Minutes - Council - 05/18/2005 - Special

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William K. Goodrich May 17, 2'005 Page 2 Limitatior~s"), 8.9 ("Leapfrog Development"), and 8.10 ("Effective Date") to the citY's Charter. The proposed amendment would provide, among other things, that "for each non-petitioning property i~entified as having sewer and/or water made available at the conclusion of the project, the city shall collect from the petitioning properties as part of the total project cost an amount equal to ..all fees and charges that normally would be assessed and collected from each non- petitioning party if it were to connect." Proposed Section 8.9.1. It would also provide that "It]he city shall not fund sewer or water extension to leapfrog development if there are no petitioner (s) willing toisponsor and pay the entire cost? In i reviewing the current version of the City's Charter, I note that your Charter already contains Several provisions regarding the manner in which property owners can respond to proposalst for local improvements. Section 8.4 of the Charter provides, among other things, a mechanis~n by which owners of real property'abutting a proposed local improvement may submit a "Petitio..h Against the Local Improvement." If the percentage of owners signing such a petition is greaterl thtm the percentag~ of owners signing the petition initiating the improvement (or a valid counter petition in favor of the improvement), "the council shall not make such local improver~ent at the expense of the said abutting property owners." Charter, § 8.4.2. In addition, Section 8iofthe Charter was amended by special election in 1996 to add Section 8.6. Section 8.6 provides, iamong other things, that "[t]he City may not compel any property owner with a functional private sewer and water system 'to connect to City Sewer and/or Water," and "[t]he City mayinot levy an assessment for any component o£any project which includes Sewer and/or Water improvements against a property whose o,~mer elects to remain on a functional pr.ivate Sewer ar~d/or Water system." The proposed amendment does not propose to replace or othmwvisi change these existing provisions. . Thc City's Limited Authority to Reject Charter Amendment Petitions Ufldcr Article XII, Section $ of the Minnesota Constitution, home rule charter amendmdnts may be proposed "by a charter commission or by a petition of five percent of the voters of!the local government unit as determined by law and shall not become effective until ' approvedlby the voters by the majority required bylaw." Amendments also may be proposed and adopted '!in any other manner provided by law." Id. Pursuant to th.is constitutional authority, the · legislature has set forth additional methods of charter amendment in Minnesota Statutes § 410.12,! including a certification process for amendments proposed by a citizens' petition. Under these provisions, amendments meeting the technical requirements "shall be submitted to ~ SeCtion 8.9 of the proposed amendment would define "leapfrog development" as "develop./nent that requires or results in la] 'extending sewer and/or water to a petitioning property iwhcn there arc no existing service lines within a bordering property or within a bordering right-of-way at the time the petition is filed, 'or lb] extending sewer or water past or within a non-petitioning property that did not previously have utilities."