The Ridgefield City Council held a meeting focused on its downtown corridor on Thursday as they passed a resolution for mail delivery and an ordinance on development fee waivers.
During the Jan. 26 meeting, the council voted 6-0 to approve a resolution to remove restrictions on mail delivery downtown. The resolution reverses current mail practices based on supposed city code with no current evidence of its existence.
The U.S. Postal Service currently doesn’t deliver mail within a quarter mile of its post office on Main Avenue, Ridgefield Community Development Director Claire Lust said. Oftentimes property owners learn of the restriction when they try to apply for a permit to put up a mailbox only to find out mail would not be delivered.
Last year, city staff and the postal service discussed the issue, Lust said. Through those conversations the city learned the postal service didn’t deliver in that area based on a “historic city ordinance” that restricted mail delivery.
Evidence of that ordinance has proven hard to come by, Lust explained.
“USPS staff do not have a copy of such an ordinance,” Lust said.
She added city staff combed through Ridgefield’s legislative history and were also unable to find the supposed ordinance.
The resolution confirmed there is no such ordinance, though if one is discovered down the line, the resolution would supersede the older code, Lust said.
The council also voted 6-0 on the final reading of an ordinance to allow for waivers on development fees for projects within the city’s “central” and waterfront mixed-use zones.
The city adopted a development plan specifically for Ridgefield’s downtown and waterfront in 2016 as part of its comprehensive growth management plan update. Part of that plan recommends finding incentives to help spur projects on underdeveloped land, as long as those projects are “designed to match the character of downtown.”
Currently the city already allows for waivers on traffic impact fees in the zones. Lust said that is one of a number of prior steps Ridgefield has taken to spur downtown development. Other steps included the adoption of a mixed-use zoning, architectural design standards and other development regulations “to ensure small-town character is maintained downtown and on the waterfront.”
The expanded waivers include building, land use and engineering fees. System development charges or fees collected by outside agencies are excluded, Lust said.
The fee waivers aren’t automatic, and are under the discretion of the city council for final approval, according to the adopted code changes. The council may consider a wide range of factors during the approval process, which include the impacts a project would have on existing areas and other waivers or deferrals that have already been approved.
The waivers only apply to fees that have not been paid, Lust said.
“In other words, the waiver would not refund fees that have already been paid for the project,” Lust said.
