Infill housing projects will add to EP’s tax base

Two high-end housing projects were approved on Tuesday, May 7, by the Eden Prairie City Council. One site is a former farm in northern Eden Prairie; the other is an empty office building east of Eden Prairie Shopping Center.

Why it matters: A continually increasing property tax base in Eden Prairie helps soften the blow to taxpayers when the city, school district, and county increase their annual budgets, which has become common during this period of inflation.

Lotus Villas on Anderson Lake is a plan by Ron Clark Construction & Design to demolish a vacant, 42-year-old office building and build 19 single-family homes on five acres at 10700 Prairie Lakes Drive, east of Eden Prairie Center. The parcel lies between the Westin Woods townhomes and The Sanctuary’s single-family homes.

Ron Clark CEO Mike Waldo said Lotus Villas would target empty nesters and homes would most likely be priced from about $900,000 to between $1.4 million and $1.5 million. Most of the homes would be a single-story plus basement, according to the developer, and a homeowners association would maintain all but the exterior of the homes.

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Since the city classifies the project as a planned unit development (PUD), it triggers the new sustainability standards the city put into effect on Jan. 1, 2024. As a result, all Lotus Villas homes must have at least one garage space wired for electric vehicle charging and roof trusses able to support solar panels.

The property currently has a value of about $4.4 million, according to Hennepin County tax records. Waldo said the value will increase to nearly $20 million when the housing project is complete.

The only public comments at Tuesday’s hearing were positive toward the plan.

Enclave at Manor Road is a plan by Brandl Anderson Homes to build 17 single-family homes on an unplatted parcel along South Manor Road in northern Eden Prairie, a couple of blocks from Duck Lake. Home prices would start in the low $700,000s, according to company president Christopher Contreras.

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Neighbors expressed concern about traffic safety, water drainage and the design of a stormwater pond, and the number of trees needed on the site’s perimeter.

Traffic issues – speeding in neighborhoods, for example, but also congestion, signal timing, parking, and noise – are a common lament in Eden Prairie. It usually ranks near the top of the list of things that residents like least about Eden Prairie when they are formally surveyed by the city every other year.

The city often temporarily deploys what it calls a “speed advisory trailer” to neighborhoods where traffic speed is a problem. It is a portable sign that can detect an approaching car’s speed and flash the number on a large screen to remind the driver to slow down.

Education and enforcement are common approaches, but Public Works Director Robert Ellis told neighbors that the city would first collect some data on how fast cars in the neighborhood are going, how often they are speeding, and at what times of day the speeding occurs.

Both Lotus Villas on Anderson Lake and Enclave at Manor Road were approved by the city council on 4-0 votes. The projected home prices in both developments are higher than the 2024 value of a median single-family home in Eden Prairie, which is $536,400.