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803 Old Highway 8 NW, New Brighton, MN 55112 | 651-638-2100 | www.newbrightonmn.gov <br />9-24-19 <br />County Commissioners, <br />Ramsey County and the City of New Brighton have been long-standing partners over the years in our efforts to <br />maintain existing housing stock, expand homeownership and affordable housing opportunities, installing safe <br />infrastructure and utilities, remediating brownfields sites, redeveloping under-utilized properties, strengthening <br />businesses, and encouraging job growth. We thank you for your efforts to date, and look forward to many more <br />years of active partnership. <br />To strengthen our bond though, we believe it is essential to not only acknowledge our successes but also to call <br />forward challenges when they arise so similar situations can be avoided moving forward. To that end, we are <br />writing in support of Dominium who was recently approved by the City to build 358 affordable housing units to the <br />shared benefit of our overlapping jurisdictions. As part of the development review, all commenting agencies— <br />including the County—were given over one month to review and comment on the plans so all needs and <br />requirements could be met. The developers addressed all identified issues, and the plans proceeded through both <br />preliminary and final approvals. Unfortunately, the final plat review by the County and subsequent re-review by <br />the Highway department determined at the last hour that 10’ of additional ROW must be dedicated on both sides <br />of the County Road bisecting the project. While that request is wholly appropriate during the preliminary plat <br />stage, such a change in position is virtually unheard of after both preliminary and final approvals have been <br />granted. The dominos that fall from this last-minute position shift include mandated changes to the buildings and <br />grading plans to the tune of thousands of dollars, a months-long delay to the start of the project as new preliminary <br />plan sets are reviewed, and requiring both Council and staff to hold additional meetings and a public hearing on the <br />always contentious issue of affordable housing. <br />Mistakes of this magnitude are completely unacceptable. If our two jurisdictions were not dealing with Dominum, <br />it is easy to imagine this set of facts ending up in court as a best-case scenario, or a complete derailing of the <br />project in a worst-case scenario. All of which is made worse by the fact that the requested dedication is arguably <br />not needed based on the specifics of this case. Main Street Village, just up the road, was developed by Dominium <br />and was not required to dedicate the additional 10 feet of ROW at that time. If Ramsey County actually values its <br />relationship with New Brighton it will retract the demand for an additional 10 feet of ROW immediately. <br />Thank you in advance for taking time to consider this situation and for identifying ways to ensure we never find <br />ourselves at this same crossroads again. Economic development projects such as this benefit not just the city, but <br />the school district as well as the county. This additional requirement of 10 feet is not needed and should be <br />retracted immediately.