CCP 08-14-1995 - Laserfiche WebLink

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u I I Key City Several key issues are to be faced in the next six months. As mentioned, one of these, beginning immediately, is TCAAP. Another is total review of City Codes and Issues Ordinances,Some are outmoded, occasionally they conflict with one another, and I they do not represent a true. Cl'>!Ilprehensive Plan to guide governance and growth. The changes may help eliminate misunderstandings like that which fueled the County Road E2 Townhome brouhaha. (Some residents would like to see a.buffer'zone around wetlands included; today there is none.) I Did you know that Arden Hills is a debt-free city; one of very few? We have a Money history of conscientious fiscal stewardship by our officials. Of local property taxes, I Matters! only 13.3% goes to the City. We remain solidly in the lowest 113 of cities ranked by capacity rate. The city faces difficult decisions beginning in the next six months. Arden I Hills currently receives no State LGA aid to Cities. If the Novak bill is enacted basing aid on home values, we will likely go negative, with our tax dollars being given to other cities! If the legislature enacts the property tax freeze, it will further restrict the City's ability to issue bonds to support development. Some difficult I decisions lie ahead. The big, We hear some City Hall residents and visitors would welcome him if he could truly I huff and puff and blow the building down. The process has started to address major bad wolf physical problems and cost issues related to the City buildings. The roof leaks and there is bug infestation in the carpet in City Hall, and there are ventilation problems in I the Public works building. Meetings are held in New Brighton's City Hall for lack of adequate facilities. Visitors in the spring are treated to a dousing with water when they open the front door (hardly a way to I lcome potential new neighbors or businesses). Furniture needs replacement due to age and to the need for an gonometrically correct workplace - this is past due, but has been delayed because new furniture faces water damage from the leaky roof. The City needs to decide how much to spend on a building that has become too I small for the City's needs and is of limited future value. Maybe the vision of a new facility on TCAAP property is too indefmite for realistic planning. I New HOM Leather and Oak Furniture has expressed a strong desire to relocate their Neighbors? corporate office to 12 acres at the northeast comer of 35W and 694. The new facility would include a distribution center to serve all their stores, and an attached retail I sales area. They don't fit what some envision as the "ideal" corporate facility, something more like Land 0' Lakes. However, there are far fewer of those ideal facilities being built today, I HOM is interested now, and they would provide and additional $250,000 to the tax base. One problem is that Everest, the developer who partnered with Arden Hills on this site, reportedly was unwilling even to communicate with HOM. HOM came to the City Council to express their frustration, and it seems most I Council Members shared the feeling. The relationship with Everest was terminated and HOM is now dealing directly with the city. The remaining problem: the total site for current and future development is basically a cul-de-sac with the only entrance (at Highway 96 near 35W) able to support limited tctal traffic. I Some still question if HOM is one of the right pieces for this development puzzle. It Could With decisions pending on planning and growth issues (and with some frustrations I surfacing regarding the process), it is interesting to think of what Arden Hills might Have Been... have been like had previous Planners and Council Members made different choices in I the early years of city development. The NW comer of 35W & E2, overlooking Farrell ake, could have first been a gas station, then a 5 story hotel. The NE corner of New Brighton Rd & Co Rd E might have been a 234 unit apartment. Surrounding Valentine Hills School, from the Soo Line tracks to E2 I