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Memo/East Elk River Project <br />September 14, 1998 <br />Page 4 <br /> <br />property along the right-of-way of the project (the Kirkeide family property is <br />completely surrounded by the Brown property). <br /> <br />As the Council knows, the Trott Brook Farm residential project has been <br />approved contingent upon utilities being ordered by the City Council. The <br />Highway 169/Main Street commercial redevelopment and business park <br />project has not yet been presented for formal review at the Planning <br />Commission level. Trunk utilities need to go through this project before it <br />can get to the Trott Brook Farms project. If this commercial/business park <br />project does not move forward, then either the city needs to use its power of <br />eminent domain to get access across this property to provide utilities to the <br />Trott Brook Farms property, or, the city will have to re-evaluate trunk <br />alignments and try to go around this property. Under ideal conditions, this <br />commercial/business park project would move forward in a timely fashion to <br />accommodate the residential project, but there are still many uncertainties <br />and issues that need to be worked out regarding this project and this is <br />especially true for the commercial redevelopment component. Staff is <br />concerned about the reality of this commercial redevelopment project being <br />under construction in 1999. <br /> <br />Another concern with the project has to do with the market for business park <br />property. The large project goes down to 171st and across Highway 10. A <br />large 30+ acre business park site is coming on line (Vandenberg property), <br />but also south of the Vandenberg property is business park land which the <br />Browns own and business park land which the Eulls own. The market can <br />only absorb only so much business park property at one time and this is a <br />concern. Additionally, there is a concern about the city potentially buying <br />the Brown business park property. At this time, staff does not believe the <br />city has sufficient funds available for this acquisition. However, staff is <br />comfortable dealing with the Browns in the same manner that we are dealing <br />with the owners of the Vandenberg property. Once the city gets into the land <br />acquisition for business park sites on a major scale, then we are being forced <br />into competition with property owners we are trying to work with. This <br />makes the situation very difficult. <br /> <br />This East Elk River memo has gotten much longer than I intended, but the <br />complexities if the issue require lots of discuss and once I get started on the <br />topic, it is hard not to flow into issue after issue. Suffice to say, the project is <br />massive and complex and we need to talk about it on the 14th in preparation <br />for the public hearing on the 28th. <br /> <br />\\elkriver\sys\shrdoc\council\easter2.doc <br /> <br /> <br />