Northeast Eagan will remain commercial
City rejects idea of housing development
Erin Johnson, Thisweek Newspapers
Published July 15, 2005
The northeast corner of Eagan will remain a commercial area and will not be considered for housing, the Eagan City Council said July 7.
The council agreed with the recommendation of a task force that studied the area after two developers requested a land use change.
The area, which is home to businesses like Ecolab and the Northwest Airlines flight training center, is bordered by I-494, Lone Oak Road, and highways 149 and 55.
It is currently guided for office/service uses.
Developers Laukka Beck and Loan Oak Development Partnership both own property in the area. Laukka Beck, which owns 25 acres, said it has not been able to find a commercial buyer for the land for the past 30 years. Loan Oak Development Partnership has owned 85 acres in the area for the past two years.
The developers jointly requested a land use change to build housing, along with a small office/retail/transit center.
The council put a moratorium on the area last July and hired a consultant to study the land use issue.
The consultant’s findings were reviewed by the task force, which consisted of members from the parks, planning, economic development and airport relations commissions.
Members of the task force presented their findings to the council July 7 and unanimously concluded that the area is incompatible with housing.
“You should have a compelling reason to change, and in fact, there are compelling reasons to keep it what it is,” said Carla Heyl, chair of the Eagan Planning Commission and the advisory task force.
The area is directly under a primary arrival and departure path of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, so noise would be a major issue for residents, the task force found.
It also concluded that the area is ideal for office/service use because of its proximity to the airport and highways.
“Eagan doesn’t have a better location for office/service,” Heyl said. “And as we all know, Eagan was the largest growing employee base (in the metro area) in the last four years. This is where we can still grow.”
In addition, there are few similar locations in Eagan for office/service use, but there are other locations for housing.
Changing the land use would also create an “isolated island” of housing, the study found.
“There’s no parks, they’re surrounded by freeways, they’re surrounded by businesses,” she said. “You’re just disconnected from the residential area of Eagan.”
Peter Coyle, a representative for the developers, said that commercial development of their properties is not feasible or practical.
“The properties that are in question for us are situated in a very remote portion of the city ... and they’re going to continue to be an island,” he said. “Not a residential island, but a no-development island.”
Coyle said housing would not be incompatible with the area, and pointed to developments in other cities like Edina and Burnsville’s Heart of the City as successful examples of residential use next to commercial use.
Airport noise also isn’t a justification for denying residential use, he said, as evidenced by new housing in Cedar Grove under the path of the new runway.
“When the city had its own best interest at heart in Cedar Grove, airport noise was no problem whatsoever,” he said.
Mayor Pat Geagan said the city is not in a position to change zoning just because a developer has a problem with it.
“If my house is on the block for a number of years and it’s not selling, maybe I’m asking too much or I shouldn’t have bought it in the first place,” he said.
Council Member Peggy Carlson agreed.
“This has been guided for about 30 years, and I never heard a complaint out of (the developers) until about a year ago,” she said. “It didn’t seem like there was a complaint until a buyer came up and wanted residential for a quick sale.”
