INFORMATION #3 08-18-1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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IN DEVELOPer'S ATH Star Tri3une Photo by M~e Zerby The Krueger Tree Farm has been divided Into a housing development On the left and a Menards store on the right. A few pine trees grace the remain- lng land, which is still classified as agricultural for property tax purposes.' .DeveloPment along highwaY leads to a farm's farewell pay higher commercial p~operty taxes rather than agricultural rates for the preceding three years. And they would have had. to pay sewer and water hookup charges for any subdivided lots. The family ~ituation was an- other factor. Their five kids.were grown and long gone. Al, who is now 71, had retired from Ander- sen in 1983 and had a pension. He was worried about those potential assessments. "I didn't want a ,big lien on the property,' he said. Even if it was time to get out of the tree-farming business, they didn't want to see the land that had been part of their lives for so many years just carved up and paved over. The Kruegers thought about donating 'the 37 acres ,of oak woods to a preservation group or to the school. But Al said none of the nonprofit groups could afford to build a fence around it. The new school eventually turned the adjoining part of the woods that the Kern family had saved into. an · environmental learning center. While four of the Kruegers' chil- dren supported their parents' decision to sell, Nell wanted them to donate the woods to the school because it would lose part of its tax base to Oak Park Heights, whose City Council wants to annex the land. And Baytown Township would rather merge with Lake Elmo. The Minnesota Municipal Board will decide the issue. Rick Packer, a project manager with Arcon Development Inc., one of the developers of the Krueger property and a member of the Metropolitan Council, said he has little sympathy.for those who con- tend the area should not be devel- oped. With a growing population in the metropolitan area, housing has to be built somewhere, and it has to be accompanied by expan- sion of commercial enterprise such as shopping centers and gov- ernment services such as schools for the people who live there, he said. "Those Washington County cities and townships could have said, 'We don't want to grow.' If that happened~ the schoo! would have gone elsewhere. The prob- lem- if you want to call it a prob- lem- wouldn't go away, it would go elsewhere," Packer said. Barbara O'Neal, mayor of Oak Park Heights when the land was and use it as a tax ......... .. ..................... ;. annexed for the write-off. His wife, , Debbie, wanted them ~l~you ha~l to donate the whole ~ 100 acres to be used as your druthers~ ' a pa~rk,. :. ............ ,, '" you'd still be · - :oeooie said It ...... wasn't our decision'to lgPgng there, make, but we still own but yOU our feelings about it," She has since criti- up your mind cized the developers t~nd time goes and the city for the way the 64-acre pot- on." tion was cleared and school, said that devel- opment of the Hwy. 36 corridor . "was inevitable." Steve Russell, Still- water's, community development director, agreed: "We're the ser- vice area for people who are moving to the rural areas of Wash- ington County and Wisconsin." But Ronning of the the house and trees -- Elaine. Krueger Land Stewardship Pro- burned. She appeared ject said if there were at a City Council meet- ing recently to revisit complaints that City Administra- tor Mike Robertson said already had been answered. Debbie is passionate, even an- gry, about what happened. "Peo- ple say I'm vindictive," she said in an interview. "I'm not. It's the healing process." Westward mardh The development, westward along the Hwy..36 corridor has not stopped. There's the Menards under construction on part of the former Krueger land and a Rain- bow Foods store and a strip mall are being built just west of there. Eight landowners who own most of the 235 acres from HWY. ~ west to the border with Lake Elmo are seeking annexation by Oak Park Heights. so they can hook up to the water and sewer service and develop their land. But 24 landowners who own the rest of the land oppose the annexation -- either because they run companies that don't need expensive municipal services or because they want to protect what they regard as a rural lifestyle. Bay- tighter controls :on development in the metropolitan area, then that sub- urban growth would not have occurred and the commercial strip along HWY. 36 and the new high school would not have been needed. The question remains: If a farm is surrounded by commer- cial development, is there any point in preventing it from being developed? "If you're talking about Plan- ning 101 and concentric growth and efficient use of the land, 'no.' But if you're talking about quality of life and aesthetics, 'yes,' "Ron- ning said. Al 'and Elaine Krueger have lived through the pressures. But they are tired of remembering it. "If you had your druthers, you'd still be living there, but you .make up your mind and time goes on," Elaine said. --A home video of the Kruegers' tree farm is available' online at http://www, startribune, com. In it, the family talks about the joys and daily routine of running the business.