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TO: Grandview Townhome Association Residents FROM: Stew Thornley, President, Grandview Townhome Association January 3,2001 Some of you received a notice about this from the city already, but we wanted to make sure all residents were aware of what is happening with the vacant lot along Lexington Avenue, just to the west of our development. Officially, it is the property at 2330 Lexington Avenue: Lot 4, Block 1, Rose of Sharon 2nd Addition, Ramsey County, Minnesota (pID: 1129233200050). An outfit called McKinley Companies has requested a "Comprehensive Land Use Plan Amendment (High Density Residential to Business), a Rezoning (Single Family to Planned Unit Development with a base zoning of B-1, Limited Business District), and Planned United Development 'General Concept Plan review of a five-unit office condominium development.'" The city sent me a copy of the application, which includes a narrative description that gives us a little better idea of what to expect. Here it is: The proposed site as seen in the site plans preserves the existing trees, making landscaping in character with the existing conditions. Drainage on the site goes to the northeast corner of the lot, which is the low point of the lot where the natural run-off occurs. The architecture is in likeness to Kinderberry Hill pre-school and the multi- family project (Grandview townhomes) with gabled roof trusses, wood material siding, asphalt shingles, and brick. The new office/condos will be complimentary to its neighbors. The traffic being created enters into the same entrance as Kinderberry Hill. The building will have a maximum of five different businesses creating a potential of seven personnel per unit, making a small impact on traffic compared to Kinderberry Hill. Because the office/condo complex is office use, the noise impact will simply be car traffic and waste management at the north end of the building. The parking lot will have five proposed lights that will be designed in such a way to avoid interference with traffic on Lexington Avenue. The demand for this type of office/condo project is great. Considering the research, this type of product has been successful in municipalities, including Roseville on Hamline Avenue and Little Canada on Rice Street. Many small firms like attorneys, accountants, marketing groups, financial consultants, and internet companies find that owning their own space is an asset to the bottom line. Overall, this doesn't sound too bad, although there are still a lot of issues to be addressed and questions to be answered. One deals with drainage so that we don't end up with additional run-off in our development. A bigger issue involves traffic and the possibility of getting more unauthorized vehicles cutting through our development, especially since they plan on using the side road off Lexington Avenue, as the daycare