Public Comment - 7531 Beacon CtFrom: The Wang-Mathur Family
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2024 3:10:44 PM
To: Ryan, Elise <eryan@chanhassenmn.gov>; DL City Council <Council@chanhassenmn.gov>;
Jeske, Rachel <rjeske@chanhassenmn.gov>
Subject: Comments for Sept 17th Chanhassen Planning Commission Meeting Case No. 2024-16
(CUP for Hope House Expansion)
Dear Mayor Ryan, Chanhassen City Council, and Chanhassen Planning Commission Members,
As residents of the Arbors community, we are writing to strongly oppose the approval of Conditional
Use Permit (CUP) 2024-16 applied for by the Open Hands Foundation (OHF) to be implemented
near the Westwood Church area for the Hope House expansion. Our reasons are based on the
materials submitted to the City for approval, the history of the existing Hope House, and
inconsistencies in the information provided by the OHF at the informational meeting held at
Westwood Church on September 10, 2024. Since we are unable to attend tonight's Planning
Commission Meeting in person due to travel and scheduling conflict with a school event, we are
submitting our written comments here for the meeting tonight.
We were one of the earliest residents of the Arbors community, moving here in 2010 before most of
the homes were constructed. We decided to settle and raise our family here because of the
walkability of the neighborhood for our kids and our aging parents, and for its close proximity to the
Minnetonka School district. When Hope House opened eight years ago, we along with many
neighbors had concerns over how little communication was provided by Westwood Church and
OHF regarding the use of 3010 W 78th St for use as a teen shelter. We had zero information on the
effectiveness of the intake process for accepting teens in crisis, nor the controls in place for the
safety of the neighbors and Hope House's residents and staff. Nevertheless, we were sympathetic
to its cause to provide shelter to teenagers in need and adopted a wait-and-see attitude about the
impact Hope House had in our area. However, our current feelings about Hope House have
changed, and particularly due to recent disturbing incidents and learning about OHF's plan for
expansion of Hope House. We are struggling to have enough trust in OHF and the level of
transparency with which it operates.
According to the Hope House Senior Program Manager (Mr. CJ Hallman) at the Sept 10th
informational meeting, there have been at least four "Level-1" critical incidents reported on the
premises, with the last one in June 2024 which required numerous police vehicles and police
officers with SWAT team capabilities to diffuse. This was extremely disturbing to us and others as
our feelings of safety and security we had for our neighborhood have diminished significantly. We
used to encourage our elderly parents to take their walks all the way from our home to Highway 41
along W 78th St., and our children also took walks or rode bikes using the same route. Following the
June incident, we have warned our elderly parents and our teenage children to completely avoid the
area near Hope House out of concern for their safety. We have also become more vigilant when
driving past Hope House and keeping a closer eye on our surroundings when we walk outside of our
home.
At no time did OHF reach out to the neighbors after what happened in June 2024 or attempt to allay
any concerns we may have regarding the critical incidents involving so much law enforcement
presence in our neighborhood. We believe that it acted in bad faith by not being forthright about the
happenings in June and excluding neighbors in the impact study when they applied for the CUP for
its expansion. In the Sept 10 meeting to the neighbors, OHF stated that their intent is to only house
8 residents, 1 per bedroom. However, their “Signed Application Hope House CUP” document states
twice on page 3 that their intent is to double the number of teenagers served and that this is a
foundational premise of the expansion in applying for this CUP. This is a discrepancy that cannot be
easily overlooked. In addition, OHF representatives informed us during the meeting that all the
teens served by Hope House were from Carver County. They also emphasized that they would not
take in any teens who have criminal records of violence. However, a 10-month police report
summary from Oct 2023 to Aug 2024 indicates that teens from various counties have been staying
at Hope House, contrary to what OHF representatives have said. Furthermore, there were teens
who were on probation, some wearing ankle monitors, and even a few who have made threats
against staff and other residents--with the most serious one involving physical altercation with a
knife in the June 2024 incident. Given all this eye-opening information that was not provided by OHF
and Hope House representatives, it is difficult for us to trust that OHF will stick to their stated
intention of only increasing the number of teens served to 8 as they had claimed in the meeting with
the Arbors neighbors. Finally, we have serious concerns about Hope House's intake process for
accepting at-risk teens as they have not been able to reliably keep their residents and staff safe.
When asked by one of our neighbors what new processes have been put in place to mitigate the
likelihood of another incident like the one in June from happening, the OHF and Hope House
representatives were not able to answer this question clearly or satisfactorily.
In our estimation, allowing the expansion of Hope House would have the following consequences:
• When the number of residents increases from 6 to 16, with all things equal, combinatorial
math would suggest that the probability of domestic conflict between any two teenagers
would increase by a factor of 8, while the probability of risk to the community would linearly
increase by over a factor of 2.6.
• Since the previous Hope House structure will be renovated with flexible bedrooms/office
and still be operational after the new structure is built, we are also concerned that the
number of teenagers served could even exceed 16 at the discretion of OHF if they apply for
new operating license with DHS since they have the physical capacities to room more teens
(given the data provided by OHF about the number of teens served versus that they have to
turn away, they have been under pressure to increase the number of teens they want to
serve). Furthermore, it is hard to believe that they are willing to spend around 3.5 million
dollars on this project just to ultimately increase the number of beds by 2, for a total of 8, as
they earnestly told us at the Sept 10th neighbors meeting. Allowing the construction of a 8-
bedroom structure is an enabler to significant capacity increase in the future. This increase
will not require any public hearings. Therefore, the denial of the CUP is the Arbors residents’
last opportunity to oppose this development.
• Numerous real estate experts agree that property values are demonstrably reduced near
teenage crisis centers. Buyers would not be considering this neighborhood if they were
looking for a new home in this area and found out that there is a sizable teen crisis shelter a
short walk from the neighborhood, especially if walkability is important to them. We expect
our property values will be negatively impacted by the expansion of Hope House.
We believe that these teenagers in crisis do require support resources in order to help them stay
safe and protect them from the dangers of being homeless. We would ask the City to explore for
better solutions, perhaps with Carver County and other surrounding counties, to provide safety and
shelter to at-risk teens than allowing the expansion of a youth shelter that hasn't instilled much
confidence and trust in a low-density residential neighborhood, potentially putting local residents
at risk. Given our experience living in the Arbors for the last 14 years, the approval of this CUP to
expand Hope House will have a significantly negative impact on the sense of safety and wellbeing
of our neighborhood, and potentially depreciate property values in the area. Therefore, we ask the
Chanhassion Planning Commission, the City Council and the Mayor to reject this CUP and not
allow this project to proceed.
Thank you,
Priyadarshee D. Mathur and Ting-Hsien Wang
7531 Beacon Ct
Excelsior, MN 55331