Builder revives, scales down 2006 project in Lino Lakes.

Byline: William Morris

Minnetonka-based Preferred Builders is planning to build the 61-unit Nature's Refuge planned unit development on 95 acres north of Main Street and west of Lino Lakes Elementary School, pending a final plat approval by the city. The site is characterized by a number of large wetland tracts, with wetlands and wetland buffers making up approximately 60 percent of the property.

At 61 lots, the project is a substantial reduction from a pre-recession plan for 278 units on a larger project site of 232 acres. That project won city approvals but never materialized, which City Planner Katie Larsen attributes primarily to the arrival of the financial crisis and Great Recession.

"Basically that project died during the recession, so the property owner is just using the same names," Larsen said in an interview.

Preferred Builders could not be reached Wednesday for comment. The original project was brought to the city by Oakwood Land Development, and it was not immediately clear what relationship exists between the two companies.

Although the project is substantially smaller than originally envisioned, Larsen said the rest of the 2006 space remains available for additional growth.

"They're different property owners now, so when those property owners are interested in subdividing that, we'll walk through that process," she said. "But it certainly would make logical sense."

Lino Lakes currently has a number of subdivisions under development, most notably Watermark, an 864-lot development in the northwest quadrant of Interstate 35E and Main Street recently started by homebuilding giant Lennar after 15 years in development limbo. Building near such a large development might actually help, rather than hurt, smaller projects such as Nature's Refuge, said Betty Hardle...