Agenda - Council - 01/11/2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CC Regular Session Date: 01/11/2011 By: Tim Himmer Engineering/Public Works Item #: 7. 3. Information Title: Consider agreement with Legacy Christian Academy for reimbursement of engineering design fees related to City project 11 -21; the signalization of Armstrong and Bunker Lakes Boulevards, and associated infrastrucutre improvements to serve the Legacy Christian Academy development Background: Staff has reviewed a development application from Legacy Christian Academy (LCA) for a proposed K -12 school project to be located west of Armstrong Boulevard on a roadway extension of Bunker Lake Boulevard. On September 23, 2010 a petition was received requesting utility and roadway improvements to serve this development. The petition was accepted by the City Council on October 12, 2010, and Bolton & Menk was awarded a contract to undertake the preparation of the study. A public hearing for the feasibility study was held on December 14, 2010, and the report was approved by Council; which included the extension of sanitary sewer and watermain, the westerly extension of Bunker Lake Boulevard to Puma Street (as a reduced /temporary section) with storm sewer and a bituminous trail, a paved Puma Street with a bituminous trail, and a bituminous trail along Armstrong Boulevard from Bunker Lake Boulevard to Alpine Drive. It is estimated that approximately $1.8M is proposed to be special assessed to the benefitting development properties under City project 11 -21, which is also on this Council agenda for award of contract for engineering services. The LCA project also received final plat approval on December 14, 2010. The developer has stated that they would not be in favor of recording the plat and development agreement, or consent to the proposed assessments outlined in the feasibility study until such time that actual construction costs were known. It was agreed to by all parties that the City would go forward with the preparation of plans and specifications for City project 11 -21; the signalization of the Armstrong Boulevard and Bunker Lake Boulevard intersection, and associated improvements to serve the LCA development (estimated at approximately $3.8M). This agreement was conditioned on the fact that an formal agreement be executed between the City and developer such that all design engineering costs associated with the LCA development be paid by the developer. These costs were not to exceed $106,000 and represent the private development design engineering services for City project 11 -21. Should the developer decide to not move forward with their project once final construction numbers are determined through the design and bidding process, they will be responsible for all such attributable costs. Observations: A Request for Proposals (RFP) for engineering services was prepared by staff and distributed to 5 consulting firms in mid - December; the results of which will be discussed under a separate case this evening. The chosen consultant through this RFP process will be responsible to finalize construction documents from previous plans that were developed for the overall improvement of Armstrong Boulevard consistent with the Regional Roadway Improvements outlined in the Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) with Anoka County for the COR. Since the LCA development project would entail construction of the westerly leg of the planned intersection improvements, Bunker Lake Boulevard extension west of Armstrong, it was always assumed that the two projects would be combined into one and bid as such. Because the developer has stated they want to understand actual construction costs before moving forward with their project staff has a concern related to funding and scheduling of the overall project. If LCA should choose not to continue with their development once actual construction costs are known there is a risk that those design costs attributable to their project would be lost, and the potential exists that