Litchfield City Council agreed to readjust a developer’s plans for two pieces of city-owned property during its meeting last week.
The Counicil, at its June 6 meeting, had approved a Request for Proposal from Greg Schilling to develop a parcel of city-owned land on North Gorman Avenue for a sale price of $25,000. The council then decided to place another parcel on Nelson Avenue, which needs fill and more extensive utility extensions, up for public auction.
Schilling had submitted an RFP for that parcel as well, but wanted the city to cover approximately $20,000 in site preparation costs, which the council was unwilling to do. No other developer had submitted an RFP for the Nelson parcel.
Schilling appeared before the council again June 20 to express a desire to rescind his previous offer on the Gorman property because he had wanted to develop both properties at about the same time, using fill from the Gorman site to help prepare the Nelson site. As an alternative, Schilling agreed to pay $12,500 for each parcel, so that they could be developed more efficiently, in tandem.
“The amount of money would be the same,” Schilling said. “Then both properties could be developed … I’m taking the good with the bad.”
“It’s a creative way of making the same offer you had two weeks ago,” Cziok said.
Coming into the June 20 meeting, Schilling had originally offered just $2,500 for each lot, if he assumed all site preparation costs. Cziok then told the council that, at auction, the Nelson and Gorman properties would likely bring in more than Schilling was offering, but there would be no guarantee that an auction buyer(s) would actually develop the property once purchased. He pointed out that Schilling owned other property within the city that has not been developed to date. After that, Schilling offered $12,500 each.
Several councilors commented that multi-family housing, such as Schilling plans to build and has built, is in short supply in Litchfield, and that his RFP was the only one received on the Nelson Avenue property.
After much discussion, the council agreed to rescind its June 6 resolutions, and sell Schilling both properties for a total of $25,000, contingent on Schilling obtaining an approved developer’s agreement with the city Planning Commission. This agreement should include a timeline and more details about the proposed housing.
Two other developments also were approved by the council. The first was a setback variance to allow Litchfield Shipping to build an office addition to the front of its building at 425 Chandler Ave. S.
The second would allow J.J. Holdings LLC, to build an orthodontic clinic on recently annexed land at 1103 Sibley Ave. N. The land was rezoned to B3, and the site plan was approved, conditional on the clinic cooperating with the Minnesota Department of Transportation on reconfiguring the intersection at 11th Street and U.S. Highway 12. The current intersection is too narrow to allow for turn lanes which would reduce frequent traffic backup on 11th Street. One advantage cited by city officials was that a current access to Highway 12/22 would be removed and replaced by an access to the more lightly traveled 11th Street.
