Council Grants Extension to Enchanted Waters
Extension Is Second In Hugo This Year
HUGO - In another local ripple caused by the nationwide housing market downslide, on Feb. 19 the Hugo City Council granted a two-and-one-half year extension to the owners of the Enchanted Waters housing subdivision to obtain final plat approval.
Property owners Jim and Karen Bever have been unable to get the project off the ground since council originally approved the preliminary plat for the development on August 7, 2006. A one-year extension for obtaining final plat approval was granted last August.
The project extension is the second one granted by council in the past month, on the heels of a request made in January by the owners of the 39-lot Sunset Shores subdivision located southwest of Sunset Lake. The projects are less than a mile apart. Sunset Shores received final plat approval on Dec. 18, 2006. Early in 2007, the developer died unexpectedly, and council granted an extension through February 2008, at which time the owners were granted an additional two=-nd-one-half years to file the plat.
Normally, a developer has 30 days to file a final plat with the county recorder's office.
The Enchanted Waters and Sunset Shores subdivisions are the only two projects approved under the terms of the city's current Rural Preservation Ordinance.
In keeping with the criteria established under the ordinance, Enchanted Waters would concentrate 12 housing units on 20 acres of a 40-acre tract, setting aside the other 20 acres across 132nd Street as permanent open space.
However, unforeseen development hurdles and a cooling market have delayed these two projects, and the council appears reluctant to allow previous approvals to expire.
At the meeting, the question was raised as to whether the city's ongoing Comprehensive Plan review process should impact council's stance towards granting extensions to these types of subdivisions located in the city's rural areas. The draft of the Comp Plan currently being discussed by the city involves removing all references to the ordinance while designating eastern Hugo as "Permanent Rural."
But council ultimately decided at the meeting that regardless of the outcome of the Comprehensive Plan public hearing on the matter, the Bevers should be allowed to have the opportunity to move forward with the Enchanted Waters development in the foreseeable future.
"I don't think it's unreasonable to give them two-and-a-half years no matter how the Comp Plan comes back," said Council Member Frank Puleo.
"I think [the extension] is consistent with what we've done, and I don't know why we would say to someone 'you had it, but now your time is up.'"
While the Enchanted Waters and Sunset Shores subdivisions will apparently be grandfathered in, the current trajectory of the nearly completed Comp Plan revision process seems to indicate that the days of the cluster ordinance in Hugo are numbered.
"If there seems to be a conflict between the final version of the Comp Plan and the ordinance, then the city will have six months to clean those up after the plan is approved," said Community Development Director Bryan Bear.
"The city will then talk about what changes to make to the ordinance, or whether it should be eliminated altogether."
The final public hearing on the Comp Plan draft is scheduled for March 6 at 7 p.m. at City Hall during the Planning Commission's regularly scheduled meeting. If the commission recommends approval of the plan, council will get one last look before the draft is distributed to surrounding communities and local agencies for comment prior to Metropolitan Council review.