Agenda - Council - 04/08/2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I i I I I I I I I I I I City Administrator Norman replied that he did not think they had anyone that was overcharged in the City. Councilmember Zimmerman suggested that they adopt a charging fee that is easy for everyone to follow and fair to everyone. Councihnember Cook inquired if the new computer program would allow for authorized personnel to retrieve reports. Assistant City Administrator Nelson noted that the permit sofbvare program was' included in the 2003 budget. The City Council directed staff to carry out the recommendations as outlined in Curt Boganey's memorandum of Feb_ruary 27, 2003, and proceed with permit soRware implementation as recommended by staff. - City Administrator Norman noted that he would bring the information through the Finance Committee. 5) Development Policy Principal City Engineer Olson stated that in the latter part of 2000, the City Council began discussing the topic of developing a policy to help provide a guideline for residential development in the City of Ramsey. In recent years, all of the residential housing projects have been designed and installed by the developers, engineers, and contractors under the developer's employ. The engineering firm that was under the employ of the developer also performed inspection services prior to 2000. After 2000, the City initiated an inspection escrow that has been paid fbr by the developer upon final platting and covers the cost of the City hiring an inspector fi'om a qualified engineering firm to perform inspection duties. This helped the City ensure that the public infrastructure was installed correctly and in the best interests of the City of Ramsey. It also provided a time savings, as there was conversations with a single firm or individual daily rather than multiple firms. This process is contrary to the process that the City of Andover has taken in their housing developments. Interestingly, since the last discussion of this topic at a work session, the City of Andover has asked a series of questions to the City Engineers throughout the State of Minnesota. It appears that although there are some communities that do allow for private installations of public infrastructure, in most cases the trend is towards the City designing and installing all public infrastructure as a capital improvement project at the request of the developer. The main reason is that since the municipality will be maintaining the infrastructure, there should be more control over the design to-try to minimize the tendency to design the bare minimum. The Engineering Department is not currently staffed to accommodate internal design of these subdivision proposals to keep pace with development. Staff does feel, however, that there is an opportunity to accomplish the same objectives with the use of a City consultant to provide the design services and contract administration. Another advantage for making this change is to allow for equal opportunity for contractors working within our City as well as providing consistency among all construction plans and specifications. A 'good deal of City Council/March 4, 2003 Page 11 of 16 -121-