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Dear Land Use Applicant: As a part of the Land Use Permit you are seeking, you will be asked to provide funds to cover the City’s expected costs of review and processing of your request. There are two components to this amount. The first is a base fee, which is a non-refundable amount. This fee covers several expenses, including: • The City’s costs of internal review of your application for completeness; • Ensuring that all required materials are available to properly process your request; • Public hearing notices which must be published in the City’s official newspaper (the Star Tribune); • Mailed notice to all neighboring property owners within 350 feet of your property; • This base fee also covers a portion of the City’s costs in preparing staff reviews and reports to the appropriate public officials who will consider and ultimately make a decision on your request. For most applications, this includes the Planning Commission, which prepares an advisory recommendation following a formal public hearing on the matter, and the City Council, which makes the final decision. Other public bodies may be involved as well, depending on the exact nature of your request. The second component of the funds is an escrow amount, above the base fee. While the base fee covers most of the fixed expenses, it is common that staff and consultant review will exceed the base fee. To ensure that the costs of extraordinary review are not borne by neighbors, the City requires the escrow from which to draw those costs. You can minimize the amounts necessary to review your application by making sure it is complete and clear. Properly drawn plans and thorough narrative descriptions all help to streamline the City’s processing, which leads directly to lower costs. Following the final decision on your application by the City Council, staff will account for costs and review the escrow. If any funds remain, those will be refunded to you. It typically takes a couple of months to assemble final invoices before the City’s finance department can reconcile the account. The staff works diligently to finalize accounts as soon as possible, so please be patient. If you are curious as to the status of your escrow, feel free to contact City Hall. Before you begin this process, please consider a pre-application conference (by phone, email, or in person) with City community development staff. We are ready to assist in helping you understand the complexities of the review process, and the standards on which a potential application will be considered. We can also advise you on the materials that will help ensure you have a complete and clear application. City of St. Anthony City Hall 612-782-3301 Thanks for your interest in improving your property and reinvesting in the St. Anthony Village community.