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Roseville City Hall Attn: Roseville City Council 2660 Civic Center Drive Roseville MN 55113 Subject: Roseville Twin Lake Area Redevelopment Proposal - Big Box Retail Complex Currently Proposed by Developers Dear Roseville City Council: I am writing to you as a concemed citizen of the city of Roseville. I am extremely opposed to the "Big Box Retail Complex" currently being proposed by the developers for the Twin Lake Area. I live at 1858 W County Rd C-2. Our property directly backs up against the proposed redevelopment area. I am very disappointed that I was not informed of this process by my city council. This project affects my neighborhood far more directly than the rest of the city and you are elected by us to look out for our best interest We purchased our lot approximately seven years ago. At that time I was concemed about development in this area so I looked into the city development plan. The plan did not include any large retail complex. I grew up in Roseville and after I married we looked all over the Twin Cities area and decided that we liked Roseville the best. We put a lot of quality and much personal sweat effort into our home intending to stay for many years. The main issues I am opposed to with regard to this plan are: traffic and financing. According to the traffic study, traffic will increase substantially in the area. However, the numbers they give are for cars per day. I believe the time of day these cars will be on the road is far more important than how many more per day as an average. Retail will increase traffic when Roseville residents are at home, or trying to get home or trying to leave home to get to after work activities with their children etc. I believe that this plan requires far too much of my public money to finance. In a time of economic uncertainty, Roseville has already taken on a huge financial responsibility with the City Hall addition, the schools can never seem to get enough money, the state is keeping more and more money from the cities forcing them to raise revenues from other places and now some developers want us to go out on a limb financially for them. As I see it there is very little risk for them and too much for us. If the project succeeds we live with the traffic, noise and any other problems for as long as we live here and they make a lot of money and live someplace else. If it fails then we are on the financial hook and there is no way we can afford to try again. As a lifelong resident and taxpayer of Roseville I urge you to seriously consider all the issues carefully. Please do not cave in to the pressures of big business, rather stand up for the Roseville residents and push for what is really in the best interest of the city. The planned development does not make sense to me. How can you use a Big Box retail store to support town homelhigh density housing? If you live in an apartment or town home you probably don't have the storage space or large family to purchase large quantities of household goods. Also, yard care and home maintenance, are handled by Associations, not individuals who would consume yard care products. In addition people who can afford to live in upscale high density housing in Roseville are most likely not going to want to work a part time retail job paying slightly more than minimum wage.