Minutes - Council - 06/29/2004 - Special

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Jim Lasher of LSA Design, Inc. explained he will be reviewing a Document that has been put together to summarize recent discussions between representatives of Ramsey Town Center, LLC and the City of Ramsey. The last meeting between Ramsey Town Center, LLC and the City resulted itl direction to look at amending the Master Development Agreement for purposes of releasing thc benchmarks to allow the Developer to be able to move forward with residential pieces of' the development. The Document that has been drafted is not a binding agq'eement and anything within this Document can be changed. If an agreement is met Mayor Gamec and the Developer may sign the Document stating that they generally agree. The City's legal counsel would be directed to prepare the proposed amendments to the existing City of Ramsey Master Development Agreement for Ramsey Town Center and Allocation Agreements for the City Council's and the Developer's consideration. The amendment of the agreement will require a vote by the City Council. Mr. Lashcr reviewed items one and two of the Document concerning the General Business Tenns and Conditions of tile Developers Agreement Amendment Proposal to RTC, LLC. Mayor Gamcc inquired about the amounts associated with Chapter 429. Mr. Lasher replied 20 percent of the Phase I and Phase II roads are being assessed. The ordinance in place includes a five year maximum term. RTC would like this to be extended to 15 years, which is fairly standard in the market place. When the term is extended it reduces the cost on each square foot every year. The basic premise is to spread cost over a larger area. Councihnember Cook questioned if staying within the five years and spreading the cost over the whole area al'fccts the marketability and puts a burden on the residential area. Mi'. Lasher replied most likely the housing portion of the assessment will be paid in cash at closing, and the commercial portion will extend out. Mr. Lasher reviewed item three of the Document. He stressed that the original Master Development Agreement included a levy of six million dollars of special assessments against the Development Property to partially finance the City's construction of the AUAR roadway improvements. The Developer is now asking to cap this at three million dollars. He cannot identify any source to replace the three million dollars at this time. The City does, however, have security in owning the land. He advised the housing will not push the AUAR improvements as quickly as the connnercial development would, due to commercial development generating much more traffic than housing. Councihncmber Elvig stated the traffic mitigation portion of the AUAR indicated that 33 percent of the building, whether it is housing or commercial, would push some of the regional issues. Councihncmber Kurak noted whoever purchases the property and starts building housing will need infi;astructure. She questioned if the assessments coming off the sale of the property would go towards paying for those improvements. She stated there will need to be discussion regarding this issue. City Council/June 29, 2004 Page 3 of 11