1998 Correspondence - Laserfiche WebLink

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J' " .. e e Ms. Sylvia Frolic, Zoning Officer City of Ramsey Ramsey Municipal Center 15153 Nowthen Blvd. Ramsey, Mn. 55303 Feb. 11, 1998 fEB 1 2 1999 Dear Ms. Frolic, We own the following property located in the city of Ramsey: "The east half of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 23, Township 32, Range 25 (subject to easement to Rural Co-op Power Assn., 4/12/67, and subject to 80 foot public road easement to City of Ramsey, 3/18/77)." This property is further defined on the attached "Site Location Map", number 23-32-25-14-0001. We purchased the property on a "Contract for Deed" agreement in the fall of 1975. Even though we paid the CD off, it became tangled up in an estate settlement case (1988), and we had to pay extra fees to extract it from the feuding heirs (nothing ever seems easy with this parcel). Initially we tried tree farming as a land use. From 1500 Norway seedlings, we lost 4/5ths of the total planting to severe drought and gophers! Next we triedcornf()r several years, and lost crop~ to dry summers. We then tried sun flowers" and a fine crop developed. The pro~lem this time was not the lack of rain, but rather lack of frost at harvest time. Meanwhile, the word had circulated among the "feathered community", and 90% of the crop was consumed by birds! It was obvious that as farmers, we definitely should not give up our day jobs. Concurrently, we tried growing truck garden produce, but the results were definitely mixed. It always seemed like the gophers and weeds were winning, by stealing or destroying more than we could manage to harvest. Sometime in the late 1970's, we learned that there existed a seven (7) county master sewer development plan. Under this plan, our property could not even be developed, since the minimum lot size was planned to be 20 acres minimum. We had lost one and a fraction acres to an 80 foot road easement. In discussion (late 1970's) with a previous member of the City of Ramsey administration, we discovered that we could get the property rezoned to light commercial and he felt it would be easier to develop. So we thought this sounds like a good idea, and we requested the change. In all the years of ownership we have always paid our taxes on time, We permitted neighbors to ride trail bikes on the land, to hunt (bow and arrow), and tried in every waywe could to be good citizens and good neighbors.