Local Video
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| Board votes to annex a portion of 530 acres |
By: By SUZANNE ROOK
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Posted: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 11:18 pm
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NORTHFIELD — Five hundred and thirty acres was a bite larger than the Planning Commission wanted to take.
The commission Tuesday voted 6-1 to recommend the city council annex just two thirds of the request — 354 acres — west of the Northfield Hospital for a business park.
If approved by the council, only the two eastern-most properties would be brought into the city limits. Ninety of the acres are owned by St. Olaf College; the remaining 254 belong to David Sorem.
Land Vista’s Larry Larson, who represents Greenvale Township farmers Sorem, John Fink, and Donald and Ruth Lysne, said previously that the request is an all or nothing deal.
But planning commissioners thought they heard differently during a May 13 meeting and decided instead to pursue that avenue.
Last week, the city’s Economic Development Authority encouraged the commission to approve the annexation. The land, it has said, is needed for a new business/industrial park in the heavily residential city, could help reduce residents’ tax burdens, and bring jobs into a city where a large portion of residents are employed outside of town.
Only 300 to 350 of the 530 acres are considered developable. St. Olaf has said that while it may someday develop its 90 acres, its property will remain agricultural for the foreseeable future.
Commissioners initially considered city staff’s recommendation to annex the entire 530 acres and amend Northfield’s Future Land Use Map in a way that encourages growth from east to west. That motion failed 4-3 with commission members Tracy Davis, Joe Hargis and Jim Herreid supporting staff.
Commission member Ron Griffith, who argued that annexing the entire site wasn’t in the city’s best interests, worried the annexation could flood the market with commercial land, forcing prices downward.
City Planner Dan Olson said if the annexation were approved, it could be 20 years before the site is built out. It’s expected that annexed land would be farmed until sold for development, keeping property values and taxes from skyrocketing.
Commission member Jim Herreid, who cast the lone vote against the pared down annexation, said he felt his fellow commissioners were acting like they were paying for the development. “Even if we get less acreage, it doesn’t mean we have to develop it all,” he said.
The commission also in a 6-1 vote, with Herreid dissenting, recommended designating the Sorem property as a Priority Growth Area. The Fink and Lysne properties should be considered in the less desirable Urban Expansion Area.
Slicing the annexation by a third won’t cut the developable acreage proportionately, Olson said. Much of the environmentally sensitive land is on the two properties the commission didn’t want to annex.
The city council, which must approve any annexation, is expected to get a first look at the request at its June 9 work session. A council vote is anticipated on June 16.
A decision must be made before July 1 unless the applicant agrees to a postponement.
If the council follows the commission’s recommendation, the applicant isn’t obliged to comply with its decision.
— Suzanne Rook can be reached at srook@northfieldnews.com or 645-1113. |
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