Minutes - Council - 11/14/2000 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Attorney Goodrich noted that the rates and charges are separate from the credits and staff is requesting that the rates and charges get established, that staff continue to look into the credit process, and bring back a recommendation. Councilmember Hendriksen replied that he thought the 20-acre minimum requirement was part of the implementation policy. City Engineer Olson explained that the 20-acre minimum requirement came up in July when the Council approved the credit procedure, it is actually addressed as part of the resolution that is added to the ordinance. Councihnember Hendriksen stated that if it is addressed in the resolution he would like to revisit that at some time. Gray Gruber, Diamonds Sports Bar, stated that in the last month he has done a lot of research on the stom~ drainage utility issue and City Engineer Olson is correct in stating that the rates are slightly lower than other cities. The first city to implement such a utility was Shoreview, in 1991, and they have worked through a lot of bugs in the system. Some of those bugs included the fact that they also had a storm water management charge that they did away with once the utility fee was established. He stated that future businesses that come into the City and pay the storm water management fee, may be upset to be paying both fees. The other issue is in most of the other city's residential properties that were not all city lots were broken up into different categories. In the City of Ramsey, there are many various lot sizes and he doesn't know if it is something that can be reviewed. If he had a City lot and paid the same as someone that has 10 acres, he would be upset. City Engineer Olson replied that of the 12 cities that he reviewed, some had made the assumption that a residential lot was one'fourth of an acre and others were one-fifth of an acre. Mr. Gruber replied that most of those cities do not have the numerous number of different lot sizes. City Engineer Olson replied' that he agreed, but explained that someone with ten acres could still have the same impervious area and would have a lot more area for the water to soak into the ground. Mr. Gruber also noted that some of the other cities, such as Bloomington and Shoreview, have a 50 percent credit procedure, but are going up to an 80 percent if they have completed a lot of ponding. And many of the cities offered a six month grace period to get the credit information and the credit was retroactive Also, in two of the other cities, if the development was less than three years old, the blue prints were brought in and the site was developed as indicated on the blue print, they did not have to hire another engineer to document the information. In going through his research, he indicated he has found that they are not alone on this fee, but he thinks · more work needs to be done. City Council/November 14, 2000 Page 10 of 19