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10062009CouncilMinutes-Joint Session w County CITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES - JOINT WORK SESSION AMMON CITY COUNCIL AND BONNEVILLE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2009 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD JOINT WORK SESSION AMMON CITY COUNCIL AND BONNEVILLE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2009 – 3:00 P.M. CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Bruce Ard at 3:00 p.m. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1.Impact Area 2.Flood Plain Study MINUTES City Officials Present: Mayor Bruce Ard Councilmember Dana Kirkham Councilmember Lee Bean Councilmember Rex Thompson (arrived at 4:10 p.m.) Councilmember Brian Powell (departed at 4:20 p.m.) City Clerk Leslie Folsom City Planning Director Ron Folsom City Engineer Lance Bates Commissioner Roger Christensen Commissioner Lee Staker County Planner Steve Serr City Officials Absent: Councilmember Randy Waite Mayor Ard opened the meeting at 3:10 p.m. at the City Office Building located at 2135 South Ammon Road. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1. Impact Area: Ron explained the borders of the proposed impact area. Roger said what’s driving this is trying to determine the new service area for the Regional Sewer Project. Councilmember Bean asked if we were moving the boundary to Crowley Road. Ron explained why we have gone to the areas marked. The City limits stop at York. The division directly south of Woodland Hills’ is just annexed, not platted. Lee Staker said from his prospective with the sewer line going down there that they would prefer that the cities develop the properties, but the constituents deserve the right to develop their property (even when it cannot be annexed into a city any time soon). He doesn’t have a problem with Ammon going two miles south. The first question the County will ask developers is can you annex into the City of Ammon. Roger said part of the agreement would be to sign an agreement that states they will annex into the City of Ammon when Ammon can accommodate them. Idaho Falls has not been willing to provide services outside their city limits and a lot of development is not located adjacent to existing city limits, where it could be annexed and thus allow the city to grow outward block by block, but eventually fill in. Roger said Idaho Falls might ask why we are doing this with Ammon – he said because Ammon is willing to provide services outside the city limits. Ron said without the sewer he would never ask for such a large area, since it will be years before it could come into the City, especially with the slowing of growth. His concern is the inability to stop Idaho Falls from 10-06-2009 Council Minutes Page 1 of 4 annexing into our impact area, unless the County tells them they can’t. Otherwise, as long as it is at the property owner’s request, Idaho Falls can annex into Ammon’s impact area. Roger said they have put Idaho Falls on notice that they won’t provide dig permits, but they cannot stop them from doing a small section and putting a sewer in that area and not hooking onto the regional. Councilmember Bean asked where Idaho Falls sewer line runs to. Steve Serr said they have sewer in the area by the golf course, west of Holmes, Sunnyside’s east boundary line of West Love. They are also on the west part of York Road, but not the east. Commissioner Staker said its Holmes west. Steve said Idaho Falls is a th half a mile east of 5 west. Councilmember Bean said they can’t gravity flow; they would have to lift it back. Roger said at the beginning it was York Road, but Idaho Falls said they were putting in a sewer, so we adjusted the line south. Roger said the hope is to gravity flow both directions into the line under the old rail tracks. Councilmember Bean said he sees development this way east, rather than west. Lance said they might have to run 6000 feet to get to a sewer line and they might have to go a few miles to get there. Ron said they talked to the health department concerning septic it’s 200 feet per lot or they have to join a sewer line. Lee Staker said Dist 7 is all over the place. Roger said this is why we have talked about covering a larger area and feels we need development where cities can take care of them and if the County can help have developers annex, the County will do that. Councilmember Bean said he wants to solidify what we are doing and why and have it recorded. Ron said he is supportive. Lance said we have to protect rights-of-way and not have Idaho Falls blocking us. Roger said they would have to build to Ammons standards. Steve said if the development is adjacent the County would send the developer to the City, but if not, then the County will have the developer sign an annexation agreement. Councilmember Kirkham said she feels Idaho Falls would like to amend the memorandum of understanding. Councilmember Bean said once the memorandum goes Idaho Falls could grab some land and stop Ammon from going south. Commissioner Staker said the property owners would have to lift station it, but why th would they put in the extra expense. They will have to lift to the subdivision north of 49. Roger said Idaho Falls only annexes to the edge of the road and leaves the rest to the County. If you could work, for example, with Woodbury to get to the County that additional right-of-way that Idaho Falls hasn’t annexed, then when Ammon gets their line in there, it would allow the movement south. Mayor Ard said they have a 60 foot landscape and that’s where we are going to run it. Lance said the commercial comes down Eagle – we will have to run east then south. Ron said as we go south we should annex to the center line. Woodbury has not dedicated the property to Idaho Falls. Councilmember Bean asked how Wendy’s and the assisted living center are being sewered. Lance said they will be using a lift station. They will be close to Eagle and they have to get it down to Township Road. Mayor Ard said they are talking about building the eastern interceptor in two sections, instead of three to capture the good climate. Commissioner Christensen said there is a low interest bond for the County where the feds pay part of the interest and the County can assign it to another entity, which helps lower payments. He will have Husk look into it. Councilmember Bean stated he is ok with this and Ron stated he is ok with it. Councilmember Kirkham said she has been ok with it for two years. Councilmember Bean asked Commissioner Christensen what the next step is. Commissioner Christensen said they will have to publish the notice probably in October and have hearings held at the County and the City. Councilmember Bean asked Steve if he is ok with this. Steve said yes he is. 2. Flood Plain Study : Ron said they are looking at around $30 million to do the study. Ron said Gerald thought we could pick up $1-2 million in grants, of which, the City will have to pay 25%. Councilmember Kirkham asked why we are driving this. Ron said because so much of Ammon is in the flood plain. Steve Serr said there are others ways to do it cheaper. Ron said the lowest is $15 million. Steve said the County could go out and work the sale agreement to develop the retention ponds with private contractors. Ron said we go out and have a private contractor take the gravel out of the retention areas. Councilmember Kirkham asked what’s wrong with telling them this area is in flood plains. Lance said then everyone has to buy flood insurance. Steve Serr said most of the areas will not be able to develop, if they don’t do something with the flood plain. Ron said in the long term this would allow substantial areas to be removed from the flood plain. He showed them the map and the majority of the eastern side is in the flood plain. Councilmember Powell asked how you would get this land out of the flood plain. Ron said you build the flood channels and ponds. Councilmember Powell said this is all due to the water running off of the hills. Steve said yes. Mayor Ard said if you build the water retention system, you can sell the gravel and make a profit. Lance said it depends on how fast you sell the gravel. 10-06-2009 Council Minutes Page 2 of 4 Ron said if you would like us to proceed, we can show you how to do it and at what cost. Ron said he and Lance and Steve can get together and get a presentation to the Council and Commissioners with two or three exactly proposals. Lee Staker said his family has been visiting Phoenix for years and this flood channel proposal is what Phoenix has been doing for 30 years and they still have 20 years to go. You just take it a bite at a time. Councilmember Bean asked if we should approach Bingham County, as well. Steve has approached them and grabbed some of their money. He discussed the possibility of raising the levy to help fund it and they could do some of the maintenance on it. This would incorporate everything in Bingham County, too. Steve said we haven’t come far enough along and we need a plan. There are multiple sources of funds. This can be a huge benefit project for all the entities. Ron said we can have developers build what they need, as the City grows. The developers will still have to do what they need to contain the water. Ron said if we don’t do something, then the lands will not be able to be developed. Steve said you might have to look at a 30 foot wide channel. Lance said you would look at a total of 76 -77 acres at 30 feet deep to capture the water as it comes down. One basin is 30 acres in size. Steve said he contacted Bonneville School Dist. and they are negotiating for land and will develop a basin on their property. If this development comes in, it will probably be coming into Ammon. Mayor Ard said FEMA likes to do plans where more entities are involved. Steve said FEMA has monies to do a restudy, but there would be match money needed, of which, we have already spent a portion. The Ririe Reservoir was built for flood control. There is an area below the reservoir that FEMA came and said there is no flood plain out there. This has channel A flood handling capability. Steve said he is talking about a 100 year plan. If we have another climatic event, like we did in 1962, we will be flooded. If we don’t plan, we will have huge losses. Steve stated he would like to get some of Ucon into the flood channel system. Lance said FEMA could pay 80% of this study. Councilmember Bean asked Steve how you would support this since there’s enough moisture, that without that north, there is still a floodplain. Steve said the Black Canyon Drain is in our plans with Dove’s Landing being a 1/3 of this. Commissioner Christensen asked if the money that has already been spent, would cover the match. Steve said he feels it would. Ron said his big concern is we find an area in the City of Ammon that throws some of the people into the flood plain. Once the FEMA plan is done, it will show this. Councilmember Bean said that will devalue the homes significantly. He sees it as FEMA’s responsibility to locate these areas, not the City’s. Steve said if he has a subdivision out there and it’s in the floodplain, then they will know it, so they can purchase flood insurance. He’s not sure if there are any identified out there now. Councilmember Kirkham said you are asking to move forward with three or four plans and increase the study or redesign the flood plain maps. Councilmember Bean is not in favor of moving forward. Steve said he is for controlling the situation and protecting the people. He feels if we know it, we owe it to the people. Steve said he had a development and had them calculate where the channel would be and managed the flood plain in the development standards and this did not put it into the flood plain. Commissioner Staker said we have a division with 4 – 5 lots and the spring rain came and flooded out 2 – 3 houses including his parents and took out the County Road, because they had they messed around with the drainage area. Commissioner Staker feels we need to be aware of where the existing channels are coming off the hill. He doesn’t feel we need to do the study, but we need to be aware of where the water goes. Commissioner Staker said we manage it without the study. Steve said there is a basin where you could retain it for the Cottages. Steve said we need to be careful in what we plan. Steve/Lance and Ron will put together some proposals. Commissioner Christensen said we could identify the areas and try to do it ourselves, as best we can. Councilmember Bean motioned to adjourn. Councilmember Kirkham seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Bean – Yes, Councilmember Kirkham – Yes and Councilmember Thompson – Yes. The motion passed. 10-06-2009 Council Minutes Page 3 of 4 The meeting adjourned at 4:26 p.m. ________________________________________ C. Bruce Ard, Mayor ________________________________ Leslie Folsom, City Clerk 10-06-2009 Council Minutes Page 4 of 4