Minutes - Council - 02/06/2012 - Special

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Councilmember Backous stated to leave the assumption as is in the Water and Sewer Comprehensive Plan and move forward. Councilmember McGlone stated he wanted to talk about this and make a decision. He wanted to do what we could do to change the numbers to bring developer fees down to a frugal responsible level to spur development. He felt that 260 is too much. Councilmember Tossey stated he has been given an answer. Statistically, we are assuming this growth is going to happen — maybe we should be more conservative with our assumptions. Councilmember Elvig stated that if we do that we would just raise rates. Councilmember Olson sated that the more people in the project — the less the trunk rate will be. We only write our Comp Plans for 20 years. Therefore, 2040 is done in 2018. City Administrator Ulrich stated that the question is what our options are for retracting the system and system costs. How much of that cost can we actually pull back on and added that we will not have all these costs if we do not have the growth. Councilmember McGlone stated that when these projections were originally put out there, we were in a rocket ship growth pattern in single family homes. Now it's more likely to be more rental. Deputy City Administrator Nelson agreed it is no doubt the rental market is strong throughout the metro — but to what degree will Ramsey be apartments. She would argue it will be more mixed development. The apartment market for 1,000 units is not the same here as in the core cities. That market will get tested in the next three years but it will not be all we do. Councilmember Elvig stated if we start to project less, it will be less a higher rate — not more rate of return on it. Director of Public Works Olson stated that this plan will be ultimately routed through the Metropolitan Council. If Council wants to say the next 20 years will be zero — the Met Council may hold you to that. Acting Mayor Wise stated he likes the 212 number. Councilmember Backous stated that is why he (Backous) came up with the 260 figure — it's more than the 212 but less than the 450. City Engineer Himmer stated that in 2010 there were 8,000 households. Adding 300 per year over 18 years will take us out to 2030 and a number of 13,400. The Comp Plan says 16,500 for 2040 — that's also assuming 300 per year. If we reset the clock today and did the same growth to 2040, it will be 300 per year. Councilmember Backous said to look at 260 — or look at 240 — either gets us relatively close. City Council — Special Meeting — February 6, 2012 Page 8 of 11