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<br /> <br />Item # 5.3. <br /> <br />MEMORANDUM <br /> <br />TO: Mayor and City Council <br /> <br />FROM: Pat Klaers, City Administrator <br /> <br />DATE: May 9,2005 <br /> <br />SUBJECT: East Elk River Urban Service Area <br /> <br />There are two major issues in east Elk River that are on the verge of colliding. These two issues <br />require City Council discussion and some direction to staff on how to proceed. The fIrst issue is the <br />County Road 40 improvement project. The city and county are working through a turn-back <br />agreement so that County Road 40 can be "given" to the city and then the city will take the lead in <br />ensuring that the improvement project takes place in 2006. The second issue is a City Council policy <br />decision on the possible expansion of the Urban Service Area (a Comp Plan amendment that <br />requires 4/5 vote) east of County Road 40 from County Road 12 on the south to County Road 31 <br />on the north. <br /> <br />Staff anticipates that County Road 40 will be turned back to the city by the County and that this <br />road will be upgraded in 2006. With this road project, the city needs to acquire right of way. Most of <br />this needed right of way is in the northern section of the road. Additionally, the city would like to <br />collect as much street assessments as reasonable for this improvement project from the benefIted <br />property owners on both sides of the road. <br /> <br />While this County Road 40 discussion is going on, the city has had repeated requests from <br />landowners east of County Road 40 for the city to change its Comprehensive Plan and to expand <br />the Urban Service Area. Assuming that the answer to this request for expansion of the Urban <br />Service Area is when will the Area be expanded and not necessarily if the Area will be expanded, <br />then staff recommends that the Urban Service Area be expanded now under certain conditions. The <br />immediate benefIts to the city for the expansion of the Urban Service Area include obtaining right of <br />way and increasing assessments for the improvement of County Road 40 plus collecting area wide <br />trunk assessments that were not in the original east Elk River calculations. <br /> <br />If the City Council agrees that it is best to expand the Urban Service Area at this time, then the issue <br />needs to be separated out into the northern development proposal area where utilities will soon be <br />available and the southern area where smaller parcels exist and utilities may not be available for a <br />number of years. The southern area can be defmed as the area south of the Holzem property and <br />