Minutes - Council - 10/10/2000 - Laserfiche WebLink

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out to the businesses. He stated that he felt the meeting wOuld be a good idea for everyone to achieve a better understanding of the ordinance. Mr. Peterson stated that the City has set up a process where individual businesses have to come to the City and argue for an equitable fee and they have also set up a formula that the citizens cannot understand. Councihnember Hendriksen replied that the Council wanted to correctly assess those people that were creating the majority of the runoff and he has not heard an argument that proved this is not fair. Mr. Peterson replied that if the City wants to talk about runoff then it has to be with the amount of water that leaves the property that City has to deal with. But, if it is impervious area, then that is a different situation. Mayor Gamec stated that adding the fee to property taxes would be a huge benefit to some but he doesn't think that is fair. He suggested that the City Administrator should schedule a meeting with the business owners and the City Engineer to discuss the ordinance. Consensus of the Council was to direct staff to schedule a meeting to explain the storm drainage utility ordinance and the formula that is used. City Engineer Olson inquired if the City should continue with the billing of the fee. Consensus of the Council was to continue with the billings at this time. Councilmember Hendriksen stated that the City of Ramsey has 20,000 people and 20 business owners were present in the audience requesting that a portion of the cost should be shifted to the residents which is not justified. If the business owners think it is fair, he would like to hear their justification as to why the City should shift the cost from the people who produce the most runoff. Bernie Vevea, Ve~Ve, Inc., stated that the City is calling the storm sewer utility a maintenance charge and questioned how many miles of storm sewer the City has that needs maintenance. In his opinion there is very few miles. He questioned how old the City's storm sewer system is. Mr. Vevea stated that Ramsey is not like other cities who have miles of storm sewer that go down every city block and are more than a 100 years old. At the last meeting, the Council stated that some of the funds would be used for ditches in residential areas because in the spring some of the septic systems may not be working well. Then the City should be creating funds for ditches in the residential area. He also noted that aerial photographs do not show elevations and businesses already have holding ponds as required by the City. Most of the soil in Ramsey is sand and there is no runoff from the business in the residential area. If the City needs funds for the residential areas, then it should be assessed as any other project because businesses are not going to pay for these improvements when they are not causing the problems because they are City Council/October 10, 2000 Page 10 of 17