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COUNCIL MINUTES FEBRUARY 10, 2003 APPROVED •1 uncomfortable applying it to small property owners. She is afraid they will not be able to subdivide, 2 but a bigger developer could purchase the property as part of another development and subdivide it. 3 4 Mayor Bergeson stated he feels the frontage requirement is good in the ordinance, his question would 5 be how much frontage should be required. He indicated he does not want to get in the business of 6 creating lots that do not have frontage. 7 8 Community Development Director Grochala stated this is intended to protect the public from 9 incurring costs to improve roads later. He stated that whether it is two lots or ten, the suggestion is 10 you will have a public road to access your home. He indicated the cost gets thrown on the public 11 when the cost should be handled up front. He stated private roads are not the best either, but the City 12 does have some townhomes with association maintained roads. 13 14 Councilmember Carlson stated she was looking at the Stage 1 growth area after 2010, which could be 15 subdivided into large parcels like Keefe, with only two lots. She indicated it makes more sense to put 16 in the road when the property moves into low density sewer, and do the sewer and water at the same 17 time. She stated she looked for the improved street definition, but did not see it. She indicated if we 18 require improved streets to put in two lots, it prevents landowners from doing it, because the costs are 19 too high for two lots. 20 21 Community Development Director Grochala asked if it was too expensive for the landowner to do, do 22 you want the City to have the burden. He stated the Keefe property was a 40 acre parcel with 23 frontage, subdivided years ago, with no access, creating problem one. Fifteen years later another 10 • 24 acres was divided off without public access, now there are three lots out there, and everyone says 25 'Poor Keefe doesn't have a public street'. Some of these problems we have created for ourselves and 26 we need to prevent more. 27 28 Councilmember Carlson indicated the house on the ten acres is forty years old. She understands the 29 need for public streets, but it seems like it will not allow landowners like Keefe to subdivide. 30 31 Mayor Bergeson indicated there is a public responsibility to not create situations where there is no 32 access for emergency vehicles, etc. He indicated there are some situations in the City already that we 33 have to live with, but for new subdivisions it is important to have adequate access for emergency 34 vehicles. 35 36 City Planner Smyser indicated one of the problems is that in Minnesota cities are not allowed to 37 charge improvement fees. What this means is you cannot charge a person for something that will 38 help them but is not attached to their property, so taxpayers end up paying. By not requiring frontage 39 road, that is the problem that is set up. He indicated the landowners are making money off the 40 property when they sell part of it, they have to pay for that right. The City has to maintain a proper 41 infrastructure, and if we do not require road improvements at development, we may not be able to 42 later. The purpose of planning and regulating is to try to avoid these situations. He indicated that 43 while this may mean saying no to some people we would want to say yes to, it is not fair to make the 44 taxpayers anti up later. 45 46 Councilmember Carlson indicated that page 1006.4 refers to a change in how minor subdivisions are gib 47 approved. She indicated that City Planner Smyser had mentioned there are only about three per year, 48 so she is wondering why it is necessary to change the procedure for such few cases. 15