Council pauses Campus View Drive sewer work pending signed easement; draft to be circulated to council

Council members discussed a letter of understanding on May 27 that staff said will become a utility easement needed to place and maintain a sewer main along the Campus View Drive alignment. Staff said the engineering work and any design completed under the city's planned work order would be predicated on that document and that contracting and construction would follow an executed easement.

City counsel described the letter of understanding as a document granting the city preliminary authority to enter the property to perform engineering and, later, to accept a utility easement for the sewer main. "I had a conversation with a representative, not the lawyer, a representative from Open Arms that indicated to me that the terms had been settled on their side and that we would be receiving the signed document from them," the city attorney said during the meeting.

Several council members said they would be uncomfortable allowing the city to authorize work or to vote to sign the agreement at the regular meeting unless the property owner had already signed the document. "So so it's not approved yet?" Alderman Bateman asked. Staff replied that the council could authorize the terms as presented and that if the final signed version changed materially it would return for another vote.

The planning and design work order for Campus View Drive was described as having a cap of $100,000 (unspent funds) and as contingent on the draft easement being approved by the property's representatives. Council members agreed to place the letter-of-understanding item on the regular agenda; staff said the city attorney would circulate the draft to council members before the voting meeting.