Agenda - Council - 10/25/1983 - Laserfiche WebLink

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'4 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 15 Prospective buyers consider many factors before purchasing a property, and they probably include adjacent land uses. The importance of adjacent land uses relative to other factors will vary from buyer to buyer. The locatio~ of property near a landfill or resource recovery facility may -affect the buyer's desire to purchase the property.' However, measuring such as effect can be difficult. An example of how a landfill affected a comunity is the' now closed Hopkins municipal landfill. According to the city of Hopkins, its landfill has proven quite useful, even profitable. The area used for dumping in the 1950s is now occupied by a.warehouse and an Office building. Another part of the land used as a fill in the mid- 1950s to early 1960s is a city park with four baseball diamonds. In a third area, a restaurant, a lumber company and part of a garage belonging to a gas station sit on the fill used in the 1960s. A final portion of the fill was closed in 1979. Part of this property is leased to contractors for storage purposes and a prefabricated building housing the city's sanitation trucks and equipment sits on another sec- tion. Although initially considered for parkland, this 'land is currently up for sale and is partially zoned commercial. A townhouse complex was constructed adjacent to the old fill site. Meth- ane monitors were installed on and around the site, but no methane has ever been detected near the residential buildings. The restaurant and lumber company installed vent wells to prevent any danger from methane. Within a year after the city sold one of the land parcels, i..ts.price doubled to $50,000. The same property was resold some time later for $100,000. The parcel was subsequently divided in half, and one of the halves sold for $100,000. Within a period of six years the land's value had increased eightfold. Another example involves a housing development in Eden Prairie. The sub- division is located southeast of the Flying Cloud sanitary landfill. A sales representative of the development has noted what he calls "buyer resistance" of prospective homebuyers because of the nearby landfill. However, sales of the homes are proceeding at a pace comparable to that for homes elsewhere. Because the value of a home depends on a variety of factors, the sales representative could not discern a loss in property value for homes close to the landfill. According to the representative, establishing a large buffer zone ameliorates the negative perceptions of the buyers. There are few detrimental effects of a closed landfill except for set- tling and the generation of methane gas and leachate that may contaminate groundwater. Some settling is unavoidable. Methane gas can be con- trolled by'venting the gas to the atmosphere either through natural or mechanical means. The liability for groundwater pollution problems can be resolved, as discusssed earlier in the report, even though it may be made. more complicated if the land is leased or sold for development.