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Councilmembex Farber stated the townhome development is a beautiful project compared <br />to what the developer originally requested to develop. He stated residents need to work with <br />the State in order to get any type of tax credit. <br />Mayor Klinzing stated the townhomes would need to lobby to their legislators to have the <br />taxes changed. <br />Jetty Olson, 18264 Kent Street (Country Crossing)-Stated he appreciated Mr. Hals and Ms. <br />Johnson's explanation of private roads and the costs associated with maintaining them. He <br />stated the townhome associations aze looking at the same costs to do the work themselves. <br />He questioned if the city is still doing private roads for townhomes. <br />Ms. Johnson stated the ordinance and its requirements have changed. She stated the private <br />drives are much shorter and the developer is required to pay fox the city street to come to <br />the private drives. <br />Mr. Olson stated the mill rates fox the townhomes are the same as single-family residential <br />lots and feels they should be differentiated. <br />Mx. Beck stated the ordinance changes were made in order to balance the issues with private <br />roads that have developed over the years against the desire to make townhome projects <br />affordable to residents. He stated private roads make townhomes more affordable and help <br />to lower the value of the properties. <br />Ms. Johnson stated the mill rate, which is now the tax rate, may be the same as a single- <br />fatnily residential home but the class rates are lower so the land and building taxable value is <br />less than asingle-family home. She stated questions with value should be directed to the <br />county assessor. <br />Mayor Klinzing stated the assessor looks at townhomes differently because they axe on <br />smaller lots without public improvements and have less of a setback. She stated the value of <br />the land is less then single-family home developments. She stated the city looks at the private <br />roads to be driveways and therefore does not require connections for through traffic to get <br />to other developments, which is a benefit to the townhome owner. <br />Councilmember Zexcvas stated iE some of the private roads were taken over by the city, the <br />residents will still have the individual drives going to their garages that would need to be <br />contracted out and maintained. He stated it would not be enough to provide relief to <br />association fees. He stated the city will assess the residents Eox road improvements. He stated <br />he didn't feel the townhome residents would come out ahead if the city took over the roads. <br />He stated there would be no guarantee the townhome residents would get plowed out right <br />away. He stated they would be a lower priority whereas now the association can hire/fire a <br />contractor. <br />Bill Sarxanen (Trout Brook)-(Came late to this discussion)-Stated he feels the city should <br />snowplow the private roads. He stated there is no problem with the heavy garbage trucks <br />using the private roads so why couldn't the snowplows use them. He stated the mill rate fox <br />townhomes is the same as for a single family home. He stated he is willing to work with the <br />city to negotiate some kind of deal. <br />Mill rates versus class rates were explained <br />