Laserfiche WebLink
<br /> <br /> STAFF REPORT <br /> <br /> <br />TO: Mayor Keis and Members of City Council <br /> FROM: Chris Heineman, City Administrator <br /> Brenda Malinowski, Finance Director <br />Bill Dircks, Public Works Director <br /> <br />DATE: April 28, 2021 <br /> <br />RE: Assessment Policy Revisions <br /> <br />Following the April 14 workshop discussion of the assessment policy, staff has updated the proposed <br />policy and added some additional information to the staff report that was presented on 4-14. The original <br />staff report is included with this report and a clean and marked up version of the assessment policy are <br />also included. <br />Capped Rate: One of the topics that was discussed at the workshop was the baseline cap and which <br />index should be used going forward. The baseline cap will be set at $80.26, which is the cap for the <br />2021 street reconstruction projects. Going forward, staff is recommending the use of the Minneapolis <br />area construction index to reset the cap each year. <br />Staff believes this cap more accurately captures the state of the construction market and is a better way <br />to peg the capped rate than both the currently used Consumer Price Index and the National Construction <br />Index. It costs more money to install utilities eight feet deep and to install the type of road sections <br />needed in the cold weather climate Little Canada is located in. That should provide a better number for <br />the cap going forward. <br />As was shown at the workshop, the Minneapolis Index was well ahead of the Consumer Price Index. <br />That may happen again over time but staff is proposing to start the cap at $80.26 and go from there so <br />there will not be any dramatic increases to the capped rate in the near future. <br />Storm Sewer Costs: Another topic of discussion was whether or not to add storm sewer costs to the <br />assessable portion of the costs. The current policy does not include storm sewer costs as part of <br />assessable costs. Storm sewer costs have increased in the last 15-20 years and are a necessary part of <br />any street reconstruction or rehabilitation. Storm sewer costs will not be a factor in reconstruction <br />projects since projects will hit the maximum cap before storm sewer costs are factored in. On <br />rehabilitation projects, storm sewer costs could be assessed to include a greater portion of the total project <br />cost on the assessment. <br />Rehabilitation projects are assessed 50/50 the following three examples show how much storm sewer <br />costs would factor in on an assessment.