Minutes - Council - 08/12/2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

where the current sewer lines are and he hoped that the project could move forward. He stated that he liked the neighborhood and saw the project as providing a financial opportunity since he owns three lots. His personal opinion is that there is an assessed value that will increase quite a bit for each lot; the issue seems to be more with the through street rather than the project. Mr. Murphy stated that he was in favor of the project because he thought it would be an improvement for the neighborhood. Lynn and Shane Hanson, 5670 150th Lane NW, Ramsey, stated that they were new to the neighborhood and they specifically chose the neighborhood because it was an established neighborhood with dead-end streets. If Helium Street were to go through they would go from having two residents driving up to their house to 170 headlights because their house is at the end of Helium Street. They do not have the money to move again. The City is saying that they want to give them something that would benefit the residents, but the project as proposed is not a benefit to them. How can the City say the project is benefiting the residents when they are all saying they do not want the project? Ms. Hanson stated that the City needed to be more honest with the residents. They have heard of soccer complexes and more development, which means money to the City. Mr. Murphy stated that it baffles him the amount of emotion that is brought up because of this issue. He stated that he did not see the City benefiting at all from extending sewer and water through Pondvale Estates. He also did not think that the assessment the City was proposing was out of line. He stated that he was amazed over the amount of opposition. He was willing to pay for the benefit. Mayor Gamec stated that nobody gets anything for free and most sewer and water projects are typically paid for 100 percent by the benefited property owners and street projects are paid on a 50/50 split. This is a unique situation and there are some problems in the area, which has been a headache for the City. If they start one project it is often better to look at the entire area, which is why the projects were brought forward. As far as the City Council is concerned they ask staff to make a recommendation based on requests from citizens. Councilmember Cook stated that beyond that, the benefit to the City is the reduction of maintenance on dirt roads. Currently the City has only four miles of dirt roads left and they were looking at an area where they could help subsidize the project. People talk about cul-de-sacs, but on his map they are not cul-de-sacs they are dead end roads and that typically means that with future development the roads will be extended. If residents purchased a home on a road that was a dead-end not a cul-de-sac that means the road was intended as being a future through street not a cul-de-sac. Mr. Fisher stated that if they take a plat map and determine who is in favor and who is not they may be able to move forward with a project. He stated that he thought the way that Pondvale Estates was developed was very smart because their land was already platted into several lots and saves them a lot of money from having to subdivide. Some people ignored that and now they are not able to subdivide their property so they are opposed to the project City Council/August 12, 2003 Page 14 of 30