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expansion of the sewer system is a great benefit for the city, it should be noted that the City already has more wastewater infrastructure than it is able to maintain. Additional infrastructure on the periphery of town, especially where development density is highway-oriented and thus low, is not an efficient use of existing infrastructure investments.) In my experience working for communities and, prior to that as an engineer working on development teams, I have seen this situation played out a number of times in a number of different ways. It is a game of chicken, in a sense, where city and developer see how far things can stretch. As time goes on, the emotional strain inherent with living in the community and being in tune with the many passionate voices on the subject takes a toll.That is when bad decisions are made. I believe Community Growth Institute's role is to provide professional advice that gets beyond this emotional strain and focuses on the core questions that need to be answered. ➢ Are these proposals consistent with the community's vision as documented in the Comprehensive Plan? ➢ Are these proposals consistent with the rules and regulations of the City, as enacted through the public process? ➢ Is our interpretation of the City's code and plans in this instance consistent with both the intent of those documents and the interpretation we have taken with others asking similar, albeit smaller-scale, questions? For the first two, our answer is clearly negative. For our answer on the third to be affirmative requires that we recommend denial of all three Oppidan requests. Our reports will detail the findings of fact. At our last meeting, a representative of the developer took me to task for not sharing his vision of a successful development. I had indicated to him during one of many private meetings that the entire big- box, highway strip-commercial style of building was not my idea of good development. But as I pointed out to him at the time, that was not my call to make here. Pequot Lakes clearly allows this type of development when the City's standards are met. You'll note the recommendation of approval from our office when their requests did. Oppidan has an approved permit. They can start construction consistent with that permit and with the approved public subsidy at any time.That approval meets the City's plans and codes. If, for whatever reason, they are unable to make that deal work on their end, then the store will not be built today. That is not a horrible thing long-term for Pequot Lakes. The prospective owner of the proposed grocery store owns at least two others in the regional market and, if in the future they can make a deal work financially, then ostensibly they will be back. The area's population is expected to continue to grow robustly and so it is hard to imagine how, if the demand is there today, a greater demand will not be there tomorrow. Getting it right a few years down the road is better than getting it wrong today (that is, after all, the logic behind the tax subsidy that has been approved for the development).We should not be hasty to close the wrong deal now just to have a deal. 14084 Baxter Drive, Suite 7 1 Baxter, Minnesota 56425 1218.828.3064 lwww.communitygrowth.com