Watertown council discusses overdue development agreements, possible ordinance changes and incentives for builders

City of Watertown engineering staff told the City Council at a Feb. work session that 14 development agreements are active in the city and 10 have passed their contractual expiration dates, and presented options for how the city might respond to recurring delays completing public infrastructure.

The city engineer, Justin Peterson, said the agreements normally require developers to complete public infrastructure—drainage, water, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, curb and gutter, paving and ADA ramps—within a two-year time frame. Twenty-five or so minutes into the development agenda item, Peterson said the city’s record shows that "10 of the 14 have surpassed their expiration date" and that the delinquency ranges from roughly four months up to about six and a half years, with an average of about two years overdue.

Why it matters: unfinished public infrastructure can shift maintenance obligations, complicate future construction and affect residents who live on roads not yet accepted by the city. Peterson told the council the city’s options include formally extending expired agreements, requiring developers to post bonds or other surety for future projects, stopping building permits in incomplete subdivisions, completing work with city crews and assessing costs back to properties, strengthening Title 24 language, or doing nothing. He described the current certification process: the developer’s engineer issues a certificate of completion that begins a one-year warranty; if warranty items remain, the city can request repairs and later take a certificate of acceptance transferring maintenance to the city.

Council direction, not a vote: Peterson said staff’s near-term request was to bring…