Opinion ID: 2122942
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Meaning of the Word City

Text: The first question we must address with respect to Subsection 1-8 is whether the word City, as used in the Redevelopment Plan, is distinct from the EDA or includes the EDA. Our attempt to define the word City as used in the Redevelopment Plan will illustrate the problems created by the poor drafting of the Plan. The EDA points out that City is defined in the Redevelopment Plan to mean the City of Eagan, and argues that the word City does not include the EDA because an economic development authority is a political subdivision of the state and is a separate entity from a city or a city council. See Minn.Stat. § 469.091, subd. 2. We acknowledge that the EDA is a political subdivision of the state with the right to sue and be sued in its own name. See Minn.Stat. § 469.091, subd. 2. (An economic development authority is a public body corporate and politic and a political subdivision of the state with the right to sue and be sued in its own name.). But the usage of the word City in the Redevelopment Plan is inconsistent because it appears the word sometimes means the City alone and other times includes the City Council and the EDA, the entities that act on its behalf. In several provisions of the Redevelopment Plan, interpreting the word City to include the EDA is necessary for the Redevelopment Plan to make sense. In Subsection 1-2, for example, the Redevelopment Plan provides that [t]he Enabling Act authorizes the City, upon certain public purpose findings by the City, to establish and designate development and redevelopment projects. The Enabling Act is specifically defined in Subsection 1-1 of the Redevelopment Plan as Minn.Stat. §§ 469.090-.1081 and 469.001-.047. These statutory sections apply to economic development authorities and housing and redevelopment authorities; they authorize an economic development authority to establish and designate redevelopment projects. See Minn.Stat. §§ 469.027, 469.101. Accordingly, it appears that Subsection 1-2 makes sense only if we read City as including the EDA. In another instance directly relevant to the issue in this case, Subsection 1-8 appears to make more sense if the word City includes the EDA. Subsection 1-8 states that [t]he Redevelopment Plan contemplates that the City may acquire property and reconvey the same. The City acts through entities like the EDA and City Council and can acquire property only through such entities. If the word City as used in the Redevelopment Plan does not refer to the entities that act for the City, the directions and restrictions in the Redevelopment Plan would have little significance as they would not instruct or restrict the actions of any entity. We also see little merit in the EDA's argument that Subdivision 1-8 intentionally names only the City because the drafters intended to limit the City Council's actions made on the City's behalf but not the EDA's actions. The drafters differentiated between the City Council and the City in the Redevelopment Plan. [5] While EDA is not mentioned in the definitions subsection of the Redevelopment Plan, City Council is defined as the City Council of the City of Eagan. And, while the other subsections of the Plan do not mention the EDA, Subdivision 1-10 does refer to the City Council. We conclude that if the drafters wanted to limit the City Council's actions but not the EDA's, it could and would have used the words City Council. Moreover, the EDA has not offered any reasonable rationale for why the drafters would impose the limitation in Subsection 1-8 on the City Council but not the EDA. Additionally, the lack of any consistent reference to the EDA in the Redevelopment Plan supports the conclusion that the word City, as used in the Plan, includes the EDA. The EDA is not defined in the definition subsection of the Redevelopment Plan, nor is it mentioned in other subsections of the Plan. The sole reference in the Redevelopment Plan to the EDA occurs in the definition of Tax Increment Bonds which states any tax increment bonds or notes issued by the EDA or the City to finance the Public Costs. (Emphasis added.) The use of the phrase the EDA or the City suggests the drafters knew how to differentiate between the two terms, a suggestion that supports the EDA's argument that the word City as used in the Redevelopment Plan is distinct from the EDA. But this is the sole reference to the EDA in the entire Redevelopment Plan. While we conclude that the single reference carries some weight, it does not justify a narrow interpretation of the term City. In contrast, the EDA is mentioned throughout the TIF Plan, which is a separate document adopted by Resolution 01-63the same Resolution that adopted the Redevelopment Plan. The TIF Plan consistently uses the phrases the EDA and City or the EDA or City. Given that the Redevelopment Plan and TIF Plan were prepared by the same entity and adopted by both the EDA and the City, the fact that the EDA and City language is used in the TIF Plan could be construed to indicate that the drafters of the two documents knew how to differentiate between the two entities. But, on the other hand, the fact that the two entities are always mentioned together, as if one unit, could suggest that the drafters thought of the two entities essentially as one unit and meant to limit them both. Here, we find the lack of mention of the EDA in the Redevelopment Plan to be puzzling given the EDA's participation in establishing the Cedar Grove Redevelopment Area and the consistent reference to the EDA in the TIF Plan. Without a doubt the language is imprecise, but the best course for us to pursue is to conclude that the lack of reference to the EDA in the Redevelopment Plan, coupled with the fact that the EDA has a central role to play in the Cedar Grove Redevelopment Project, most likely suggests that the drafters of the Plan intended the word City to encompass the EDA. In fact, to conclude otherwise would render the Redevelopment Plan nearly incomprehensible. Therefore, we conclude that the word City in Subsection 1-8 refers to the EDA and applies to the EDA's actions.