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Charter Commission November 15, 2007 Page 9 APPROVED 351 Ms. Marty reviewed Section 8.07 regarding indication of preferences and Section 8.08 regarding 352 City Council action. She pointed out that the City Council is required to approve the alternative 353 which was preferred by the largest number of property owners; this goes straight to majority. 354 She added if the residents reject all of the alternatives, the City Council may tell staff to come up 355 with another alternative. She stated it is impossible to list all of the possible scenarios and at 356 some point, you end up giving people too many options. 357 358 Ms. Marty then outlined the changes made to each section of the draft amendment. 359 360 Section 8.01. Power to Make Improvements 361 362 Ms. Marty stated she revised this section to reflect the fact that public improvements can only be 363 done for projects that principally benefit existing residents. 364 365 Section 8.02. Relation to State Law 366 367 Ms. Marty stated no changes were made to this provision. 368 369 Section 8.03. Power to Impose Special Assessments 370 371 Ms. Marty stated there were questions about the term "special benefit." She stated this is a X72 flexible term defined by the Courts and the definition will vary from project to project. 373 374 Ms. Marty stated there were also questions about the term "principally" and stated it would be 375 interpreted in each individual situation. Ms. Marty noted the way benefit to a property is 376 measured is by the increase in property value. She added she did not use the phrase "benefited 377 property" because the real issue is which properties will be assessed. She stated she also took the 378 word "project" out and referred to everything only as "public improvement." 379 380 Section 8.04. How to Initiate Public Improvements for Which Special Assessments May Be 381 Imposed 382 383 Ms. Marty agreed this section was cumbersome and has reformatted it to make it easier to read. 384 She stated Subdivision 1 outlines the policy; subd. 2 states there are three ways to initiate public 385 improvements; subd. 3 states that owners of 100% of the property proposed to be assessed may 386 petition the City Council. She added that subd. 3 states if you get 100%, you do not have to 387 follow the rest of the Charter; that is why an exception was made in Section 8.03. 388 389 Ms. Marty explained that subd. 4 uses 25% to 99% for the petition and this process will be 390 determined by how many people sign a petition that they want a particular project. She stated in 391 determining whether sufficient signatures are present on a petition in this subdivision, four rules 392 need to be followed, as outlined in the draft. X93 9