Minutes - Council Work Session - 01/16/2001

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been informed that a grant they have applied for has been put on hold. Dakota County algo applied for funds for a regional park and those funds have been put on hold because of the stand taken by Eagan. The other issue that was discussed during last weeks City Council meeting was the opportunity grant that was awarded to the City of Ramsey. The grant is a planning grant to assist the City with planning of 150 acres from C.R. #56 to Armstrong Boulevard. CalThorp will begin that process in February. Ms. Steffen stated that there seemed to be some confusion amongst the Council in regards to the opportunity grant and the location of the North Star Corridor station. She explained that they are two separate issues. North Star Corridor was given some funding for constructing bus ways and one of the areas included the North Star track. The hope is that the bus stations would be functioning prior to the rail system and if a station were constructed in Ramsey, between Ramsey Boulevard and Armstrong Boulevard, it would be a safe bet that there would be a North Star railroad stop. There is also funding that is being made available for an escalated bridge study. Ms. Steffen stated that when she was made aware that Ramsey was number one for receiving the opportunity grant, she expressed concern that the City did not have an approved Comprehensive Plan. She then met with a couple of Councilmembers to try to resolve the outstanding issues which they came to an agreement on those three outstanding issues. The City signed an agreement to accept the opportunities grant and made a commitment to amend the Comprehensive Plan. One of the issues still remaining was the ISTS tracking system. She gave a brief overview of the legislation regarding ISTS tracking systems and explained that the Land Planning Act was amended in 1996, with the wording which gives the Met Council the authority to require such an ISTS tracking system. Ms. Steffen explained that the City of Ramsey has the most on-site septic systems in the State which causes a concern with under ground water. The reason the ground water of Ramsey is of interest is because it is a recharge area for the metropolitan area. The Comprehensive Plan needs to be amended prior to January 31, 2001, or the City can decide if they want to put at risk the bridge study and opportunity grants. Councilmember Hendriksen stated that the Met Council has already pulled grants from Eagan even though their new compliance policy is not in place until February. Ms. Steffen replied that the City of Eagan has been notified that those grants they have applied for have been put on hold. Councilmember Hendriksen stated that he had met with Ms. Steffen to negotiate the outstanding issues in the Comprehensive Plan and a compromise was made, but the "devil is in the detail". He stated that he does believe that there is a way to achieve what the City and the Met Council want within the fi'ame of the agreement that was made. The issue of the ISTS is that State Statute 7080 does not require an individual to pay someone to inspect their own septic system, the homeowner is authorized to do that inspection. That is something that the legislature changed because he assumes that the legislature anticipated the enormous cost of requiring the inspection. When Ms. Steffen talks about grants the City could lose, she is referring to $400,000 and, depending on what an inspection costs, they are talking about a half a million dollars for the citizens of Ramsey. He stated that he is unwilling to tell the citizens of Ramsey to pay someone to inspect their tank if they are capable of doing the inspection themselves. City Council/January 16, 2001 Page 2 of 6