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Resident asks Minnetrista council to release $5,000 escrow over incomplete lot work
Summary
Carrie Meyer told the Minnetrista City Council she still holds a temporary certificate of occupancy because grading and slope work around her house remain unfinished; she said the builder has not completed work and asked the council to use the $5,000 escrow to fix the lot. City staff said the escrow belongs to the builder and the city cannot release it without risking liability.
Carrie Meyer, a Minnetrista resident at 9229 Moss Drive, told the city council that she has lived in her house since April 2021 but still has a temporary certificate of occupancy because grading on slopes beside the home remains out of compliance. "We still have a temporary certificate of occupancy," Meyer said, and she noted an existing $5,000 escrow tied to the lot.
Meyer detailed a history of communications with the city and the builder, saying the developer had put down irrigation, mulch and sod but did not resolve the sloped areas. She said she submitted a contractor bid for remediation of about $14,000 after hearing nothing further from the builder or the city. "I began this again with Mr. Olson on 04/25/2024," Meyer said, and added that certified mail and repeated emails produced no recent response.
City staff responded that the city's temporary-certificate escrow process differs from the lot-improvements escrow cited by Meyer and cautioned that the escrow funds are generally paid by the builder. An unidentified staff member explained that "the escrow we took was not for lot improvements" and that a permanent‑certificate escrow handled through the engineer is a different process; releasing builder-paid escrow to a homeowner without a court order could expose the city to liability.
Mayor Lisa Whalen told Meyer the council would not debate the matter in that moment but would direct staff to explore options and return with recommendations. "We're not here to debate with you. We understand you have a predicament... the council needs to understand what the next steps are gonna be," Whalen said, asking staff to work with the applicant and the city engineer and bring options to a future work session.
Where it stands: Meyer asked the council to authorize release of escrow or to instruct staff to contract the work using her bid; city staff said the standard temporary‑CO escrow is city policy and that the city generally defers to legal process when the builder objects. The council directed staff and the engineer to work with the homeowner and report back at a future work session rather than taking immediate action.
Next steps: Staff will consult the city engineer and legal counsel, discuss feasible remedies (for example, installing non‑maintainable surfaces to meet grading requirements), and update the council at a work session or the next meeting. The homeowner may still pursue private legal remedies if the builder does not cooperate.
