Agenda - Public Works Committee - 04/20/2004

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setbacks for this particular street, if a 60 feet ROW were acquired, would be 10 to 35 feet. The action of taking over maintenance responsibility of a private street that serves only the residents that it abuts could provide a "loophole" for future developers to avoid setback criteria. Based on those reasons it was staff's recommendation that the private street continue to be maintained by the homeowners association, since that was the deal when the development was approved. The City of Brooklyn park has had numerous discussions and spent considerable staff time for the issue of property owners that live on private streets requesting reimbursement for taxes that pay for street maintenance costs. They indicated that a typical townhouse contributes $61 annually for the maintenance of their streets. Staff agrees with the'City of Brooklyn Park that the townhouse association has an obligation to contribute to the general tax levy for street maintenance due to the requirement for the City to maintain the other streets that serve their development. As far as the street light on the comer of the private street and Iodine Street, the priority street light fee is meant to light the intersection of the City's busi.er streets with less traveled. This helps the traveling public identify the locations of. upcoming intersections and · improves the safety of those intersections. Every resident in the City of Ramsey pays this fee of $1.20 per quarter per resident. There is another fee associated with subdivision lights. All new developments are required to put in subdivision lights. Ail residents that 'move into these subdivisions pay an additional $8.50 per quarter per resident. Staff recommended that if the residents of this townhouse association would like the City to take over maintenance and pay for the operation cost of this subdivision light, that the association present a petition to the City Council at a future date. Wendy Nutter, Secretary/Treasurer of the Townhouse Association, stated that the association has taken measurements of other City streets in the area that don't measure up to the City standards. She explained that when they purchased their townhomes they were not told by the City or the developer that they would be responsible for the maintenance of the street. Principal City Engineer Olson replied that there are plenty of streets in the City that are built to less standards. Ms. Nutter stated that there are only 12 units in this development and no one ever told them that the City would not be maintaining the street. Councilmember Anderson questioned if the problem was that the residents did not read the documents. Ms. Nutter replied that that information was not included in their documents. Councilmember Hendriksen inquired if the documents indicated that it was a private street Ms. Nutter replied that when a person purchases a home they don't have time to read 100 pages. Councilmember Hendriksen replied that if a person decides not to read the documents, that is done at their own risk. That being said he expressed that he did not believe that there should be any private streets. Public Works Committee/November 19, 2002 Page 11 of 15