CALL TO ORDER

Mayor Brad Foss called to order a meeting of the City of St. Croix Falls Common Council on Monday, September 25, 2006 at 6:01 p.m. for the purpose of holding a Public Hearing for Impact Fees. Roll call: Councilpersons Darrell Anderson, Lori Erickson, and Arnie Carlson were present. Jon Cermin was absent. Also present: Administrator Ed Emerson, Clerk Bonita Leggitt, Charlie Jones, Wendy Sander, and Chris Strom of Cedar Corp, and the public.

PUBLIC HEARING

Charlie Jones and Wendy Sander: a Public Facilities Needs Assessment has been completed to determine the estimated cost of water improvements, sewer improvements, and public facilities improvements that will be needed to serve growth, those costs are divided by the anticipated growth to determine amount of impact fee to be assessed. Fees can be set lower than the amount so determined but then you won’t have collected sufficient money to fund the project. All funds collected through impact fees must be accounted for and used within seven years or refunded to the current property owner of the property they were collect from. Any improvement/project that is not anticipated to be done within seven years should not be assessed.

The Library Fee is based upon the percentage of City residents that utilize the library services, calculated at 49%, 51% of the people utilizing the library services are from outside the City limits and you can not assess for that percentage of use, the amount to be assessed is determined by what is needed to serve new growth above what is needed to serve existing population. Existing needs can not be assessed for. Impact Fees for libraries can only be imposed upon residential units as they are not used by commercial and manufacturing. Waiver process is possible for assisted living, elderly housing, and low income housing. Could also include a waiver where if a home burns down fee could be waived for re-building. With question on need for a new well and looking at options for updating of WWTP, fees for these may need to be re-calculated, should put off adopting those fees until we decide which option to follow.

Bill Berndt, Riverwood Public Affairs Consulting: representing the Builders Assocs. Concern is with mechanism for Impact Fees, many times there are a lot of expenses being paid that aren’t taken into account when fees are determined. These others include roads, utilities, and other expenses. Impact Fees impact on economic development and artificially inflate the value of existing homes, and can price some people out of a new home. Impact fees also add to staff workloads. The average time a family stays in a home is 7 years; these people may not be here to use the service that the fee was collected for. Impact Fee for Library has to be based upon existing service space, not what is wanted by Library. There is generally about a 170% markup on Impact Fee by the time it goes through the developer. Sales of homes are low now and could be pushed even lower by Impact Fees.

Brad Foss: water and sewer situation look different now than they did 6 months ago. Water distribution, parks, and library are still needed.

Lori Erickson moved to adjourn, second by Arnie Carlson, voice vote, motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 6:50pm