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Item No: 5 <br />Meeting Date: July 17, 2000 <br />Type of Business: Worksession <br /> <br />City of Mounds View Staff Report <br />To: Honorable Mayor & City Council <br />From: James Ericson, Planner <br />Item Title/Subject: Discussion Regarding Public Hearing Notification <br />Policy <br />Date of Report: July 11, 2000 <br /> <br /> <br />Background: <br /> <br />State law requires that certain planning actions (such as conditional use permits, <br />variances, zoning ordinances) require a public hearing. According to Minnesota <br />Statutes (462.357, subd.3) a notice of the hearing shall be published in the official <br />City newspaper ten days prior to the day of the hearing. When the planning action <br />involves a specific property or properties, notices are to be mailed to affected <br />property owners and owners within 350 feet of the subject property. <br /> <br />Discussion: <br /> <br />The City of Mounds View has for many years attempted to provide additional <br />notification to residents by typically publishing hearing notices for both the Planning <br />Commission and the City Council. Thus, every planning case is typically published <br />twice and notices sent to residents twice. It is believed that the cost of the additional <br />public hearing notice is justified to ensure that residents are always informed of <br />planning activities and have the opportunity to address issues before the Planning <br />Commission as well as the Council. <br /> <br />The cost to publish and mail a typical public hearing notice is approximately $100. <br />This amount however can vary significantly depending upon the number of notices <br />mailed. The different costs involved include postage (the largest of the associated <br />costs) publication expense (usually $20 to $25), paper supplies (envelopes, labels, <br />paper), and staff time (preparing the notice, photocopying the notice, preparing <br />database of registered owners, stuffing envelopes, affixing postage). <br /> <br />Staff has received some negative feedback concerning our notification procedure, in <br />that only property owners are notified of public hearings, which is what the state <br />requires. The complaint was such that residents living in multi-family complexes <br />(such as Timberland Ridge, Greenfield Estates and Landmark Estates, to name but a <br />few) do not receive sufficient notification regarding public hearings which may have a <br />direct effect upon them. Because of this complaint, and because of the previous lack <br />of notice to rental residents near the proposed Walgreens development, staff <br />arranged for a second public hearing with the Planning Commission, sending notices <br />to the registered property owners and occupants of the rental dwelling units within <br />Greenfield Estates and Landmark Estates. The cost of including the rental dwelling <br />units in the mailout amounted to $161 above and beyond what is required.