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<br />changes and the value, and there were concerns about the general demeanor of the whole <br />neighborhood. Mr. Trudgeon advised this lot is on the edge as far as commercial and single family; <br />there is single family to the south, Super Bowl to the north, and storage across the street. A valid <br />argument could likely be made for both sides on the zoning of this property. Currently the property <br />is a vacant parcel. If the. Council comes to the conclusion that there should be something there the <br />focus should be on what. type of development will be there, and whether it is a good enough <br />development to allow on the site. <br /> <br />Councilmember Jeffrey stated when this project came up he was very concerned about what the <br />neighbors said, and still is. However, the thing Mr. Murphy brought forward and makes sense is <br />these are. one level townhomes; the neighbors were talking about townhomes bringing down the <br />value of their property, but these are nice looking and have come a long way since the Council <br />originally looked at this. Someone mentioned traffic generation, but if this property remains <br />commercial the traffic generation by the proposed commercial use would be a greater impact than <br />the development being proposed. The best use of the land is what is being looked at, and these are <br />one level upscale townhomes that will not lower property values in the neighborhood. <br /> <br />Councilmember Strommen commented the Councilmembers have all struggled with the right <br />zoning for this parcel. She has been open to the idea of hearing the argument of designating this as <br />multi-family residential to serve as a buffer with the single family. She is still struggling with this <br />and is not sold on the designs and style being presented, and there is still a lot of mass going into a <br />small area. She struggles whether this is the right way to go on this parcel and that it may be a <br />mismatch. There will be a little single family, a little commercial, and one more thing on this <br />parcel; she feels this will be too much of an eclectic mix. Also, these are not small buildings, and <br />the garage doors are very prominent. <br /> <br />Mr. Murphy, applicant, stated he understands the concern. They struggled quite a bit over what <br />would work best in this area. They are trying to balance the price point and the best use of the land. <br />Prom those basic two starting points it is obvious that $300,000 to $400,000 homes will not fit. A <br />certain amount of square footage is needed to make this work at the middle price point. He looked <br />at 50 to 60 designs and this is the best fit between the square footage, price and design. Regarding <br />the eclectic mix in the area, he does not know that this will change the overall appearance. There <br />are homes along the river, but the homes coming up from the river are in the $200,000 price range; <br />it seems to him this would be an overall fit for the neighborhood. Mr. Murphy stated he has been <br />working with Amy Geisler four to five times to tweak this without completely scrapping it, and he <br />does not know if he can really change the design they have right now. He and Mr. Holmes have a <br />lot of time and a substantial amount of money invested to try to get this to work. He has listened to <br />the complaints of the homeowners in the area, but most of those related to there really being a <br />moratorium on townhomes in general; no one listened to what they are trying to do, most of the <br />people that spoke were angry that there are more townhomes going up. Mr. Murphy stated city <br />water and sewer was brought to this area a couple years ago. Mr. Holmes is responsible for paying <br />for the taxes for that and paying for the assessment, and he is looking for a way to be able to afford <br />to pay the assessments on it right now. Mr. Holmes is caught in a hard place; by looking at the size <br />and type of the land and the expenses associated with that, it really took this number of units. <br />Originally they proposed 8 units; they went along with the Council's concern that was too dense <br />and came up with 6 units. At this point, doing anything less than that will create a cost benefit in <br /> <br />City Council / January 9, 2007 <br />Page 14 of24 <br />