The City states they have done a feasibility study
on Phillips. They have yet to produce this when asked by Wilson Township
to do so. When I asked Sorenson about a feasibility study some time ago,
he assured me that the developers had money to back this development, however
this is not the only thing a feasibility study should be based on.
NO environmental studies have been done by
independant parties on the Phillips property, only Phillips own engineers.
Based on their studies Phillips has dropped his "developable" acres from
180 acres to less than 80. The Feasibility study is also suppose to
include how feasible it is for the City to get their money back from the running
the sewer and pipes and other cost for this development picked up by the
City. If you go to the April 2004 City Council minutes, you will see that
Eric Sorenson thought it would cost about 4.5 million dollars. You can do
the math, does it seem feasible to you? The City gets $17,000 per
developable acre. Phillips will probably be down to less than 70 once an
environmental study is done. The City will argue that they base this on
ALL developable acres in pleasant valley, but it is a risk of tax payers money
as you can see, if Phillips went from 180 to 80, that is alot of money they were
gambling on that is not going to be coming their way now.
The negotiations between the City and Township
ended because the Township asked the City to include what they call an AUAR
study. A very comprehensive environmental study. This looks at many
things, traffic, safety, environmental impact, growth impact and so on.
The City said on Friday they would COMPLETE one within three years. Though
this was not exactly what the Township wanted, they would have preferred it be
done before the development started, the Township agreed to it. On Monday
the annexation agreement did not contain a deadline date of three years, which
basically means the City would probably never do one. The City lied and
said the Township did not sign the agreement as they said on Friday, but the
agreement did not say what they agreed on.
Phillips has a contract for deed with Heise,
he refuses to say who his "backers" are. He could back out any time, but
he would loose any money he has put in thus far. This is a bad deal all
the way around for everyone but the developer. If the City thinks they
have issue with Treetops, they are jumping from the frying pan directly into the
fire with the Phillips property. Why would they do this? It makes no
sense. Janice Turek
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 5:02
PM
Subject: Re: [Winona] Wilson
[Winona Online Democracy]
Question: Was the curent Winona Sensitive
Lands Ordinance applied by Mr. Phillips to his proposed land purchase prior to
his asking to have it annexed for the purpose of development? What was
the result of that survey?
Has he really and truly purchased this land, or
is the purchase subject to an annexation contingency?
How confident is/was he of having a city
annexation occur?
Who is Jason Phillips? What is his
development track record and where?
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 8:28
AM
Subject: [Winona] Wilson
[Winona Online Democracy]
To my understanding the residents of Wilson
Township voted to increase their taxes to pay the lawyer fees to fight this
forced annexation.
Why* am I not hearing any citizens of Winona
commenting on who/how their lawyer fees are being paid?
Are the citizens of the city not realizing
their taxes are going to go up to pay for a lawyer.
I hope and pray the courts will rule in favor
of Wilson Township and this entire forced annexation issue will be
dead.
It should never have been an issue to begin
with.
According to yesterday;s daily news article Mr
Sorenson comments that there appears to be mistrust.
You bet I do and I don't even live in Wilson
Township.
Linda Fort
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