11-26-2018 Council Work Session Packet

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apartments." Because of this, I looked on the city website and found, to my absolute astonishment, that this was real. There had been no public communication with any of us in this neighborhood. The only way we found out was through the anonymous letter. The Lake West Development company website promotes this as a done deal. Just as a side note, there was no mention of any of this in the recent Orono City newsletter, either. As you can tell, I am totally opposed to the proposed developments (Eisinger Flats and Orono apartments). They do not belong on the far edge of town, and certainly not on the edge of a protected lake and wetland. There is no transportation, no services, no infrastructure, no cable internet, no sewer or water. If working age people are expected to move in, you know they will not be working in Orono or Long Lake. They will add to the giant traffic jams that are Highways 12 and 6. My understanding from the planning meeting is that Eisinger Meadows is, in fact, a done deal. But Eisinger Flats is not. It does not have to be apartments. It does not have to be anything. We moved to the Orono district about 5 or 6 year ago primarily for the school. We chose the house we purchased because of where it was in the Orono school district. We could have moved into a denser area, but we wanted the open view and open feeling. From the EPP, it is clear that we are not the only ones who prefer a less dense, more rural feel. There are trade-offs for living out here. -- Housing can be expensive. -- Our taxes are very high. -- We have to drive at least 15 minutes to buy many basic things. -- We pay for our own road maintenance, including patching, resurfacing, plowing, etc. -- We are NOT on city water. We have a well that requires an iron breaker, and a water softener at minimum. We also have a Culligan reverse osmosis filter. We have septic/pumping station access to city sewer (previous owner's choice). -- We provide our own security. -- Access to highway 6 is difficult. Hennepin County won't reduce the speed on Hwy 6 (55 mph) as it comes past our road. Most of the traffic is faster than that, as the limit is rarely enforced. Hennepin County apparently requires a certain number of deaths to decrease the speed limits. But we happily do all this in exchange for the open view, the low density, out in the country feeling. When we bought our house, we asked and were informed that Orono had a 2 acre minimum lot size. We also asked and were informed that high density housing was not going to happen around us because of that zoning. At that time, the areas around us were all zoned that way, from what I can tell. We would NOT have bought this house if we thought that we would be near high density housing, because of the associated noise and traffic, and because we don't want that "in the city" feeling. Someone at the planning meeting suggested that this is a NIMBY issue. Not really. In fact, that's pretty offensive. All we really want is for the rules to be followed and to not allow unnecessary projects that will change the character of the town and the neighborhood and violate the zoning and building agreements. The situation is not unlike a family that moves out into the country. If they purchase property near a pig farm, they were aware that it existed and accepted the accompanying odors, etc. Say that they purchase property that is distant from animal farming, specifically because they don't want odors, etc. Should they be unhappy if a factory pig farm wants to locate half a mile or less from their property? Should they protest that the farm is being built? Of course. They made their decision based on what was there, in either case. Will their property values drop? Of course. Will their quality of life diminish? Of course. Will they be compensated? Of course not. The owners of the pig farm should consider the existing landholders' sentiments, and decide if they want to build their facility in a relatively hostile environment.