May 15th Council Meeting

I wanted to talk about a couple of items from this Tuesday’s Council Agenda. Nuisance abatements, Rain Garden grant and the hotel deal.

We are continuing our work on removing nuisances in Isanti. We are making progress but there is a long way to go. I again hope that as we proceed, the problem property owners will understand that the City is serious and will start to clean-up before they are ticketed and fined.

I will be asking the Council Tuesday to allow City staff to spend an estimated 1 1/2hours to write a grant application for funding of a model rain garden project at City Hall. Staff had previously researched the cost for rain gutters to help correct some of the runoff issues. I want to create a model rain garden project that can be copied by residents to help with our City’s runoff issues. Rain gardens can become an integral part of our storm water solution while its aesthetic appeal can add real value to the individual home. I have received support to design the garden for free and I am receiving volunteer help to build the garden. The grant would cover up to half the rain gutter cost, something the City would have to pay for anyway at some point, and for a the plantings. If the Council approves the grant writing and we do not receive a favorable response I will continue to look for free money to make this project a reality.

The last item is a project I have been working on for several months. Many have heard a hotel is coming to town. Then not actually seeing a hotel being built…..well a hotel, AmmericInn, is coming to town but a bit of help was needed to complete the deal. Many financial tools were suggested such as Tax Increment Financing or tax abatement….both could have cost the City tens of thousands of dollars on an ongoing basis….and were not really needed or appropriate for this project. The solution to the problem was a delay in SAC and WAC payment charges….sewer and water access charges.

The 1/3 a 1/3 and a 1/3 payment deal is what the hotel owners and I worked out. The cost to the City is perhaps $2,000 to $3,000 in lost interest on the delayed payments. I balanced this with the amount of property taxes that will be paid by this commercial entity. The hotel in Cambridge pays over $40,000 in property taxes each year. The AmericInn will have a higher valuation and therefore be paying even more in property taxes.

They would pay the first third immediately…then a 1/3 when they receive their Certificate of Occupancy and the final third after the first year in operation. Current City policy is the full payment up front. There are roughly a dozen findings of fact as to why I am proposing this deal in this limited situation…..all of which are included in the proposed resolution that would prevent this being applied in differing circumstances. As part of this process we will be looking at this and other economic tools to help foster greater commercial growth as mandated by the Council. If you are wondering what happens if they should not pay the remaining payment while in operation, the City can shut off their water and assess their property taxes. I have no fear this would happen but we are covered if it should be the case.

I have been working hard on increasing commercial expansion in Isanti. This is critical to lowering all property tax rates. This one hotel project will pay more in property taxes than 25 residential properties and use less City services. I hope to be able to announce a few more businesses breaking ground in the next month or two…..the summer has started slow but I see signs of our work paying off and a strong summer should propel us nicely into 2008. Stay Tuned