2002-06-26 CC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Group 1 - Citv Council Perspective You are one of the four city councilmembers. Karen Anderson is your Mayor, and will be presiding over the Thursday afternoon meeting. This whole development has been quite a political headache for you. Like most people in Prairie Ridge, you were delightfully surprised to learn that an upscale developer was interested in doing a major project in the community. The polluted lake and declining downtown have been sources of community frustration for years. Despite the best laid plans, no progress has been made. This development seems like the shot in the arm that might get the community back on the right track. But the issues are complicated. The community is divided. Most residents seem to welcome the development, but the nearby historic neighborhood has some serious concerns about traffic and loss of character. They've been calling you regularly INSISTING that the size of the development be scaled back and that more effort be made to preserve existing housing. . In the meantime, the local newspaper has endorsed the project as proposed, and suggested that the Council and the community need to move into the 21st century. Some of the callers have gotten pretty obnoxious and offensive. Two of you (the' councilmembers) have families that have been in Prairie Ridge for decades and understand the desire not to lose the small town feel. The other two of you moved from St. Paul just a few years ago, but feel that you have made an investment in the community and frankly, are getting tired of being labeled as outsider yuppies! The council gets along well together and all of you are agreed you'd like to see the community come together around a common vision rather than continuing the us vs. them attitude! Two of you are up for reelection this Fall and there are already rumors of opposition candidates if this development project goes "the wrong way." You'd like to make everyone happy. But based on conversations with city staff you know this development is pretty risky for the developer. Make too many demands, and they'll probably look for a different site in another community, or even worse, build it in the surrounding township where most of the new development seems to be going anyway! Please do not share the information on this sheet with students in the other work groups.