Minutes - Council Work Session - 04/13/2004

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Councihnember Kurak inquired if the City Attorney could write a friendly letter in response to tile letter fi'om Connexus. Fi nance Officer Lund replied it would be premature to bring the City Attorney into this. The consensus of the Council was to have the committee meet with Connexus again and report back to the Council. Staff was directed to set up a meeting with Connexus on Friday, April 16th at 4:00 p.m. or Friday, April 23''d at 3:30 p.m. 2) Fiscal Impact Study Councihncmber Elvig noted the Council has not been able to look at this study since the presentation. This is the scale regarding the tax implications that would go up between three and l'our percent by 2008, and would then start to come down. He has highlighted all the projects that arc due with fl~ture expansion to the north and west, and added up the housing and growth clements outside the existing MUSA. Councilmember Elvig reviewed forecasted revenues and expenditures, l-te stated his concern is that if they make assumptions all the way across the board Ibr Town Center and the infrastructure they have to assume they will take on a lot of the other things at tim same time. The new growth opportunity in the City is the cash flow to make this all happen. I1' they do not make assumptions all the way around they will have to start scaling some things back. Councilmember Kurak questioned if the Town Center housing is estimated with benchmarks. City Administrator Norman advised that he would warn against the City releasing the benchmarks, which could shift the final project. He does not think the housing projections are tied into bonchnaarl<s; they were projected as to when they would most likely come in, xvhich is 800 or 900 units per yeas'. Councihnembcr Kurak questioned why rooftops would be stopped in Town Center and put somewhere else, if the argument is that they need rooftops to make Town Center work. Counci hnember Elvig stated it takes more then Town Center to accommodate the amount of infi-astructure costs, and the real cash cow is the rest of the City. If they are going to assume and ratify this fiscal impact study and plan from it they have to look at all of the assumptions and make some bard decisions. Councilmcmbcr Strommen stated as she recalls the Council was infonned that Town Center would pay tbr itself and would not rely on tax revenues from elsewhere in the City. Cou ncihnember Elvig stated if they do not take advantage of some of these opportunities there will be an eight percent blip in the fiscal impact for a longer period. City Council Work Session/April 13, 2004 Page 2 of 6