In addition to the regular department reports, this week’s memo (PDF) includes:

• Information about absentee voting, which begins June 28.
• Update on the annexation request in Bridgewater Township for Mayo Clinic, which will be heard by the City Council on Tuesday MORNING this week.
• Update on the Safety Center Projects and the proposed meeting schedule for the Steering Committee and Design Team.
• Update on the Surface Water Management Plan and timetable.
• Lots of other smaller project updates

There is a special Council Meeting on Tuesday 6/29 at 7:30 AM. You can view all upcoming City meetings on the City Calendar.

As part of my Environmental Economics and Policy class, we’re conducting research on the different stakeholders relevant to the annexation issue.

Our end product will be a public poster presentation on Monday, March 15 from 8:30-11 in the Great Hall at Carleton… My group is conducting a survey to determine public attitudes about the annexation.

Our questions came from a Ward 3 exit poll conducted by Erica Zweifel, who graciously agreed to share her poll results with us, but we’re hoping to collect more data.

Ultimately, the hope is for this to benefit the community, because our presentation will be attended by individuals involved in the decision-making process concerning this annexation.

Take the Prawer-Gill annexation straw poll.

Click play to listen. 30 minutes. You can also download the MP3 or subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe directly with iTunes. Our radio show/podcast, Locally Grown, usually airs Mondays at 6:00 PM and Sundays at 10 AM on KYMN 1080 AM.

Here’s a Google map of the area, with a few of my markers. View West Armstrong Business Park (proposed) in a larger map.

  
Here are a couple of Heath Creek and Spring Brook Creek watershed maps from an (old) page on the Carleton web site titled Environmental Aspects of Transportation Planning in Northfield.

Update 7/12: Below is a land owner map of the area, courtesy of Bruce Morlan and his Politics and a Pint blog post.

See also:

• July 8 Nfld News, New annexation request may extend Northfield westward.
• P. 13 of this week’s EDA packet which has this summary:

Background

… on July 1, 2009, Mr. Robert Gill and Mr. Kenneth Prawer submitted formal annexation requests to the City of Northfield. The City Council is expected to give City staff directions on how this request should be addressed at its July 20, 2009, City Council meeting. The proposed annexation consists of 456 acres and, if annexed, would most likely be developed as business and light industrial.

The Bridgewater Township Board has been notified by the applicants that they have submitted applications to the City of Northfield. The City of Northfield currently has a signed annexation agreement with Bridgewater Township to allow up to 150 acres in a five-year period with no more than 60 acres in one year. Some of the proposed annexation area is not included in the annexation agreement. Therefore, as a result of these conditions, the annexation agreement would need to be amended to enable these annexations to be completed.

ALTERNATIVES FOR CITY COUNCIL:

1. The Council can request that the Planning Commission hold a public hearing on the annexation requests, and then make a recommendation to the Council.
2. The Council can decide not to pursue the annexation requests. If so, the application forms and fees would be returned to the applicants.
3. The Council can delay the consideration of the annexation requests until a market study can be completed for the Northfield area.

Click play to listen. 30 minutes.

You can also download the MP3 or subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe directly with iTunes. Our radio show/podcast, Locally Grown, usually airs Mondays at 6:00 PM and Sundays at 10 AM on KYMN 1080 AM.

The annexation agreement, among other things, indicates how much Northfield would reimburse Greenvale for the property taxes the township will lose when 530 acres of undeveloped farmland goes onto the city’s tax rolls. Northfield is annexing the land to attract industrial developers in the hopes of widening the tax base and creating jobs.

Currently, no developers are publicly showing interest in buying the land, which lies on the city’s northwestern border (see map below).

Photo by Bonnie Obremski Caption: On the left are Brian O'Connell, director of Northfield's Community Development Department (foreground) and Joel Walinski, Northfield's interim city administrator. At center is Edith Nelson, Greenvale Township clerk. On the right are Richard Moore, Greenvale Township supervisor chairman and Bernard Budin, township supervisor. Not shown on the far right is supervisor Robert Winter.

“Fair Deal” for Greenvale

“In the end, it took a while since the supervisors usually only meet once a month,” Brian O’Connell, Northfield’s community development director, said after the final negotiation meeting at the Township Hall.

O’Connell, along with Joel Walinski, interim city administrator, represented the citizens of Northfield throughout negotiations with Greenvale.

“We don’t want to give up the land of course, but Northfield gave us a fair deal I thought,” said Richard Moore, chairman of the township supervisors.

The Northfield City Council is expected to vote at Monday night’s meeting at City Hall on whether to approve the annexation agreement (see agenda). If the council approves the agreement, the Minnesota Municipal Boundary Adjustments Board will examine the annexation process to ensure Northfield’s officials followed correct procedures. If the board approves, the annexation will be final.

“Balloon” Payment

The proposed payment plan would reimburse Greenvale in the amount of about $3,854 a year for five years. That figure is the amount of money Greenvale currently collects in taxes on the property. According to the agreement, the reimbursement amount would change year-to-year as Greenvale’s property tax rate changes. In the sixth year, Northfield would pay a “balloon payment” that would equal 20 more years of annual payments. In all, Northfield would pay Greenvale about $96,362, using today’s property tax rate figure for Greenvale.

The practice of priming land for development without having any interested developers is atypical for Northfield, Walinski has said. In 1980, for example, Northfield annexed land from the adjacent Waterford Township for the sole purpose of allowing the Sheldahl company to expand, according to an article in the Northfield News.

But there were unusual opportunities associated with the Greenvale plan. Namely, three township farmers, represented by real estate agency Land Vista LLC, approached city officials about two years ago to apply for annexation. The land they offered, with the addition of a small parcel Saint Olaf College agreed to have annexed, would form a contiguous stretch of land bordered to the south by a rural portion of State Highway 19.

EDA to create development plan

In anticipation of the council’s favorable vote, a new subcommittee of the Economic Development Authority called the Business Park Development Committee has outlined some steps to building a master plan for the new land. The three-person subcommittee is prepared to present those steps to the council on Monday, along with other objectives for 2009.

One of the steps is to create an agreement between Northfield officials and the Greenvale farmland owners. The agreement would clarify what would happen if a developer becomes interested in buying property from the farmers for industrial development.

In 2008, Northfield officials discussed another possible annexation agreement with the adjacent Bridgewater Township that would potentially bring more than 400 acres into the city. Walinski and O’Connell said there currently are no formal plans to explore such an agreement further, however.

“We haven’t received any written requests for annexation from them,” Walinski said of the Bridgewater Township supervisors. “Until we get something in writing, it’s all speculative.”

Side effects

Gregory Langer of Greenvale, a corn and soybean farmer, said he believed the annexation negotiation agreement with Northfield might have caused some long-term changes in the way some townspeople participate in government.
“I definitely think some things will happen in the next year where people in the township pay attention to these things earlier,” Langer said. “I think they’ll seek out information about what’s going on with the township government and about any developmental planning sessions that happen. I say that not so much because I’m seeing more people showing up at meetings, but because there’s been a rallying of people in the township who are disappointed and disturbed that so many things happened that they weren’t aware of.”

Langer first grew interested in following the annexation process when he learned that Northfield’s proposed business park development could one day cause his fields to be split by an access road. As he interacted more with the township’s government, however, he also became interested in finding a better way to disseminate information about government happenings to a greater percentage of the public.

Langer said he would have liked to see Northfield pay even more money in compensation to Greenvale in the annexation deal, even though the amount far exceeds the state’s minimum requirement of tax reimbursement for only two to eight years. Greenvale consultant Dean Johnson at one time told supervisors that most townships negotiated for a much higher compensation than the state minimum. Langer is also unhappy at the prospect of paving over land that currently supports crops and livestock.

“Prime farmland is a precious thing and once it’s paved over there won’t be any going back,” he said.

Moore said townspeople would likely vote on whether to institute a planning commission at the annual township meeting in March. But he said he wasn’t sure such a commission would be necessary, at least not this year.

“With the economy the way it is, I don’t think we’ll need it this year,” Moore said. “The township is growing a little bit, but I see Greenvale staying ‘ag’ yet for quite a while. I don’t see a lot of big changes coming here yet.”

Map, 530 acres:

Copy of the annexation agreement:

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Previous Representative Journalism Project reports on this topic, beginning with the most recent:

• City and township could sign annexation agreement next month
• Northfield offers about $96K in tax reimbursement to Greenvale in annexation deal
• Northfield bumps up offer a second time
• Northfield says OK to more compensation in annexation deal
• Video: City talks about working together
• Questions and answers at business park meeting
• Business park proposal breeds uncertainty, officials attempt to clarify

What’s next?

• Weighing the pros and cons of using agricultural land for industrial development.

Some background:

May 9 Nfld News: Just out of reach: Waterford Township.

A 1980 annexation agreement with Waterford, the smallest of the four townships surrounding Northfield, doesn’t allow annexation without the township board of supervisors’ approval. In 28 years, Waterford has agreed to one annexation: 20 acres off Sheldahl Road, which allows Sheldahl, now Multek, to relocate. A three-page typewritten agreement not only says the city can’t annex Waterford property without its approval, but must forever pay the township, north of the city just across the Dakota County line on Hwy. 3, for taxes lost in the annexation.

May 13 Nfld News editorial: Waterford accord needs another look.

As Northfield looks to expand its tax base and as discussions of a new business park continue, the city needs to examine all its annexation agreements to see whether they’re still wise to continue or if they should be renegotiated. The city should start with Waterford.

Letters to the editor in the May 17 Nfld News from Mary Ellen Frame and Liz Messner, Waterford Township Supervisor.

Letter to the editor in the May 21 Nfld News from Erin Johnson, Waterford Township Clerk.