City Council Meeting Date: August 4, 2020
To: Mayor and City Council
City Administrator
From: Mitzi A. Baker, Community Development; David Bennett, Public Works/Engineering; Brenda Angelstad, Finance
Title
Introduction and consideration of a public improvement project, with assessments, for Bluff View phase I residential development.
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council is requested to consider a motion to support staff proceeding to prepare documents for constructing public infrastructure for a residential subdivision through a public project.
Summary Report:
Staff has worked with the Koester family for several years to identify options for proceeding with the Bluff View subdivision development. This project was originally proposed by Arcon Development in 2003 and stalled following the housing crash. More recently, staff has been approached by Reiland Development to explore their involvement in developing the property. To help facilitate advancing development, they recently requested consideration of the City to construct the public infrastructure for Phase I and to assess the costs to the individual lots.
Connecting Ford Street to Hwy. 246 is an important connection that will improve access and circulation to this part of the community. Though completing the entire roadway is not feasible at this time, it appears a two-phase approach is a suitable alternate to moving toward completion. Completing Bluff View Phase I would result in completing approximately 1/2 of the remaining segment of Ford Street to Hwy. 246. The second 1/2 will need to include construction within the Hwy. 246 right-of-way, in cooperation with MNDOT, to include intersection improvements and turn lanes. This will result in additional expenses that benefit a broader geographic area and are not entirely attributable to the remaining Bluff View/Koester land. A funding strategy that more evenly distributes these additional expenses will need to be considere...
Click here for full text