01-25-1999 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

•• Service 800 Access January 21,1999 Page 3 City is that this driveway could provide direct access to the City wellhouse; the developer suggests that this may be a basis for City financial participation in the costs of constructing the driveway. Option lb requires that Otten grant an easement along the entire eastern boundary of his property. This easement likely would have to be set back about 40' from his east lot line to protect the existing tree buffer. In either option la or lb, the provision of an access into Otten's Lot 2 across from Brimhall would likely invoke a MnDOT condition that Otten's access further west in Lot 2 be eliminated. On January 20, Cliff Otten called to offer another proposal (Option Ic). He would like to acquire the triangle, and then grant the City a right-of-way along the east boundary of his site from Highway 12 to his existing east-west Outlet corridor, in exchange for the City extinguishing its easement within that Outlet corridor. This would make it virmally impossible for the City to ever have a service road connecting through from Brown to Willow. Such a plan would be a step backward, if the City has any expectation that the service road will someday be needed. Staff remains convinced that such a corridor may be needed in the future, and it would not be good planning to eliminate that option. Option 2 (Exhibits B & E) assumes that MnDOT would give up its easement authority over the triangular portion of right-of-way, and that Long Lake or Orono (or both) would permit the immediate right turn access as initially proposed. This is the option preferred by Bredeson, and is not a bad solution from a staff perspective, but the problem is timing. If Orono/Long Lake were to apply for either a reconveyance or turnback, MnDOT staff review would take at least 60 days, and we could not be assured that the request would be approved until after that staff review period. The final paperwork to make it all legal might take another 3-6 months, but MnDOT would be willing to issue an access permit once their staff review finds no reasons to deny the reconveyance or turnback. A reconveyance to the underlying property owner could be problematic if that owner is not willing to cooperate. In the event that owner turns out to be the City of Long Lake, Long Lake staff have assured us that Long Lake is willing to cooperate fully, perhaps so far as to sell the property to Orono for $1. They also indicated they are in complete agreement that the access should be across from Brimhall, and therefore in the turnback scenario where Long Lake is technically the local jurisdiction, they won't oppose the immediate right-turn driveway for Bredeson. Option 3 would be that the City allow the subdivision to proceed and the office building to be constructed with the existing curb cut and right-in/right-out access only. One of the primary reasons the City wished to avoid the right-in/right-out access was to eliminate the