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Council adopts $3,000 revised-petition fee to discourage repeated petitions
Summary
Council adopted a resolution to impose a $3,000 fee on revised petitions to cover city staff and legal costs associated with petition repetitions; staff and council discussed staff discretion and outreach to applicants.
Jolene introduced a resolution establishing a repetition fee for revised petitions after council discussion at an April workshop. She said staff observed an increase in projects requiring re-petitioning because bids have consistently come in higher than engineer estimates. The resolution sets a $3,000 fee per revised petition payable at submission and not assessable to properties.
Jolene described staff services intended to reduce the need for repetitions — review of engineers' estimates, bonding to actual costs rather than petition amounts, and allowing guarantees to be revised downward once bids are received. Council members asked whether staff had discretion to waive the fee; Jolene said only the city attorney can deviate from the policy and staff has no discretion to waive it.
Staff said they had notified the Vista Ridge applicants in advance and that the feedback process had already led to reworked numbers. A motion to approve the resolution amending the city's financing policy to include the revised petition fee passed unanimously, 6-0.
The fee will be applied to future amended petitions; council directed staff to continue working with applicants to avoid the need for repetitions where possible.
