Agenda - Council - 04/10/2006 - 04/10/06

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2006 March 3, 2006 City Council Members/Planning Commission City Hall 15153 Nowthen Blvd Ramsey, MN 55303 Dear City Council: I attended the Public Hearing meeting of March 2, 2006, in Ramsey with regard to request for the "Preliminary" Plat of Kelly Acres, Phase I (5 lots being "considered") and "Preliminary" Plat of Rum River Prairie, Phase I (26 lots being "considered"). I feel the citizens of Ramsey did a wonderful job on stating how we all feel about the current ordinance concerning cluster housing, however, I do wish to stress a few key points I feel you seriously need to consider. Most importantly, I feel it is clear that we all know development is inevitable in our area. However, it is also very clear that one of the most serious concerns we all have with these "proposed plats" is the size of the lots and the number of houses planned in this area. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see the difference between the 2-1/2 acre lots and 10 acre lots surrounding this area, and the present approximate "proposed" lot of ¼ acre. This is going to an extreme in our area. I Iive in Hunter's Ridge. We all have on average at least one acre lots. In simple terms, that is one house on one acre. The current proposals have approximately four houses to one acre. That's four times as many houses there as we have in our neighborhood. I encourage you all to drive through our neighborhood and tell me how nice that would Iook and feeI having three other houses on my lot. I am encouraging you all to please consider larger lots. 1 acre lots in that area would be a lot of homes, the developers could do more oral[lots now. Even a 1 acre lot would look small compared to the 2-1/2 and 10 acres lots presently there. This, however, may be easier for us all to swallow. Please consider this. In regards to the community septic system, I have been told the life-time expectancy on a community septic is 10 years. If this is true, we are not only encouraging sewer and septic out in our area, but we are accelerating it tremendously. I feel the cost of maintaining this far exceeds what you expect. I agree with the concept of building from Town Center outward. Have the city sewer and septic gradually meet the building demands outward, and not stick a cluster development out by us 4 miles out and then over by the gun club 8 million dollars later. It only makes good economic sense to do this in a systematic stepwise approach. I also feel it is an insult to us as Ramsey citizens to tell us that this is just 5 or 26 lots in the present phase and future proposals/phases are not for us to worry about as you don't know when city sewer would be here. A developer is not going to put 5 lots in and then sit on it. He will push forward the other two phases faster than we all realize. I fear if the present phase gets passed with the size lots proposed, I feel it will be harder to stop phase -127-