07-22-1991 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD JULY 22. 1991 ($14)CITY FACILITIES CONTINUED Goetten stated that she - had spoken with a Plymouth Councilmember, who indicated that ;they need an additional 13,000 square feet for their facility. She said, "The City of Plymouth would like to build an entirely new public works facility. The existing Plymouth facilities were constructed only 12 years ago. I cannot-believe that Mr. Farnham is asking us to short change ourselves in the way Plymouth has done. We ( Council) -- have been very conservative in our approach to a new facility, while taking into consideration our future needs. The statistics given to us by Mr. Farnham appear to have no relevance at all." Jabbour invited Mr. Farnham to show. Council specific areas and square footage that could be eliminated from the proposed facility: Farnham stated that Council was missing the point. He said, "Up until now, Plymouth and Coon Rapids have managed. with their existing facilities, and they have approximately seven times the population of the City of Orono." Mayor Peterson acknowledged that such may be the case, but asked Farnham if he had applied his ratios to the square footage of the city facilities Plymouth and Coon Rapids must add on to their existing facilities in order for them to be functional. Farnham indicated that he had not done so. He added that Plymouth and Coon Rapids had much more complex governmental systems, such as parks., water, sewer, commercial /industrial parks, multi- family housing, etc. Bernhardson advised Mr. Farnham that it may seem as though the cities of Plymouth and Coon Rapids are more compl,ex,.but that may not actually be the case. He stated that the City of Orono has one of the most complex zoning codes compared to many other suburban communities. He said, "With .regard to service to commercial and industrial properties,. actually those are very much tax generators. The cost 'of service to such entities is very minimal. There are many aspects to a.facility, such-as the holding cell for the police department, that is-constructed to a certain size regardless of the size.of city. As far as community size, the economy.of.scale dictates the need for a certain amount of square footage for a .facility within a community having 10,000 to 15,000 persons. The needed square footage does not increase again until the population reaches 100,000. It would be more appropriate to compare the facility needs for the City of Orono with the needs for cities such as Champlin and Mendota Heights." Callahan asked Mr. Farnham which parts of the proposed city facilities,for-Orono he would limit. Mayor Peterson advised Farnham that the Council has spent 12 -