Agenda - Public Works Committee - 09/16/2014

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Public Works Committee 6. 3. Meeting Date: 09/16/2014 By: Bruce Westby, Engineering/Public Works Title: Review draft Special Assessment Policy for City Improvement Projects Purpose/Background: Purpose: The purpose of this case is to review the most current draft of the Special Assessment Policy for City of Ramsey improvement projects, and to provide input to City Staff for revising the draft Policy. Background: On May 20th the Public Works Committee directed Staff to develop a draft Special Assessments Policy to establish how special assessments will be levied against properties benefiting from various types of City improvement projects, including street reconstruction projects. As discussed at the time, even if special assessments are not needed to fund improvement projects it would be advantageous to the City to have an adopted assessment policy. The Committee also directed staff to research other cities special assessments policies to see how other cities address specific situations and apply special considerations in assessing property owners for public improvements. On June 25th the Charter Commission voted to amend Section 8.4.5 of the City Charter, increasing the percentage of property owners required to petition against Council initiated public improvements utilizing special assessments as a funding source from greater than 50% to greater than 60%. While this action will make it slightly more difficult for the public to petition against Council initiated improvement projects, it will still not prevent property owners from petitioning against Council initiated public improvements utilizing special assessments as a funding source. On August 14th the Public Works Committee reviewed the draft Special Assessment Policy but since Chairperson Backous and Councilmember Kuzma were absent Staff was directed to bring the draft Policy back at a later date for the full Committee to weigh in on. However, several comments were from the Committee members in attendance as follows. If MSA funds are applicable they should be applied to the City's share of the project costs, City Staff needs to ensure there are no conflicts between the Policy and the City Charter, and the Policy should provide as much flexibility as possible in considering existing property sizes, shapes, development status (developed vs. undeveloped), etc. Attached is the draft Special Assessment Policy as reviewed by the Committee on August 14th. Text highlighted in yellow will require revisions based on existing Charter provisions and/or input from the Public Works Committee. Staff also proposes to delete all text in red strikethrough format, and blue underlined text is new language as proposed by Staff. The draft Policy is based on the model Special Assessments Policy prepared by Ehlers and Associates, Inc. as posted on the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) web site. The model Policy has been amended to address special considerations relevant to the City of Ramsey. A list of these considerations is included below. Should the Public Works Committee consider any of these considerations to be irrelevant or unnecessary they can be deleted from the draft Policy. Conversely, additional considerations can be added to the draft Policy per direction from the Committee. Timeframe: Approximately 25 minutes for presentation and discussion. Observations/Alternatives: