Laserfiche WebLink
,;4 ' <br /> • For seven months of the year,the trees are bare,providing no <br /> screening."The residents will have their westward views con- <br /> sumed by the building,and will have dozens of balconies and <br /> windows peering down on their properties and into their homes. <br /> • During the five months with leaves,significant portions of the <br /> building will still be visible given the building's height and <br /> breadth. <br /> • Many of the existing tall trees would have to be removed to make <br /> way for the building. <br /> • Trees that remain show signs of age and ill-health and would <br /> likely not survive long enough for new tall trees to take their <br /> place. Some of these are ash that are expected soon to be taken out <br /> by emerald ash borers. <br /> Therefore,tree screening is not a realistic or reliable response to the Old <br /> Beach Road residents'objections to the building's extraordinary size. <br /> To the north of the proposed building is a magnificent wetland,then <br /> County Road 15,and then the homes of the "Ridge" in Minnetonka <br /> Beach. The five-story view of the proposed building will have even less <br /> tree screening,if any,when viewed from the North given the building's <br /> proposed location so close to the wetland.It would impose on all passers- <br /> by and Ridge residents a stark and unpleasant contrast to the green vege- <br /> tation and blue water that otherwise grace the area. <br /> Impact on Wetland and Lake Minnetonka—The proposed site is part of a <br /> land parcel IDS donated to the Freshwater Biological Research Founda- <br /> tion in the early 1970's.After a series of five tornados wreaked havoc with <br /> Lake Minnetonka in 1965,Dick Gray began researching and recording the <br /> health of Lake Minnetonka. In February 1968,drilling through 20 inches <br /> of ice to take his weekly water samples,he was shocked to see red water <br /> pouring out of the hole,"a sure sign of bad pollution." <br /> A few months later Gray teamed with the University of Minnesota to es- <br /> tablish the Foundation,and in 1974 they moved into the new Freshwater <br /> 17 Nearly all evergreen trees illustrated in the developer's material are not actu- <br /> ally in the sight lines between the proposed building and the homes. <br /> 9 <br />