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Councihnember Cook stated he sees a lot of the concerns with Town Center coming from the <br />unknowns. Coburn's has not started because of unknowns about if they will have to pay for <br />road, sewer, water, etc. He wants to be sure there are not a lot of unknowns out there with this. <br /> <br />Councilmember Strommen stated her concern is by limiting the assessment to the core, that is the <br />area where they are looking for small, more independent owned businesses. The assessments <br />may be more taxing to the very businesses they are trying to attract to that area. Also, the City is <br />the owner of several of the lots in that core, and they would be looking to themselves to pay <br />maintenance charges. She would rather see the City assume maintenance contracts than give dis- <br />incentives to the types of businesses they want. To do this they need to determine where that <br />revenue is coming from, and she would encourage them to look at alternatives now. <br /> <br />Counci hnember Kurak questioned what the limitations are on the assessment area. <br /> <br />Mi'. Bray replied the assessment has to be on the property benefited by the parking. The design is <br />that the businesses in the core will not have their own surface parking and will rely on the <br />structure parking to satisfy their parking. <br /> <br />Counciln~en~ber Strommen stated from the Council's perspective the benefits are to the entire <br />area. The benefit to Cobum's coming in on the edge is the housing. The project needs to be <br />looked at as a whole. <br /> <br />City Attorney Goodrich explained Shingobee Development is objecting, saying they will have <br />surface parking and do not want to pay for additional parking. He explained Shingobee <br />Development is subject to the entire Master Development Agreement. RTC does not want to go <br />by that agreement because Shingobee could walk. <br /> <br />City Administrator Norman stated there was a great deal of discussion on this. A couple of <br />months ago they had a different amendment to the development agreement and the City's team <br />did push that and used Councilmember Stromrnen's very argument. Shingobee Development <br />was very adamant and said that is a deal killer. He explained when this document was started <br />Bruce Nedegaard of RTC made an attempt to resolve the issue by saying he would put cash into <br />this, and offered to contribute a one-time lump sum of one million dollars to resolve the issue. <br />Staff indicated they appreciated the gesture but would like some sort of ongoing cash flow from <br />tile core, and tile area was changed from the whole 320 acres to the core. If they want to go back <br />to the 320 acres it will be very difficult and will put RTC in a difficult position. They have a <br />closing coming up on Thursday and it will likely be a deal killer. <br /> <br />Councihncmber Cook asked if the language can be worked out with an alternate way of paying <br />for the maintenance that does not include a tax in that area. He expressed concern of adding <br />taxes onto the businesses, as the hardest part of starting the project is to get the commercial <br />going. <br /> <br />Mr. Lasher replied as Paragraph No. 6 would develop, a draft budget could be prepared of dollars <br />that arc being discussed. He explained this is a bit of a moving target because they have already <br /> <br />City Council Special Work Session/November 9, 2004 <br /> Page 4 of 11 <br /> <br /> <br />