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September 3, 2011 | Page 5
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Fifty residents attended the citizen-led meeting at City Hall on Wednesday.
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“It is highly likely that these parcels could result in new development once the reconfiguration is complete,” according to Maxfield’s report on downtown marketability along County Road 21. Mullenmeister’s neighbor, Josh Johnson, also seated at the table, notices his property has been deemed “buildable” by Maxfield. “W hat makes something buildable versus unbuildable, and who makes that decision?” Mullenmeister wonders aloud. Johnson, 33, moved his family from Minneapolis to Prior Lake four years ago. He says they were seeking a small community, not a suburb, to raise their two small children. “We had heard Prior Lake was a community that had turned down big businesses to keep it a smaller town. This plan destroys all hope of remaining a small community,” Johnson says. For Mullenmeister, also 33, “economic development” is not a bad thing. She bought her home shortly after meeting her now-husband, Steve, because she wanted to be in the center of the town’s action. “I was excited about the options in downtown,” she says. “We’re young; our friends are young. We want businesses around, things to do.” The problem, say those who live along Pleasant Street and even in other parts of the city, is the message – or lack thereof – going out to residents. “This is a fl awed process,” says Pat Heaney, who has lived at 4642 Pleasant St. for 37 years. “There was not one resident of Prior Lake on Pleasant or Colorado who was involved in the process from Maxfield. They interviewed and gave a written document to every business. But we [longtime residents] know where the bones are buried. We could have looked at some other proposals.” Council members already informally rejected a proposal to build a bridge over Main Avenue, saying it was too expensive (though the cost was slightly less than the realignment option) and would hinder economic development. An $8-10 million “baseline” option also is under consideration. That plan would place a median at the County Road 21 and Main intersection, bisecting the two halves of downtown. Many business owners have spoken against this option since meetings on the project started in 2003. City and county officials have talked for years about how to reconfigure County Road 21 in anticipation of traffic increases. The county road has been extended west to Highway 169, which could bring 30,000 cars per day through downtown Prior Lake, according to a 2005 corridor study that has been criticized by some as being out-of-date. A stoplight at County Road 21 and Arcadia Avenue is planned for construction next year. City and county leaders see Arcadia as the future full access to downtown. Heaney and Mullenmeister both feel like they’re in “limboland,” as Heaney puts it, as council members prepare to make a decision that will affect Prior Lake for many years to come. Mayor Mi ke Myser says more information is coming that will help the council make its decision. On Tuesday, Sept. 6, the council will meet for a workshop to hear answers to
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‘WHAT DO YOU WANT PRIOR LAKE TO BE?’ Part of the problem residents have had wit h t he Cou nt y Road 21 proposal is not having a clear picture of what downtown would look like after the redesign. “If they supplied us with a clearer vision, we might be able to get on board with it,” Mullenmeister says. “But what’s the development they want to bring in? Is it going to be using our history and making downtown something that makes sense, or is it Faketown? What do you want Prior Lake to be?” Myser says that’s a good question. The city has a guiding document, the 2030 Vision, which city staff and council members use to make their plans. “The vision is supposed to be more general; the plans will get based on the vision,” Myser says. More specifically, Myser says he doesn’t know exactly what downtown will (or should) look like. But he understands that no matter what decision council members make about downtown, “it’s going to have a dramatic impact on our community.” Even the city’s consultants have admitted the picture of downtown Prior Lake 30 years from now isn’t crystal-clear. “It’s hard to envision how the world will look with the bypass,” said Mary Bujold, president of Maxfield Research, at a council workshop earlier this year. The proposed median at Main Avenue and County Road 21 is likely to happen whether or not the council approves the county road realignment, city leaders have said. “The median is going to set things in stone – either choice is going to set in motion a series of decisions by both businesses and residents that get made because of the way that road is going to get routed,” Myser says.
‘HISTORY OF PLACE’ In addition to residents, business owners and council members, other parties are starting to weigh in on the County Road 21 debate. This week, Kathleen Klehr, executive director of the Scott County Historical Society, sent a letter to Myser, County Commissioner Barbara Marschall and historical society board members, urging a different plan. “The proposed redesign of County Road 21 would destroy one of the oldest neighborhoods in Prior Lake,” Klehr writes. The historical society, Klehr says, rarely gets involved with road construction projects. “It is unusual,” she says of her letter. “I’ve been following this for quite awhile. My concern is it’s a historic district. If they tear it down, that’s a huge piece of Prior Lake history that will disappear.” Klehr also points out that preservation of history isn’t just about saving buildings from the bulldozer. “A lot of people seem to forget about history of place,” she says. “Preserving history of place is as important as preserving historic artifacts.” Klehr points to Prior Lake’s history as a resort town and its unusual growth pattern. “It has a very unusual history, because it didn’t grow like other cities did,” she says. “So preserving that history makes it a little bit more important to
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think about.” Though the historical society very rarely gets involved in such matters, if the state Office of Historic Preservation deems that a construction project could affect an area, Klehr says the society occasionally comments on a “Section 106 review,” which requires agencies to consider the effects of their actions on historic properties.
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‘BURDENSOME AND DISRUPTIVE’ Others share Klehr’s belief that a more tempered approach is needed for County Road 21. One of those people sits on the Prior Lake City Council. Richard Keeney, the lone council member to publicly state opposition to the realignment plan, sent an e-mail to Pleasant Street residents who orga ni zed a neighborhood meeting Wednesday night at City Hall. In the letter, read aloud by Pleasant Street homeowner John Diers, Keeney says the realignment plan is “too expensive, burdensome and disruptive to the established neighborhood. “The prudent and reasonable course of action is to make much more modest changes to 21 on an incremental basis as necessary due to changes in development and traffic,” Keeney states. Lee McGrath, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Institute of Justice, also attended Wednesday’s meeting and got residents riled up about fighting the possibility of eminent domain. McGrat h said his g roup takes on cases that could have national implications. He told homeowners that private property cannot legally be taken by eminent domain for the purpose of economic development. Though the council has not taken any action to begin eminent domain proceedings on downtown homes as part of the project, McGrath warned residents to be wary of government officials with ulterior motives. “No property in America is safe if the criteria is that somebody else will pay more in property taxes, because Target and Best Buy and Walmart will always pay more property taxes than you do and I do,” McGrath said. Though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Castle Coalition’s cause in an earlier case, in Minnesota, Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a bill approved by the Legislature and written in part by McGrath. The law states that the powers of eminent domain cannot include taking property for economic development, even if it’s under the pretext of road improvement or another public purpose.
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Scott County Historical Society Executive Director Kathleen Klehr speaks to a group of residents Wednesday night during a citizen-led meeting. Klehr wrote a letter to the city’s mayor, urging him to consider an alternative to the County Road 21 realignment, which she said will “destroy one of the oldest neighborhoods in Prior Lake.”
“They can take it for a road; they can take it for a public building. They can’t take it under the guise of either of those things for private development,” McGrath said. No Prior Lake City Council members attended the citizen meeti ng ( Mayor Mi ke Myser says he didn’t get an invite and felt he would “change the tenor” if he attended). Scott County Commissioner Barbara Marschall, however, says she felt it was important to hear what the residents had to say. “I just came to listen,” said Marschall, who attended with the county’s public works director, Lezlie Vermillion. Heaney, who has attended several meetings to voice his opposition to the realignment plan, says he took a walk through downtown Prior Lake last Sunday and got stopped all along his way by residents who wanted to talk about County Road 21. “Other communities like Lakeville, Chaska, you name it, are working to preserve their downtowns, and we’re looking to destroy ours for some fantasy development,” Heaney says. Mullenmeister, who cre ated a Facebook page last week called “No 21 Bypass,” says “Faketown” isn’t where she wants to live. “The history of my home is really important. I know a lot of the other homes that would be taken also have that kind of history,” she says. “The bypass doesn’t take into account the real soul of our community. Instead, it demolishes what people have worked so hard to create.”
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