06.03 Consider Contract with Chuck Marohn for City Planning Services

Home Browse Search

December 29,2003 COMMUNITYGROWTH I N S T I T U T E Mayor and City Council City of Pequot Lakes PO Box 361 Pequot Lakes,MN 56472 Re: Planning and Zoning Services Proposal Dear Mayor and Council: We at the Community Growth Institute are pleased to submit a proposal to continue to provide planning services for the City of Pequot Lakes. As in years past,we will continue to provide office hours according to the attached schedule. The plan for 2004 has been significantly reduced from 2003 to reflect the added responsibilities Dawn Bittner has been trained to assume. We will still attend regular Planning and Zoning meetings and prepare a detailed staff report for each application. We will also attend Council meetings, as needed,to address planning issues or concerns you may have. We have an excellent working relationship with your staff and will continue to provide assistance as requested. We propose to provide these services at our discounted(25%)hourly rate of$57. Mileage for meetings is$0.36 per mile and expenses are billed at cost(no markup). As in the past, office hour time will be coordinated so you will not be billed for mileage or charges for driving time for those trips. Although the expense you will incur will be related to the number of applications you receive,we anticipate that the City will incur $14,850 in expenses during 2004 (down from$21,110 in 2003). As was the case in 2003, CGI's staff in 2004 will include one or two planning interns— planners who are in their final year of a masters program. If the situation presents itself, as it did in 2003, we may use them in a technical capacity on Pequot Lakes items. If we do so, it.will be at an hourly rate of$35. Planning interns will not be used at office hours or for meetings. In the 2004 budget,we budgeted$4,000 for updating the City's ordinances. This is an urgent need following the merger and the Comprehensive Plan update. We also budgeted $9,500 for a lake planning pilot project on East Twin Lake. Doing such a project is a central recommendation of the comprehensive plan and will be a model for other lakes within the City. We are including both of these items in this proposal. We also wanted to take this opportunity to let you know about improvements we have made to our web page,which is a free information service we provide to you and Twin Cities: Central Minnesota: 1170 15th Avenue SE, Suite 202 11315 Leewood Drive Minneapolis, MN 55414 Brainerd, MN 56401 (612) 746-1784 (218) 828-6820 www.communitygrowth.com