08-09-2010 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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COUNCIL MINUTES August 9,2010 APPROVED 91 Council Member Gallup moved to accept the donation of$3,500 from the Lexington Firefighters 92 Relief Association. Council Member Rafferty seconded the motion. Motion carried on a unanimous 93 voice vote. 94 95 PUBLIC SERVICES DEPARTMENT REPORT, RICK DEGARDNER 96 97 There was no report from the Public Services Department. 98 99 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT REPORT, MICHAEL GROCHALA 100 101 6A. Public Hearing and 1St Reading of Ordinance No. 09-10 Establishing a Storm Water Utility 102 - Community Development Director Grochala explained that the city has been reviewing the 103 possibility of establishing a storm water utility. A public informational meeting was held regarding 104 the idea and thirteen residents attended. Questions were raised in the areas of fees, use of funds, 105 equality for townhomes, storm water management costs, and residential credits. He introduced the 106 consultant to the project, Mr. Jeremy Walgrave of SEH, an engineering firm. 107 108 Mr. Walgrave explained first that the focus of storm water management is runoff and knowledge that 109 certain things increase the amount and impact of the runoff. A goal of storm water management is to 110 reduce the pollutants that end up running off into the community's lakes and rivers. There are federal 111 regulations in place regulating storm water quality. He noted that a storm water utility is a way that 112 city's can use to deal with their storm water management duties and not utilize general funds of the 13 city to do so. The utility concept is to have a fee that reaches more contributors (those not paying `-114 property taxes) and therefore charges more fairly; an incentive program is also included. Generally 115 the funds raised through use of a utility would deal only with costs that the city is already incurring. 116 117 The mayor noted that the concept of establishing a storm water utility has been discussed by the 118 council for about five years because they see it as a way to be fair with costs. The concern of course 119 is to ensure that the utility is done correctly and not used as a budget supplement. The council has 120 given staff further direction on providing additional and more specific information on the proposed 121 utility and with that the council will continue its review. The public hearing will be opened tonight 122 and continued. 123 124 Mayor Reinert opened the public hearing. 125 126 John DeHaven, 1612 Birch Street,told the council that the proposed fees will impact a lot of people 127 and he thinks it's a scam to call this a utility. He doesn't feel that staff is being honest about this 128 proposal and he's afraid there will be no resulting reduction in property taxes but the fee will still be 129 charged. He recommends that the council check around and he believes they will find that this isn't 130 such a popular approach. If the council wants to save money, he recommends they reduce city staff 131 132 Mary Ann McDougal, 6116 Baldwin Lake Road. She has lived at that address since 1975. The 133 property was rezoned in 1999 and she was told she could redevelop. She was eventually threatened, 134 however, with eminent domain if she didn't put in a storm water pond. That pond has really caused 35 her lots of problems though. She would like to be offered a credit as certain commercial/industrial 3