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DORSEY & WHITNEY LLP 0 Michael J. Mornson September 30, 1997 Page 2 3. Home buyouts. As we discussed previously, it may be possible for the City to conclude that it is in the City's best interest to purchase certain properties to use them for drainage and ponding in an effort to help alleviate the stormwater problems. In order to conclude that this would be a prudent expenditure of City funds, the City should base its conclusions upon findings established by the City's engineers. A decision to purchase cannot be based solely upon the desire to be of assistance to the owners. 4. Technical assistance for flood proofing homes. If the City is offering technical assistance, it would need to do so on a city-wide basis and would have to make this type of assistance available to any residents who may have need for it. Depending on the nature of such assistance, the City would need to make sure it was not providing private assistance with City funds, but instead was providing a service to all of its residents which the City felt was a prudent expenditure of City funds. This paragraph states that the engineering firm would recommend possible minor • improvements that "the city. would be responsible for in various areas." Again, the City cannot be paying for improvements on private property unless there is some sort of city-wide program that is made available to all residents based upon the City Council's finding that this is in the best interests of the City as a whole. 5. Moratorium on building until short term solutions are carried out and/or enforced. The City could under state statutes impose a moratorium. This would appear to me, however, to be going farther than is necessary in order to deal with the problem. If a particular development created no additional runoff problems, because it dealt with all stormwater retention on the property or in some other fashion acceptable to the City engineers, there is no reason to prohibit the development. As you know, under state law a moratorium can be imposed only for a limited period of time. It is probably better to deal with stormwater issues on an ongoing basis rather than for just a limited period of time. If a development is proposed, the City engineers should determine whether the runoff resulting from the development will exacerbate the City's existing stormwater problems. If it would, the development could be prohibited, or the owner could be required to provide ponding or other means acceptable to the engineers for eliminating any potential problem. 6. Sanitary sewer. As you know, the current ordinance already prohibits the use of the sanitary sewer for sump pump drainage. Revisions in the ordinances • could be considered to increase the enforcement of this ordinance, but-it is fair to assume that the City will not be able to force its way into private homes if owners