Blaine on verge of buying key parcel for development

Since the Minnesota Vikings' ship sailed from Blaine three years ago, the city has adjusted its vision for the eastern end of town. Without a stadium, the city has expanded its plan for job-producing, and tax-generating, commercial and light-industrial blocs surrounded by pockets of wetland and wildlife.

But for years the dream has been held up by the attribute that would set it apart: water.

City officials hope the Blaine Economic Development Authority will move the vision forward tonight by purchasing a property they hope will provide a needed corridor into the area.

The 80-acre tract owned by John Trost and his family is located on 109th Avenue, at the eastern end of Pheasant Ridge, located in a wedge created by Interstate 35W and 109th Avenue. It has long been mired in the kind of complexities that come with developing a parcel that's almost 50 percent wetland.

Over the past five years, the Trost family, the Rice Creek Watershed District and the Army Corps of Engineers have been unable to agree on a plan to manage the property's wetlands. They appeared to have reached a workable deal in January, but at the end of April the Corps changed its requirements for evaluating permits for development.

The hope is that the city will be better able than a private owner to navigate the complexities of securing permits on a site that's almost half wetlands, but which will be a corridor to another 200 acres, much of which has yet to be developed.

And when the economy improves, the city hopes to be in a position to re-sell at least 45 acres of upland property that is permitted, platted and shovel-ready. The balance of land would become a bird sanctuary and open space.

The owners approached the city earlier this year with a proposal to sell the land for $1.95 million, discounted from about $4 million last year.

Issues are downstream

The land's problems come because development in a watershed has an impact downstream. In this case, water runoff from parking lots, roofs and sidewalks will wash into Rice Creek, which empties into the Mississippi River. Development also will require wetland and developable upland to be consolidated.

The Corps process calls for a plan that spells out what kind of development will go where and why, said Rice Creek Watershed District Director Doug Thomas.

In this case, the city is in a better position to work with the watershed district than an individual property owner, and can approach the Army Corps of Engineers with a plan -- its comprehensive plan -- in its pocket, he said.

John Trost declined to comment for this report.

But he's said in the past that the city's move to rezone his property from residential to industrial -- reflecting the city's comprehensive plan -- has tripled his property taxes to $30,000, an amount he can ill-afford to pay on a piece of land that today has no bidders and no development plan.

Blaine Mayor Tom Ryan calls the purchase a good opportunity.

"It's a good future purchase for us," he said. "The wetlands part has held it back for years and years, and it finally looks like we're going to get it done."