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In an stunning escalation into outright hostility by developer Audrius Asakenas against the City of Shorewood, a lawyer for Mr. Asakenas threatened to sue the City of Shorewood over the City Council's decision to require an environmental assessment worksheet (EAW) for Asakenas' Watten Ponds development. An EAW is a short worksheet that gathers facts to determine if a project has potential for significant environmental effects, informs the public, and helps identify ways to p

As we have discussed in other posts , the City of Shorewood is bending over backwards to support developers. One developer trick is to break big projects into several small ones - big developments have much larger impacts on neighbors and as a result have more expensive requirements to avoid problems like flooding. But developers really don't want to pay for those expensive requirements - every dollar they spend on flood prevention is a dollar they don't spend flying to Ta

Why is the Planning Department so focused on having this development approved, whose side are they on? And why? Most of us think the City should protect our interests - existing residents' interests - or at least balance us against the interests of wealthy developers. But does the city see it that way? Emails obtained by KSB through a public records demand show that no, it doesn't - the Planning Department focuses primarily on the interests of developers and disregards the

The City Council met on February 23 and in front of a packed room, voted 4-1 to require an environmental assessment worksheet for the Watten Ponds  project, with Mayor Jennifer Labadie as the lone opposing vote. Our notes from the meeting are below. What Role Should Residents' Opinions Play In City Council Decisions? Mayor Labadie seems to prefer tightly controlled meetings — quiet, orderly, and strictly procedural. That works fine for routine agenda items. It’s much harder w

There is a particular quiet you feel when you step into a remnant of Minnesota’s Big Woods. The air changes. The light softens. Sugar maples rise in tall, patient columns. Basswood leaves flicker overhead. That is not just “a wooded lot.” That is history. During early European settlement of this continent, French traders referred to the more than 2,000 square miles of hardwood forest in what is now south-central Minnesota as the “Big Woods.” Not only was the forest vast, but

Is the City on the side of developers who want to make a quick buck at the expense of neighbors and Shorewood's character and natural assets or on the side of residents and the city? We'll soon know. Team Resident or Team Developer? We’re About to Find Out. On Monday, the Shorewood City Council will show us who they really work for: residents and our city’s natural assets—or developers looking to make a fast buck. They’ll be considering one of the worst development proposals

Whose side is the Commission on? Hint: It's not yours. The Shorewood Planning Commission voted 3-1 last night to approve the highly controversial Watten Ponds development. One of the most surprising points came from Commissioner Cindy Holker and affirmed by Commissioners Ken Huskins and Daniele Longo. Commissioner Holker is a long-time resident of Shorewood and saw the changes at the original development in the area back in the 1990s. Her philosophy is that the city allo

Why play by the rules it's so much cheaper if you don't? Like any profession, property developers have a lot of tricks of the trade, ways to cut corners and sneak by requirements. For example, it's obvious that a development with many houses has more impact on neighbors and the environment than a small one - 20 new houses is more damaging than 2. Smaller developments are also easier for cities to approve since many fewer people are affected by, and will object to, 2 houses

When we started this site, we hoped that people were interested in hearing how we all can be part of managing development to maintain Shorewood's character and quality of living. When we started promoting the site on Monday, we were optimistic. We thought we'd get people reading 100 of our pages in our first week. Wow, we were so wrong! We're happy to report that today, after only four days, we blasted through 1,000 page views and kept on going! Four days to accomplish wh

Talk to people in the property development field and they'll say "Shorewood isn't a resident forward city, it's a developer forward city." Talk to anyone who's lived in Shorewood for long and you'll get a story that goes "it was a terrible development but what there was nothing we could do." Our experience is that the first is true and the second isn't an accident, it's just part of the first - being developer forward means making sure residents don't have power. We know th

Watten Ponds: How Shorewood Tried to Slip a Bad Development Through While No One Was Looking   Watten Ponds is approximately eight acres of wooded wetland in the City of Shorewood found in the Maple View Court neighborhood. It contains at least five natural wetland areas and old growth forest, making it one of the last intact wooded wetland ecosystems left in the city. For decades, residents were told - clearly and repeatedly - that this land could not be developed because of

Many Shorewood residents know the sad story of Peach Circle, a situation where the city failed to balance the needs of the city and the character of Shorewood against the rapacious desires of developers. Below is a summary provided by a user. It's a good reminder that the city's view of what Shorewood should be and resident's often are not the same, and that once the city's character and environment are sacrificed, there is no going back. Editor's note: after we published th

Don't get me wrong, Eden Prairie is great. I go there often for the mall, its big box stores, its many, many chain restaurants and its engineered parks that look more Disney than prairie. But I wouldn't want to live there. I moved to Shorewood to escape the density, the geometric layout, the highways. I love what Shorewood is - a city that values open space, trees, wetlands, the fresh air of Lake Minnetonka and natural woods. But I can't help but sense that the Shorewood C