10-20-99 Council Special Minutes

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL OCTOBER 20, 1999 The Engineer reported that property owners have three options for paying assessments. Assessments can be paid in full at the City Center within 30 days of adoption of the assessments with no interest. Assessments that are not paid will be certified to Ramsey County for collection with property taxes. Collection will occur over a ten years at 7 percent interest. The third option is that property owners can make a partial payment within 30 days with the balance to be collected with property taxes and spread over ten years at 7 percent interest. Roger Sophie, 2252 Stephanie Circle, asked how the front footage for Cobblestone Village was determined. The City Engineer replied that the 133 feet of frontage allocated to Cobblestone Village was taken from the original plat of the property. This plat was prepared by a certified land surveyor and would include the frontage abutting the right-of-way for the street, not just the street surface itself. Chuck Midlenberg 2310 Stephanie Circle, asked about payment options. The City Engineer reviewed these options again. Midlenberg asked if the individual townhome owners would receive notice of their assessment. The City Administrator reported that the assessment will be levied against the common area for the townhome association. The association itself will receive notice, and then the association will decided how to proceed with collection of the assessments from the individual townhome owners. Dennis Neebling, 2238 Stephanie Circle, questioned the assessment of residential property at a commercial rate. The City Administrator suggested that this is a unique situation where residential property shares a street with commercial usage. The Administrator noted that using the strict interpretation of the City's assessment policy, the assessment for Cobblestone Village would have been $51,000. However, considering the situation, the City Council decided that an assessment of $51,000 to Cobblestone Village would not be equitable. Therefore, the decision was made to base the assessment on the front footage basis. The Administrator also pointed out that an appraiser has reviewed the proposed assessments and finds them to be equitable in terms of benefits received by each property. Neeblin~ asked if the second lift of blacktop on Minnesota Street will improve the problem of standing water by the storm sewer outlets. The City Engineer indicated that the drainage improvements on Minnesota Avenue and in the Bally's parkin~ lot will not totally cure the draina~e problems in this area. This is because the outlet pipe throu~h Cobblestone