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In June 2009, a maj ority of the City Council voted to pursue a concept of creating a new regional <br />park on the TCAAP property. The City Council held a j oint meeting with the Ramsey County <br />Board of Commissioners the regional park authority in October 2009 to discuss the idea. <br />While the County opted to not pursue turning TCAA.P into a regional park, they did direct their <br />staff to work with the City to determine if a portion of the TCAAP property could benefit the <br />regional park system. <br />Since at least the planning discussions with Congressman Vento, the TCAAP reuse plans have <br />included a Wildlife Corridor connecting the Rice Creek area to the National Guard property, <br />which is the Arden Hills Army Training Site (AHATS). More recently and with unanimous <br />support from the City Council, Ramsey County is pursuing two additional land transfers from the <br />TCAAP property to enhance the regional system (Attachment A): <br />• Rice Creek South Regional Trail Corridor (29 acres) — This approximately 150 foot wide <br />trail corridor is proposed to connect the Highway 96 Regional Trail to the Rice Creek <br />North Regional Trail that runs along both sides of Rice Creek. <br />• Trailhead Corridor/Primer Tracer Area (76.5 acres) — The County is working with the <br />National Guard and Army to create a trailhead for possible seasonal recreational access to <br />the AHATS. All or a portion of the primer tracer area is likely to be transferred to <br />Ramsey County and any portion that is not transferred to Ramsey County may be <br />removed from the public auction process entirely. The previous planning discussions <br />with the developer did not include any development on the primer tracer area. <br />If all three land transfers take place, the TCAAP developable area would be reduced by about 29. <br />The Wildlife Corridor and the Primer Tracer area had already been designated as park and open <br />space. Of the 585 acres of excess property, there would be approximately 431 acres available for <br />redevelopment. <br />When the master planning process started in 2007 in conjunction with the offer to purchase the <br />TCAA.P property, the City was working with a developer and held a reasonable belief that the <br />property was going to be redeveloped in the near future. Because of those circumstances, the <br />City needed to create a detailed master plan, in part to evaluate the economics of the proj ect. <br />While the City had significant discussions on such topics as land use layouts, design options, and <br />parks, no plans were finalized or adopted by the City. Moreover, none of the plans were <br />translated into a format that could be incorporated into City zoning regulations. <br />The information collected during the previous planning discussions will likely be a resource for <br />the zoning process and future planning discussions. However, finalizing a detailed master plan <br />prior to the auction would be difficult due to a number of open questions. At this point, the City <br />does not have a development partner or development timeline. The cost of environmental <br />remediation has not been finalized, which may impact the development layout and capacity. <br />Crucial road intersection improvements are needed, which also impacts the development <br />capacity of the property. Finally, until the sale price is known, the economics of the proj ect and <br />City ofArden Hills <br />C: IDocuments and Settingslbecky.brazyslLocal Settingsl Temporary Internet FileslOLKl SFI031710 - EDC Memo - TCAAP Planning Process <br />(2). doc <br />Page 3 of 8 <br />