Agenda - Council - 12/08/2020 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

October 26, 2020 Attn: Office of the Mayor City of Ramsey 7550 Sunwood Drive NW Ramsey, MN 55303 --\102)Ad ram, t v OA,+\k C)12:1 ( 7-02C)eavw/a45. ors. \G-e-AOLA \-\ vy, laYNADAADAQifs RE: Outstanding assessment of $88,706.18 on legal description —, Anoka County, Minnesota (principal amount of $25,280 plus interest of $63,426.18) Dear Mayor LeTourneau and Ramsey City Council members, Our families have been landowners and (in the case of the Hamiltons) citizens of the City of Ramsey over the past 50+ years. We recently sold our property Tract A, Registered Land Survey, No. 119 to Connections Church on October 20, 2020. We are excited to welcome the church to our neighborhood and feel that their presence will greatly benefit the city as a whole. We are writing to share our concerns around the amount of the assessment for the road installation and improvements, that were presented to us around the time of the closing of $88,706.18 (principal amount of $25,280 plus interest of $63,426i8). Once we were alerted to the amount of the assessment and in particular the very large amount of interest owed, we requested and received a copy of the resolution #89-09-238 (Resolution adopting assessment improvement project #87-18 and #88-9 — Improvements to Front Street NW, Tungsten Street NW, and Sunfish Lake Blvd. N.W.) from the City of Ramsey on October 16, 2020. We also received information City Attorney Joseph J. Langel including the Minnesota Department of Revenue Fact Sheet, stating, "Once an entire parcel is withdrawn from Green Acres, [the owner] will also be responsible to pay any deferred special assessments plus any interest." This per City Attorney Langel is based Minn. Stat 273.111, subd. 11. The families have carefully reviewed and understand this information but have been unaware that interest on this assessment was accruing. We diligently researched our family records regarding this deferred road assessment. Neither the family nor our attorney from that timeframe (1988-1990) were able to locate any communication from the City of Ramsey that resolution #89-29-08 was passed and applicable to our situation. We also could not find any notification that assessment amount would accrue interest at the rate of 8.1 %. At our request, Cindy Nelson, on October 20, 2020, researched city records for any communication that was sent to the families in late 1989 on the passed Resolution #89-09-238 and the implications to the family. Cindy Nelson confirmed on October 21, 2020 that she could not find any such communication. In reviewing the resolution #89-09-238 carefully, we note the following: • The resolution contemplated that all assessment amounts would be paid over 10 years in annual installments. • The city must have, in some fashion, waived the requirement that annual installments should be paid in the case of our property • The interest rate of 8.1% was set, presumably, based on prevailing interest rates at the time, contemplating a 10-year time horizon. Interest rates have of course dropped substantially since that time.