LET'S CLEAR THE FOG...OR IS IT SMOG???

Following are comments I made during Public Comment time at the August Board meeting, including the rest of what I wanted to say but couldn't because my three minutes were up. You may find it of interest. I post it here for your convenience.

I have a concern about "WRONG FACTS" being given by some to the public at these meetings.

At the last couple of meetings, the Launch Park First Addition on Cedar Avenue (very large warehouse/office) has been a subject of discussion.

This property was annexed into Lakeville in 2007 at the request of the property owners because they wanted city sewer and water for their proposed development there, services that only Lakeville could provide them.

This fact was correctly asserted by Supervisor Rogers at the last meeting, only to be contradicted directly and vigorously by Supervisor Hansen. Hansen asserted that it could have been handled differently and the property would still be in Eureka. Supervisor Rogers, I, and many citizens, including people in this room tonight (at the meeting), know that Hat Trick (later Launch Properties) wanted sewer and water services and Eureka couldn't provide that for them.

It wasn't for a lack of trying. The Township has looked into bonding, which isn't available to us. The Township offered the owners alternatives to city sewer and water as Supervisor Rogers has stated. This was rejected. It wasn't enough.

The true and unavoidable fact of the matter is that annexation law favors cities. In the end, the best that Eureka could do was to get an agreement that it would receive payments in the thousands of dollars for a certain number of years under the annexation to Lakeville.

It has taken 10 years or so, but the property is now being developed. MORE WRONG FACTS were given at a recent Board meeting. It was stated by Supervisor Hansen, in direct response to a citizen's question, that this development does NOT have sewer and water. This went unchallenged.

Since I knew sewer and water availability was the determining factor in the annexation, I visited Lakeville City Hall last week. I spoke to Dave Olson, Community and Economic Development Director for the City. He assured me that Launch Park IS having sewer and water. In fact, he said,

"We would never have approved the project without it."

I looked at and have a copy of the documents accompanying this property's final plat approval. These documents talk about sewer; they talk about water; and they even talk about the construction of a new street. All of these can be provided through the City of Lakeville and all are at cost to the developer. There are many other details in the documents.

At the public comment from last month it was asked by someone representing a corporation in words to the effect of, "Wouldn't it be nice to still have that property in the Township? Think of all the tax money it would yield!"

TRUE FACT: Without the annexation to Lakeville and all the attendant improvements that a city within the MUSA line can offer, it would still be a cornfield if it were still in Eureka. In a REALITY CHECK, Eureka is not in a position to offer the services that would suffice and keep certain uses, and thus their taxes, in the Township.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL...

A resolution has also been presented to the Board by citizen Mark Ceminsky, supported by Supervisor Hansen, for Eureka to tap into the sewer interceptor line to serve the airport, the latest annexation dilemma. Just like Launch Properties, MAC wants city sewer and water. Unless Lakeville were somehow agreeable to a proposed Joint Powers Agreement involving sewer and water, which it appears not to be, this cannot be accomplished without annexation. Why not?

In the course of the recent Boundary Protection Study, it was outlined what Eureka would have to do to be allowed to access the sewer interceptor line. We would have to set aside 1,000 acres for higher density housing and other uses, not just commercial/industrial use and do lots of planning work and mapping. That's just one thing.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle is that, even if Eureka were ready and willing to set aside the 1,000 acres and do and pay for all of the planning that would be required, the Metropolitan Council would still have to be sold on the idea that there is a NEED for urbanization to extend into our Township. With all the available land yet open in cities to our north and east, that argument cannot currently stand. We surely don't want to spend large amounts of money preparing a proposal only to be told "no."

THERE ARE REASONS THE MET COUNCIL CONTINUES, AS IT DOES, TO SEE EUREKA AS AG AT LEAST UNTIL 2040. The Council forecasts slow and modest growth here into 2040

On another avenue, Eureka has not reached a population that history shows would even make incorporation as a city financially feasible. That number is about 5,000 people.
Once you are a city, you can no longer be annexed, true, but the County also expects a city to fund roads in a different way than it does townships. Unless the population is at least 5k, we have been advised the tax increases to meet this added cost would likely be undesirably high.

Our Township has done various studies on these matters which have resulted in valuable information for us to consider for our future.

Yet there are those among us who continue to scoff at the studies' results and are ever ready to ignore this information and to tell others that they "have their heads in the sand." (If I had a nickel for every time...) Again, these people seem to want to just ignore the facts as determined by market and border studies and professional experience and expertise.

BUT, you can't just MAKE UP your own facts and expect them to fly! Without sewer and water services, good, high-revenue-yielding development cannot and will not occur. Eureka can't currently provide these services and properties like Launch Park want and need it! As stated many times, "lesser" uses such as open storage, contractors' yards, and truck depots would only serve to occupy what some think is desirable property for the future of Eureka and would obstruct its development in the future as well. In the meanwhile, these uses would yield lower tax revenue than envisioned by many. A really nice home could bring in more taxes!

Please do no let anyone tell you that Launch Properties is not going to have sewer and water. They are going to have it and much more. That's a TRUE FACT.



On a further note, it will be of interest to many of you that, again put forward by Mark Ceminsky and supported by Supervisor Hansen, another proposed resolution (reportedly to be used if the airport resolution mentioned above isn't adopted!) promotes the annexation by Lakeville of all the Eureka land north of 225th Street W. where it abuts the City of Lakeville!

So we've gone from being upset about likely losing the Airport to Lakeville as we have the Hat Trick/Launch Properties 98 acres, to wanting Lakeville to annex all the Township land north of 225th that touches its southern border! Does this make any sense to you? 

In exchange, Ceminsky and Hansen have proposed that Lakeville turn over all taxes for this land (for seven years), agree to pay all involved fees of any sort including engineering, pay to pave all of 225th, shoulder all future improvement costs to the road as well as plow snow from it in alternate years, (with no end in sight)-- also all at no cost to Eureka.

Note that this "resolution" states that Lakeville will annex the property north of 225th. Presumably, this would include the north half of 225th since property lines go to mid-road. (The southern half of the road would go with the properties to the south of 225th, again, presumably.) Somehow, it is envisioned that Lakeville would be okay with all this, pay to pave the road, pay for all improvements to the road going forward, and share its winter upkeep with no end date.   LIKELY??????????

What reason was given by Hansen at a recent meeting for why this would be attractive to Eureka?
...Wait for it...He said, "We'd get rid of all our problems."

 As one of many homeowners on the north side of 225th, I find this verrrrrrrrrrry interesting!