In providing for charges, the following findings and determinations are made:
A. In the exercise of its governmental authority and in order to promote the public health, safety, convenience and general welfare, the city has constructed, operated and maintained a stormwater runoff system in portions of the city, and intends to continue to improve, operate and maintain that system as a stormwater utility under the utility act. This chapter is adopted in the further exercise of such authority.
B. The stormwater system, as constructed to date, heretofore has been financed and paid for primarily through a combination of special assessments levied against benefited property and the imposition of ad valorem taxes within certain watershed management tax districts established under Minnesota statutes, section 103B.245. Such financing methods were appropriate to the circumstances at the time they were used, may be appropriate in certain circumstance in the future. However, the city has determined that it is now necessary and desirable to provide an alternative method of recovering some or all of the future costs of constructing, operating, maintaining and improving the stormwater system through the imposition of charges as provided in this chapter.
C. In imposing fees and charges, it is necessary to establish a methodology that undertakes to make them just and equitable. Taking into account the status of completion of the stormwater system in portions of the city, past methods of recovering stormwater system costs, and the factors set forth in subdivision 3b of the utility act, it is determined that it would be just and equitable to assign responsibility for the future costs of constructing, operating, maintaining and improving the stormwater system primarily based on the methodology described in this chapter.
D. The city has further determined that the stormwater system has yet to be constructed in the northwest area, and that the stormwater improvements in that area will be based on the northwest area stormwater system, which includes (without limitation) rain gardens, infiltration basins, biofiltration trenches and other stormwater management techniques. In light of the northwest area stormwater system compared to stormwater runoff systems existing in the balance of the city, it is just and equitable to impose charges for construction, maintenance and operation of the stormwater system on a different basis in the northwest area compared to the balance of the city.
E. Assigning costs and making charges for the stormwater system in both the northwest area and the balance of the city cannot be done with mathematical precision but can only be accomplished within reasonable and practical limits based upon analysis of the factors described in this chapter.
F. To ensure that charges for the stormwater system are just and equitable, the city has further determined that: 1) the capital cost of future improvements to the system in the northwest area are most fairly financed through connection fees payable at the time property is platted or building permits are issued, whichever occurs first; 2) the capital cost of future improvements to the system in the balance of the city outside the northwest area are most fairly financed through special assessments or watershed management taxes; and 3) the costs for operation and maintenance of the stormwater system are most fairly financed by operation charges, payable in accordance with other city utility procedures and at rates reflecting the different levels of operation and maintenance cost of the stormwater system in the northwest area and the balance of the city. (Ord. 1155, 6-11-2007)