Agenda - Council - 01/22/1985 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I - 4 - In addition to adjacent property market value reduction, a host community suffers from a landfill's pressure through loss of direct tax base. The existing landfill in Ramsey has gross annual income of over one million dollars, yet it paid property taxes of only approximately $12,000.00 in 1984. If a typical industry were located on this same property which had gross revenues of over one million its property taxes would be substantially greater. This inequity exists not only while the site is in operation, but becomes an even greater problem when the site closes, as when the site closes, the host community no longer can even collect the tipping charge, and these will not be an industry which would continue to pay property taxes. This is particularly important to Ramsey as we have approximately 400 acres involved in the landfill "industry" all of which is located in Ramsey's prime industrial area. Here again, a system needs to be established which will compensate the City for this tax base and revenue loss far into the future. When this system is established, the impact on adjacent buffer areas should also be considered. We suggest that the Plan address this situation. Landfills also pose a problem for host communities in dealing with local improvements. Existing law most likely will not permit Ramsey to assess the landfill site its share for public utilities since it will be difficult if not impossible to show that the landfill, because of its unique nature, increases in market value with the availability of sewer and water. In order to properly serve the City, such municipal services will have to be constructed adjacent to the landfill, but the landfill site will not be assessed as would a similar vacant tract of land or tract on which an industry or housing development is located. Therefore, Ramsey residents will have to pay more to receive these services. Again, the Plan under consideration should address this very real problem and devise an equitable means of solving it. Finally, Ramsey faces the problem of having to locate municipal wells outside a two (2) mile radius from the fill site. This is because a rapid draw down well such as a municipal well could pull ieachate into the bedrock aquifers. For this reason, Anoka County has adopted a policy requiring all future high capacity wells within a two (2) mile radius of the landfill to obtain a well permit. Test wells will be necessary which will have to show that any proposed municipal well will not alter the static ground water levels and ground water movements to cause leachate from landfills to migrate into the proposed water bearing formations. The extraordinary cost of placing a municipal well(s) outside this two (2) mile area should not be absorbed by Ramsey residents alone. In the event extra expense is necessary it is because of the landfill's existence and this expense should therefore be shared by the region. The Plan should address a means by which the entire region contributes to this expense.