Agenda - Council - 02/24/2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CASE # REVIEW COMMERCIAL TRAIL AND PARK DEDICATION By: Leonard Linton, Civil Engineer II Background: The City Cbuncil reviewed ail fees at their December 9, 2003 meeting. Staff was directed to review the commercial trail and park dedication fees and forward a recommend~ation to the Parks Commission. Information on commercial park dedication fees was presented to the Parks Commission at the regular January meeting. The case was tabled ~ith a request for more detailed information. ObservatiOn: Staff gather:ed information from cities that have recently performed similar analyses and looked up data for cities that are in the northwest portion of the metro area. Most cities do not have: a specific fee for trails; it is covered in the commercial and residential park dedication ~ees. The results of this research are summarized below. The full text of the searches is imt included in the packet but is available for Commissioner review. Thc City °~Plymouth revised their development code relating to park dedication fees in the fall of 2001 ,' The Plymouth study indicates that commercial and industrial employees use the par~ and trail system for recreation during breaks, company picnics and outings and empl0ygrs may sponsor teams in league team sports played on the fields, thereby negating th~ argument that C/I development does not impact the park and trail system. The Plym0~th review was conducted as part of the revision of the city code related to development. Their review included information from the City of Bloomington that indicated tl~at 90% of demand for parks comes from residents and 10% from Corn inertial/Industrial employees. The City of~Charaplin prepared a listing of 2003 park dedication rates. A condensed copy of the Chaniplin survey is included in the packet. Shading has been added to de- emphasize Communities that arc not 'comparable in size or general location to Ramsey. The charge from the Ramsey City Council was to review commercial trail dedication fees and indirectly the commercial park dedication fees. The current C/I trail fee is $100.00 /acre. The Current park dedication fee is 5% of Fair Market Value (FMV), using $2.00/ sq fi as the fiainimum for FMV. The current Industrial fee is also 5% FMV, using $1.00/ sq ft as the ininirnum. Fair Market Value can be an elusive term as anyone who has bought or s~ld real estate or vehicles can attest. The buyer always wants the value to be low and thel. seller is looking for maximum value.