Carriage Hills plan fails to get backing
Shira Kantor, Star Tribune
Published June 30, 2004
The Eagan Planning Commission did not endorse developer Terry Wensmann's
request to rezone the coveted 120-acre Carriage Hills Golf Course last week,
but Wensmann's multi-unit housing proposal could survive if
the City Council approves it July 6.
A surprise? "Not really," Wensmann said. "It's a big decision for the planning commission as well as for the City Council. We had a lot of input from the surrounding neighborhoods."
Neighbors showed up en masse for the planning commission meeting. In hopes of preserving the golf course, some 90 Eagan residents came to speak out against Wensmann's plan, which would involve changing the city's comprehensive guide plan.
Members of the Carriage Hills Coalition, a group that opposes the development of the course, brought petitions, legal counsel and even minutes of a 1996 planning commission meeting in which the group prevailed in stopping a similar land-use change.
City Council members, though loath to speculate on the future of Wensmann's proposal, have said they will weigh questions such as whether it's necessary to change the comprehensive plan, whether there are other options for the land's use and what rights the landowner has to use his land as he sees fit.
Owner Ray Rahn has said his golf course is no longer profitable and wants Wensmann to develop it. Wensmann said he will only develop the land if the city rezones it.
"I always feel very, very sorry for whoever comes in and tries to develop this golf course," said Council Member Peggy Carlson. "They take such a beating, which is too bad."
Still, Carlson said, the main issues are the proposed changes to the comprehensive plan and the land's zoning. Wensmann's proposal is "a huge deviation" from the plan, she said.
State law requires all cities to have a comprehensive guide plan governing development and land use. Eagan's plan, last updated in early 2001, represents its vision for the next 10 to 20 years.
Wensmann's plan includes a mixture of high-, medium-, and low-density homes, ranging in price from $200,000 to $1 million. The proposal includes keeping about 40 of the 120 acres open as green space and incorporates a trail system.
Currently, 82 percent of the city's land is zoned low-density residential, according to city staff, and Wensmann's proposal would change that figure to close to 89 percent. It would add approximately 158 school-age children to the Eagan school district.
Battle brewing
Residents opposed to the housing plan cited concerns about traffic,
wildlife and water quality,
including the need for on-site storm-water treatment.
Wensmann has sought neighborhood input
on his proposal since he began work on it in October, holding three open-house meetings and using the feedback to tweak his plans. Several planning commission members praised Wensmann's plan but said now is not the time to change the comprehensive guide plan.
Though Wensmann said he was not surprised by the planning commission's decision, some audience members were surprised.
Armed with strong words for the commission and circulating a petition even during the meeting, audience members such as Eagan resident Tom Rybak steeled themselves for a fight.
Rybak challenged Wensmann's characterization of the housing plan as improved, as the incarnation before the board last week was the first of Wensmann's proposals to go through a public vetting process. Rybak also read minutes of a planning commission meeting from nearly nine years ago, reminding commission chairwoman Carla Heyl of her rationale in denying another developer a similar rezoning request.
"I don't think she appreciated it," Rybak said. "I think she handled it well."
Rybak said he had thought the residents would prevail, but "I am surprised it was unanimous."
Rybak, who was involved in the Carriage Hills Coalition when it first started up in 1996, said this time around he's going to try to look for ways to protect the land into the future so that another proposal won't threaten it.
In 1996, "we were naive," he said. "We thought it was the end of it."
