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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes <br />April 14, 2020 <br />Page 3 <br />1 State Shelter in Place order how are precautions being taken with COVID-19 and having more <br />2 traffic and workers on the street during this pandemic. Mr. Messner explained earlier this year <br />3 City Staff sat down and looked at this project in particular because this is the first time the City <br />4 broke away from the traditional City style street where there are uniform size lots and more of a <br />5 grid style pattern seen in Minneapolis. The majority of the lots were relatively the same size. <br />6 With this improvement, particularly on 32nd and Croft Drive, single family homes that had very <br />7 extreme assessments because of their front footage, particularly the corner lots. Those lots were <br />8 paying quite a bit more then the small interior lots. All the homes have the same use of the streets <br />9 and utilities so staff felt those larger lots should not be penalized and have to pay more. Many <br />10 Municipalities throughout Minnesota actually use this per unit method and is the preferred <br />11 method with staff actually goes through and looks at a cost benefit appraisal for a home. Staff did <br />12 actually compare that to pervious assessments that were ran that looked at the front foot method <br />13 and that method was relatively consistent with the majority of the homes on the property. <br />14 Regarding the comment on such a large cost increase, that he was not actually sure about what <br />15 was presented to Ms. Noyes. The only costs presented to the homeowners was at the March 11, <br />16 2020 meeting and that was the third public information meeting. Prior to that meeting staff did <br />17 not have any costs on the project because the project had not been bid yet. <br />18 <br />19 Ms. Noyes indicated at the first or second information meeting a range of six to seven thousand <br />20 dollars was given and she wondered what the greatest cost per unit staff had up until this year. <br />21 Mr. Messner indicated he was unsure and would have to research that, but it is not abnormal to <br />22 have costs in the twelve to thirteen -thousand -dollar range for residential assessments. <br />23 <br />24 Mr. Casey explained the reason for not extending payment in full a year out is the City needs to <br />25 certify this assessment due to bonding in 2020 because that would make the first payment due in <br />26 2021 which would be paid by the City and the residents in 2022 through the fifteen years the <br />27 resident would have on the assessment. The fact that the debt has to be certified to the County in <br />28 2020, therefore anyone who wishes to pay that off would have to be done in 2020. <br />29 <br />30 Mayor Stille asked what staff has been hearing about COVID-19 and street projects and <br />31 reactions by contractors so far. Mr. Messner explained contractors, in particular, have indicated <br />32 this is actually a good environment to do this because the workers are outside and do practice <br />33 social distancing while doing this type of work. Many of the workers are in their own vehicles or <br />34 machinery by themselves doing the work. If there are meetings onsite the workers will be <br />35 practicing social distancing of maintaining six-foot distance as well as with homeowners. From <br />36 the engineers and staff's standpoint there will be PPE used at all times. <br />37 <br />38 Ms. Sara Atwood, 4024 Silver Lake Terrace, asked when residents are not able to access their <br />39 driveways where are they going to be parking as well as how will the families with electric <br />40 vehicles going to charge them because hookups are inside the garages, as well as, her residence <br />41 will be affected by the wall that will be put in place and she wondered what the cost of the wall <br />42 and fence that will be put up be. Mr. Messner explained parking for residents on Silver Lake <br />43 Terrace will be provide on Silver Lane. The City will mark a portion of the street as parking <br />44 eligible and the Police Department will make sure people can park in those places. Some <br />45 additional construction barrels will be put up on Silver Lane to provide limits of where folks can <br />46 park. With regard to electric vehicles staff has worked with those individuals that they are aware <br />