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Local developer has issue with double chargesBy Barbara Brown In 1996, the city of North Branch made an agreement with Little Sweden and Old Little Sweden to use their lines to take city water and sewer service to the west side of I-35. The agreement, dated January 1996, stated that the city could pay back the groups by charging $1,400 per house and $2,000 per commercial building that benefitted from having the lines available. All was well until about two years ago when the city instituted trunk fees. Vanden Heuvel, of Fernwood Development, had paid the $1,400 fee for each of the 54 homes that had been built in Wildridge development. He said Tuesday morning that the fees were accepted at the time he built those houses because the city did not have water and sewer trunk fees. Now, Vanden Heuvel said, the city is charging $5,400 in trunk fees per house and trying to collect the $1,400 per house in addition to that to pay back the Little Sweden groups. Attorney Dan DeWan wrote a letter to City Administrator Joe Lynch asking the city to clarify its policy on charging trunk fees and claiming the $1,400 is a duplication fee that should not be charged. That letter was presented at Monday nightís regular North Branch City Council meeting. Vanden Heuvel had appeared at a council meeting about one month ago on the same issue, but it was not resolved. Lynch presented the new request from Vanden Heuvel from a letter to Lynch which claimed the city is treating Vanden Heuvel unfairly. DeWanís letter claims the city has never assessed any other property on the west side of the city with the $1,400 or $2,000 fee. City Finance Director Dave Stutelberg agreed, but he said no other properties in that area have benefited from the Little Sweden lines, a stipulation in the 1996 agreement.ěHeís a benefitting property owner because if [the lines] were not there, he could not have extended further west,î Stutelberg said. The project cost a total of $232,406.54 at the time, with part of the money going to pay back the Little Sweden groups for the use of their lines. Little Sweden is supposed to collect $91,136.36, Old Little Sweden was due $26,014.88 for a total of $117,151.24. The cityís own water and sewer funds also are due money that was borrowed from them at the time. The city owed the water fund $102,293.63 and the sewer fund $12,961.67. To date, Stutelberg said, the city has paid $61,600 of the total bill. The Little Sweden groups are repaid about every six months, he said. ěThe agreement basically is a time payment pan for the improvements that were done,î said City Attorney Tom Miller. He said the city is the obligated collector of the the Little Swedens repayment fee. Lynch told the council that the initial agreement between the city and the groups that paid for the sewer and water access to the west side was approved by the City Council, the Economic Development Authority and the three parties. Vanden Heuvel was on the North Branch City Council at the time the agreements were made. Lynch said Vanden Heuvel voted at that time to accept the agreements. Vanden Heuvel said he and other council members voted in favor of the agreement in 1996 because ěthat was the only way of getting it done then,î he said. ěThere were no trunk fees at the time,î Vanden Heuvel said. ěNow that the city has the trunk fees, it should not be charging me the $1,400 to hook up in addition.î He said the $1,400 fee is basically an assessment to property that never went through the assessment process. Vanden Heuvel said he paid out of his pocket to have water and sewer lines extended up Flink Avenue to serve the Wildridge properties. Vanden Heuvel is willing to pay the cityís required $5,400 trunk fee per house because those are the rules now, but he said he would not pay for the cityís agreement with another party in addition. The council is asking for additional information. ©ECM Post Review |