Letter from Cervilla and Lang 11.11.22Request for Consideration Regarding the Fox Hill Development
Prepared for The Chanhassen Planning Commission
And
The Chanhassen City Council
November 11, 2022
Dear Ms. Al-Jaff, Ms. Aanenson, Mayor Ryan and Counsel Members Campion, Rehem,
Schubert and McDonald,
I am writing on behalf of the Lang and Cervilla families, neighbors to 581 Fox Hill, the proposed
development site for the Fox Hill Project.
We wrote previously along with many neighbors to express our concerns about the replacement
of dear woods with the planned development and we understand that those concerns were
addressed to a degree in the revised October 21 version of the development plan.
The Langs and I have written previously to express concern with the placement of a future road
connecting Big Woods Boulevard to Fox Hill Drive that was illustrated in the first Fox Hill
Development plan. That future road placement would cut into the lake shore parcels of our
properties significantly more than a previously agreed upon placement. In 2005 a proposal was
put forward by the Langs, me and two other neighbors. That proposed a road that essentially
would leave each of us with about an acre of lake shore and lots to be developed bordering
Carver Beach Road, Fox Hill Road and Big Woods Boulevard. That plan was not implemented
and the 4 ½ acres of woods remained undeveloped until a neighbor sold a lot on Big Woods and
on Carver Beach that have been developed recently. A stub off of Big Woods Boulevard reflects
the 2005 planned future road placement. The last time the Langs and I were involved or even
included in a discussion about future development and the impact on us was in 2005.
Our last request, prior to the last City Council meeting to consider the development, was to ask
for the Fox Hill Development proposed road to be reconsidered since it cut 13,000 square feet
out of the future lake shore on my property at 650 Carver Beach Road and another 3,600 square
feet out of the future lake shore on the Lang’s property at 640.
The current ghost plat shows no stub off of Fox Hill Road so that there would be no way to
connect Fox Hill to Big Woods Boulevard in the future other than what is currently shown in a
ghost plat as a turn around circle that sits on my property. This absolves the Fox Hill
Development of having to deal with a road at all and instead, and rather artfully, dumps the
future access road on us. The reflected turn around circle is about 120 feet across and cuts closer
to the lake than the previous proposed Fox Hill Development future road. This impacts us
significantly and, amazingly, even more than the previous plan:
• The last time we agreed on future road placement in 2005, my lake lot was 45,000 square
feet. The first proposal for the Fox Hill Development left me with a 32,000 square foot
lake shore lot. The new ghost plot leaves my lake lot at about 30,000 square feet a 33%
decrease in my lake lot in the future from what I agreed to in the past. The Langs lose
about 4,000 square feet.
• The circle will result in about 15,400 square feet of pavement and easement on the
property and will cut into a hill on my property so there will be grading or a retaining
wall needed and therefore likely more land lost in that process. With about a third of an
acre of traffic circle pavement a few hundred feet from Lotus Lake, it would take some
very good planning to protect Lotus Lake from the resulting run off.
• The difference to the Langs and to me in the original road placement (2005 - the last time
we were involved in planning or informed of impacts on us) and the current ghost plat is
the loss of 27,986 square feet or .643 acres. The biggest lot in the Fox Hill Development
is .555 acres so we’re being asked to give up in future land 1.16 times the size of the
largest lot in the Fox Hill Development. We don’t think this is reasonable.
• The difference in tax appraised value of lake shore property and non lake shore property
in our neighborhood is $11.57 per square foot.
• That means that the value of future lost land is $11.57 times the difference in what we
agreed to and the current proposed plat. The arithmetic is ugly from our point of view.
In short, without plans for a future road stub off of Fox Hill, the Fox Hill Development plan
takes away .642 acres of our lake shore land in the future and paves a third of an acre on what is
now our front lawns. We adamantly object to the Fox Hill Development plan for a future traffic
circle on our properties. If this plan goes forward it will certainly impact the value of our land in
the future and most certainly would impact our lifestyle and our environment as we see it.
Please consider asking the Fox Hill Development team to put the future road plan back to where
it was the last time the Langs and I agreed to it. We’re asking for a plan for a future road that
can serve possible future development on our properties without sacrificing valuable lake shore
and that wouldn’t impact the trees currently on the area marked for a future stub and road unless
or until we wanted to develop our properties.
Thank you for your consideration,
Connie Cervilla
Karen and Jon Lang