|
Councilmember Kim Roden asked why comparisons were made with Chaska and Chanhassen, rather than cities of com-parable size to Victoria, such as Minne-trista or Watertown.
Tom said that Bill Schwanke, Vic-toria's building inspector, is not a framing expert. It was also pointed out that a member of the Victoria Fire Department has been serving as the Fire Inspector and his training is not as high as Bill's.
"Permits could be turned around a lot faster than they are now," he said. "We can't offer great customer service right now. These days construction is pretty busy year round. The only time it's a little slow is during road restrictions. A third inspector was budgeted for this year. I see us on the verge of having a negative impact on customer service."
Mayor Jerry Bohn asked, "If the number of permits is rather steady from year to year, why do we need another per-son?"
"Even if we stay at 150 new homes per year, there's a cumulative effect of new decks and remodeling," replied Tom. "I'm looking at Pulte Homes and the Laketown development."
Asked the mayor, "Do you think they're getting better service out of our neighboring communities?"
Replied Tom, "Well, yes. I think the Watermarks are decreasing and the Pulte Homes are increasing. The market is slowing down for larger custom homes."
***
On April 28th Tom had facts on the smaller City of St. Michael, where there are five employees in the inspection de-partment, with 2,815 permits issued, in-cluding 354 dwellings, for an average 938 permits issued per inspector.
REQUEST FOR 3RD PLANNING PERSON
FOR BETTER PLANNING IN THE CITY OF VICTORIA
On April 28th Council authorized staff to put together, with guidance from the Personnel Committee, an analysis of per-sonnel needs in the Planning Department, related job description, and a recom-mendation to Council.
Planner Eric Zweber presented a case for work overload, pointing out that he only has the assistance of a one-quarter time planning technician and half time planning consultant.
Eric referred in particular to the Downtown Plan, the Master Parks Plan, and the 2008 Comprehensive Plan. "I'd like to spend more time on these," he said, "but there isn't enough time in a day for all of it. I'm doing significantly more than what my job description states. I feel taxed already with the amount of time I already spend here."
He also identified several plats in Victoria at various stages, including the Gallery, Krey Lake, Laketown, Rhapsody, Crossings at Bavaria, and the Village of Wasserman Lake. He referred to the up-coming Plowshares and Town & Country Homes developments. He cited the Inflow and Infiltration project and the deconstruction and removal of the old water tower.
He added, "And Council wants us to be proactive on several projects."
Councilmember Richard Tieden agreed, "We have more people and more committees but the same staff. Staff spends additional hours with those com-mittees. Let's move ahead and get the job done. Let's service the community."
Mayor Jerry Bohn pointed out, "We've created more work for staff by creating PUDSs. PUDs create a lot of time and work for staff. Are we doing things that are causing more work? What can we do with our ordinances to simplify processes, and thus do more with less?"
Staff and the Personnel Committee will try to answer those questions.
WHO GETS THE MOST POINTS?
THOSE WHO SATISFY THE CITY OF VICTORIA
A joint meeting of the Victoria City Council, Victoria Planning Commission, and Victoria Planning Staff met on Mon-day evening, April 25th, to continue their discussion on how the city might keep development at 150 new homes per year.
Regional sewer capacity has been limited by the Metropolitan Council, and this limits the number of homes and businesses that can be served. The City of Victoria has 988 RECs available through December 31st, 2010. It stands for Residential Equivalent Connections.
Most homes receive one REC. The Clocktower office and retail building on Main Street received 6 RECs. The Wens-mann condominium complex received more than 45 RECs.
Stated Planner Eric Zweber, "This is the third time the Planning Commission has seen this. There are a number of com-munities that have growth management, but no other community implemented a strategy like ours. We've had nothing to really use as a guideline. We laid out ten different options from one extreme down to another, with a moratorium being one extreme. Then we whittled it down to five."
Eric went through each of the five strategies with council and commission members, emphasizing they are on the table for discussion and alteration, with implementation possibly a year down the road. He added, "This would be a com-plement to our ordinance, not a replace-ment."
Developers would receive "points" for adhering to various aspects of each strategy, according to priorities defined by the City of Victoria. Those developers with the most points would probably win and, therefore, be granted permission to develop in Victoria ahead of others.
1) Limit the areas where development would be considered. The planner identi-fied five areas of Victoria/Laketown Township, each roughly the same size, that are vacant and in the eyes or pockets of developers. They lie east and south of downtown Victoria.
Members of the Council and Planning Commission agreed with the Planner's prioritized development of those areas, which centered on how sewer service would be stretched from one contiguous parcel to the most distant parcel south near the proposed new Hwy 212.
For example, two of the parcels are deemed to be ready for development in 2005. Three of the parcels might have to wait until 2010. Stated Eric, "We are not prepared to say that all of 2005 has to be developed before you go into the next piece, but it'll be weighted."
Those weights would translate to in-centives for the developer, who would re-ceive more points for a plat in a 2005 par-cel than a 2010 parcel, for example, but might increase the city's favor for a 2010 parcel by acquiring bonus points for giv-ing a Community Park to Victoria, for example ...
Click here to continue City Scoop.
|
|
