HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-05-01 MinutesMayor Dan Coody
City Attomey Kit Williams
City Clerk Sondra Smith
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AR KA N SA 5
City of Fayetteville Arkansas
City Council Street Committee
Meeting Minutes
May 1, 2006
City Council Street Committee Minutes
May I, 2006
Page I of 6
Member Aldermen
Ward 1 Position 1 - Robert Reynolds
Ward 2 Position 2— Don Marr
Ward 3 Position 2 — Robert Ferrell
Ward 4 Position 2 - Lioneld Jordan
A meeting of the Fayetteville City Council Street Committee was held on May 1, 2006 at 5:00
p.m. in Room 111 of the City Administration Building located at 113 West Mountain Street,
Fayetteville, Arkansas.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Alderman Lioneld Jordan, Chair; Alderman Robert Reynolds;
Alderman Don Marr; and Alderman Robert Ferrell
Staff Present: Ron Petrie, Gary Dumas, Mayor Dan Coody, Tim Conklin, Terry Gulley,
Chris Brown
1. Call to order
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Lioneld Jordan.
2. Approval of the minutes of the April 17, 2006 Street committee meeting.
A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of the April 17, 2006 meeting
of the Fayetteville Street Committee as submitted. The motion carried unanimously.
3. Continued Discussion of the proposed Citywide Transportation Improvement
Project
Gary Dumas announced that the City has received a letter from the Arkansas State Highway and
Transportation Dept. stating that they are willing to cost share on Highway 16 East. The
maximum expenditure for the City will be $5 million and the AHTD will repair, rebuild and
widen Hwy 16 from Stonebridge to Hwy 71B. At this point, they didn't feel they had the funds
to take on that portion of Hwy. 16 from Stonebridge to Falcon.
In response to a question from Alderman Reynolds, Gary Dumas said he feels if we wait on
the bridge portion of the project, we may be able to get the Highway Dept.'s participation in the
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next phase. Mr. Dumas said that the AHTD had also agreed to participate in the reconstruction
of Garland. Their participation in this project is somewhat less than for the Hwy. 16 project, but
it is $1.5 million we will not have to come up with locally.
Ron Petrie handed out a proposal regarding recommended projects and phasing for the
transportation improvement project. He said most of Phase one is included in this proposal. The
total is a little over $48 million, after you take out the State, Federal and existing CIP dollars.
The first parts of Gregg Ave. and West Ave have been removed from Phase one in this proposal
and staff has moved some projects forward. Rupple Road from 6t" to Persimmon was added to
Phase one as well as Garland from North to Melmar and I-540 to Howard Nickell. Also, the
College Avenue project has also changed in this proposal. He pointed out that this is a proposal
only and is presented as a starting point for discussion.
Gary Dumas said that regarding the Hwy. 71 North/Fulbright Expressway project, he isn't sure
that the federal earmarks ($7.6 million) and the City's matching funds ($2 million) will be
enough money to accomplish what we want to accomplish with this project. He told the
Committee that if there is any project to which they might add money, this should probably be it.
Alderman Reynolds asked what had happened to the $400,000 that had been budgeted for Mall
Avenue.
Ron Petrie said the money was returned to the street fund reserve which went into this year's
CIP.
Alderman Jordan said he wanted the Committee to consider having money put into the street
bond program reserve in case we can cost share with a developer in different areas of the city.
Cost sharing with developers can save money for other projects. He would like to make sure all
the money is not committed and that some is available for these projects as needed. If we are
looking at $48 million, we might add $10 million and keep it in reserve for cost share purposes.
Alderman Ferrell asked if that reserve money would include any overages on the Hwy.
71/Fulbright project.
Gary Dumas said we might put the money into a cost share/contingency fund.
Alderman Ferrell said he thinks it would be a good idea but his understanding is that you have
to have a list of the projects that are going to be built before it goes to a vote.
Alderman Marr said he doesn't know that he would necessarily limit the extra money to cost
shares. The committee had also talked about having money set aside for land acquisition and he
would rather see any contingencies listed for cost share and land acquisition.
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Alderman Jordan agreed. He explained that he would just like to see some money set aside in
case we need it for cost share, land acquisition or whatever.
Alderman Marr said the citizens are going to want to know who will control the money, who is
going to decide where the money will go and what the process is for getting the money allocated.
Nobody likes to give government free reign. He believes these are valid questions that need to be
answered before money is set aside.
Gary Dumas said it could be worded, "cost shares or land acquisition on facilities within the
overall general (or expanded) project list". That way citizens would know where the money is
going to go. The money would not be going to some other project that all of a sudden became an
issue.
Alderman Marr said he likes the idea but feels there are some logistics that need to be worked
through, such as how do we define it within a scope and how do we know how it will be
controlled.
Alderman Ferrell said he would like to pursue the possibility of setting aside this reserve.
However, he would first like to see some possible language that might be used.
Alderman Jordan agreed with that. He said he feels any extra money should be earmarked so
that it could only be used for specific projects and not for anything else.
Gary Dumas said he believes it is possible to do this.
Alderman Ferrell said once we come up with the possible language for the ballot issue, he
would like to have a public hearing to get the input of the citizens.
Alderman Jordan said it is his plan that once the Committee comes up with a recommendation
for the bond issue we will have a public meeting before it is taken to the Council. If the public
says something is a bad idea, we don't have to do it.
There was some discussion of pay back amounts and bonding capacity.
Alderman Reynolds said once we get this first phase done, he believes everything will change
for Phase two.
Gary Dumas said we only have the ability to get a certain amount of cash right now — roughly
$36 million. So from that you would start your Phase one projects. Some would begin
construction before 2009 but the remainder would have to wait.
In response to a question from Alderman Ferrell, Gary Dumas said the referendum that would
go before the citizens would be for the amount decided upon as the first phase — whether it is $48
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million, $71 million, or whatever is agreed upon. We would sell bonds more than twice because
you don't want to have all that cash waiting and paying interest on it before it can be used.
Alderman Marr referred back to Alderman Reynold's comment about Phase two looking
completely different once we get through with Phase one. That makes him nervous about the
money -in -reserve issue. He believes it is probably true but it is another obstacle to limiting the
use of the reserve to only the twenty-six projects on the bond list. He believes we need to come
up with a way to have money for land acquisition and developer cost share that is based on a
plan that does not limit its use to projects on the bond issue. He said the language is extremely
important. It must not box us in so that the money cannot be used where the priority is, but also
not be so flexible that the citizens can't buy into it.
Gary Dumas said we are probably talking about another bond election in 2009 or 2010 for the
second phase. That's not that far away and though things will probably change, he isn't sure it
will change that much.
Alderman Marr said we don't know what is going to happen. He mentioned adding an 18 -story
hotel on the Mountain Inn site and a 9 -story building on Dickson Street when we don't have any
money in the project list for Ward 2, other than a trail. With the development of
Downtown/Dickson, the growth of the University, and the downtown master plan, he feels it is
very shortsighted to say that the list will not change in four years. Fayetteville changes every
eighteen months.
Gary Dumas said he agrees and he understands what Alderman Marr is saying. However, he
said the time frame for the construction of any of these major private projects or the construction
of any of the street projects is still going to be three to four years from now. We will be able to
see the impact of those and address that in the next phase. He agrees that the next phase may
look totally different than it does now and that there will be some traffic access issues in the
downtown/Dickson street area after the big projects are completed.
Alderman Ferrell said there will be things that come up and there will be flare ups and acute
situations, but by the same token, he believes the citizens want to know what will be done with
the obligated money.
Alderman Marr said that will be easy to do with the $48 million; we can say exactly which
projects the money will be used for. But when we throw out the $10 million contingency, it
changes the discussion. He said he isn't saying it shouldn't be done but if we don't lock it down
to some extent, he believes it will be a voting issue. On the other hand, he is skeptical of locking
it in to just what is on the project list. With all the projects coming up in Ward 2 and nothing on
the bond issue project list for the area, to have the contingency money locked in to only what is
on the project list is a concern.
Alderman Jordan he doesn't have a problem with leaving out the reserve money.
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Alderman Marr said he thinks the reserve money is a great idea. And he likes Alderman
Ferrell's idea of bouncing it off the public to see if they have any ideas on how to do it that will
make everyone comfortable.
There was discussion regarding the Wilson Park area. A plan has been developed for that area
but there is the question about whether the proposed plan will solve the problem.
Ron Petrie said staff is doing an extensive traffic study of the entire area and we want to see if
we can make a difference with the traffic calming program. The money for this comes from
existing operation funds.
Alderman Marr said he does not mean his comments to be critical of the projects list. He
cannot find anything on the list that should not be there. He is just concerned about getting the
voters to approve it.
Alderman Ferrell said we have to start somewhere. The Committee has met and met and tried
to look at all the considerations and he feels now is the time to start making decisions and get
citizen input. He thinks we need to decide on an amount and how to wrap it up so it will be
acceptable to the voters.
Alderman Marr said each of the aldermen can use projects in their wards to sell the bond issue.
He is concerned that he does not have anything to sell to his constituents. He isn't advocating
adding anything more in. He said the trail would be a huge selling point if he can be sure the
aldermen don't begin discussions about making it a separate issue. There is also the concern
about parking in the Dickson Street area. There had been a parking deck on the list that was
removed. He's not sure that putting Gregg back in to Phase one is a solution. That issue is
divided.
Gary Dumas said there are other projects the City is going to do concurrent with the bond
program. But the parking deck should be a self-funded project. He suggested we should talk
about the bond program, looking at capacity issues around the community and in addition, in
Ward 2 we are looking at the parking deck at the UBC lot and traffic calming in the Wilson Park
area.
Alderman Marr asked for a refresher on information on College Avenue.
Gary Dumas said the plan for College Avenue is access control and four lanes, with widened
sidewalks, lighting and landscaping along the edges. Phase one would be from Rock to Maple.
Alderman Jordan said if this Committee feels like it is more important to add Gregg Ave. in
than to have the $10 million in reserve, he doesn't have a problem with that. He just wants to
explore everything.
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Alderman Marr said he thinks reserving money for land acquisition and future cost shares is a
great idea. It keeps us ahead of the next phase and he is supportive of everything about it. He just
wants to have a message to give to the voters in every part of the city.
In response to a question from Alderman Jordan regarding whether to add Gregg Ave. back
into Phase one, all committee members agreed, although Alderman Marr said he thought it had
been reasonable to pull it out.
Alderman Ferrell moved that the Committee seek public response regarding a $62 million
bond election, $52,572,508 for Phase one projects and $9.7 million for right-of-way
acquisition and cost share funds for other projects on the list. Alderman Reynolds seconded
the motion and it passed unanimously.
Alderman Jordan said he will set up a public meeting. After that meeting the matter will be
brought back to the Street Committee for discussion. At that time the final plan will be approved
by the Committee and forwarded to the full Council.
Alderman Jordan opened the floor for public comment.
Mike Johnson from the U of A commented that funding half of the Gregg Avenue project will
create a road to nowhere.
Alderman Marr said we don't have a definite plan for the $4.7 million. A big part of the Phase
one discussion about Gregg was to include the right turn lane at Gregg and North St.
Ron Petrie said most of the money for Phase one will be to buy right-of-way because that is
very expensive right-of-way. The remainder of the plan has not yet been defined.
Alderman Ferrell said he would like to see some language describing the plan that can be used
in discussion with citizens.
Gary Dumas said staff would provide a couple of sentences to the Committee based essentially
on this discussion.
There was discussion regarding the timing and length of the proposed public meeting. It was
agreed that it should follow the model of the State Highway Department and give everyone an
opportunity to participate, both during work and after work hours. It was agreed to set the hours
from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday, May 22, 2006. Gary Dumas agreed to find a meeting place.
4. Scheduling of the next Street Committee Meeting
The next Street Committee meeting was scheduled for Monday, June 5, 2006 at 5:00 p.m.
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