13.17.050 Determining reasonable actual costs.
A. The applicant shall not be entitled to reimbursement for any costs in excess of the reasonable actual costs. If the Reimbursement District is formed before the actual costs are known, the City Engineer’s report and the Council’s decision may be based on estimated costs. If estimated costs are used, the methodology or the certificate of payment, or both, shall provide for a recalculation of the cost no later than three months after completion and acceptance of the improvement by the City. An applicant shall demonstrate actual costs by submitting contracts, invoices, or such other documentation the City Engineer or Council deems sufficient. Actual costs shall not be deemed reasonable if the Council determines that the costs significantly exceed prevailing market rates for similar projects. If the Council finds that the actual costs are not reasonable, the Council may reduce the reimbursable costs to the prevailing market rate for similar projects.
B. The following costs shall not subject to reimbursement:
1. Costs for that portion of the public improvement that specially benefits the applicant’s property.
2. Costs for the improvement that are not dedicated to and accepted by the City as a public improvement.
3. Costs for a public improvement that is required as a condition of development approval, except in cases where the nature and degree of the public improvement is disproportionate to the impacts of the development or where the City desires an oversized or additional improvement beyond that which is roughly proportional to the impacts of the development.
4. Costs other than the costs of construction. Costs of construction may include the reasonable acquisition and condemnation costs of acquiring off-site right-of-way and/or easements, engineering services as demonstrated by invoice, and the estimated annual percentage increase in such costs over the ten years during which the Reimbursement District will be in effect. Engineering may include surveying and inspection, and shall not exceed 13.5 percent of the total eligible construction costs.
5. Costs for the relocation of electrical, telephone, cable television or natural gas utility that benefit the applicant’s property.
6. Costs for extra work and materials required to correct design deficiencies in construction to bring the improvement to City standards.
7. Costs for public improvements that are the minimum size necessary to meet City standards and serve the applicant’s property.
8. Costs for a minor street alignment, except for the cost of right-of-way acquisition beyond the limits of the applicant’s frontage along the improved street.
9. Costs attributable to profit or overhead of the person making the application.
10. Costs for improvements for which no application for a Reimbursement District has been received by the City within 180 days from the date of the City’s acceptance of the improvements. Reimbursement Charges may not be applied retroactively upon benefited properties that have applied for development or connected to the improvement within the six (6) months immediately preceding the City’s approval of a Reimbursement District application, or that have connected to or otherwise utilized the improvement before the City’s approval of the application.
11. All costs where the applicant has received a credit against impact fees, SDC’s or other connection fees for the same type of improvement.
12. Except with respect to the cost of traffic control signals, street improvement costs shall be recoverable only from those properties that lie adjacent or contiguous to a street improvement that would otherwise be required to be constructed, or a portion of which would otherwise be required to be constructed, by the adjacent or contiguous property upon development.
C. Nothing in this Chapter shall require inclusion of City-owned property within a Reimbursement District unless the Reimbursement District was established prior to the City’s acquisition of the property. Property that is dedicated or conveyed to the City for public right of way purposes may or may not be included in a Reimbursement District as determined by the Council.