03-12-2014 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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rattle anada 515 Little Canada Road, Little Canada, MN 55117 -1600 (651) 766 -4029 / FAX: (651) 766 -4048 www.ci.little-canada.mn.us MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor Blesener and Members of the City Council FROM: Joel Hanson, City Administrator DATE: March 7, 2014 RE: St. John's Easements — Little Canada Road Project MAYOR Bill Blesener COUNCIL Rick Montour John Keis Michael McGraw Shelly Boss ADMINISTRATOR Joel R. Hanson As you will recall, the City needed to acquire easements from St. John's Church of Little Canada for sidewalk and the new turn lane. We obtained an appraisal of the needed property (McKinzie Metro Appraisal) and it resulted in a value determination for the easements and damages (trees) of $12,800. St. John's (through the St. Paul Diocese) felt that value may be low and commissioned an appraisal (Daniel Dwyer). Their appraisal yielded a value of $17,200 or a difference of $4,400. The major difference between the two appraisals is our appraiser determined the "highest & best use" of the property if St. John's were not there would be residential. Mr. Dwyer felt a commercial use would be highest and best, largely because the Church was assessed at a commercial rate versus a residential rate. In meeting with Father Thomas Balluff and Business Administrator Deb Langlois, I explained that the commercial designation was not likely given our comprehensive plan and the distance from the freeway interchange. I also informed them that our "commercial" assessment determination is a reflection of traffic counts generated by a property and not land use. Staff proposed and St. John's has accepted the following offer, subject to Council approval: ® Pay for their appraisal at a cost of $1,500 (that is the actual price and we are obligated to do under the Uniform Act.) • Increase the amount of compensation payable from $12,800 to $16,400 ( +$3,600) to avoid further costs associated with acquisition. Those costs could be substantially more if eminent domain was necessary. It should also be noted that these decisions require approval of the Diocese and are not locally driven. (This amount was arrived at as an offset to costs the Church incurred to install a new sidewalk to the Parish Office done in conjunction with the public improvements.) Staff recommends approval of this revised offer as presented. cc: St. John's Church of Little Canada