Agenda - Council - 10/22/2019 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Engineer Westby confirmed that discussion was held with the developer but there was a much higher cost, about $25,000 or $30,000 more to do that and therefore the developer was not interested in pursuing that approach. Councilmember Menth stated that this is drainage for a development and asked why the City would be paying this cost rather than the developer. City Engineer Westby stated that this development had approvals in place before the current developer came in and therefore this was not a standard approval process. He explained that if the new developer was required to complete this work the project would not have been viable. Councilmember Menth stated that this work would be associated with the housing project and therefore was unsure why a financial element would be a part of this consideration. City Engineer Westby explained that regulations changed between the time the original approvals were gained by the first developer and this last phase that is being completed by a new developer. He stated that this is an additional cost that was not anticipated by the previous developer because of the changed condition. He noted that people are living in that area and the infrastructure is decaying, therefore it would make sense to attempt to facilitate this project moving forward based on the changed condition. City Administrator Ulrich asked if the developer would have been able to build under the previous standards or whether the builder would need to meet existing approvals. City Engineer Westby explained that the previous approvals were grandfathered in and therefore staff believes that it is the right thing to do the work as the City, as the developer is not bound to complete that work to meet the current stormwater standards. City Administrator Ulrich stated that this action will help the City protect its groundwater management area and that is why the action is proposed. Councilmember Menth stated that this work will have a cost of about $80,000 or $90,000 to complete this work. He asked if the cost to fill in would be $20,000. City Engineer Westby explained that filling in the ponds would have an additional cost of $20,000 to $30,000 above the $80,000. Councilmember Menth asked the ongoing maintenance cost and whether it would make more sense to pay that additional amount now to fill in the area and forgo the ongoing maintenance of a pond. City Engineer Westby recognized that there would be maintenance costs for either option. He confirmed that there would be costs down the road to maintain a pond. City Council / September 24, 2019 Page 11 of 14