Minutes - Council Work Session - 11/10/2015

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Councilmember Riley stated that he believed that this policy worked well and the only tweak would be how staff uses the information for resident assessment in the future. He noted that 'a proposal can always be higher than what is actually assessed but it is harder to raise an assessment from what had originally been proposed. City Engineer Westby referenced road projects from this year and stated that staff is going to get additional information on how the utilities impacted those prices. Mr. Kingston stated that there is a unique situation that is not covered by the policy, which is open space within a Planned Unit Development (PUD). He explained that the attorney for the Homeowner's Association for Northfork did the necessary research to provide to the City and referenced case law. He stated that the required open space within the PUD is owned by the Homeowner's Association but has a zero assessed value and therefore you cannot add value and cannot be assessed. Attorney Langel stated that whether a property starts out with a value of zero or $100,000 the only question is whether the project adds value to the property. He stated that in that instance the issue was that redoing the street does not add value to the property because the property is still' a swamp. Mr. Kingston stated that the open space areas are part of the PUD and cannot be sold or developed. Charlotte and Michael Culbertson, 15780 Andre Street, stated that she has sent an email to Councilmember Kuzma and City Engineer Westby. She referenced equity and stated that every single homeowner in the development is benefited by the project but agreed that it would be difficult to prove benefit for all properties. She believed that all properties abutting the project should be assessed as they will receive benefit. She stated that there are eight people that abut the project but do not have access and believed that they should be included in the assessment. She referenced the projects that were completed in 2015, noting that those projects were not assessed 25 percent of the project costs, and asked that the Council consider assessing the Andre Street project at a rate of 13 to 15 percent similar to the Jarvis Street project because it is a similar project that does not include utilities and they are not the only residents that will benefit from the project. She did not expect a change to the policy as she believed 25 percent is reasonable for most projects and asked that the assessment be comparative to the benefit that will be provided to the homeowners. City Engineer Westby explained that Jarvis Street is a co-road/line road with the City of Elk River and therefore the assessment was lower because they were unsure how the benefit appraisal would turn out. He stated that utilities were not a part of the assessment decision. He explained the different requirements for a state aid road and noted that the state aid requirements could possibly be considered separate from the assessment and instead be considered as City costs. Mayor Strommen stated that there will be much more discussion on how the policy applies to that specific project as that moves forward. City Council Work Session / November 10, 2015 Page5of7