Agenda - Council Work Session - 08/09/2010

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CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION Topic Report: CONSIDER TERMINATION OF LEASE OPTION TO UTILIZE SOUTH 10 ACRES OF BURY AND CARLSON SITE By: Brian E. Olson, Director of Public Works /Principal City Engineer Background: As the Council is aware, on Febraury 26, 2008, Staff was given authority to purchase the Bury and Carlson parcel of land lying east of Jaspar Street and south of 143rd Avenue NW for use as a future Public Works facility. The parcel is located at 14251 Jaspar Street and is approximately 19.89 acres in size. The property is occupied by an aggregate business. The funds for the purchase came from a variety of sources including the enterprise funds of water, sewer, and storm sewer. The City would have been responsible for moving the company's aggregate piles to a site that is comparable so we negotiated the ability for the property owner to continue to operate at this site for a period of almost 3 years. At the end of the first 3 year time period, the City could control a maximum of 10 acres of the land and take over the taxes for that portion of the land. At the time the property owner indicated that he could continue to operate the business during the remainder of the time period on the remaining portion of land, however, he would be responsible for the taxes on that portion of land. It is the intent that the move to the site would occur over time when capital dollars became available to move forward with a public works campus. Observations: Over the years, the Public Works facility has been a target for complaints because of the outside storage, unpaved lots, and unimproved surfaces when code enforcement issues were being discussed. In 2005, an interim use permit was issued for the office area as we were directed to avoid. "permanent" improvements to the site until we found a permanent solution to our space needs. Whereas, we do not have any plans in place to formally move to the southern 10 acres of the Bury and Carlson site, taking control of this area will~allow us to move some of our outside storage to clean up the Public Works site. Specifically, we would move the black dirt piles, aggregate pile, sealcoating piles, and brush pile off of the current site and onto the Bury and Carlson site. This action would lessen the chance that there be a major expenditure to pave the entire site to come into compliance with City Code as the Bury site has conditional use permit approval for outside storage. As you recall, during the negotiations of the lease agreement, the current taxes on the parcel were right around $24,000 annually. The concern expressed by the property owner was that with the purchase the taxable value would increase and therefore his taxes would also increase. He was right. The lease agreement capped his