Agenda - Public Works Committee - 10/19/2010

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CASE #2 CONSIDER UPDATING RIGHT OF WAY PERMITTING PROCESS By: Grant Riemer, Public Works Street Supervisor Background: The City of Ramsey currently charges utility companies a permit fee to work in our Right of Way (ROW). There is a standard $75.00 processing fee and additional fees for crossing roads, driveways and overhead work. Those fees are $20.00 per road crossing, $15.00 per driveway crossing and $.05 per lineal foot of overhead work. This fee schedule has been in effect since the adoption of our ROW ordinance on March 27th 2001. How the process currently works is a utility company will mail, fax or email a permit request to the Public Works Street Supervisor. At that point the project is checked for potential conflicts and a fee is determined based on the above criteria. Next, the utility company is notified, usually by fax, but sometimes by mail, with a notice to proceed. Then two copies of the request are printed off, usually amounting to four to six pieces of paper. One set is used by finance to bill the utility company and the other for the public works file to keep track of the work. In September, Eric Zerwas of First Scribe gave a software demonstration to engineering and public works staff on their ROWay permitting solution. Mr. Zerwas will be present at the October meeting to give a brief demonstration of their software program. Some of the highlights of the software are that anyone with permission can access the program and actually see where work is being done in the City, what utility is performing the work and the overall scope of the project. At present, if a resident has a question about a project in their neighborhood they call engineering, who in turn calls public works street supervisor. The supervisor looks through the permit files and locates the information and calls the resident back. Another advantage would be that since the permitting is web based, the use of paper would be greatly reduced. Finance would also be able to access the program for monthly invoicing eliminating the need for paper copies from public works. Funding: To date we have processed approximately 40 permits for 2010. The cost of using the ROW software is based on permits issued per month. Zero to fifty permits is $200.00; 51-100 is $250.00. Staff believes in a busy construction climate we would be within the 0-50 range, but with the present economy permit requests are well below that. Staff would recommend increasing the permit fee at a future date, when permit request are up, and covering the balance of the cost through the professional services line item, within the street department operating budget. Staff recommendation: Based on committee discussion Reviewed by: Director of Public Works/Principal City Engineer PW: 10/19/10