HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 07/12/1990 - City CouncilSPECIAL MEETING
JULY 12, 1990 7:30 P.M.
The Special Meeting of the McHenry City Council was called to
order by Mayor Busse on Thursday, July 12, 1990 at 7:30 P.M. in the
meeting room of the McHenry Township Fire Protection Building. At roll
call the following Aldermen were present: Bolger, Donahue, Lieder,
Teta, Smith, McClatchey, Patterson, Serritella. Absent: None. City
staff in attendance: City Clerk Gilpin. Also in attendance were:
Elementary School District 15 personnel--Supt. Dr. Robert Cassidy, Board
President Kelly Low, and Business Manager William Landis; District 156
personnel--Supt. Robert Swartzloff, Asst. Supt. Norb Walters, Business
Manager Mike Kelly, Board President Steve Cuda; McHenry Township Fire
Protection District personnel--Trustee/President James Althoff, Chief
- Phil Gust, Chief Chris Bennett, Asst. Chief Wayne Amore; Developers Dave
Backhaus, Butch Meyers, Roger Gerstad; McHenry Public Library District
Executive Director Julia Johnas; Chuck Roberts of the Star News; Kathy
Podwojski of the Northwest Herald; Richard and Judy White and Anton
Rebel.
Mayor Busse announced that the purpose of the meeting was to
discuss and review current developer donation fees. He expressed
appreciation to the McHenry Township Fire Protection District for making
their meeting room available for this City Council meeting.
Busse reported that on April 26, 1989, the cash contribution
schedule for developer donation fees was revised and adopted by the
Council. The fees had not been adjusted since 1977 when they were first
adopted. The Council agreed in April of 1989 to annually review the
fees, not necessarily to alter them but at least review them. Therefore,
this meeting was being held to receive input from all parties involved;
School Districts, the Library District, the Fire District and
Developers. After all the input is received, the Council will draw a
conclusion on whether the fees should be adjusted and whether the
allocations should be revised.
The first to speak was Board President Kelly Low of Elementary
School District 15. He stressed the need for continuation of the
developer donation fees since their enrollment was increasing annually.
Board President Steve Cuda of High School District 156,
distributed a document entitled Revision of 1989 Demographic Study which
included a statistical update that a een prepare y or a ers of
the High School District. A graph developed by Robert English and
Associates depicted the projected growth of high school enrollment using
national data. District 15's current projection closely parallels
growth which was predicted for high school enrollments. Cuda also
stressed the need for continued developer donation money and specifically
asked that the distribution of developer donation fees which is now 70
percent to the elementary schools and 30 percent to the high schools be
revised to make it a 60/40 split.
Julia Johnas, Executive Director of the McHenry Public Library
District, asked that the donations also be continued to help with the
continued growth which the Library is experiencing.
James Althoff, President of the McHenry Township Fire Protection
District, requested that their district be included in the developer
donation fee allocations in the future. At the present time they are not
in the City's developer donation ordinance. With the growth of the area,
he predicted that within 5 years a new fire station would have to be
built on Bull Valley Road near the railroad tracks where they already own
property. He suggested a developer donation fee for the Fire District at
$200 per living unit.
Developer Butch Meyer of Granite Builders suggested that the
Library and Fire Districts go to the County for developer donation fees
and not only to the City. The same house built in the city limits of
McHenry has a cost disadvantage compared to the same house built outside
the city limits due to developer donation fees. He felt it was unfair
and that the problem should be addressed.
Busse asked Bob Swartzloff, who sat on the committee to create a
developer donation ordinance for the County, what the County ordinance
included. Swartzloff commented that land values dictated three basic
categories within the County. Schools were categorized by geographic
region, size of community and property values. He said there are nine
high school and unit districts in the County which are divided into three
classifications. Class "A" which has the highest property values include
McHenry, Woodstock and Crystal Lake. There were also two other categories
for smaller communities based on property values.
Thursday, July 12, 1990 Page 2
For the sake of simplicity, rather than charging a separate fee
for two, three and four bedroom homes, they took an average and just
established one fee for single family homes. The fee to be collected for
dwelling units in the County Ordinance is $2,630. There is nothing in
the ordinance relative to donations for apartments since the restrictions
on septic and wells in the County are not conducive to construction of
apartments. He noted that the County Ordinance only generates fees for
schools and not for any other taxing districts.
The County ordinance does not specify the percentage
distribution of the fees. That was left up to the schools. The McHenry
Schools are waiting to see what percentage split the City will specify
and then the schools will apply that same split to the County Ordinance.
Another change was that previously the County only related their
developer donation ordinance to subdivision final plats. Now, the
developer donation fees are being tied to issuance of all County dwelling
unit building permits. Therefore, all individual lots in the County will
be covered as well as new subdivisions.
Whe6 asked if the Fire District or Library District had
approached the County, Julia Johnas replied that County Librarians were
getting a group together and planned to approach the County. Althoff
commented that since the Fire District was not receiving fees from any
cities, the county would probably not give them any either. Therefore,
they have not approached the County thus far.
All districts agreed that developer donations would not build
any schools, libraries or fire houses in and of themselves. Each
individual taxing district would have to do its share in the construction
and funding of new facilities.
Alderman Lieder, Chairman of the Finance Committee, distributed
a document entitled Developer Donations/Cost-Revenue Methodology. Using
the 1989 Illinois School onsu 7g ervice -Table o im�es a�Ztimate
population per dwelling unit, Lieder generated the document which
explained the Land Requirements and Cost, the Space Needs and Cost and
Total Capital Cost for Figuring Per Pupil Capital Expenditure based on
building space and site standards. It detailed a comparison of the fees
currently being charged and calculations for new charges.
Alderman Patterson disagreed with the Illinois School Consulting
Service figures saying that the population of school age children in the
McHenry area is much greater than the norm. However, it was felt that by
using the Illinois School Consulting Service data, the figures could be
justified in a court of law. Patterson felt the Building and Zoning
Officer should make a study of the occupancy permits issued from 1985
through 1990 to see how many two, three and four bedrooms had been
built. Smith said we would also then need to determine how many adults
and children in each home. It was the consensus of the Council not to
make our own local study but rather to use the Illinois School Consulting
Table.
Regarding the question of an equitable split of the developer
donation fees between the high school and grade school districts,
Aldermen felt that the school districts should make a recommendation to
the Council.
Roger Gerstad of Gerstad Builders noted that there should be
additional money coming to all taxing districts because last year when
the developer donation and other impact fees were raised, the costs were
passed on to the consumers by raising the price of the houses. This
raised the assessed valuation. As the result of the increased assessed
valuation, additional taxes were made available to the taxing districts.
Butch Meyer of Granite Builders made a request of the Council
that if it does raise the fees, consideration should be given to builders
by giving them at least a 60 to 90 day lead time. Last year they were
only given 30 to 45 days lead time.
Alderman Lieder said the Council would consider the input
received at this meeting and would come to a decision within the next
four weeks.
The Mayoradadjourned,the meeting ad 9:13 P.M
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WJOR