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HOUSING <br /> I NTENT <br /> Create a housing approach that accommodates people in all stages of the life cycle, provides quality housing for <br /> people and families at all income levels, builds neighborhoods that attract investment and connects those <br /> neighborhoods to key destinations within the community. <br /> BACKGROUND <br /> The historic part of Pequot Lakes is built primarily on a traditional grid pattern. The original housing was located <br /> between the railroad stop and Sibley Lake. The original development pattern was mixed-use, so residential and <br /> commercial ventures were interspersed throughout the grid. <br /> Over time, residential development coalesced into neighborhoods with housing that was compatibly scaled.Single <br /> family and muiti-family homes were built throughout these areas using a traditional pattern that spaced houses <br /> across the right-of-way at distances that enhanced the public realm. Dwellings were built near the street while <br /> accessory structures were placed in the rear of the lot. The neighborhoods were connected by narrow streets <br /> (narrow by current standards),sometimes with sidewalks.While modest in size and scale,these neighborhoods had <br /> a sense-of-place characteristic of this era of development. Fragments of these neighborhoods can still be found in <br /> Pequot Lakes. <br /> At the same time,Sibley Township,which surrounded the city,developed in a traditional rural/recreational pattern. <br /> Most of the development was either farmsteads on rural roads or lake cabins. <br /> Following World War II and into the 1980's,the style of housing began to shift.As streets and rights-of-ways were <br /> reconfigured to increase automobile accessibility, the orientation of homes changed as well. In the urban area of <br /> Pequot lakes, the typical home was a little larger and positioned further back, with accessory structures moved <br /> forward or attached.Some multi-family dwellings were constructed along this same pattern,with emphasis on large <br /> parking areas and green space along the public street. Lake cabins in rural Sibley Township continued to be added <br /> as transportation improvements increased their accessibility. Farmsteads remained largely unchanged. <br /> As area development began to pick up in the 1990's,the significant housing investments were transitioning out of <br /> urban Pequot Lakes to where property owners could have larger acreage and/or direct lake access.Sibley Township <br /> began to transform into its current rural/suburban nature,with suburban-style subdivisions interspersed throughout <br /> lands formerly used for agriculture or logging.Many lake homes were converted from seasonal cabins to year-round <br /> dwellings,with significant increases in property values corresponding with increases in development intensity. <br /> This is the development pattern that was evolving at the time of the merger between Pequot Lakes and Sibley <br /> Township and it continued through the national subprime mortgage crisis that began in 2007. New housing <br /> development slowed and now has largely ceased while an excess of empty lots remain. <br /> During the boom of the 1990's and early 21�`Century,a number of marginal properties within the old Pequot Lakes <br /> city limits fell into disrepair. While most homes in these areas were still properly maintained, new housing <br /> investments were renditions of the suburban-style homes being constructed in rural Sibley Township.They were <br /> 1 <br />