City Council will vote on June 14

By Sarah Nigbor

RIVER FALLS – During a public hearing held May 24 for a town of Troy property annexation, residents expressed reservations about the proposed land use for the 43 acres located at Paulson and Radio roads on River Falls’ north side.

The River Falls City Council heard a first reading of an ordinance related to annexing two parcels and changing the future land use classification from industrial to high densi ty residential. The acreage, which contains no buildings, is owned by Thompson Family LLC. City Planner Emily Shive – ly said the Plan Commission expressed its support at its May meeting. "We have three diuerent housing developers who are an ticipating developing the properties for residential uses,” Shively said at the May Plan Commission meeting.

The proposal set forth is to build a variety of homes, in – cluding twin homes, rental townhomes, and multi-family apartment building, providing 310 housing units with an es – timated assessed value of $62 million. The city might collect $380,000 in property taxes in 2024 if the developments go as planned, Shively said.

The 2005 Comprehensive Plan designated those par – cels for future industrial development, but that was prior to the city's Mann Valley acquisition of more than 200 acres. Stau recommends changing the land use from industrial to high-density residential, Shively said.

Shively outlined four factors that must be considered in annexations: Is the land contiguous to city, are proposed land uses compatible with adjacent uses, the cost of infrastructure, and euect on city budget.

The proposed development is located where the North Loop water and sewer project is planned, Shively said. A cap – ital costs study lists costs at $312,000 for the water main, $133,000 for the sewer main, $18,000 for curb, which would be included in the North Loop project costs. The developers are amenable to paying for this up front, she added. This development would help ease the city's significant demand for housing and provides access to the highway, Shively said. It's separated from Whitetail Corporate Park by topography.

City resident Benjamin Fochs, who lives on Powell Ave – nue, said following the city's money spent on EngageRF and Focus RF, “it’s a little interesting that this is hot-shotted be- fore that when two weeks ago, you guys were worried about

completing the community planning process before you start ed approving new subdivisions.”

He doesn't have a problem with the high-density residen – tail designation on the south parcel, which is 28.99 acres, but doesn't think residential is an appropriate use for the north parcel, which is about 13.68 acres.

“The reason being is that during the process you guys have identified that agriculture uses, walkability and such things, and neighborhood feel are important to the city … going out there and putting all these houses out there with no commu – nity access to walkability, no convenience stores, no local industrial things in there,” Fochs said. “And the other part is your pushing all that development is going to be pushing down Paulson Road into that intersection there at Sullivan, when you have to question what services are up there that are required.”

Fochs said many of the same problems are found in the Sterling Ponds neighborhood, which is a residential area with no services, couee shops, or small businesses. Resident John Larson, who owns property next to the pro- posed annexation/development, isn't pleased with the pro posal.

"To me, it's pushing on me and it came up all of a sudden," Larson said. “I understand the water tower has to be built and all the utilities have to go in.”

He doesn't like the idea of another roundabout going in, "which will be at my place and I'm opposed to that. I would like a berm in front of my place. I don't want to look at it. If they put anymore of these big apartments in, which they probably will there of course, nobody wants those. I surely don't. You probably wouldn't. None of you would want it in your place. And whatever happens in the future with this planning, I haven't heard too much about it, but I'd like to be well-informed on what goes on." Another resident, Pat Bilbrey, is concerned the develop- ment could be located along a busy freeway. "We're trying to encourage RF to be more eco-friendly, to be more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly and I don't see this happening if we keep on pushing the developments farther out from the core of the city," he said. Alderperson Jeu Bjork said while he's okay with the an nexation, he’s not in favor of the north parcel being designat- ed as residential; he believes a more appropriate use would be commercial, for services businesses such as gas stations, etc.

"I think it's a mistake," Bjork said. "I don't think it's in the vision morally of what we want as a city to have apartments right next to the highway.”

Shively clarified that 200 rental townhomes are proposed for the north parcel; twin homes and multi-family apartment buildings are proposed for the south parcel.

Alderperson Diane Odeen said she also has concerns, but will be considering them carefully between now and the city council vote on June 14. "I'm struggling with how much, I mean this is privately owned property and we have interested people who have done their research and want to do development in it, and so the boundary between appropriate consideration for private property rights kind of pushes up against some greater public concerns,” she said.

City Administrator Scot Simpson pointed out that the council has not instructed city stau to cease development un – til the comprehensive plan is completed, but they certainly could if they want to.

"We are operating as stau as that the council has not put a moratorium on, and frankly hasn't even necessar – ily told us to slow way up on development, while waiting for this other to develop," Simpson said. "Stau is dealing with a comprehensive plan that is fairly outdated and lim ited even in its coverage of areas that are logically includ- ed in a comp plan for expansion of municipal boundaries." He recognizes that council could tell stau they're not com – fortable in proceeding with development but wants to know that ahead of time. "There's plenty of developers in line asking for stau to give their best estimate of what the community is going to determine for future land use," he said.

It is in the bounds of policy for council to decide to halt annexations, rezoning, and/or development until the comp plan is done. However, that would hinder stau in fulfilling the housing goals of the city, he added.

"When this comes back for second reading, essentially it's the council's opportunity to signal 'time out,' we want to hold on," Simpson said. "It'll also be your opportunity to say, you know what, we have enough information to know we want to do the annexation but there's some details we want to work out.”

Bjork reiterated that he thinks the north lot should be com – mercial. "I know we move quick and I don't know what for sure the race is that we have to have things done and accomplished," Bjork said. "I don't know if we're trying to get to a certain population by a certain time, but there's more and more peo ple that are getting worried about what’s happening with our development of our city. When you look just a short time ago, we were at 56% of the people in town were renters, right? And now we're going to be approaching 80% by the time we're done with all these developments.

"If that's what we want, more people that are not home – owners in our community, then let's race and keep on going and you know, bat out of hell." The June 14 city council meeting is slated to begin at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall (222 Lewis St.)

The Thompson Family LLC is asking the City of River Falls to annex 43 acres, divided into two parcels, near the intersec -tion of Radio and Paulson roads north of the city in the town of Troy. Interested developers would like to put mixed-use housing on the sites. Map courtesy of City of River Falls