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Wendy^ottenberg - letter to city.doc 10/2/02 Orono City Council CityofOrono 2750 Kelley Pkwy Orono. MN S53S6 Subject: storm water assessment at 3320 Water Town Rd. Dear Mayor. City Council and Staff. Boyer Building Corporation Is requesting a division of one SO-acre parcel of land into two parcels. The two new home sites will consist of one site at approximately 6 acres of land of which 5 acres are buildable and another site 44 acres in size of which S acres are buildable. It has come to our attention that due to a recent assessment, the lot split will trigger the burden of storm water management fees assessed at $2700. per acre. For this 50 acre property that will amount to an unreasonable $135,000. This assessment over the 10 buildable acres comes to $13,500 per buildable acre and $67,500 per home site! With the 40 acres of surrounding wetlands on this site it is unlikely that this property will ever need municipal storm water systems. As a developer. I understand the importance of a storm water management system to the community and I agree the community should burden the cost of such a system. I think It makes sense though, that the costs need to be relative to the use. I'm hoping that given the high percentage of wetland on this site, these assessments can be linked to the zoned density of the site and the number of units proposed. Our property is in a RR-IB zone of one unit for every 2 acres. Would an assessment of 2 units at 2 acres each be more fair and applicable to this situation? The resulting fee of $5400 per site is at least somewhat manageable and comparable with the costs applied to sites of like zoning but no wetland acreage. Respectfully, John Boyer New home division Boyer Building Corporation ccDavid Truax of Burnet Realty Page 1 I