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The Victoria

GAZETTE

MADELYN CREEK CONTINUED.

Said Mayor Tom O'Connor, "There's always been the opportunity for a developer to come back and make changes. This is a free country."

Todd Triethart, a member of the Planning Commission who was in attendance at this council meeting, spoke at the podium. "This reduction is only by six units, which is a small amount overall. A reduction is better. We know the product is of high quality. It's a big picture thing. These four-plexes are in demand."

"Senior housing is a topic that comes up frequently," said Councilmember Tom Strigel, understanding that one-level living as planned for the newest townhomes is sought by many senior citizens. "To me this seems like a positive thing."

Mayor O'Connor commented on the work of the Planning Commission. "It's really inspiring to see the dialogue among the professionals, trying to do the best you can with all of the citizens in mind."

NEW LAKESIDE DEVELOPMENT

PLANS TO BRING 80 NEW HOMES TO VICTORIA

On May 13th city councilmembers were introduced to a second sketch plat located on the south shore of Lake Wasserman, this one adjacent to and east of the new Lake Wasserman Ridge. It consists of 50 acres owned by the Meatcutters Union and the development will be called Lakeside. Its southern border is Marsh Lake Road, which is slated to become a county road aligned with Pioneer Trail. Currently it's a gravel road.

Holly Kreft, Victoria's Community Development Director, reminded councilmembers, "The sketch plat phase does not require approvals but looks for feedback to the developer." In other words, no council action was taken at this time.

Holly said that the developer, Vern Gonyea, is proposing 80 single family lots with seven of them on the lake. Each lakeshore lot is one acre in size (43,560 square feet) per city ordinance. Minimum lot size for non-riparian lots is 10,000 square feet. Sideyard setbacks would be at least 10 feet.

In response to questions asked by councilmembers, Mr. Gonyea replied, "Homes will be in the $400,000 to $600,000 range. Lakeshore would be quite a bit more than that. Lake lots are in their own world. There are a lot of trees on the site, a lot of wetlands on the site. We hope to break ground yet this season. To have a park there is a major amenity for a developer."

Access to the development will be off Marsh Lake Road. City staff is working with Carver County to determine the location for that access. Access to Lake Wasserman Ridge is County Road 43.

VEHICLES HITTING RUMBLE STRIPS

ON THE CURVE EAST OF DOWNTOWN VICTORIA

City Engineer Cara Geheren reported May 13th that she received a letter from MnDOT regarding the rumble strips in the center of Hwy 5 near a stretch of Victoria homes east of downtown Victoria. Homeowners have complained about the noise when vehicles or trailers go over the rumble strips.

"They went out and measured the depth of the strips," said Cara. "They were consistent with MnDOT standards. They installed cameras which proved to be inclusive. They chose this weekend to monitor vehicles and hits in a two-hour period."

She reported a count of 1 hit out of 605 eastbound vehicles, and 6 hits our of 611 westbound vehicles. The highway has an average of 16,000 vehicles/day which translates to 160 hits in a 24-hour period. Said the city engineer, "That strikes me as frequent. Mn DOT plans to do that exercise at different times of the day. They're going to do some more observations and will schedule another neighborhood meeting to s hare data and discuss a range of potential solutions."

Said Councilmember Jim Crowley, "The residents specifically stated it happens most often in the off-hours. Why wasn't the exercise conducted at night? If that truly happens, the data is totally skewed."

Said Councilmember Joe Pavelko, "I live on Hwy 5 and I know that hearing the rumble strip hit every ten minutes would not be good."

On May 28th, Cara reported that additional counts are being made and that MnDOT will hold a meeting with the neighbors sometime during the first half of June. Councilmember Tom Strigel said he is looking for a speedier and better response from MnDOT.

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City Scoop Continued

June 2013