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TALKING ABOUT A LIBRARY
IS THERE A DETERMINING FACTOR?
Carol Vadnais, Victoria's representative on the Carver County Library Board, gave an update regarding the board's policy of establishing branch libraries in Carver County. "I am asking you to envision what you'd like for Victoria and pay some attention to this issue for future library plans."
Councilmember Jim Paulsen had questions and comments. "I understand Waconia and Chaska and Chanhassen are all building libraries ... What was their procedure? ... Should Victoria pick a site and say to the library board, 'Hey! We're ready!'? ... Is the determining factor the pacing of the city or the library board? Has there been conversation about attaching libraries to schools?"
Said Carol, "I believe those cities approached the library board and said they were building a library, but they would like to see the plans. Victoria may be the next library, but there also may be others in Mayer and other communities ... The board has to be planning ahead so they can be setting money aside."
About any discussion of attaching libraries to schools, the answer was, "No."
ANOTHER ACCESS FOR KIRKE-LACHEN?
ALONG WITH A NEW-HOME DEVELOPMENT?
Council has been reviewing and offering suggestions for the sketch plat being proposed by Terry Hartman and Cal Haasken for the Wilbert and Darlene Kelzer farm and property located between Church Lake and Kelzer's Pond. The Kelzer property consists of 93.2 acres. The Haasken property consists of 38.3 acres.
A sketch plat on June 28th showed 130 lots at the Planning Commission level was reduced to 99 single family homes. This number was changed again at a special council meeting held the morning of July 6th when 6 large wooded lots were set aside to preserve the oak knoll as a public park and 12 smaller lots were added back to offset that loss to the developers.
No sketch plat for these properties has yet been approved by Council.
"This is probably one of our larger wetland areas in Victoria. It is a gently rolling site that was used as farmland and is partially wooded. It contains the best example of an oak savannah in Victoria, in specimen condition. It's an extra-ordinary area."
Development of this property is expected to give a second access, and possibly a third, to the Kirke-Lachen neighborhood via a road to County Road #43, also known as Church Lake Boulevard.
Bill Lutz and his wife, residents on the north side of Kelzer's Pond, spoke about this development proposed for the south side of Kelzer's Pond. "This is a wonderful place to live," he said. "It is a jewel in Victoria."
He asked councilmembers for a number of considerations for the area. "We want to see signs and penalties in the conservation zones. We are in agreement that this remains a non-motorized lake." He also asked council to restrict lighting on the south side of the lake. About pro-posed density he said, "We applaud Mr. Hartman and Mr. Haasken for going down from 133, but still, 99 seems overwhelming to us."
Jay Anderson, resident at Kirke-Lachen affirmed the council and the effort to balance the interests of residents and developers. "God bless our developers or I wouldn't have my lot," he said. "I think it's a matter of avoiding extremes. Whether it's trails or lot sizes or traffic, I know you'll do the right thing. I look forward to an access to #43."
Councilmember Jerry Bohn acknowledged the rights of the owner. "Kelzers have a right to retire and sell their land. We can't keep it as it is."
As far as the new development pro-viding two accesses from Kirke-Lachen for Co. Rd. #43, Mayor Mary said, "It is something we can look into further. Maybe it would become a safer inter-section. Normally we do try to intra-connect neighborhoods. There is value to the interconnecting of neighbor-hoods."
Councilmember Richard Tieden said he was particularly impressed by the col-laborative efforts of developers and com-munity. Councilmember Jim Paulsen pointed to the unique characteristics of this parcel that includes lakes, wetlands, and oak savannah. "We have so much of this type of property on the South Side of us, it's important that we get it right. We are trying to fit an existing ordinance on very different types of land."
Developers are continuing to work on the sketch plat.
COUNCIL DECISION AT BAYCLIFFE STANDS
A PUBLIC PROCESS WAS FAIRLY FOLLOWED
Bob Atkinson, resident on Lake Minnetonka at Baycliffe Drive, attended the July 12th council to express his dismay at the council's approval of construction on the residential Fenn property in his neighborhood.
"I'd like to back up," he said. "My problem is that there's an ordinance that everything be under one roof and now there'll be three structures on that property. It's turning into a Valley Fair thing."
Mr. Atkinson asked why the new structure couldn't be attached directly to the existing house rather than by a breeze-way, and why the garage is detached rath-er attached to the house.
"I haven't had a chance to look at this nor have my engineer review the plan. There's no reason those buildings couldn't be connected to the house," he said.
Stated Mayor Mary Meuwissen, "We've gone through the process ... In your mind that breezeway is a separate structure. To us it's all connected. It's a house. We went through a public process. We listened. We made a decision. The building permit cannot be issued until they show us how they're going to take care of the water. It needs approval by TKDA, our engineers. This is a property owner that has property rights. Now it's up to the engineers to review this."
Said Councimember Jim Paulsen, who had understood that Mr. Atkinson was concerned about tree removal in the area, "This went through with lots of continuances. For you to imply that we railroaded this through is not fair. This did not happen quickly."
Council decision stands.
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