Minutes - Council - 07/08/2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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are funds within the City that they are not able to touch. In the future a better explanation should be provided to the residents of the different funds and what they can be used for. Councilmember Elvig requested participation from the utility companies to help the City during the financial crisis by not passing the entire fee onto their customers. Arnie Hendriksen, CenterPoint Energy Minnegasco, stated that that option has been asked at several meetings, but they are required to pass that fee onto the consumer. Jim Gromberg, Connexus Energy, explained that they are a cooperative, which means that all 106,000 customers are members and owners and they would be saying that all of them would be subsidizing the City of Ramsey, which would not happen. The franchise fee will be a cost that is passed onto the customers in Ramsey. Motion by Councilmember Elvig, seconded by Councilmember Pearson, to introduce ordinances establishing franchise fees on gas and electric utilities at the rate of 4.5 percent of total revenues. Motion carried. Voting Yes: Mayor Gamec, and Councilmembers Elvig, Pearson, Cook, Kurak, and Strommen. Voting No: Zimmerman. Case #8: Introduce Ordinance to Amend City Code Chapter 9 (9.02 Definitions, 9.03 Administration, 9.20.21 B-1 General Business, 9,20.22 B-2 Highway Business, 9.20.23 E-1 Employment, 9.20.24 E-2 Employment, 9.20.26 Mixed Use Community Development Director Frolik stated that at the regular Planning Commission meeting in April, proposed amendments to the Definitions, Administration, and the commercial and industrial zoning district sections of City Code were reviewed. The proposed Public/Semi Public Facilities District and the Mixed Use-Planned Unit District regulations were also reviewed. Staff implemented changes to the text as directed by the Planning Commission on April 3''d. Oll May 1, 2003, the Planning Commission conducted a public hearing regarding the proposed text and map changes. Generally speaking, the major changes consist of the following: 1. The changes to 9.02 (Definitions) and 9.03 (Administration) are basically 'housecleaning' items. 2. The B-1 and B-2 Business district were almost identical in uses and standards; they were merged into one district that will be named B-1. 3. The B-3 Highway Business District is being renamed B-2 as a result of the merging of B- i and B-2. 4. The Industrial District is being renamed E-1 Employment and the major change to this district is to establish landscape requirements. 5. The Business Warehouse District is being renamed E-2 Employment and as with E-l, landscape requirements will be established. 6. The Rural Industrial District is being eliminated. 7. New zoning district being added as part of implementing the new Comprehensive Plan is the Mixed Use District. City Council/July 8, 2003 Page 17 of 30