City Council Meeting Date: July 22, 2025
To: Mayor and City Council
City Administrator
From: Jake Reilly, Community Development Director
Mike Morehouse, Building Official
TITLE
Consideration of Joint Powers Agreement Between the City of Dundas and the City of Northfield for the City of Northfield to Provide Building and Inspection Services for the City of Dundas.
BODY
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council considers adopting a motion to approve a Joint Powers Agreement between the City of Dundas and the City of Northfield for the City of Northfield to Provide Building and Inspection Services for the City of Dundas beginning July 22, 2025.
Summary Report:
Pending the retirement of the staff changed with building inspections in Dundas, the City of Northfield Building Official (as authorized by the Northfield City Administrator) approached the City Administrator of the City of Dundas to consider a joint powers agreement to provide that service for the City of Dundas. The Dundas City Council approved a joint powers agreement between the City of Dundas and the City of Northfield for the City of Northfield to provide building and inspection services for the City of Dundas beginning July 23, 2025. The Northfield City Council must also approve the agreement.
Records provided by the City of Dundas detail 94 building permits issued in 2023, 77 in 2024, and 31 year-to-date in 2025. This is less than 10% of the number of permits the City of Northfield issued for each comparable year. There will be added responsibility to the Building and Inspections team, which will be able to be absorbed given the current workload. Staff levels may need to be addressed at some point but are not a concern at this time or for the foreseeable future.
The benefits of this partnership are:
• Increased uniformity as many contractors work in both communities.
• Increased availability and accessibility of a local building and inspections team.
• Services for Dundas will include the Municipal Building Delegation and the Plumbing Delegation, beneficial to both the contractors and the municipalities.
Alternative Options:
N/A
Financial Impacts:
Expected revenue is estimated at $8,000, to $10,000 in 2026. Note that fees collected are completely dependent on the type of building project, valuation of building project, land availability, interest rates and current state of the economy and consumer confidence. The City of Northfield will collect 75% of fees that Dundas collects. The fees will be matched between the two entities. The intent is over time to coordinate the same fee schedules.
Tentative Timelines:
The Dundas City Council approved the agreement at their Monday July 14th meeting. The agreement will take effect once approved by the Northfield City Council.