Agenda - Council - 12/13/2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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square footages of warm and cold storage, offices, outdoor storage, parking, sedimentation ponds, Police impound, landscaping, drive lanes and accesses etc. was a complex exercise that required a lot of assumptions.: The other matter that became apparent was that there was a lot more similarities in how different cities conducted their respective maintenance operations than dissimilarities. Staff also learned that the City of Brooklyn Park conducted a fairly detailed survey of suburbs with populations near 50,000 (50k), for their public works analysis in 2004. These cities were; Apple Valley (46k), Blaine (45k), Bloomington (89k), Burnsville (61k), Coon Rapids (63k), Eagan (66k), Eden Prairie (55k), Edina (50k), Maple Grove (50k), Minnetonka (52k), and Plymouth at (67k). Brooklyn Park's findings were that the only significant difference in these cities was the ratio of full-time staff to seasonal. However, the 'full-time equivalent' was generally consistent. Further into staff's research, we met with Brooklyn Park and Coon Rapids' staff and learned that both of these cities felt that gross acreage they had were adequate for their present and near-term needs. Both had 29 acres of land for the maintenance and operations needs of streets, parks, and utilities as well as a police impound. Staff explained to extrapolate how that would project to Ramsey's acreage needs at a population of 50,000, staff 'reduced' Coon Rapids' actual 63,000 population to a fictitious 50,000, (an approximate 2I% reduction) - and then applied that same percentage 'reduction' to the 29 acres of land, resulting in about 23 acres of need at 50,000 residents. This same approach was used with Brooklyn Park's actual 73,000 residents, resulting in a land need (at 50k residents) of 20 acres. Since the current Public Works Campus has approximately 8.2 acres, it is apparent that this land, even with the addition of the KIH property (3.2 acres), will be undersized to handle the future operational and maintenance needs of our community so it is evident that acquisition of additional property for Public Works will be required. There are a number of ways to remedy this situation and staff has analyzed the following options: expand the Public Works Campus; acquisition of 35 acres near Fire Station No. 1; acquisition of land on the south side of the landfill (north of Sunwood Drive). The advantages and disadvantages for each of the possible sites is included in the case. Staff noted there has been discussion about a number of possible uses for the MPCA land. One was a golf course and the other is the potential for commercial/industrial land along the north side of Sunwood Drive. There is a net of 63.3 acres of land on this site, and even less than half of that acreage would be adequate space for the future needs of Public Works. The current site is adequately sized for immediate operations and staff feels that there will be enough land for the next few years. However, there will continue to be space needs issues relative to the equipment storage and employment base as our population continues to grow. Staff feels that the Public Works Department should continue to -635-