March 2005 Ramsey City Charter Update

Home

CHAPTER 8 PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS Section 8.1 Power to Make Improvements and Levy Assessments. The city may make any type of local improvement not forbidden by law and levy special assessments to pay all or part of the cost of such local improvements. The total of the assessments for any local improvement may not exceed the cost of the local improvement, plus all costs and expenses connected therewith, including interest. No assessment shall exceed the benefit to the property assessed as measured by the increase in the market value of the property assessed as a result of the local improvement. Section 8.2 Application of Charter. All local improvement projects shall be carried out exclusively under the provisions of this charter. The term "local improvement" as used in this Section shall mean a public improvement financed partly or wholly from special assessments. Section 8.3 Assessments for Services. The council may provide by ordinance that the cost of the city services to streets, sidewalks, or other public or private property may be assessed against property benefited and may be collected in the same manner as special assessments. Section 8.4 Local Improvement Procedure. When the city undertakes any local improvement to which the state local improvement code applies, it shall comply with the provisions of that law, except as modified below. The council may by ordinance prescribe the procedure to be followed in making any other local improvement and levying assessments therefore. 8.4.1 Sixty Day Waiting Period. A period of sixty (60) days shall elapse after the conclusion of the public hearing required by law to precede the ordering of the construction of a local improvement project (the "Public Hearing") before the actual ordering of the local improvement by the council and the council entering into a contract for the local improvement construction. 8.4.2 Petition Against the Local Improvement. If the proposed local improvement was initiated by petition of the owners of the real property abutting on the streets named in the petition, and if, within thirty (30) days of the conclusion of the public hearing, a petition against such local improvement is filed with the city administrator and which petition is signed by a percentage of the owners of the real property abutting on the streets named in the initiating petition as the location of the improvement which percentage is greater than the percentage of owners who signed the initiating petition, the council shall not make such local improvement at the expense of the said abutting property owners. 18