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Splitting up lots creating ill will Page 2 of 3 Some cities, such as Bloomington, have passed restrictions to keep super-size houses from dw�rfrr�g older suburban homes. Those restrictions have reduced the number of subdivision requests, said Bob Hawbaker, Bloomington's planning manager. Roseville has at least 10C� large lots in the city that potentially could be divided into multiple home sites, said Jamie Radel, a city economic development official. Roseville City Council Member Amy Ihlan said she wants to slow the pace of subdivision before the city loses all its larger lots, along with its green space and diversity of housing options. "People will just move to the outer-ring suburbs to get the larger lots," Ihlan said. A neighborhood divide Mueller, who submitted his project before the Roseville moratorium, got preliminary approval and will probably receive final approval soon. That's bad news for James Kilau, who bought the 2-acre lot next to Mueller's 16 years ago and said the proposed cul-de-sacwould "ruin the whole atmosphere" of the neighborhood. "I came here for the privacy of the whole neighborhood, not just my lot. And I paid a lot of money for that," Kilau said. "It`s just a shame. I'�I have to move farther out to find something like I have." But Mueller said that if he didn't divide his lot, the next owner would. "Why not me? Why shouldn't I get the benefit?" he asked. Mueller, whose father became Roseville's first mayor in 1948 after he and a group of farmers created the village, is proud of the neighborhood with its towering pines and turkeys, ducks, deer and pheasants. "You would swear you were up north," said Mueller, who raised four children there. That probably won't change, he said. Darrel LeBarron, a neighbor who supports Mueller's project and belongs to the Roseville advisory group that is studying lot subdivisions, said he may eventually want to subdivide his own 2-acre lot. He argues that the neighborhood's ponds and wetlands will naturally protect Acorn Road's ambiance. "You don't build houses on muck," he said. LeBarron, who has a vested interest in the outcome of the advisory group's study, wants to keep the status quo or reduce Roseville's relatively large � 9,0�0- square-foot minimum lot size, which was set in the late 1950s. "f�we don't get lot sizes down, then we can kiss tF�e school district goodbye h[1��,'ti��w. �iartri h�sr�,��i2,+v-pri n��sa�kr}�? 1 1 1�93�. �Irn] �� I fi�? ��