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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-11-07 MinutesMINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE FAYETTEVILLE CITY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 7, 2000 A meeting of the Fayetteville City Council was held on November 7, 2000 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 219 of the City Administration Building located at 113 West Mountain Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas. - PRESENT: Mayor Hanna, Aldermen Austin, Davis, Trumbo, Daniel, Santos, Young, and Russell, City Attorney Jen -y Rose, City Clerk Heather Woodruff, Staff, Press, and Audience. A et 4 .;. • ABSENT: Alderman Reynolds. ' ' P CONSENT AGENDA ,'. t Item number 7, Garver Engineers was removed from the Consent Agenda. 1 Alderman Russell moved to approve the Consent Agenda. Alderman Davis seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. OLD BUSINESS RZ 00-22.00: An ordinance approving rezoning request RZ 00-22.00, submitted by James Key on behalf of James Mitchell Massey for property located at 28 S. University. The property is zoned C-1, Neighborhood Commercial and contains approximately 0.18 acres. Th request is to rezone to R-3, High Density residential. This ordinance was left on the first reading at the October 17, 2000 meeting. Mr. Rose read the ordinance for the second time. It was the consensus of the council to leave the ordinance on the second reading. THE ITEM WAS LEFT ON THE SECOND READING. NEW BUSINESS BOTANICAL GARDENS Botanical Garden Society of the Ozarks, Inc. Annual Report 2000. Ms. Donna Porter, Botanical Garden, stated a written report had been submitted to each alderman. They were proceeding with the master planning process. They had completed their second meeting with the Portico Group, City staff, neighbors, and others: They had accomplished new conceptual plans. Every thing that they did was based on their educational mission. Estimates were still in the works. The time line for this was contingent upon funding. City Council Minutes November 7, 2000 Page 2 They were hoping to have a final master plan presentation in the first quarter of 2001. They started working on the site by cleaning up the most visible areas, planting trees, and building trails. They had requested funding to complete the master plan from the City. They had submitted proposals to other foundations and corporations. They now had a business plan which was projecting that the garden would be open to the public by 2005. Alderman Austm asked what her major educational objective was Ms Porter replied it was to educate people about plants and how they were important to the environment. Botamcal Gardens were plant museums. Their mission was to educate in the essence of preservmg and conserving plants. There were a lot of sciences that went along with the study of plants A video of the proposed garden was shown. Alderman Davis stated he could see unlimited potential. He would like for the City to increase what they had done m the pass. NO ACTION WAS REQUIRED. SEWER CAMERA An ordinance approvmg a bid waiver with Aries Industries for sewer camera system repair in the amount of $17,055.89, and approvmg a bid contmgency of $2,000. Mr. Rose read the ordinance for the first time. Alderman Trumbo moved to suspend the rules and move to the second reading. Alderman Santos seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Mr. Rose read the ordinance for the second time. Alderman Santos moved to suspend the rules and move to the third and final time. Alderman Daniel seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Mr. Rose read the ordinance for the third and final time. Mayor Hanna asked shall the ordinance pass. Upon roll call the ordinance passed unanimously. ORDINANCE 4277 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. City Council Minutes November 7, 2000 Page 3 YOUTH CENTER Discussion regarding the use of City Funds for the Fayetteville Youth Center. Mr. John Benburg, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club, presented a status report on the new center. They were in the middle of a revolution as an organization. They wanted to become the best youth development organization in the area. They wanted to have a full continuum of programs, services, and activities. They had re -affiliated with the Boys and Girls Club of America last August to take advantage of their vast program menu. They had a strong sports program. They were continuing to evolve mto the non -sport programs by enhancing academic achievement and developing leadership skills, teaching life skills. Preparing young people for employment. While the main focus is on the new facility, it should be specifically stated that they were not waiting on a new building to advance their cause. They have just opened a new branch location of the Boys and Girls Club at Jefferson Elementary School. They were growing. They hoped to create an outreach program to go to subsidized community, to engage young people and their families. They were wanting to engage young people that. may not be apart of their organization at this point. They were involved in a project that they refer to as the Youth Report Card Project. It was a report card of all sorts of different measures as it relates to youth in the community. They wanted to be part of the process to make Fayetteville a national model for how a community supported their young people. To do that they needed good information. This would help lay the ground work for decision making. The new facility has given a lot of momentum to the possibility of new partnerships with the University and other service providers: They felt corporate America would be interested in what they were doing particularly with work force development and preparing young people for employment.* r * d, o r i Mr. Benburg presented rendenngs and schematics of the proposed new facility. Explaming, the competition swimming pools had been omitted by the Reynolds Foundation in their grant award. The project had a finite. time frame. They must have the building built by August of 2003. It was a condition of the grant. They envisioned it to be a two year project: They believed time was of the essence. They hoped the City would support them oii this project. They wanted to tum dirt next spring. The location was w.e'st of I-40 off Wedington Drive. That was a choice made by a site committee selection team. The current location did not have as much foot traffic as it use to. The neighborhood was now largely university students. There were not as many families located within walking distance. They were landlocked at the current location. The vast majority of the people that carne to the facility were brought by parents or buses. They had the capability to provide transportation. They would be talking to the University, School systems , Ozark Transit, and others that have the capability to move people and to create a network to get young people out to their facility. They felt this was a true community asset. They felt it was an investment in their future. City Council Minutes November 7, 2000 Page 4 Alderman Daniel asked for the cost of running the proposed facility compared to the current facility. Mr. Benburg replied the projected year one budget m the new facility, including the pool, was approximately $1,500,000. They were $1,100,000 now. They would be close to that scale anyway. It was not the quantum leap that some would imagine. Alderman Trumbo stated he was m favor of tax and spend. In response to questions from Alderman Trumbo, Mr. Maguire, Administrative Services Director, stated they could not use general funds for this. Alderman Trumbo stated they would have to look at increasing HMR Tax to allocate for this facility. He was m favor of extending the two mils from the Senior Center for another year Alderman Russell stated he remembered one of the objections about the property tax for the Senior Center was that these taxes seem to always be extended. He thought they needed to watch that. Alderman Davis stated the City needed to show a conumtment so they could get this project on the road. He asked if they would add to their form that the Youth Center had scholarships. If they city was looking to give money they needed to make sure that people knew that there were scholarships for children so all the children could participated. It was the consensus of the council that funding should be discussed at a meeting in near future. NO ACTION WAS TAKEN. GARVER ENGINEERING A resolution approving an engineering agreement with Garver Engineers for the design of a multi-level parking deck to be constructed behind the Campbell Bell Building. Alderman Russell stated the staff review form and the contract indicated that the cost was $244,000, but Mr. Maguire had indicated that the tax payer cost would be capped at $60,000 if the project did not proceed. If it did proceed they expected the project to be funded by revenue from the leases. Mr. Maguire replied that was correct. They expected the up front engineering money would be paid back by the bond proceeds. Alderman Russell asked if they would forfeit the $244,000 until they knew if the project was City Council Minutes November 7, 2000 Page 5 going to proceed. Mr. Venable explained the preliminary design was approximately $56,000. They would determine at this stage if the project was a go or a no go. They would have to do some surveying and geotechnical work. It may run as much as $75,000 to $80,000. They could cut the project off at any time once the decision was made whether to go or not. Alderman Russell stated if it was determined the parking deck could not be funded by revenue from the leases then they would cut it off at that point. The project would only go forward if it would be funded by the leases. If it went forward would they reimburse the CIP Fund. Mr. Maguire replied that was correct Mr. Jeff Erf, an area resident, asked if this was the first time the public was able to comment on this project and if they would explain the project Mr. Venable explained the parking garage would be located across from where the parking lot was now behind the Campbell Bell Building.x They did not know how many levels" it would be: ^" They would looking at designing for three levels. They may only build two levels depending on the need. The estimate was at $10,000 per space. They were looking at one hundred spaces per level. It would be designed to blend in with the neighborhood: b A lot would depend on the design � ' a , i �. .' s r s .., ... . Mr. Erf asked how the City would determine how, many spaces were required. n ., 1 Mr. Maguire stated there were approximately one hundred -sixty people on a waiting list for parking. This would not be a tax payer project. It would be an enterprise fund project. The people that would use it would pay for it or it would not be built. It was not like the Youth Center or a generally used facility. Parking should be paid for by the people who use it. If they could not enter into leases with this group of people to pay for this deck, then they would not construct it. The way it was structured presently the parking deck would generate in excess of $100,000 per year. They could then go back into that fund and reimburse it if the project failed. In the meantime their choices were to pay it out of the sales tax capital improvement fund. Mr. Erf asked if they had considered any other areas. Mr. Venable replied this was one of the few that they owned. They did not own the one across the street. The deck would be owned and managed by the City. Mr. Morty Newmark, an area resident, stated this had just come to his attention. He was concerned about them spending this money without it being in the CIP. He stated he was not City Council Minutes November 7, 2000 Page 6 clear where the money would come from if the project failed. Mr. Maguire replied they currently had revenue that come in from parking. They did not have enough money in that fund to fund the whole $244,000. They did not normally go around issuing contracts without knowing where the money was coming from. The Staff and Mayor did not feel the taxpayer should pay for the parking. That was why it was an enterprise fund. If it did not pay for itself they would not build it. Mr. Newmark stated he felt there needed to be more time for the public to gain understanding. He asked them to table the item for one more meeting. Mayor Hanna stated when he first came into office, they had requests for more parking. They had conducted a survey. The report showed that they had plenty of parking, but with all that had happened on the square in the last few years, they realized they were going to have to have more parking. They had always planned on building a parking deck with funds generated from parking. He thought it was about time for them to start lookmg for the same thmg for the Dickson Street area. This would probably be the first parking deck. If it was successful they would look at Dickson Street. They would have to do some studies. When they finished the Enhancement Project they were going to need more spaces. Alderman Russell moved to table the item until the next meeting. Alderman Austin seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Meeting adjourned.