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<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Last update: April 12, 2007 - 9:39 PM <br /> <br />Splitting up lots creating ill will <br /> <br />Tougher restrictions could slow the rush to divide older, large single-family <br />lots. <br /> <br />By <br /> <br /> <br />Star Tribune <br /> <br />Art Mueller has meticulously tended his wooded 2 acres in Roseville since he <br />built his house there in 1949. But his plan to carve out a cul-de-sac along Acorn <br />Road so he can divide his property into four lots has some neighbors up in <br />arms. <br /> <br />Mueller says he wants to make the most of his property's prime real estate <br />value, but his critics say he will destroy the rural setting of their neighborhood. <br />"It's created some bad feelings," said Mueller, 82, a plain-spoken real estate <br />developer who will keep one of the four newly created lots for his house and sell <br />the other three. "People just don't like change." <br /> <br />It's a neighborhood feud that is erupting frequently in some of the more <br />developed cities and suburbs in the metro area: Homeowners with larger tracts <br />of land are chopping them up to maximize their land values. <br /> <br />The bottom line for Mueller is that it's his land and his project meets city code. <br />But Roseville officials, wondering whether they need to slow down what is <br />commonly called lot splitting, imposed a gO-day moratorium on subdivisions to <br />study the issue; it expires at the end of April. <br /> <br />In the end, officials say, it's about finding the right balance between a <br />homeowner's property rights and the rights of the neighborhood at large. <br /> <br />"There's not a lot of open land anymore," said Julie Wischnack, Minnetonka city <br />planner. "And the land that is open is either a lake, a wetland or there's an <br />interstate in the way." <br /> <br />Land rush <br /> <br />It's not just a suburban issue. In 2002, St. Paul received 56 applications to <br />subdivide lots. The next year, that number jumped to 106 and then to 114 in <br />2005, said St. Paul planning administrator Larry Soderholm. When the real <br />estate market softened last year, it dipped to 95 requests. <br /> <br />Minnetonka receives a steady steam of requests from homeowners who want to <br />split their lots, Wischnack said. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br /> <br />