Voters to Decide Future of Carriage Hills
Settlement Agreement Sets Out Two Alternatives
Responding to Court-ordered mediation, the City of Eagan has reached a contingent settlement in a four-year legal dispute over the former Carriage Hills golf course that will allow voters to decide in November whether the 120-acre site should remain as open space or be developed.
The settlement, reached after nearly 11 hours of negotiation last Friday, March 14, and approved by the full City Council Tuesday night, March 18, establishes for the first time a fixed price if taxpayers were to acquire the land via referendum. It also sets out a process for voters to know exactly how much and what types of housing would be developed if the referendum fails. For the settlement terms to take effect, action was required within three business days of last Friday’s tentative agreement.
“This saga has been like an epic 900-page novel,” said Eagan Mayor Mike Maguire. “Where Carriage Hills is concerned, it has always seemed this legal battle is not over until it’s over, but this settlement allows the voters of Eagan to write the final chapter.”
Under the terms of the contingent settlement, the process continues on a dual track.
Voters will be asked if they want to approve a referendum to purchase the land. Financing the land purchase will cost approximately $10.25 million in bonds for the land and cost of issuance. This dollar amount does not include any improvements to the property, if desired. On the second track, well prior to citizens voting, the City Planning Commission and the City Council will hold public hearings in May and June respectively to review Wensmann’s exact development plans for the land.
The developer has until April 16 to formally submit a development application, but the contingent settlement, in general, includes the following:
• 30 acres of open space retained throughout the development with various buffers established between nearby neighborhoods;
• If developed there would be no north/south street connections to either the Greensboro or Wescott Hills neighborhoods, but rather an east/west connection between Wescott Woodlands and Duckwood Drive;
• There would be a mixture of housing types from single family homes to row homes and senior housing on the remaining 90 acres;
• Between 450 and 480 units in all are proposed.
Under the settlement the City has a right to approve or deny the development, just as it normally would, except that allowing the development to proceed would be contingent on the voters turning down the referendum. If voters approve the referendum any land use approvals the developer receives would be null and void. If, however, the City Council denies the development application for a Special Area Plan and land use change, then the settlement agreement is voided and the case will again be scheduled for trial.
A lawsuit first filed in 2004 by Wensmann Realty, which wants to develop the land, has previously gone all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court, and was set for trial in Dakota County District Court on June 11th of this year. Back in April of 2005, Judge Patrice Sutherland ruled summarily against City efforts to stop development at Carriage Hills, but the Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in May of 2006.
The Supreme Court later agreed the City had a right to designate the land for parks, open space and recreation, but sent the case back to Judge Sutherland to decide this summer whether owner Ray Rahn still has “any reasonable use” of his land or whether the City must purchase his property if it wishes to keep the open space land use requirement. That trial date will now be postponed, but a trial remains an option if the City does not approve the development applications.
The contingent settlement avoids substantial future attorneys fees (both sides) and saddling the City with an unknown purchase price should the trial court have ruled against Eagan and issued a judgment. City officials made clear they will neither push for or against the referendum.
A referendum question must be framed by early September to be on the November ballot.
“We feel good that we have found a way to have the voter’s voices be heard on this important issue: at the ballot box, and in public hearings,” said Mayor Maguire. “That’s about as democratic as it gets.”
