City wins appeal over golf course
Zone change can be denied, court rules
Meggen Lindsay, Pioneer Press
Published May 24, 2006
One of Eagan's last private green spaces will stay that way — at least if the latest court ruling holds.
The owners of Carriage Hills golf course have fought to build houses on the abandoned greens since 2004, when the City Council denied their plan to rezone the 40-year-old course.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Eagan has the right to deny a zoning change for the 18-hole golf course, effectively stopping its conversion into a housing development.
"This is a good day," Mayor Pat Geagan said. "This decision is gratifying."
Neighbors and open-space advocates also have rallied around Carriage Hills — and aggressively lobbied the City Council to oppose its development.
"I am absolutely elated with the decision. Everyone will be," said Eagan resident Dan Bailey, a coordinator for the neighborhood Carriage Hills Coalition.
"For a while, I had lost confidence in the system. It's great that something happened for the good of the people."
Tuesday's decision might not be the last word in the legal battle, however.
Course owner Ray Rahn and Wensmann Realty Inc. likely will ask the Minnesota Supreme Court to review the appellate ruling, attorney Christopher Penwell said.
"The decision is unfortunate," Penwell said. "This is the worst possible outcome. … Now this land is an unsightly piece of pasture that isn't being used."
Rahn has no plans to reopen Carriage Hills, located on 120 acres at Yankee Doodle Road and Wescott Woodlands Drive.
Rahn bought the course in 1996 for $3.6 million but agreed to sell the land to Wensmann in 2003. He has said the course was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, and he closed it last year after the development plans became tied up in court.
The course always has been zoned for parks and recreation under the city's comprehensive guide plan, essentially its blue print for development. After the City Council refused to amend that plan to allow housing on the property, Rahn and Wensmann sued.
District Judge Patrice Sutherland sided against Eagan and ordered the city to either amend its comprehensive plan and the property's zoning or begin eminent domain proceedings to buy the 18-hole course.
She ruled that the city's denial of development amounted to taking the course without paying for it.
The appeals court reversed Sutherland's decision and said the city had a "rational basis" to deny the plan.
"The appeals court affirmed that the city has the right to determine the fate of our comprehensive guide plan," City Administrator Tom Hedges said. "That was extremely important to us."
But Penwell said his clients should not be forced to lose money on the land so that the city of Eagan can preserve a public amenity.
"The city of Eagan is creating blight by refusing to allow the productive use of the property," Penwell said.
He said he's disappointed the City Council in January abandoned the settlement it had reached with Rahn and Wensmann. Under that agreement, the council would have approved plans to build a 480-unit housing development on the property while preserving 30 acres as an executive nine-hole public course.
Tuesday's ruling comes after a divided state Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that similarly allowed neighboring Mendota Heights to preserve a smaller golf course there against the property owner's wishes. Because of that, the appellate court's review was limited in scope and unpublished, which means it does not set precedent for other cases.
