Lakeville work session minutes published

The meeting minutes for the work session that was held on Oct 25th have been published:
Minutes of the November 1, 2010 City Council meeting, November 8, 2010 Special Council meeting and the October 25, 2010 Council work session

What I find interesting is that the original plat was a rectangular site that Malt-O-Meal purchased with the existing building.  Malt-O-Meal purchased the additional 4.5 acres of which 2.5 acres (155 by 700 feet) were the area with the combined conservation easement and drainage/utility easement so it would appear that their plan all along was to convince the City to vacate the easement so they could put the parking lot and office building within the 4.5 acres.

Original plat documents:
http://gis.co.dakota.mn.us/platsearch/pdfs/plats/28-25-2.pdf
http://gis.co.dakota.mn.us/platsearch/pdfs/plats/28-25-1.pdf

The Malt-O-Meal change to add the additional 4.5 acres to the east (right in the GIS image) can be seen on the current Dakota County GIS site:
http://gis.co.dakota.mn.us/website/dakotanetgis/
the Parcel ID (Parcel Search) is 222450002101

ITEM #3 – Malt-O-Meal Expansion Review

Shortly after Malt-O-Meal purchased the Hearth Technologies site, they also purchased an additional 4.5 acres of adjoining property to the east which was owned by New Morning Windows.  The northern 155 feet of the New Morning Windows property contains a conservation easement which was granted to the City by the owners of New Morning Windows when they purchased the property in 1995.  The conservation easement does not allow for development or improvements to be constructed on the property.  Malt-O-Meal is looking to the future at plans to remodel 29,000 square feet of office space in their existing building to accommodate an additional 100 employees and is also anticipating a future second building on their property.  Current parking areas will need to be expanded to provide capacity for additional employees.  City Council action would be needed to remove the conservation easement.

North of this property are single family homes with a natural berm and tree line screening most of the homes from this easement.  Malt-O-Meal will hold a neighborhood meeting to allow these residential property owners to review the concept plan.  Malt-O-Meal will add more screening if needed to lessen the impact to these homes.  Storm water runoff can be accommodated through a ponding area on the northeast corner of the site.

Council felt that Malt-O-Meal should be encouraged in the growth of their business and directed staff to work with them on an appropriate long-range site plan for best utilizing their property.  Council further directed staff to work with Malt-O-Meal to schedule a neighborhood meeting to present their concept plan.