10/13/2003 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Search

COUNCIL MINUTES OCTOBER 13, 2003 APPROVED .594 He thinks the City should authorize the engineers to come up with some detailed plans. He stated 595 there has only been two hearings on this road in the 25 years he has lived there. 596 597 Councilmember Reinert stated that concerning the conversation about sewer and water, without the 598 money for the road project there would be no sewer and water project. He indicated the thought is to 599 get the funding in place for the road before they move on to the next topic. Mr. Skaswald asked if 600 they would hold up the streets until sewer and water went in. Councilmember Reinert stated they 601 would start discussions about sewer and water after the referendum hearing. Community 602 Development Director Grochala indicated the thought would be that on November 5th when Staff 603 knows if the referendum passes, they would be approaching the City Council about starting the 604 feasibility study on sewer and water, providing the residents have not petitioned against the street 605 improvements. He indicated it is always the City's desire to put utilities in at the time of street 606 improvement, but they cannot unless the residents want them. 607 608 Tim Adams, 656 Shadow Court stated he feels like he is being forced to agree to the road to find out 609 the cost of utilities. He indicated he would like to know the total costs, because that will tell him how 610 to vote on the street. He stated they are being forced to vote on a new road just to see what sewer and 611 water will cost. 612 613 Councilmember Reinert reiterated the referendum is for a maximum dollar amount to be spent. He 614 stated if the road is not done, the money will not be spent. He indicated it would not be prudent to do 615 feasibility studies around the city just to get information. Community Development Director •616 Grochala advised that sewer and water would follow a similar process. If the road is approved they 617 would not just do the utility study and say 'here is the assessment'. Mr. Adams indicated he 618 understood that, but reiterated it would have been nice to see how much the sewer and water would 619 be. It could be up to $40,000. He stated it would be nice to know, because it may be so cost 620 prohibitive that he says "no" to the road. 621 622 Councilmember O'Donnell asked if the option exists, that if the road passes, the City would do a 623 feasibility study on sewer and water with another petition period when the residents could petition 624 , out. Community Development Director Grochala stated they could petition out of the utilities if 625 sewer and water is too expensive for people to pay. He noted that the cost is not going to go down, it 626 will only go up, and sooner or later they will have to build the road. Mr. Adams reiterated it would 627 have been nice to know before now what that cost might be. 628 629 Councilmember Reinert stated Mr. Adams can vote against the project and get the entire 630 neighborhood to vote against the project, but there are another 18,000 residents voting on the street 631 referendum also. He indicated when it came to water, it will be entirely up to the neighborhood to 632 decide. 633 634 Councilmember Carlson stated as a point of order, they just did the Elm Street project where sewer 635 and water was part of the feasibility study. Community Development Director Grochala explained 636 the difference with Elm Street was that they had Minnesota State Aid to do the street, so since there 637 was not a need for a referendum, and they kmew they had the money for the road, they could evaluate •38 sewer and water. Councilmember O'Donnell asked to confirm that any assessment cannot exceed the 639 improved value. City Attorney Hawkins confirmed this, stating that the assessment must be equal to 14