CCWS 03-28-2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORKSESSION MINUTES MARCH 28, 2005 PAGE 4 OF 5 . Mr. Barr stated he wanted to make sure they were doing this right and were achieving the goals the City wanted, as well as not exposing the City to unacceptable levels of risk. He asked if the City was committed to using up to 70 Million in TIF for this project, or was there a value judgment Councilmembers held in the back of their mind. Councilmember Grant stated he wanted a quality development, but he was not sure they all had the same vision as to what quality was. He indicated the water feature was an important feature for him. He stated he wanted to shoot for something high and not low. Mayor Aplikowski agreed with Councilmember Grant's comments. She also believed the water feature was important. She noted whatever they did, it needed to be done in a quality way incorporating work force housing. Ms. Wolfe noted an important point to keep in mind was Council could revise the plan if they were not comfortable with the amount ofTIF financing. Councilmember Holden stated she did not have any questions. Mayor Aplikowski stated they had to stop saying this was not going to cost the current residents of Arden Hills any money ever. She noted this would not be a separate City and there would be . opportunities that would benefit everybody. She indicated the development cost would not be carried by the existing residents, but the operating cost to the City could bear some future burden to all residents in the City. Councilmember Larson stated he was comfortable with the goal of not burdening the existing taxpayers with the cost of the development. However, he noted every decision Council made was not limited to the people who benefit from it and that was how this City developed. He indicated they needed to recognize that in the future there would probably be a windfall once the TIF period ended because of this proj ect. Therefore, the best goal would be to limit levy increases to the rate of inflation. Mr. Kunkel stated the EDC was struggling with the aging connnunity and there are a lot of people living on fixed incomes and they needed to be aware of those things as they moved forward. He stated it was the desire of the EDC that those taxpayers are not burdened. He indicated they needed to put their best effort forward in trying to achieve that. Councilmember Grant believed Councilmember Larson's comments were good if this TIF district was five years or less, but this was being proposed as a 26 year TIF district. Councilmember Larson stated he wanted a high quality development and if they expected this high quality, they would need to pay for that value. . 4