />in order to buy the property, but they don't have to sell it to him. <br />Mr. Lux explained the process would be to have the City and the County acting as the JDA do a <br />third amendment to the preliminary development agreement. The amendment is in front of the <br />County now. That will give them a period of time to re-establish terms of the land purchase. The <br />term sheet is much more involved than dollars and cents and becomes a complicated document <br />including what will be developed over what time period, what are the values that will be <br />determined on the properties, work goals and sustainability goals. <br />Mayor Grant felt they could be a welcoming community at 1,500, 1,700 or 1,900. Being a <br />welcoming community wasn't attached to a specific number of units on a particular parcel of <br />property. This will be a large development for a small community and the ability to be welcoming <br />is more about character. The word morality has been brought up a number of times and whatever <br />the number turns out to be, you could be moral in a variety of density levels; they're not being <br />immoral if they don't require home ownership or advocate for home ownership. He saw a real <br />divide at the open house, some people said the pictures are beautiful but he didn't know if they <br />were on board. There were people that were on board and people that weren't. People want houses <br />but there were also people interested in jobs on site. But sacrificing 32 acres of the business <br />district is the very jobs people need to afford houses. <br />Councilmember Fabel thought it was a wonderful open house and appreciated the efforts of <br />everyone involved. It was important to know that the 1,460 number was the subject of a full scale <br />public hearing in 2018 that included the master development agreement. A court order was <br />