5.3. SR 06-13-2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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The City's plan to close Line Avenue where it connects with County Road 13 to redirect traffic south to County Road 12 appears misguided. The commercial businesses on Dodge Avenue will suffer because the plan will cut-off easy access to the businesses from the east. As an alternative, if the connection from Line Avenue, via 5th Street to Dodge Avenue were widened, traffic could flow up to School Street to access that future over-pass of Highway 169. Dodge Avenue should be viewed as a service road that is needed to access commercial and residential areas on the east side of Highway 169 and should also be widened for that purpose. If the City's plan to close Line Avenue is effectuated, it will result in economic hardship for the business community of Elk: River. If the City Council does not consider and pursue other alternatives and continues with plans to extend 193rd Avenue, we offer the following cost effective alternative: We suggest that the road not go directly through our property, but rather follow the property line out to Tyler Street. This is more reasonable and far less expensive alternative for various reasons. First, although our property is zoned residential, it is currently being used for agricultural purposes and qualifies as "green acres". We raise cattle and other animals on our property. Putting the road through our property will greatly reduce our pastureland on which our animals graze and live. Additionally and significantly, the road will take away our. access to the northeast comer of our property where there is a natural water source for our animals. If access to the water source is eliminated, which the road would do, our animals will not be able to get water freely. The second reason the City should build a road along the section line opposed to through our property is to save money for reimbursement of our land and l~gal fees. Since the current City's proposal would take a significant portion of our land and make the land far less valuable for future development purposes, we will demand payment for both the land used for the road and the loss of the land in the NE comer. The fees for the land as well as the legal fees and appraisal fees in conjunction to the taking of the land will be very expensive. This land means the world to us and we are not willing to. let it go at a discount. Therefore, if you decide to pursue the option of developing the road through our property, it will be a far more expensive and litigious alternative than you may have originally calculated. It would be less expensive and involve less legal entanglement to simply build the road on the property line. We would like to invite both you and the City Engineer out to walk: around our land and review maps to have a better understanding of our concerns related to our property. David will be calling you to set up times to do this if you are interested. Also please call us if you have any questions at (763) 441-2537. We would invite city councilmembers and planning commission representatives also for a walk: and a review of maps around our property. Thank you for your time and consideration to these matters.