Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 04/14/2011

Home

Commons' and that most recently the conversation has included the sale of lots on the west side of this property to fund the proposed development costs. Development Manager Darren Lazan was present to give a quick overview of the project. Jonathan Werner 7764 149 Avenue NW, was present to discuss his concern of the wildlife in this area and asks that the development be kept in its natural state as much as possible. He would like to see a minimally evasive wood chip walking trail around the perimeter around the parcels. He also requested consideration for trail access along Lot One for access for the residents along 149 Avenue. Commissioner Barr stated her concern is if we still have a number of large lots available why would we put more into the market right now. Why would we have a better product to offer than what is already there. Development Manager Lazan responded there is a lot of strategy into how a project comes to market, that additional surplus will affect the pricing, additional foot traffic of different product will increase all those opportunities for builders in this area. In general a more diverse variety of products in there will help all the lots in the area. Tom Purmort 7842 149 Avenue NW stated he has 30 lots in this area and his main concern is he has 15 lots available now. As far as getting a different product out there, he is set to a different building standard over there and feels that there is different ways to raise the revenue. He discussed for example a big anchor store, then those homes will be more apt to sell. Mr. Purmort stated he paid $1500 per lot to put into a fund and his calculation is a total of $100,000 and asked what happened to that money for that park. Park Supervisor Riverblood responded this was discussed at the open -house and explained the main developer went bankrupt and the bank held the property and a lot of things went away. Some of those monies were recaptured and park and streetscape improvements were made and the money is now gone and the entire landscape has changed. Tom Purmort likes the park idea but now is not the time Jason Tossey 7788 149 Avenue NW, he is well aware of this plan, he understands Mr. Purmort's frustrations he also understands the frustration of all the homeowners in the area. There was a plan from the very beginning for a park and would encourage this to go forward and feels this decision is the better one to get this done without really costing taxpayers. If we don't move now on this park under this plan he doesn't think there is going to be a park. Keep in mind, that land is not dedicated as park land and there is nothing to stop the City from developing the whole thing. He expressed we need to be conscience of the builders but not be too evasive to the existing homeowners and he wanted to state that he is in support of this plan. Bob Brenner, Realtor with RES Realty introduced himself as the listing agent for Purmort Homes for the last three years and has been a realtor since the mid nineties. He stated he has been trying to sell the homes in the lo Addition that have been recently built there and according to the MLS listing that day a total of 12 new lots have been sold since 2008, roughly 4 a year. If information is correct there is about 40 lots available now and currently have about 10 years of inventory already. He stated if you add 7 -8 lots in a small area and another 40 more lots Park and Recreation Commission /March 10, 2011 Page 2 of 4