Agenda - Council - 05/31/1983 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I City of Ramsey 15153 N.W. Nowthen Boulevard Ramsey, Minnesota 55303 ~iIn response to the request of the City Council, the E.D.C. Committee has made extensive inquiry into the question of sewer and water special assessments policies for the City of Ramsey. We undertook an extensive review of the policies of all comparable cities in the area. This report to you is as a result of the.information we obtained as a Committee and is based on my experience in matters involv- ing sewer and water assessment procedures. Every city that we were able to gather information from experienced substantial financial benefit from their. policies regarding sewer and water assessment procedures. Not in a single instance did we find a city that had to utilize any money from the General Fund to finance any part of the-sewer and water installation cost. Quite to the contrary, the General Fund or the Capital Fund of the various cities profited as a result of their policies. As you know, the E.D.C. Committee has recommended that Ramsey use the same policy as the City of Blaine used. Blaine is similar to Ramsey in many ways except that it has been in existence for a longer period of time and, hence, has had the benefit of extensive development with- in its area. Their policy is a matter of record and it calls for a 25% cash payment or a Letter of Credit, with the development contract setting forth the method of payment of bonds and the method of payment of the special assess- ments. We have found that in order for a city to be.operated in an efficient and economical way, it must experience orderly growth and must have a diversified tax base. There are a number of cities in the metro area Which experimented with the notion of being simply a residential community. The only two that have been successful in doing that are very exclusive communities - North Oaks and Sunfish Lake. Even a community as affluent as Edina found that it was necessary for them to diversify and to attract industry and commerce into their community in order to stabilize their real estate tax cost for public services.