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City gets request for more annexingBy Joel Stottrup The Princeton City Council has accepted a petition for a third annexation of land owned by John and Shirley Miller in Princeton Township. The council accepted the petition last Thursday and set a public hearing for the May 27 council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in City Hall. This latest request is similar to the other two the city approved and subsequently were allowed by the state, as it is also for 60 acres. The first hearing was last Nov. 25 and the council gave its approval to that annexation about two weeks later. The hearing for the second 60-acre annexation request was on April 8 and the council approved it that same evening. The state gave its approval shortly after. The acreage in the third petition is west of the part already annexed. The annexed 120 acres fronts on Sherburne County Road 3 that runs south of First Street on Princeton's west edge. (See separate story on the first-phase development for the first two annexations.) During the hearings on the first two annexation petitions, the majority of the people attending the hearings voiced strong protest. City Administrator Mark Karnowski said that any development of the third 60 acre parcel proposed for annexation would be some years away. But the city wants to get this third parcel annexed now in case the Legislature changes the annexation laws to make it more difficult for cities to annex, said Karnowski. State law allows cities to annex 60 acres or less at a time from a township by city ordinance, even if the township's board objects, as long as the property owner of the land requests the annexation. Karnowski said there are two bills in the Legislature this session to change the law. Karnowski noted that the homestead with the home that John and Shirley Miller occupy is not part of the parcel that they are requesting to be annexed in this third petition. The Millers have made an agreement with a development company called Solid Ground to buy their property and turn it into a housing development. City development planner John Tofte told Jeff Bock, a developer from Solid Ground, during last Thursday's council meeting that city sewer hookups would have to be phased in to match the capacity of the city's wastewater treatment plant. The city has been working on a project to triple the plant's capacity because the council has projections that the remaining plant capacity will be outstripped by projected future growth. Princeton Union-Eagle |