06-12-2017 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Anoka County Multi-Jurisdictional All Hazards Mitigation Plan 142 Public lands: Columbia Heights has 16 parks of varying sizes and amenities. Anoka County has one park within the City. The City has been upgrading parks and athletic facilities over the past five years and will continue as long as funding is available. The City has three wading pools in its park system though these are older pools that are in need of expensive upgrading. Private fee areas: There are no private fee areas in Columbia Heights. Agriculture and forestry: Columbia Heights is fully developed with no agriculture or forest areas. Commercial and industrial development and trends: Columbia Heights is in the process of redeveloping the commercial areas. Many of the commercial properties are very old and cannot meet the needs of today’s businesses. The City is leading the way by joining with developers to buy up and redevelop properties. The City has in the past 5 years razed approximately 20 acres of the old industrial properties. The soils were contaminated and have been cleaned up through state grants. Approximately 200 of the 300 new residential units planned for this area have been built. Future plans are in place for the redevelopment of the remaining industrial properties. Residential development and trends: Most of the housing stock was built in the early 1900’s and then post WWII. There has been a decline in property maintenance. The City as implemented many programs that include initial code inspections by the Building Official of new rental properties prior to licensing, and revoking certificate of occupancies of vacant and abandoned properties. The City’s property maintenance code was updated to maintain the housing stock. The City has also started a program of buying up properties that are in poor condition and then demolishing them for future replacement. With the redevelopment of many areas of Columbia Heights, approximately 500 residential units will be added. Most of these units will be town homes and condos. The recent downturn in the economy and in the townhome and condo market has slowed this redevelopment down. Infrastructure and infrastructure projects: The City has an ongoing 7-8 year schedule for replacement/repair of city streets and alleys. Included with this schedule is the replacement of water, sewer, natural gas, and storm drains. The city is broken into seven zones with one zone being done each year. 2006 is the last year of the initial time through the city. The public Works building was updated and remodeled in 2005. A new Public Safety Building was built in 2009 for the Police and Fire Departments. Public works finished the first phase of a storm water mitigation plan. More plans are being proposed for future storm water mitigation issues. This includes purchasing more residential properties that are prone to f looding. These properties are turned into storm water retention ponds. A City park was remodeled to include a storm water retention pond due to street flooding nearby. The City continues to inspect homes for sump pumps being deposited into sewer systems due to the sewer systems backing up in areas during heavy rains. A plan is in place to assist home owners with the cost of installing a valve on their main sewer lines in their homes to shut off future sewer backups. CITY OF COLUMBUS Geographic location and characteristics: The City of Columbus is located in east central Anoka County in the northerly portion of the Twin Cities metropolitan area. It is characterized by its large open spaces and low-density rural character. The City is located at Latitude 45.26 N and Longitude 93.07 W and has an elevation of 919 feet. Wetlands and surface waters dominate the landscape in Columbus, covering nearly two-thirds of the City. While Columbus is