Township supervisor explains concerns with proposed project, annexation

 

A Bancroft Township supervisor on Thursday questioned why township officials weren’t brought into discussions earlier regarding the proposed new Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services facility on land in the township and why the facility could not have been built on another open site in Albert Lea.

The questions are being asked as the cooperative has petitioned to annex the 25-acre property into the city that it purchased for the facility.

Supervisor Steve Overgaard said the cooperative purchased the property directly north of the Freeborn County highway shop off Freeborn County Road 22 in March 2018, but it wasn’t until September 2019 that the township leaders started hearing rumors of plans for the cooperative to build on the site.

The next month, township officials were asked to attend an Albert Lea City Council meeting, but that meeting was canceled, he said. In November, Freeborn-Mower Cooperative President and CEO Jim Krueger came to speak at a township meeting, indicating the cooperative had purchased the land and had plans to build.

In December, Overgaard and a few others from the township attended a council workshop expressing concerns about the annexation.

“My biggest question was, ‘How would this proposed project benefit the township?’” he said.

At that meeting, Krueger presented about the project, but Overgaard said he didn’t hear anything else from anyone with the city or Freeborn-Mower Cooperative again until Monday when representatives from the city, Freeborn County, the Albert Lea Economic Development Agency and Freeborn-Mower Cooperative attended the township’s meeting.

He said at that meeting, he reasserted the township’s preference for a different site. According to his research, there are seven other sites in Albert Lea that could have been available.

“I don’t understand why their haste in buying the land should mean that we have to just accept this development,” Overgaard said.

He said township residents will have to deal with increased traffic from the project and a change in landscape.

“It seems hard for a lot of people to understand,” he said. “We live where we live because we choose to and not because we can’t get into the city.”

He noted Albert Lea residents would be equally as upset if the cooperative came in and built in the middle of a residential area in the city.

He said the township also takes issue with the city’s policy that states only properties that are a part of the city could benefit from city sewer and water services.

Bancroft Township’s population and tax base continues to decrease as older residents move into the city and places such as the Stables area were recently annexed into the city, he said.

Despite the board’s position on the annexation, he said the board has accepted the fact that it will likely happen. Now, he said he thinks the city and the township need to sit down and determine a fair compensation.

Typically in annexation cases, the township would receive the equivalent of five years of the property’s former tax value. In this case, that equals $3,000.

“For this particular circumstance, that is not a satisfactory formula — to be paid a one-time amount of five years on undeveloped property, and they would reap the benefits,” he said.

The township also recently lost the Stables area to annexation, which was $4,000 annually in tax revenue, though he acknowledged that was a different circumstance.

Overgaard said he suggested at the township’s Monday meeting that taxes on the new facility be split 50/50, but that was only a starting point for the discussions. He didn’t intend that to mean they wouldn’t agree to a smaller amount.

“We don’t think that’s unreasonable,” Overgaard said. “We should not be the losers in this.”