Compare this "message" about how Town Center handled our growth needs, with what emerged, and compare the months and months of meetings so tedious that only the Hunt family remained steadfast, and then look at the "Oh, my, we have a deadline we have to move THIS package ever so quickly ..." BS handed to us at the ending by staff, the cousultant, and Ms. Steffen's one meeting performance saying Met Council would use a big stick if things did not move pronto, Tonto. And that was no threat, it was a promise. Met Council would freeze Town Center and the existing plan, without amendment allowed (God bless), and would take their awful "grants" away in a huff. Don't let the doorknob hit you, dear.
BS. First then, BS, later now. THEN, the "message," ---
[W]e must take the initiative to prudently plan and steer the development into something that we want rather than something that we're just stuck with.
A master planned, properly balanced Town Center answers nearly every one of Ramsey's future growth needs. By concentrating industrial, commercial and density residential out on Hwy 10 (where it is most effective to move larger numbers of vehicles both to and from) we encourage the locating goods and services that add convenience and value to our lifestyle.
The Town Center would provide jobs, add substantially to our tax base, keep many of our spending dollars here within our own community and answer most of the difficult housing needs that we have for our young adults, our seniors and our "empty nesters".
But it did not prove a reality, nor did it satisfy the will to cash out the land held by the Hunt family. After others had their cashing out experience, away from Town Center.
So, was it a lie from the start?
You decide.
I was not responsible for deviating from that "message" and routing sewer-water to the Bauer gun club. Others had that idea, for reasons they may not yet have fully divulged, publicly.
That's yesterday's fish. Today's, already having a fishy smell, is how we ended up with a sack of dirt instead of a PLAN, one we citizens are "stuck with."
It is an insult. All responsible should be fired.