Minutes - Council - 12/19/2000 - Laserfiche WebLink

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10, 2000, a public hearing was held to discuss the rates and charges for the stonrt drainage utility and on November 14, 2000, the City reaffirmed the storm drainage utility rates and charges. To successfully implement a storm drainage utility, the utility must be considered fair and equitable. The City Council has taken a large step in making this utility equitable by choosing a method that is based on the amount of impervious surface on each site rather than basing the utility charge on land use. Many utilities throughout the Twin Cities that have been successful in implementing storm drainage utilities have established a credit system to reward local businesses and developments for being responsible for their storm drainage. The existing resolution offers up to a 25 percent credit for the rate of runoff from their site and up to an additional 25 percent credit for those properties that provide a water quality benefit to the runoff fi'om their site. In order to qualify for these credits, the property owner must apply for each credit and provide the City with the justification for each credit. Issues that were raised at the November 14, 2000 City Council meeting that related to the credit system include: Changing the criteria for the modified method; Retroactivity of approved units; Allowing credits higher than 50 percent; and City calculation of credits for parcels that have a completed drainage plan. The modified method was created to differentiate between the properties that had large areas of unimproved vacant area and those that are much more intensively developed. For example, under the current ordinance, the storm drainage utility charge for The Links golf course on 153~d Avenue NW would have been $25,688 per year. The modified method yields a storm drainage utility charge of $1,683 per year. This is consistent with the policy that the City does not bill undeveloped vacant property as most of the 236 acres of the golf course is undeveloped. The resolution that established the credits that are available for the storm drainage utility states that, in order to be considered for the modified method, the property must exceed 20 acres in size and be less than 15 percent impervious. In researching the modified method, by decreasing the lot size from 20 acres to 10 acres and increasing the impervious percentage from 15 percent to 20 percent, there would be two parcels affected and this would amount to a decrease in revenue by $1,772/year. (The parcels that would be affected by this change would be New Song Church and Diamond's Sports Bar.) Decreasing the lot size criteria to five acres and increasing the impervious percentage criteria to 25 percent (which is closer to residential), there would only be two more parcels that would be affected and this would amount to a total decrease in revenue of $2,760/year. (The additional parcels that would be affected by this change would be Northern Counties Secretarial Services and Craftsman Concrete). City staff recommended changing the resolution establishing the credits available for the storm drainage utility credits to five acres and 25 percent impervious criteria. This would allow any property, other than residential larger than five acres that is developed less intensively than residential property, the opportunity to apply for this credit. The issue of retroactivity must be looked at from two different aspects. The existing ordinance and resolution do not allow retroactivity since staff doesn't believe that when someone makes an application for a credit two years from now the credit should be retroactive to the implementation of the charge. Staff does believe, however, that in this initial implementation phase of the storm drainage utility, they should be retroactive since the property owners did not have the ability to apply for a credit prior to the charge being introduced onto their bill. Discussion was held at the November 21, 2000 Public Works Committee, regarding the issue of retroactivity. The consensus of the Committee was that staff should write an article in the Ramsey Resident and publicize that any credit application received at City Hall before a certain date would allow for City Council/December 19, 2000 Page 6 of 19