Agenda - Council - 06/25/2024 - Laserfiche WebLink

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The City provides a variety of municipal services. These include a full-time police department, a volunteer fire department, engineering services, street and park maintenance, building inspections, planning and zoning, public improvements, general administrative services, and public water and sewer utilities in the urban service areas. The City adopts an annual budget for the General Fund and the EDA Special Revenue Fund. Legal level of control is at the function level. Department heads may transfer resources within a function as they see fit. Transfers between functions, however, need special approval from the City Council. LOCAL ECONOMY The City has an unemployment rate of 2.2% in comparison to the state average of 2.6%. Ramsey has an employed labor force of 16,362. Anoka County, in which Ramsey is located, has an employed labor force of 197,480 and an unemployment rate of 2.5%. There are approximately 10,433 housing units in the City. Of these, 8,674 are owner occupied and 1,397 are renter occupied. The average home value is $373,072 with a median value of $351,943. In addition, there were 125 new single-family homes and 60 multi -family housing units with a valuation of $52.2 million constructed in 2023. Six hundred and twenty businesses call Ramsey home; those businesses employ nearly 7,362 people. Ten new commercial permits were issued in 2023 with a permit valuation of $33.5 million. Some of the projects completed in 2023 were the Pact Charter School with 67,000 square feet, Lil Explorers Childcare —16,300 square feet, and Blue Line Collison with 10,000 square feet. The third building of Oppidan was completed in 2023 which added another 146,700 square feet. Norhart Apartments signed a purchase agreement/contract with the city in 2023 to construct a 200-unit, market -rate apartment in 2024. Hilton Home 2 has also been approved to construct a 98 unit hotel with construction to be complete in 2024. The City has three major industrial districts containing multiple business parks with a combined capacity of over 500 acres and 70 industrial/office buildings. Bunker Lake Industrial Park, the newest 115-acre business park, west of Armstrong Boulevard, opened in 2018 and now has 843,900 square feet of industrial buildings constructed. Upon completion, this new business park is estimated to generate around three million dollars in annual property taxes and create about 1,500 jobs. In addition, the city is actively developing a city center known as The COR (Center of Ramsey). The development vision for this 400 acre area located in the heart of Ramsey is for it to become the region's center of retail, restaurants, service and office space, outdoor entertainment and parks, community amenities and housing. LONG-TERM FINANCIAL PLANNING The City of Ramsey prepares a ten-year capital improvement plan in an attempt to anticipate major capital expenditures in advance of the year in which they are budgeted. The City has a policy to maintain unassigned General Fund balance in an amount equal to 50% of the following years adopted operating budget, plus prior year encumbrances, plus compensated absences. This policy is designed to establish a fund balance at a level which is sufficient to avoid issuing debt to meet current operating needs. RELEVANT FINANCIAL POLICIES The City has a comprehensive set of financial policies that provide the basic framework for the overall fiscal management of the City. The City had no unusual occurrences affecting these policies. 16