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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSSN051710CITY OF CENTRAL POINT Joint City Council and Planning Commission Study Session May 17, 2010 I. MEETING CALLED TO ORDER Mayor Williams called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. IL ATTENDEES Council Members Mayor: Hank Williams Council Members: Bruce Dingier, Matt Stephenson, Allen Broderick, Carol Fischer, and Kay- Harrison were present.. Mike Quilty was absent. Planning Commission Pat Beck, Mike Oliver, Tim Schmeusser, Connie Moczygemba, Chuck Piland and Keith Wangle were present. City Administrator Phil Messina; Interim Parks and Public Works Director Matt Samitore; Community Development Director Tom Humphrey; Assistant City Administrator Chris Clayton; and City Recorder Deanna Casey were also present. ill. BUSINESS A. C-4 Zoning Changes Planning Manager Don Burt explained the options that will be available for the C-4 zone changes. Staff would like to make sure the recommended changes are the direction the Planning Commission and the City Council are comfortable with: The recommendations from staff and the few meetings they have had with the property owners are: • The zoning codes will regulate the use and design to enhance economic absorption. • The intent is to balance the uses and design regulations. • The recommendations work with the direction of the strategic plan in order to keep a small town feel for Central Point. • The current code has very narrow lines of use. The new zone will allow mixed use with small town designs. Mr. Burt explained the pros and cons to the new recommendations: Pros: • Broader purpose • Emphasis on small town • Introduces mixed use • It is pedestrian oriented Cons: • Mixed use -does the city want it on that side of town • Pedestrian orientation - is it a safe area for pedestrian traffic • Comprehensive plan - is it compatible with the comprehensive plan. Mixed uses promote pedestrian orientation and helps to transition into the residential areas already present on the east side of town. The Council is concerned about allowing residential use in a C-4 zone. He explained that these would not be single family homes, they would be more like the buildings at the Crossing and 4 Oaks with businesses on the lower level and apartments on the top. City of Central Point Study Session Minutes May 17, 2010 Page 2 The Planning Commission will be directed to provide the criteria for each use. They will also have the ability to decide on the design standards at the time of application. It was explained that connectivity and workability keeps the small town fee but does not mean the blocks would be all streets. Pedestrian friendly access would be required for large areas such as parking lots. The new recommendation allows some flexibility for the building and block layouts. -They would not necessarily be typical blocks, but would have a block feel to them. The buildingg design recommendation is industry standards. Some owners may have issue with the transparency requirements which would require a certain percentage of store front be windows. Big box buildings would be required to break up the big box look with design standards to look like smaller buildings. The Council doesn't want to see a 60 foot blank waN that pedestrians would have to walk past. But they are concerned with the percentage requirement for transparency. The city is trying to look into the future and make any new construction pedestrian friendly. The parking requirements will be less restrictive in the amount of spaces needed for the size/type of building. Currently the requirements are for peak hours and seasons. It may not be necessary to require that amount of parking for all types of businesses. Conclusion: Planning and Council are not comfortable with the transparency requirements. That requirement may, need more options. The residential block rule is a~good option and they are in agreement that the area should be pedestrian friendly regardless of what type of .business is recommended. B. Discovery After School Program Interim Parks and Public Works Director Matt Samitore stated that the YMCA has presented a reasonable proposal to take over the operation of the Discovery after School program. The cost would increase slightly but they would also be able to provide more services and flexibility. The city would still recommend scholarships and retain the current employees. it looks like it would be a smooth transition from the city run program to the YMCA program. There may be a few citizens who are not in favor of the YMCA taking over the program but our insurance agency has been suggesting the City to get out of the after school program for several years because of the liability issues. The YMCA has had a very successful after school program in Medford for years and they are more than capable of taking on this school district also. Conclusion:. Council is in favor of the YMCA taking over the program and believe they will be able to do a great job for the citizens of Central Point. C. Storm DrainRransportation Utility Fee Discussion Mr. Samitore stated that the city has utilities fees.for street maintenance and storm water maintenance. Both of these fees are in need of adjustments to accommodate future growth and the 2010-11 budget projections. City of Central Point Studu Session Minutes May 17, 2010 Page 3 Transportation Utility Fee: The transportation utility fee is scheduled to sunset February, 2011. A sunset clause was put into the ordinance with the idea that the State may eventually fix the gas tax distribution issue. We are all aware that the State did update the system but it will not generate enough revenue to do away with the Street Utility Fee, nor will it be enough to fund the capital improvement needs of the City. Staff would like approval to bring back a resolution to either extend or eliminate the sunset clause for the Transportation Utility Fee. Staff agrees this is not a good time to be raising the fee, but we will not have the funds we need in the street fund if we do not extend or eliminate the si msPt rlai icP Stormwater Utility Fee: Mr. Samitore explained that the original proposal for the Stormwater Utility Fee suggested a rate of $5.00 with increases annually to reach $7.79. Because of the down tum in the economy staff did not bring an increase recommendation to the Council hoping things would turn around and the eventual increase would not affect the citizens as much. Staff feels it is necessary to increase the Stormwater Utility Fee in order to fix some capital construction projects that cannot be delayed much longer. There are urban storm drain issues that have been a concern for several years. 2009 was a good example of some of those issues around Victoria and 5th Street. Staff provided three options and would like direction from Council which way they would like to proceed. Minimum Maintenance Only -This option would include a $.25 cent increase and would be just for maintenance of the current system. This would not pay for any major capital construction projects. Planned Update - As per what was discussed at the Budget Hearing, the current budget reflects a $1.50 increase to the fee. The total fee would be $6.50 per month and would generate roughly $150,000 a year. Depending on inflation the fee would not have to be raised again for a minimum of six years. Capital Construction Update -Raising the fee to $7.00 a month would generate an additional $200,000. This amount would update the Capital Improvement Plans and provide enough funds to work on major construction projects for storm water. The storm water system in the older part of the city was built in the 1940's and 1950's. If the city doesn't start replacing these storm drains they will eventually collapse and cause major damage to residences and businesses. There are several bridges and culverts within the system that are in need of updates and increases in size. Staff is hoping that SDC fees will provide enough funds to fix these issues. There was discussion regarding the Capital Improvement Plan which changes on an annual basis after each project is complete. There is an option to increase the fee now and then return to Council with an increase or decrease annually. City of Central Point Studu Session Minutes May 17, 2010 Paae 4 Council was not in favor of returning on an annual basis, it could. be possible to adjust the fee annually after the CIP has been complete and the budget prepared. Cnnclucinn~ The recommendation is to make the increase to $6.50 and add language to include adjustments on an annual basis in accordance with the CPI after two years with a percentage cap of 3%. D. Manas~ement Compensation Poiicv City Administrator Phil Messina stated that the management staff has been working on a Management Compensation Policy for over a year. Currently there is no set policy in place to compensate the management staff when they continue to do above average work. Options in this recommendation are: Performance based pay option: •. This is not an automatic pay. increase. There would be specific goalsthat would need to be met each -year. • The increase would be subject to the Staff members performance review each year. • The increase is not a raise and would have to be earned each year to continue. • ' -The Increase would be spread out~over the year with each paycheck. ' There was discussion regarding a one time performance incentive instead of spreading it out over the year. It could cause issues with the employee if they do not. make the same percentage the next year and actually end up with a loss in income. The performance incentives should be based on overall city goals for each evaluation. They should be evaluated on team and individual performances. Council would be interested in seeing the comparison cities and how they were chosen for the comparison in pay scale recommendation. They would also like to see what each employee currently makes and what step they are at. Council Member Matt Stephenson explained that the Council has one employee, the City Administrator, and as a council we need to trust that he will treat his employees fairly. The Council has instructed Phil to do what he must to keep the team we have. We should trust that he knows what is needed to do that. Conc6u$ion: Mr. Messina stated that this is a lot of information to discuss in one short evening. He recommends an AdHoc'Committee of Council members and staff to review the policy in order to bring a completed copy back to Council. Allen Broderick, Bruce Dingier and Hank Williams stated that they would like to be on this committee. Matt Stephenson stated that he would like to be considered if one of the other members is not available. IV. ADJOURNflflENT I The Study Session for May17, 2010, was adjourned at 8:10 p:m.