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. . . ARDEN HILLS REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES JULY 26, 2004 5 Councilmember Larson stated his concern was not with extensions, but what North Heights had proposed and what they had dealt with in other extensions, He indicated when Council acted on those other extensions it was the Council's understanding that the applicant intended to perform within a certain period of time, where North Heights was requesting an unreasonable period of time, He stated he did not want the City to be used in a speculative manner. He believed what the church was doing was speculative, He stated extensions were important, but he wanted some type of an indication that applicants intended to go forward and do something within a reasonable time rrame, Mayor Aplikowski disagreed with Councilmember Larson's comments, She stated North Heights did intend to do something and she did not see anything wrong with them coming to the City to see if what they were proposing was feasible and then raising the money, She asked how the Council wanted the City to be viewed, Did they want to take a firm stand or be more flexible? She stated she wanted the City to be flexible and open to new projects coming in, especially with TCAAP coming, Councilmember Grant stated an owner of a parcel of property had the right to develop the property as long as it followed the City Codes, He noted an owner also had a right not to develop their property if they chose not to, Mayor Aplikowski asked how long of a period of time should an applicant have to keep extending the plan before Council did not allow any more extensions. Councilmember Grant replied he believed 48 months was reasonable, as long as a second extension had a public hearing. Councilmember Rem stated there were a few large non-profit entities in the City and they needed to realize that these types of entities needed time to raise funds for their developments, She askcd the City to maintain some flexibility in this process, Mr. Clark stated staff could look at this again and come up with some type of an end process, He stated he was not sure there was a solution to Councilmember Larson's concerns, Councilmember Larson stated he was not against extension requests, He realized it was important for businesses to see if a development they wanted to build was feasible and maybe the City should be looking at some type of a concept plan for these types of developments without going any further until applicant was ready to build, Mr. Clark asked what period of time that would be deemed to be reasonable, Councilmember Larson stated he was interested in what happened up rront. Mr. Filla stated the City could revise their completed application standard to include the concerns Councilmember Larson had outlined, including an intention to develop, However, if they were going to grant extensions, at some point they needed to look at changes in law, and they should include criteria for requested extensions and the applicant should agree to comply