08-12-1991 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD JULY 22. 1991 (#14)CITY FACILITIES CONTINUED Goetteh 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 CJty of Plymouth v/ould like to build an entirely nev/ 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 ir the way Plymouth has done. L’e (Council) have been very conservative in our approach to a new facility, v/hile taking into consideration our future needs. The statistics given to us by Mr. Farnham appear to have no relevance at all." I-'. -I f V T 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 approxi.mately seven times the population of the City of Orono." Mayor Peterson acknov/ledged 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/industcial parks, multi-family housing, etc. Bernhardson advised Mr. Farnham that it may seem as though the cities of Plymouth and Coon Rapids are more complex, 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 sucn entities is very minimal. There are many aspects to a facility, such as the holding cell for tlie 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 s- - 12 -