Minutes - Council Work Session - 07/18/2023 - Special

Home

City Administrator Hagen reviewed the Staff report concerning the COR infrastructure improvements. He shared that Staff is looking for what the Council is wanting to move forward with over the next few years. Mayor Kuzma asked if there will be any dirt spread with the removal of all of the trees. City Administrator Hagen explained that the Council approved going out for bids for the excavation aspect of the pond and placing the fill. He stated that the bids were advertised on Friday and will be brought back to Council at a later date. Councilmember Specht asked if they are discussing what other projects they want to fit in this year or what they are wanting to do long term. City Administrator Hagen stated that they are working towards what they could get done this year and that when they made the decision to do this they did not know if the TIF legislation would pass. He noted that since it has passed they now have three years to spend money against the district to reimburse themselves in the future with tax revenue. He stated that at this point it is a policy decision. Councilmember Specht asked if a developer really wants to come into the area they could pay to come themselves. City Administrator Hagen stated that the general practice has been a 60/40 cost split on the roadways where the City pays 60% and the property owners on either side of the road pay the remaining 40%. Councilmember Specht asked about the fill from what they are dredging out. City Administrator Hagen noted that the City will possibly generate a slight excess of fill. He added that the goal is that if the developer gets approval to fill these wetlands they can just push a pile of fill in. He stated that there will be plenty of fill for the City owned parcels. Councilmember Musgrove asked about the funding and how the policy stated that they can pay themselves back with the TIF. She asked if they will be short in paying themselves back. She asked if this is with the expectation that they spend money or if that is with them not spending any additional money from the TIF fund. City Administrator Hagen explained that the Ehlers’ analysis shows how much has been collected through land sales and tax revenue. He shared what was in the analysis. He noted that development is not going to go away and they should see something in the future and extra revenue will be generated. He stated that if there are no other expenses that these revenues could go towards the district would decertify about five years early as all of the expenses would have been reimbursed. He mentioned that this memo from Ehlers was prior to any 2023 projects. He stated that if they did not spend any more dollars against the district after the 2023 projects they would likely have this paid off by 2040. He asked Council if they want to spend more against the TIF and hope for a more successful development future than what Staff has predicted. City Council Special Work Session / July 18, 2023 Page 2 of 8