Arden Hills says no to Shoreview’s TCAAP detachment and annexation idea
Posted on 02. Feb, 2010 by Chris Dohman in City Council, City of Shoreview, Community, Development
Over 25 citizens gathered for an Arden Hills special city council meeting Monday night concerning the letter Arden Hills received from Shoreview Mayor Sandy Martin requesting a meeting to discuss the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP). The letter from Mayor Martin included an agenda of topics that Shoreview wanted to talk about including the following.
- Transportation Issues
- Trail Connections
- Parkland Development
- Potential Detachment/Annexation
The Arden Hills special meeting was a spirited debate among the Mayor, Council Members and even the citizens even though there was no public comment time allowed at this meeting. Negative feelings were the norm from Council Members on the subject of detachment and annexation. The term alone seemed to annoy and ruffle Councilmember feathers but Mayor Harpstead was more receptive than Councilmembers David Grant, Brenda Holden, Fran Holmes and Dave McClung to the idea of Arden Hills meeting with Shoreview in response to the letter.
“The main point that I want to make is that if the risks that I’ve heard for the last three years as Mayor are the primary issues before the City of Arden Hills as it pertains to the TCAAP then it does behoove us to explore all options,” said Arden Hills Mayor Stan Harpstead. “Shoreview has really offered to meet with Arden Hills first informally. Their request was rejected at a work session, and they were asked to submit in writing a topic list to this governing body.”
Concerning development of TCAAP, Mayor Harpstead mentioned potential risks that may be easier handled by a larger entity, maybe a larger entity that could be formed. These risks include:
- cleanup of the property which could fall back on the citizens of Arden Hills
- roadway & intersection expansion and freeway interchanges
- imbalance of cash flows covering operating expenses
- increased public safety costs
Mayor Harpstead made two motions to hear comments from the citizens attending the special meeting Monday night. Council Members David Grant, Brenda Holden, Fran Holmes and Dave McClung shot down these motions by not offering up a second to the motion because they felt this special meeting had a set agenda and was not the place for public comments. Mayor Harpstead was clearly frustrated by the unwillingness of the Council to hear public comments.
“How will we as a governing body open the process up to the community? Thats the larger question that I think we need to answer. How are we going to involve our citizens? How are we going to involve our neighbors? How are we going to involve the county? How about the Metropolitan Council? How about those with access to federal housing funds? How about those with access to Federal Brownfield Funds? When will we open the doors to input, debate, suggestions, conjecture, ideas?” said Mayor Harpstead. “We need to stop seeing conspiracy in every time someone makes a suggestion or raises a potential topic. We need to hear more from the people as it pertains to TCAAP. And with that I’m going to make another special motion. I move that we suspend the rules and allow people of the community to speak on this subject for no more than 2 minutes each. Is there a second? ….. Once again it dies for lack of second.”
After the motion died many loud boo’s were shouted out from the citizens at the meeting. Many wished they could speak.
Council Members wanted to be clear they are not unwilling to discuss TCAAP with surrounding communities and they made statements saying so along with their feelings on detachment and annexation. Among those statements were the following quotes.
“I believe that the use of the term detachment and annexation is unfortunate and i believe has blown this issue totally out of proportion,” said Councilmember Dave McClung. “I am willing to sit down and talk to anyone who has an interest in TCAAP, that is any information or any opinions on the matter. That being said, I am not supportive at all of annexation on that land. That land is part of Arden Hills.”
“When I saw the agenda from Shoreview I just felt I don’t see any reason to meet at this point in time,” said Councilmember Fran Holmes. “I didn’t think at this point in time a meeting with Shoreview was worth our time.”
“I don’t think that we want to turn away our neighbor in terms of talking to them, but in terms of annexation and detachment I think that’s off the table,” said Councilmember David Grant. “I have seen it out there in the press and fairly recently that the number of residents from Shoreview and Arden Hills are concerned about a race track. It isn’t going to happen. It is purely and simply not going to happen. The city of Shoreview could have come to the city of Arden Hills with a joint powers agreement. Annexation and detachment simply means that that property would become part of Shoreview. Under a joint powers arrangement it is the City of Arden Hills could have maintained city boundries and ownership of that property. So i’m wondering why that wasn’t explored first.”
“I’m not in favor of annexation. I think its very clear there isn’t going to be a negative purpose. We have the comprehensive plan, we have zoning. I believe it’s been repeated over and over again that we are not going to have a race track there,” said Councilmember Brenda Holden. “The stadium, we have not been, no one has come and contacted the city that they want to put a stadium there, so i think the City of Arden Hills pretty much can figure out that we don’t want anything negative there either.”
In this meeting one motion was passed declaring the following.
- The Arden Hills City Council takes the position that they are not supportive of annexation and detachment of the TCAAP property. This motion passed with a 4-1 vote with Mayor Stan Harpstead being the only nay vote and had tried to amend the wording of the motion.
Several directions to Arden Hills staff also came from the meeting and these included:
- To respond via letter to Shoreview that at this time decision of Council is not to schedule a city to city meeting with Shoreview on the TCAAP property and express the resolution that passed regarding opposition to detachment and annexation.
- To prepare a plan to hold a joint cities meeting on the subject of the TCAAP.
- To prepare proposal to council on how to engage the citizens for TCAAP development given the changes in project scope.
You can view the Shoreview Post’s copy of the letter from Shoreview to Arden Hills requesting a joint workshop meeting to discuss TCAAP issues including potential detachment and annexation.
