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From: MN To: Vigagan BCgkm.9n Cc: StanHar sp tead;David Grant;holdenW240aol.com;FranH116Cc)aol.com;Dave McClung Subject: Proposed Zoning Code Amendment,Planning Case No. 10-009 Date: Wednesday,September 01,2010 8:10:14 AM September 1, 2010 City of Arden Hills Attn: Planning Commission and City Council Members c/o Meagan Beekman,City Planner 1245 W Highway 96 Arden Hills MN 55112 Re: Proposed Zoning Code Amendment Planning Case 10-009 Dear Ms. Beekman, Planning Commission and City Council Members: As part of the upcoming Planning Commission public hearing,we wish to respond to the legal notice published August 25,2010, in the Bulletin on the above-referenced matter. We are opposed to the zoning code amendment and proposed permitted, permanent use as outlined in the notice for Case 10-009. We feel the proposed use would not serve the residents of Arden Hills, nor would it provide a valuable use for its residents or the community at-large. We appreciate that the economic times of today are not favorable to development properties, but reacting to a proposal such as this by allowing its passage we feel does not serve the city or its residents long term. We want our city leaders to have a vision for the city that is cohesive,and in that vision the knowledge of who its residents are and the needs of those residents, not a fragmented use of properties just to get something in. When visiting other local cities we see where sundry of uses were allowed in years past,then finally the cities implemented planned development with exemplary results.The city of Arden Hills has an opportunity to commit to planned development in the present and in the future,a blank slate if you will, not to follow how actions were taken in the past, not to react to a first proposal such as this. One example of a community use for the NW corner of County Road E and Lexington Avenue,and one we feel would draw residents and visitors to our downtown area and perhaps solve the library location issue, is a facility such as Woodbury Central Park. Have you been there?We urge you to visit it before you make a decision on the proposed use Case 10-009.A link to its website is provided here: Woodbury's Central Park.Woodbury's description of its purpose behind the development of Central Park could easily describe Arden Hills': "Central Park... is a multi-use indoor park that provides a focal point that establishes the City Center area as the heart of our city. Woodbury will never have the conventional sort of downtown that brought people together in the older cities. But the park,which links to the Washington County branch library and the YMCA,and houses School