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WHAT BABY BOOMERS WANT
"PEDESTRIAN LIVING" AND "PRODUCT MIX"
City Planner Mark Kaltsas reported to councilmembers about his recent trip to the Urban Land Institute Fall Meeting in San Francisco. He said he was waiting for some pictures before making a com-plete presentation. Meanwhile, he report-ed on November 13th ...
"It was a great learning and opportu-nity experience for me personally and hopefully for the city. It presented current and future trends in development. We got to see those future trends. They cover a huge spectrum.
"They talked about pedestrian living. A major focus is to live as a pedestrian and take some of the focus off the auto-mobile. A lot of baby boomers are mov-ing into inner city living. There is an emphasis on livable, walkable communi-ties and creating communities that have this. Baby boomers are the highest per-centage of the population right now.
"A huge percentage of retirement people are now looking to stay in place and not migrate. They're seeking to live in the place they are currently living. Across the country, people are staying put.
"Architectural diversity is becoming more important. People are demanding it. And they want a product mix. They want single family homes next to duplexes next to multi-family -- right next to each other in the same development, not next to each other in different developments. People want different product types within the same block, not just the same two-mile radius.
"High density single family housing is coming. People are not looking for the big lot to mow. We're looking at 32 units per acre of single family detached homes in Seattle and Portland. It's unbelievable density, with 1,000 square feet per unit. They're affordable with really nice archi-tecture. There's a huge market for this. Single women especially love that product. It creates community. I think we do have some developers here who might look at that product for Victoria.
"We also heard that you can create quality affordable development if you want to. It's a theme they focus on.
"We had a great presentation from Newt Gingrich. Regardless of your poli-tics, he has a pretty significant insight on a world scope."
APPLYING FOR A CLEANUP GRANT
FOR DOWNTOWN VICTORIA PROPERTY
Councilmembers approved an appli-cation to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development for a contamination cleanup grant that would be used on the former Sidco prop-erty in downtown Victoria. Last year the city received $18,000 for the initial envi-ronmental investigation Cleanup has now been completed and the additional grant money would help offset the costs.
Stated Planner Mark Kaltsas, "There was some bad contamination on that property, which we did take care of. We applied for the full amount of $150,000, which is about 75% of our costs, includ-ing the land acquisition. We also hope to recoup some of our costs through the sale of the property."
There is an agreement to sell this Stieger Lake Lane property to Tom and Candy Almquist of Victoria for their Kidtalk business and other office/retail space.
Referring again to the contamination Mark said, "We hit a gold mine of petro-leum after the building was taken down. There is still contamination beyond the 24-inch depth. There is a lot of cost to excavate that deep. It might require some venting if a building sits on top of that particular area."
Stated Councilmember Dave Lind-gren, "Sidco wasn't the only one responsi-ble for that contamination. It was there long before him."
Stated Councilmember Richard Tied-en, "I've got a friend who witnessed lots of things on that property that would be inappropriate by today's standards."
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