City settles golf course dispute
Neighbors frustrated 120-acre Carriage Hills parcel is likely to become residences
Meggen Lindsay, Pioneer Press
Published November 30, 2005
Under a settlement the Eagan City Council approved to end a developer's lawsuit, much of the Carriage Hills golf course is likely to be developed into a residential subdivision.Before an overflow crowd of dejected residents Tuesday, council members voted unanimously to approve the compromise with course owner Ray Rahn and the developer to which he's selling the 120-acre course, Eagan-based Wensmann Realty Inc.
The council's action effectively ends its legal battle over one of the last remaining
private open spaces in the otherwise built-up suburb.
The decision came as a deep disappointment to many residents
who had signed petitions and rallied against the course's development for years.
They wanted the council to continue with its lawsuit appeal and had formed an
investment group to try to buy the land outright.
With sleeping babies and playing children in tow, nearly 90 golf course neighbors
and preservationists braved snowy roads Tuesday night to plead with the Council
to fight the course development — or, at least, to explain its decision to settle the lawsuit.
"We're concerned that this sends a message that you can out-lawyer the city,"
said Bob Acton, a member of the neighborhood's Carriage Hills Coalition.
"Once this land is developed, it can never be brought back. "The council was set to vote two weeks ago on the lawsuit's settlement, but pulled the item from its agenda in the face of resident outrage.Wensmann plans to build 480 housing units — condominiums, town homes and single-family houses — while preserving 30 acres as an executive nine-hole public course on the property, located off Yankee Doodle Road on Wescott Woodlands Drive.The settlement is contingent on the developer submitting a proposal to the city to amend its comprehensive plan to have the land redesignated as a "special area plan." If that application goes through, the lawsuit will be dropped.Eagan had fought the development since August 2004, when the City Council denied Wensmann's plan to rezone the 40-year-old public course. The city's comprehensive plan — essentially, its blueprint for development — long has called for the property to be zoned only for parks and recreation.After the City Council and planning commission rejected the initial Carriage Hills development plans in 2004, Rahn Family LP and Wensmann sued the council in district court to try to force Eagan to allow a zoning change that would permit housing. Rahn closed the course in the spring and said he wanted to sell the golf course, which he bought in 1996, because it was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.Eagan officials have said the city could not afford to buy the course — and did not want to raise property taxes to do so. Neighborhood investors never made public what they could offer for the property but have disputed Rahn's contention that the course couldn't have been a moneymaker.In April, 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.Sutherland ruled that the city's denial of development amounted to taking the course without paying for it.The city took the case before the Minnesota Court of Appeals in May, arguing that it must protect the integrity of its comprehensive land-use plan. "We think the guide plan is worth fighting for," the council wrote at the time.Resident Jill Nichols echoed the view of many neighbors when she said her husband looked into the course's zoning before building their nearby home to make sure the land was protected."We relied on that," she said.But Council Member Mike Maguire said he was worried that if the council went forward with its appeal and lost, it would set a binding precedent throughout the state for a loss of local planning control. He also said the course purchase price was such that if the city tried to buy it, there'd be no money left to protect other parcels.Maguire and the rest of the council struggled to answer residents' questions, while city attorneys cautioned them about breaking a gag order in the case. The members said they were frustrated that they could not publicly talk about why the city chose to settle."This is in my back yard. I look out onto this course," council member Peggy Carlson said. "This is personal. I wouldn't be settling if I didn't think this was a good deal."Golf course neighbors and fellow preservationists thought the city was readying for oral arguments in the appeals case and had no idea council members had met for weeks in closed-door sessions about the settlement."We feel like this was decided long before this meeting," Acton said. "It's beyond disappointing. We wish they would have gone forward. We'd like to have seen some follow-through."Meggen Lindsay can be reached at mlindsay@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5260
