SDC issue, noise mandate topics at work session
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Sunday, May 4, 2008 2:38 AM PDT
ONTARIO - The Ontario City Council will consider a revised copy of the system development charge study and methodology report as presented by the Ontario Public Works Committee at Monday’s regular council meeting.
Ontario Public Works Committee member Tom Frazier gave a brief account on the committee’s work, which has spanned a four-year period, at Thursday’s City Council work session. All committee members attended the meeting.
While SDCs have created quite a bit of disagreement through the years as to how much should be assessed for commercial, residential and industrial development and whether or not the correct information was used when developing the methodology, Frazier told the council that was not the case among the committee members.
“I would like to assure you we are here today on one accord,” Frazier said.
Frazier told the council how, under the settlement terms of a lawsuit filed with the city after the previous adoption of the system development charge methodology study and fees, the public works committee was ordered to review the plan to assess whether the methodology and fees were correct.
During that process, he said, committee members determined it was not because the engineer who did the study was presented incorrect information in the city’s master plan regarding growth of Ontario in the next 20 years.
Frazier said, in the last 16 months alone, the Ontario Public Works Committee has spent more than 800 volunteer man-hours going through the methodology study to understand it and what it entailed.
He said the revised methodology study the public works committee presented to the council is a testament to that hard work.
It is not clear, however, whether the City Council will take any action on the matter Monday night.
The council will also consider noise ordinance variance fees at Monday night’s meeting.
The council established a noise ordinance in November of 2007. No fees, however, were ever established for groups requesting a variance for certain events that would otherwise be in violation of the mandate.
Ontario Police Department Capt. Mark Alexander recommended instituting a $25 fee that would cover the cost of processing applications, which he estimated would take approximately half an hour per variance application.
He explained the proposed variance fee is in line with others in the city.
“And this is not a revenue, money-maker thing,” Alexander said. “We’re not going to have a lot of them.”
