Posted: 8/13/03

Lake Park Development refines restaurant plan for downtown Forest Lake

Cliff Buchan
News Editor

No park land. No private property. Just city parking area.

Those are the new confines to a restaurant proposal adjacent to Lakeside Memorial Park in downtown Forest Lake. Officials of Lake Park Development went before the cityís Economic Development Authority board Monday with yet another plan refinement.

The EDA board stopped short of formal endorsement but welcomed the new plan. The matter is set for more EDA review on Monday, Aug. 28 following additional staff review.

Mondayís unveiling is the fourth plan redesign in the two years the proposal has been in the works, said Jerry Anderson, architect for the development group, during an interview after the meeting.

Under the latest design, Lake Park plans to construct a 4500 square foot, two-story building on what is today city-owned municipal parking lot property adjacent to Lakeside Park.

The new plan will not require acquisition of privately owned property in or near the parking lot, nor will it encroach on any of the park area, including the former Laker Landing mini-golf site that the EDA and city owns. Original plans had included a small slice of the Laker Landing site as part of the development.

To provide additional parking, original plans envisioned use of more municipal parking area that is privately owned. But after negotiations to acquire the land fell through, Anderson said the revised plan would work around private land.

The only apparent option for acquiring private property was to ask the city to use its power of eminent domain to acquire the land, but did not wish to go that route, Anderson said.

Under the plan now being reviewed, the restaurant will provide 46 parking spaces to augment the planned 98 spaces contained in a redesigned north-end municipal parking area.

The plan calls for the removal of the small American Family Insurance office owned by the development group and the Forest Laker, owned by Peter Paidar, a partner in the group. Parking will be provided where the N. Lake Street buildings now stand.

The restaurantís main entry will be to the southwest with a three-season porch and patio area planned to the southeast facing the park and lake.

Interior seating for 125 is anticipated. The patio will provide outside seating for another 50-100 customers, Anderson said. The restaurant will provide a formal, high quality dining area while catering to boaters coming in off the lake, he said.

While plans are still being finalized, Anderson said the second floor would contain a meeting room for smaller gatherings, but not the large banquet facility as once proposed. Two small offices would be included on the second floor, he said.

Anderson said the partnership group believes the current two-story plan can work and be successful.

The EDA prior to its meeting on Aug. 25 will ask staff to review financial aspects of the plan to see how it may fit with a tax-increment financing package. TIF consultant Dan Wilson was not at Mondayís meeting.

The EDA will require a development agreement with the Lake Park group to spell out key project details, including the sale of the city-owned municipal parking area.

The city and EDA are also anxious to get moving with north-end parking improvements to serve the Park Place development that is fast moving to completion. South-end improvements serving the new Plaza building are finished and the city is waiting to begin north-end improvements.

Also undecided is the future of the Lakeside Park boat launch and boat trailer parking facilities in the municipal parking area.

The city is exploring a new location for the boat landing area and plans for providing limited parking for vehicles with boat trailers near the landing, but no final decisions have been made, said Chip Robinson, executive director of the EDA and city administrator.

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