08-14-07 FPAC Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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~ ~HILLS same. Council Members Grant and Hoden plan to meet with the developers about these concerns. Bronson inquired about a date for approval of the site plan. A date has not been set at this time. The developer is still working on finishing drilling and waiting for results. The City is concerned with the amount of money and staff time being spent on TCMP. Council has concerns that they have not been told the financial capacity of TCMP. They are also concerned that there are not enough single family homes. 250 homes were originally projected, Council wanted 350, developer countered with 306. Council has approved funding for a Bocce Golf course located across from Lindey park. The County, MN DOT and the City met on August 13th to discuss Highway 10/96. They met to discuss grade, noise set backs, over and under passes, and keeping Scherer Bros. in their current location as the City is not interested in buying them out. Council approved an additional 16 units to be developed on Katie lane. Council Member Grant asked the FPAC group for an approximate developer return with a total build out in 10-15 years. FPAC group approximated a 12-15% developer return. Council also approved the development of some property located off of Gateway Blvd in the corner of 694 and 35W. The plan calls for 495,000 square feet within 3 buildings. The smallest building will contain 30,000 square feet. Only two of the three buildings will be built at first with the third building to be built in the future. The total build out value of this property is $75-$85 million. There are concerns about the accessibility for all the traffic projected for this development. Only a few years of TIF are available for this project. This TIF district has approximately $350,000 for roads. This development will hold the first structured parking in the city. V. FINANCIAL POLICY DISCUSSION Sue went through the Financial Policies Design and Implementation presentation from the GFOA. We need to promote long thinking and strategic planning. Promote flexibility and checks & balances. Compare to peer groups and historical information. Policy vs. Procedure: Policies must differentiate between board-level decisions and staff-level procedures that support a policy. A request was placed for information pertaining to the Reserve, Investment, and Financial policies. VI. FUND BALANCE POLICY DISCUSSION Discussion included Reserve vs. Unreserved, Designated vs. Undesignated, and major reason for adopting specific parts. We have a good fund balance. We need to set up different designations. Need to avoid interest expenses. Issuing debt is not always bad as long as it is limited to a three month period. At year-end local governments should plan on a fund balance based on three to five months of expenditures. Where do we want to gather information from to set benchmarks? Johnson requested a rating agency report. Cities have policies regarding year end excess revenue. No need to be worried about reserved fund balances at year end. Only prepaid expenses have reserves; all else are unreserved. Bronson was wondering if there are any policies on reserved funds or on budgets. General fund is currently running at 53% unreserved. We do not receive much state aid. Need to use last year as an example. look at June and November fund balances for examples. Modified accrual requires one day out of the year to be on the accrual basis. City of Arden Hills