prescient - adjective: Knowing or anticipating the outcome of events before they happen.
Well, read Big Builder Online, from about a month after the Town Center mortgage, financing agreement, and Master Building Agreement were recorded. It's - uh - prescient.
I excerpt:
"A stoplight amid RV dealerships along busy Highway 10" is how the Minneapolis Star Tribune, in a recent article, described the place travelers find about halfway between Minneapolis and St. Cloud. Ramsey's city administrator Jim Norman told the paper that for years the town "has been the poster child for urban sprawl," a place where people bought land for inexpensive starter homes.
As a result, the lion's share of the growth that occurred in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area's northern tier in recent years has leapfrogged over and around Ramsey, leaving the town's 18,500 inhabitants starved for shopping, convenience, and local employment in a town with no center.
But when the city was designated as one of six "Smart Growth Opportunity" sites by Minnesota's Metropolitan Council, the good folks of Ramsey rose up and seized the chance to take an active role [... especially, those named Kurak]
Based on the desires of the people and their elected officials, [especially, those named Kurak] the 2,400 units will include zero lot-line houses, villas, townhouses, condos (some two-story, some with lofts to add "verticality"), apartments, and senior housing. In fact, it will include practically everything but single-family houses on large lots."The whole idea is density," explains John Feges, who prefers the title of "community builder" over that of developer because it is more indicative of the how closely he and partner Bruce Nedegaard, an NAHB life director, are working "in a collaborative role" with the city to bring its vision to fruition.
Noting that 96 percent of Anoka County's housing stock is single-family houses, he says the need now is to offer options to residents in all their life stages. "Density drives not only the social component and the urban feel [of the new town center] but also the tax dollars coming back to the community. And that, in turn, helps create the subsidies we need to attract retail," he adds.
"Young people are looking for a more socially expanded experience than is available in our sprawling communities, and older people are more congregate, too. They want to move horizontally, not up and out," says the community builder.
Mirroring the price range of other houses being sold in the region, 10 percent to 15 percent of the town center homes will be priced at $150,000 or less, while about 5 percent will be at $400,000 or more. The remainder will fall somewhere in between.
The developer promises that Ramsey Town Center will not be what he calls "a monochromatic sea of taupe." It will have "design character," he says. "It will be an eclectic town, a true city that looks as though it evolved over time."
Unlike other new town centers, it won't be developed over time, at least not a good portion of it. Work on about half the houses and 30 percent of the retail will get under way simultaneously, according to Feges. Starting construction at the same time will eliminate the "pioneering stage" that is typical of other large-scale projects. And a significant portion of the build-out is expected to be completed in three to five years.
What began as a "Smart Growth Opportunity" site may well turn out to be a smart growth reality site.
May well turn out to be a smart growth reality.
It is that, now.
A "poster child" for smart growth.
And, if you like prescient, you have to like, "Unlike other new town centers, it won't be developed over time, at least not a good portion of it."
John, you have to stop that.
I hope they do not pull that story. Keeping it is worthwhile. I have not changed one single word. I only excerpted. [Oh, the braketed wording - I added that. I believe Big Builder was not watching individuals who were not actually quoted.]