01-27-2003 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mayor Peterson Page 3 Re: StoneBay January 22. 2003 this issue. We provided private financial data to the City financial consultant (Mark Ruff at Ehlers & Associates, Inc.), in order to prove that the developer ’s contention about the land and construction costs for this project were accurate. The City consultant concurred that the land costs would make It virtually impossible to provide affordable housing without subsidies. The City indicated that they would continue to work to better define how they would meet the community needs for affordable housing. On September 18, 2002, we submitted an application for approval of RPUD Development Stage Plan, Preliminary Plat and Phase I Final Plat consistent with the RPUD concept plan approval granted by the City Council on August 26,2002. On October 28 “*, we extended the City review period for this application on December 10. 2002. At staffs request, we agreed to postpone our request for final plat approval of phase I until after we obtained all of our approvals from MnDOT and the MCWD. At the December 9, 2002 City Council meeting, the Council expressed support for our project, but concern about the lack of MCWD approval. Our plans were submitted to the MCWD in September 2002, but the MCWD did not review our application in a timely manner. We were hopeful that they would schedule us for review and approval In December or January, which have allowed us adequate time to get back before the City Council for fir^l review prior to expiration of our option agreement. Unfortunately, watershed staff did not schedule us for either of those meetings. We are continuing to work with MCWD to finalize all outstanding issues arxl we believe that we have staff support of the current plan. A revised site plan was submitted tc the City this morning for review. We believe that we have finally reached agreement with MCWD staff arxl have their support for the revised plan. We are scheduled for MCWD review on February 27,2003. Landform staff met today with the City er>gineer to finalize the key engineering Issues. City engineering staff agreed that the major Issues had been addressed. We agreed that the remaining details could be finalized with the final application, which will be submitted after receipt of MCWD approval. As noted earlier, our option with Gilbert Braun expires on Febmary 8, 2003. We have requested an extension of this option agreement, but Mr Braun has refused. His representative has indicated that they have other interested parties and will not extend our option beyond February 6*'. When we entered into this agreement in April 2002, we never imagined that we would not have a conditional City approval by this time. Our repeated attempts for an extension from Mr. Braun have been denied.