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Legislative Policy and Ordinance RevisionsMemorandum To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council CC: Mike Mornson, City Manager From: John R. Bradford, City Engineer Date: November 13, 2012 Re: Legislative Policy and Ordinance Revisions This memo outlines our upcoming discussion on revising a Legislative Policy and items concerning Ordinances 805, 825 & 935.. Legislative Policy 8H — Street Restoration Reimbursement for Private Utility Surface Repairs This policy is in place to protect homeowners from "extremely high street restoration costs when performing repairs to their private water and sanitary sewer service within the city right-of-way." The street restoration reimbursement is intended to come into play when the water main is all the way across the street, necessitating pavement repair for the full width of the street. It is also intended when the age of the pavement necessitates a large patch (e.g. when a new street is cut into, we require the permit holder to patch the entire street width to preserve the maximum integrity of the new road.) We are proposing three amendments to the current policy. 1. Section 3.01: Change the maximum cost for pavement that a homeowner has from $750 to $1,250. a. This change reflects the increase in pavement costs. Most patches cost more than $750 and the policy was intended only for large patches. June 12, 2012 2. Section 3.02: Clarify which costs are eligible for inclusion in the reimbursable cost. 3. Section 5.03: This section adds a cap to the unit price of a street patch of 1.2 x what the City pays its general street restoration contractor. a. The purpose of this language is to protect the City from contractors that give the homeowner a low price for the utility work and a high price for the pavement. Because the homeowner has a cap of $750 (currently) on the pavement, the City ends up subsidizing the utility repair work. Ordinance 805 — Rights -of -Way Management — Delay Penalty This ordinance governs the way the City manages its Right -of -Way for the installation of private utilities such as telephone and cable, the restoration requirements after the installations, and penalties for failure to follow requirements of permits. Section 805.15 Subd 3 allows the City Council to establish a penalty for not restoring the right-of-way within a reasonable time frame. We have had several instances with a private utility company where they do not restore their work for several weeks after their installation has been complete. Our current working model is to deny additional permits until the restoration has been complete. This model has been ineffective because some of the upcoming work was related to new development and the harm of delaying that development was greater than the harm of the unrestored right of way. In my discussions with the utility company, they indicated a Delay Penalty would be preferable to denial of permits because they can pass this cost on to the contractor they hired to do the work. For this reason, we would ask that Council adopt a Delay Penalty of $300 per calendar day for not properly restoring the right-of-way beginning 14 days after installation of the private utility is complete. This information would be included on every permit, so that all utility companies are aware of the change. June 12, 2012 Ordinance 805 — Rights -of -Way Management — Residential Landscaping We have also had several instances of residents requesting to landscape their entire boulevard in rock or mulch.. Small rocks end up in the gutters while large rocks impede snow plowing operations. As mulch ages, it tends to move off the property into the street and storm sewer, eventually ending up in rivers and streams. Our intention is not to ban the use of rock and mulch around trees and plantings, but we would like to set a reasonable limit on the area using these treatments in the right of way. We would like to amend 805.11 Subd. 3 as follows: The current Subd. 3 states that "Persons planting or maintaining boulevard plantings or gardens shall not be required to obtain any permits or satisfy any other requirements under this section, except: a) permits shall be required for planting of trees, and b) no provision of this ordinance shall relieve a person from complying with the provision fo the Minn. Stat. Chap. 216D, Gopher One Call Law." Our proposed amendment would read "and c) small rock and mulch landscaping material may only be used in the immediate vicinity of trees, shrubs, and flowers with a maximum of a 2 foot spread from the plantings. Shrubs and flowers must be planted a sufficient distance from sidewalks to prevent them from encroaching onto the sidewalk area. In no instance shall they be planted less than one foot from the sidewalk edge" 3 POLICY 8-11 STREET RESTORATION REIMBURSEMENT FOR PRIVATE UTILITY SERVICE REPAIRS 1. PURPOSE 1.01 The Hopkins City Council recognizes that from time to time property owners experience very expensive street restoration costs when they are required to repair their water or sewer service within the city right-of-way. The City Council furthermore recognizes that some property owners may experience a situation where they may be paying an amount that is substantially higher than the average street restoration cost. 1.02 The purpose of this policy is to outline policies and procedures for reimbursing property owners who experience extremely high street restoration costs when performing repairs to their private water and sanitary sewer service within the city right-of-way. 2. ELIGIBILITY FOR REIMBURSEMENT 2.01 Property owners of homesteaded single family or duplex properties are eligible for street restoration reimbursement under this policy. All other property owners are ineligible. 3. REIMBURSEMENT CONDITIONS 3.01 Property owners may request reimbursement for all street restoration costs that exceed c,,ven 1-lundfed Fifty Dollar, (S- 50) Dne Thousand Two Hundred Fifty Dollars ($1,250) for each service repair they experience. 3.02 The only street restoration costs eligible for reimbursement are those costs associated. with removing and replacing the pavement section and public sidewalk. These items include: sh4l-hibituminous or concrete pavement, curb and gutter, pavement base course, and the public sidewalk. Items not eligible included are: backfilling,r-or dir-t woFk, sod,-a-nd private sidewalks, carriage walks, disposal fees, hauling costs, traffic control, or anv other work not directly related to replacing the roadway pavement or public sidewalk.: my k,,,,,_.,, as at . ,al , out walks, lkscarriage,alks 3.03 Property owners shall be ineligible for street restoration reimbursement when falsifying information requested by the city in processing the reimbursement. City staff shall have the authority to deny any such claims. Claims may be denied completely, or in portions. 3.04 Property owners may appeal reimbursement denials to the Hopkins City Council after submitting their appeal in writing to the Hopkins City Manager. The appeal shall contain the reason for the appeal as well as all pertinent information that may be needed by the City Council in reviewing the appeal. Legislative Policy Manual -- Chapter 8-H 4. REIMBURSEMENT NOTIFICATION 4.01 Notification of the City's reimbursement policy will be distributed to both the person applying for the plumbing permit, and to the property owner. 4.02 The plumbing permit applicant will receive notice of the city's reimbursement policy when applying for the plumbing permit. 4.03 The property owner will be mailed notice of the city's reimbursement policy subsequent to the plumbing permit being approved by the city's Inspection division. 5. REIMBURSEMENT PROCEDURE 5.01 Street restoration reimbursement requests shall be submitted to the Engineering Superintendent or his designee, after full payment has been made by the property owner to the plumbing contractor. 5.02 The reimbursement shall be in writing by the property owner and contain itemized costs submitted by the plumbing contractor for the entire repair. The information required includes repairs to the utility service and to the city right-of-way. 5.03 The reimbursement amount will be the lowest of: 5.03.1 The quantities • ra pr-iees eentained • ithin the request :hall besubmitted and verified by the eity's Engineering diyisio staff f;3 - vali ity in. the reimbursement request at the current unit prices paid by the Cit to � its general street restoration contractor x 1.2. or 5.03.2 The actual prices paid by the property owner The difference between this amount and $1,250 will be paid as a reimbursement to the property owner. The city shall have full authority to request additional information from the property owner, or the plumbing contractor, when verifying requests. 5.04 Any repair not acceptable to the city shall be corrected to the city's satisfaction prior to any reimbursement being made by the city. 5.05 After the Engineering Superintendent or his designee has approved the street repair and the reimbursement information, the reimbursement shall be forwarded to the city's Finance department for issuance of a reimbursement check. 5.06 The city's Finance department shall follow all established policies and procedures when issuing the reimbursement. 6. REIMBURSEMENT FUNDING 6.01 The funds for reimbursements shall be provided by the city's water and sanitary sewer funds. The water fund shall provide funds for reimbursements associated with water service repairs, and the sanitary sewer fund for reimbursements associated with sanitary sewer service repairs. In the event that repairs are made to both the water and sanitary sewer services the reimbursements shall be funded 50% from the water fund, and 50% from the sanitary sewer fund. Legislative Policy Manual -- Chapter 8-H 7. REIMBURSEMENT DEADLINES 7.01 Reimbursement must be submitted in writing to the city's Engineering Superintendent or his designee within 60 days of issuance of the plumbing permit. Reimbursement requests submitted after this date shall be ineligible for reimbursement. The only exception to this rule will be in cases where restoration must be delayed due to weather conditions. 8. EFFECTIVE DATE 8.01 This policy shall be effective as of January 1, 1994. All private service repairs made after this date shall be eligible for reimbursement. Service repair dates shall be determined by the date of plumbing permit issuance. The 60 -day reimbursement deadline contained in section 6.01 shall be waived for all service repairs made between January 1, 1994 and the adoption date of this policy. Legislative Policy Manual -- Chapter 8-H Established 7/19/94 Revised 11/20/2012 City of Hopkins 3