Minutes 04/25/1989 - Laserfiche WebLink

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TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 1989 ADDENDLM The following is a copy of City Manager Brown's memorandum report, dated April 25, 1989, and addressed to the Council, which report is entitled, "Possible Extension of Water/Sewer Lines at City Expense": During your Council Meeting held April i1, 1989, Allen Adams requested the City to extend water and sewer service into a proposed townhouse development situated at the end of Crescent Street to serve 32 housing units. It was noted that, if such a policy was adopted, the savings to the Developer of not having to extend these lines should be passed on to the Buyer. I, along with our Staff and Mr. Adams, have reviewed this matter very carefully. It is going to be almost impossible for us to develop a policy that would insure that this costssavings to the Developer would be passed on to a Buyer. We would actually have to have records of everything purchased, used, or services provided by the Developer, along with his profit margin, to determine the actual cost of a housing unit. I do not believe that we should go into this much detail in an effort to accomplish our objective. It seems to me that the best that we could do would be to determine in each case whether the cost per square foot to be charged the Buyer is market value as determined from comparable prices for similar construction in the area. This contribution by the City would serve as an incentive to stimulate private enterprise to construct housing units. They would, of course, assume all risk and would rely on a favorable economic climate in order to market housing units constructed under this policy. I am also somewhat concerned with providing this type assistance to Developers of townhouses or condominiums for sale unless the same contribution is provided to those who would wish to build apartment complexes for rental purposes. It seems to me that our objective is to meet the overall housing needs of the City, therefore, a policy of extending water and sewer lines at City expense should be applicable to houses that are built for sale or for rental purposes. I would also point out that this policy would have to be uniformly applied to anyone wishing to develop housing projects in any part of the City and at any income level. If Council adopts such a policy, I would suggest that this apply to housing projects situated adjacent to a public street in which water and sewer lines are situated and available to serve the proposed development. There are situations in which a Developer may wish to develop land that is a long distance away from water and/or sewer lines which could result in a very expensive situation for the City to extend lines to provide service for isolated land. In such cases, the Developer and/or others should assume the responsibility of extending water and sewer lines to the property to be developed.