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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-10-25 MinutesMayor Dan Coody City Attomey Kit Williams City Clerk Sondra Smith aye City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 25, 2005 Page 1 of 9 Member Aldermen evi le ARKANSAS City of Fayetteville Arkansas City Council Street Committee Meeting Minutes October 25, 2005 Ward 1 Position 1 - Robert Reynolds Ward 2 Position 1 - Kyle B. Cook Ward 3 Position 2 — Robert Ferrell Ward 4 Position 2 - Lioneld Jordan A meeting of the Fayetteville City Council Street Committee was held on October 25, 2005 at 6:30 p.m. in Room 326 of the City Administration Building located at 113 West Mountain Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas. MEMBERS PRESENT: Alderman Lioneld Jordan (Chair), Alderman Robert Reynolds, Alderman Bobby Ferrell, Alderman Don Marr Others Council Members Present: Alderperson Shirley Lucas, Mayor Dan Coody Staff Present: Ron Petrie, Gary Dumas, Tim Conklin, Terry Gulley Chairman Lioneld Jordan brought the meeting to order. 1. Amendment to the Master Street Plan to realign the location of Rupple Road near Highway 62. Charlie Sloan made a presentation to the committee regarding the proposed realignment of Rupple Road. He reviewed the changes that are being proposed and, using a map, outlined where the changes would be in the alignment of the road. They have worked to incorporate changes necessitated by concerns expressed by neighbors and by the Planning Commission. Alderman Marr asked the staff for their opinion on this proposal. Ron Petrie said the concepts prepared by staff for Rupple Road when developing the bond program are very similar to this proposal. He said staff is in favor of this proposal. Chairman Jordan opened the floor to public comment. There being none, he brought the matter back to the Street Committee. He said he feels the project looks good. Alderman Marr moved that the Master Street Plan be amended to the alignment proposed by staff Alderman Reynolds seconded the motion and it carried unanimously. 2. Amendment to the Master Street Plan to allow for reduced right-of-way dedication along College Avenue (Principal Arterial) for the redevelopment of 620 N. College (formerly Doc Murdocs) 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 25, 2005 Page 2 of 9 Ron Petrie said this item was approved by the Planning Commission last night (Oct. 24). An architectural rendition of the proposed look of the Doc Murdoc building, which is undergoing renovation, was a part of the material given to the committee on this item. The applicant is requesting that the right-of-way dedication be reduced to 30 feet from 55 feet, or what is actually the existing right-of-way. They are also proposing a 4 foot addition to the front of the building. The developer provided a map to show what a 110 foot right-of-way (or 55 feet from center line) on this area of College Ave. would look like and how many existing buildings it would cut into. The Operations department is currently reviewing a possible different dedication for right-of- way for the downtown portion of College Ave. Although they are not yet ready to bring that forward, he said that this proposal is not inconsistent with what staff is considering. Alderman Marr asked for the northern and southern boundaries of the College Avenue section that the Engineering staff is evaluating. Ron Petrie said it would be North Street to south of 6th Street. Alderman Marr said his concern is long term, and whether giving up the right-of-way now would prohibit the City from having design options available for possible underground utilities or other plans that might be possible for this area. Ron Petrie said we would have the same constraints now as in the future. On this site, the constraint would be 3 ft. greater because they are proposing to extend three feet further toward the existing right-of-way. The existing buildings create the constraints in the right-of-way. Alderman Ferrell said he thinks this request is reasonable but wondered if a boulevard is a part of the potential design plans for this area. Ron Petrie said everything is still on the table and he can't really say at this point which direction staff is leaning. A boulevard cannot be ruled out entirely, but space is very limited in this area so it is difficult to have an answer to that at this point. Alderman Reynolds asked if the City had ever thought about turn lanes in Prospect at Rebecca to help the movement of traffic in that area. He asked if giving up footage would hurt any future plans for something like this. Ron Petrie said we would not be giving up footage. There is 30 feet of right-of-way now and there would be 30 feet in the future. Alderman Marr said one thing we wanted in our Downtown Master Plan was buildings that were on the frontage. At the same time, if we ever wanted to have turn lanes in that area, we are going to be limiting whatever space we have to work with if we start giving away the right-of- way. Although we may not have the space for this sort of thing right now, as properties redevelop we would still have the option. Mayor Coody said he shares Alderman Marr's concern. We may well want to put a turn lane here or do some other sort of planned improvement and in granting this request, we might be limiting ourselves in the future. He urged caution. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 25, 2005 Page 3 of 9 Rob Sharp, the applicant for this issue, said he wanted to clarify a few points. He said they are making a small addition to the current building. It will be in the same plane as the existing building. The real change is that the canopy that had rotted off the current building will be replaced. They are not asking to extend the building out into an area where it wasn't before, so they will not be making the situation any worse. Also, the building to the south of this project is closer to the street than this building, so any turn lane project would mean taking out current buildings all along this area. He said his group will also be adding landscaping and street trees where it is now just asphalt so it is going to look more like what Dover Kohl wanted in the Downtown Master Plan. He stressed that he is not asking the City to give up any land they already have; he is simply asking to keep the right-of-way as it is right now. There was discussion about the canopy that was on the existing building and what would be added with this proposal. Mr. Sharp said if there is a concern about the canopy, which is cantilevered, it can be reduced if necessary. He mentioned that the project is now at the point that they need to be able to move forward. Alderman Jordan asked for Tim Conklin's thoughts from a planning perspective. Tim Conklin said staff has been trying to work on a concept for College Avenue. Back in August and September, they brought forward the Downtown Master Plan recommendations. College Avenue, Archibald Yell, School St. and 6th St. were removed from those Master Street Plan amendments. The Council had requested that staff come back with options. Engineering and the Parks Department are working on those and though they are not ready for presentation at this time, the Street Committee will have to evaluate the future cross sections of College Avenue to determine how they want to enhance College Avenue. He said this canopy is cantilevered and even if you did widen the street, the sidewalk could still run underneath it. The concepts for College Avenue on which staff is working are not yet developed to the point of presentation to the Committee. Alderman Reynolds suggested tabling the issue until that information is available for Street Committee review. Alderman Marr said he had heard from the presentation by Mr. Sharp that there are some date sensitive issues involved in this project. He agrees that the issues being discussed on College Ave. need to be resolved, but he doesn't want this developer to be left out there without some idea when the issue will be resolved. Tim Conklin, in response to a question from Alderman Jordan regarding when staff might have the information available, said several projects along College Avenue are affected, including the Mountain Inn. The City will have to act swiftly to bring this forward to the Street Committee. Gary Dumas said he doesn't know how long it will take to develop the concept for College Avenue and then take it through the process of discussion by staff and Council. However, on this particular project we are talking about an existing wall that will not be changed. All that will be changed is the addition of a 2 — 4 ft. cantilevered canopy on an existing building. There are already existing constraints on College Ave. south of this property that would prevent any significant widening of College Ave. in the foreseeable future. He doesn't think that anything the staff could come up with as a design concept is going to widen this street significantly at any intersection. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 25, 2005 Page 4 of 9 Alderman Ferrell said he understands the concerns of the Committee, but this has been through the Board of Adjustment, a neighborhood meeting and the Planning Commission already. He asked Mr. Sharp how time -sensitive this project is. Rob Sharp said they have the drawings done and have a tenant. They would like to apply for a building permit next week. His concern is that College Avenue is such a hot -button item, this issue could still be alive six months from now and by then the opportunity for this project could be lost. Waiting a couple of weeks wouldn't be a problem but six to eight weeks would. Ron Petrie asked Mr. Sharp if there is a reason why the request is for 30 feet of right-of-way as opposed to 35 feet. Rob Sharp said an amendment to that affect would be fine with his client. He would rather have 35 feet now than 30 feet six weeks from now if that is the issue. He mentioned that, if there is no objection from the Committee, they might be able to pursue the building permit with the canopy left off, with the understanding that they can come back once the design for College Avenue is firmed up since the building permit process also takes time. Alderman Ferrell made a motion that the issue be sent to the full Council for discussion without recommendation from the Street Committee. Alderman Marr seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. 3. Discussion of a proposed cost share with the Fayetteville School Systems and Reserve, LLC (Terminella & Associates) to widen Rupple Road to a four lane boulevard and to widen Persimmon Street to a Collector Street. Ron Petrie said this is a proposed street cost share with both Terminella (Reserve LLC) and the Fayetteville School system for two different roads. He discussed the Rupple Road portion of the proposal, identifying which portion of the road would be paid for by each of the three participants (Reserve LLC, Fayetteville Schools and the City). The City of Fayetteville's portion would be a little over $277,000. He then discussed the cost share division for the Persimmon Street portion of the proposal. The City's portion of the cost for this project would be $534,375. The total for both portions (Rupple and Persimmon) is $812,220 for the City's portion. The school's portion would be $308,915 and Reserve, LLC's portion would be $805,000. Gary Dumas commented that these costs are estimates. If the Street Committee approves this item, we will need to look even more closely at how the costs are allocated. The information presented at this time includes unit quantities and costs figured in bulk. As we look at more detail, some of the costs may be adjusted downward. Alderman Marr said when this development was before the Council, he understood the developer was going to build the collector road. Tom Terminella of Terminella & Associates said that at the Aug. 4, 2004 Council meeting Mr. Estes indicated that they would "construct" the road once it was understood what improvements needed to go in. In most cities, they construct roads that adjoin the boundaries of their project and cost share with the municipalities. In no part of the discussion was it indicated that they would provide all the right-of-way, engineer, construct and pay for the entire improvement as 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 25, 2005 Page 5 of 9 shown on the Master Street Plan. At a meeting a few weeks ago, his group, Alderman Jordan and staff met to listen to the tape of the meeting to make sure what was said at that meeting since people seemed be operating on different assumptions. He said that his company will construct the improvement and would respectfully ask for the City to cost share as is a common practice in every municipality in which they work. Alderman Jordan said he does have the tape of the meeting where this was discussed if any of the Committee members would like to view it. Ron Petrie said there are two separate issues. One is what was perceived to be promised at the meeting and the second is the staff recommendation. The staff recommendation is not based on the perceived promise, but is based on a purely rational nexus approach of who should pay for what. In response to a question from Alderman Ferrell he said the money for the City's portion of the cost share would come from for the City's street cost -share fund for next year if that fund is approved in the CIP budget. Alderman Lucas said it was her understanding that the road would be built by Mr. Terminella. However, we have to have the road because of the school and the Boys & Girls Club. She has learned something from this situation and will be more careful of choices of words in the future. Alderman Marr said he doesn't think we can have a school there and not build the road as specified. But regardless of semantics, he feels like it was presented one way and we are ending up with something different. Tom Terminella said he is constructing and cost sharing a half a dozen improvements with seven different cities right now. He made certain assumptions based on his experience in this area. He said he would have clarified immediately if anyone had said anything about paying for and constructing the improvement. He doesn't want words put in his mouth or it to be thought that he said one thing and meant another. All the words were spoken carefully that night but nobody nailed it down. He is now suffering the consequences of that. He does not want his integrity or character to be questioned. He is sorry for any misconceptions, but he always assumed it would be a cost share. He hopes that it will be spoken more clearly in the future. Tim Conklin, in response to a question from Alderman Ferrell said it was his assumption from the meeting that the developer was paying for the street. With regard to the size of the development, length of street and the fact that it is a collector street, City policy has been to cost share the center turn lane. So this does follow our policy. Alderman Ferrell moved to accept staff's recommendation to participate in a cost share and move the item forward to Council. Alderman Reynolds seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. 4. Presentation from McClelland Engineers of a progress report for the Kings Drive Reconstruction Study. Ron Petrie said he thought it was appropriate to update the Committee on the progress of this item. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 25, 2005 Page 6 of 9 Johnny Quinn with McClelland Engineers gave a little background on this issue. Kings Drive had begun to deteriorate and slide down the hill. The City selected a couple of geotechnical firms to analyze the situation, make recommendations and estimate costs to remediate the problem. The costs presented through those reports were reviewed by staff and thought to be somewhat prohibitive, so McClelland was retained to review the reports and see if they could come up with innovative and alternative means of repair that might be less expensive. They were also asked to estimate the cost for any alternative means of repair if such could be identified and to look at traffic patterns. Wayne Jones, a geotechnical engineer with McClelland Engineers and Dr. Norm Dennis, a professor of Civil Engineering at the University have worked on this study. Wayne Jones talked about what has been done to this point, including two borings in addition to the borings that had already been done. In those borings they used equipment to find out how much tilt was occurring. Every two week period, data has been collected. For the first couple of months there was very little movement. Over the past couple of months, the cumulative amounts have gotten to the point of about a inch movement over the 5 month period. So they can now say that it is continuing to slide. Samples have been taken and Dr. Dennis has run tests on those samples. The data was used to develop a profile of the hillside prior to any construction occurring. Dr. Dennis has performed very preliminary slope stability analysis on one particular cross section. They will ultimately look at five cross sections because movement is occurring over a significant area as evidenced by cracks in the pavement and other signs. One factor that could be contributing to this is a water line that runs along the curb on the west side of the street. The ditch along the water line could be a conduit for water seeping into the ground and helping saturate the material along the line. The slope stability analysis will be refined over the next month or so and made into a final report with recommendation and options for repair and anticipated costs. Dr. Norm Dennis said in the two previous reports suppositions were made about the mechanism of the movement, but nobody proved it. They felt it was important to find out on what plane the slope was actually moving. Their logs clearly show that between 6 and 7 feet below the ground surface there is actually some deviation from vertical, which means the ground is moving. Also, strength testing of the material in the slope had not been done in the previous studies. This is essential in conducting any kind of stability analysis. It will take about 8 to 12 weeks of nonstop laboratory testing in order to determine material properties. Once they know where the slope is moving and have a good handle on what the material properties are of the various soil layers, they can put the layers into a model and perform a stability analysis. Alderman Jordan asked for any questions from the Street Committee. There being none, he opened the floor for public comment Bob McKinney said he lives at the top of the hill. He is concerned about property values being affected by this situation. In response to a question from Alderman Marr, it was stated that a report should be brought back to the Committee at least before the end of the year, possibly earlier. Alderman Reynolds said at this point he is more concerned about firming up the mountain so that we don't have houses sliding down than he is with Kings Drive itself. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org Wayne Jones said from this point forward, they City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 25, 2005 Page 7 of 9 11 be looking at what options are available. A citizen and resident of the area expressed her concern about the safety issue involved here. There is also the problem with access to the homes in the area if it is determined the road should be closed. Wayne Jones said the job his company has been tasked with is to provide viable solutions to the City. They will tell the City what can be done to stabilize the situation and keep the road from deteriorating any further. They are also obligated to tell the City what it will cost for each alternative. Alderman Jordan said there will be more discussion on this item in the future and more opportunities for input from citizens. 5. Discussion of the proposed street improvements to be included in the 2006-2010 Capital Improvement Program. Ron Petrie said that several 2005 CIP projects have been placed on hold due to the bond issue status; the money that is in the current budget can be used to begin the engineering on those bond projects. So though the projects are listed as 2005 projects, the work will be done in 2006. He reviewed the projects on the list and gave a brief description of the status and anticipated cost of each. Projects include Kings Drive, widening of Township, Huntsville/Happy Hollow and Mount Comfort/Shiloh/Dean Solomon intersection. He also reviewed the list of 2006 projects, discussing the status of each. Alderman Jordan expressed concern that the amount of money allocated toward Mount Comfort/Shiloh/Dean Solomon intersection improvement was too small. He stated that this area was the greatest need in his ward Ron Petrie asked that the Committee members keep in mind that the cost of that intersection is somewhere around $4.5 million. What staff is proposing now will give us a jump start on that and allow the design to happen. Alderman Reynolds said he feels if Van Ashe isn't dealt with soon and some relief provided to traffic in the Mall area, we will lose tax dollars to the north. Gary Dumas said the Federal allocation has not been figured in to this yet because it has not yet been finalized. When it is firm, we will program our share of the cost. Alderman Reynolds suggested moving the Van Ashe (Gregg to Garland) project and the Mount Comfort/Shiloh/Dean Solomon project up to the top of the priority list. Alderman Marr asked if there is a time frame on taking the bond issue forward to the Council to make a decision on whether to take it to the people. The priority list changes completely depending on whether or not we have that money. Alderman Jordan said his plan is to bring the bond issue back to the Council by March of next year, after we know what the wastewater treatment plant will cost. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 25, 2005 Page 8 of 9 Alderman Marr expressed concern that we're not relating one project to another, such as the bond issue, impact fees, etc. He feels there needs to be some comprehensive plan. Gary Dumas stated that this list assumes there's going to be a bond election, otherwise you would prioritize it differently and not do all the engineering on the different projects. You'd do one or two actual construction projects instead. Alderman Marr said it scares him to put that amount of money into engineering on the assumption that the people are going to pass the bond issue. If they don't pass it, the money would probably have been allocated completely differently. Alderman Ferrell asked how much the staff would expect to spend on engineering in these projects before the March timeframe for bringing the bond issue forward again. Gary Dumas said the staff assumed there is going to be a bond election, so they utilized existing funding (what's remaining in the 05 CIP and what can be programmed into the 06 CIP) to get a jump start on the bond election projects which had been chosen as the highest priority. He agreed that the priorities would be totally different if the bond issue does not pass. However, realistically, very little of the actual dollars would be spent by March when it is anticipated the bond issue will come forward. We wouldn't start much of this until January when the CIP is adopted. Depending on how things are looking for the bond issue at that point, we would either accelerate our activity in getting engineer consultants on board or we'd slow down until we know more. Alderman Marr wanted to make sure there is an understanding that if the committee votes on this today and the bond issue is not approved, that there will be an opportunity for the Committee to reallocate all the engineering costs to other projects. Gary Dumas said that the issue will be revisited if the bond issue doesn't pass or if the Council chooses not to do a bond issue. He asked for the Committee to comment on the $613,000 listed under "Unfunded" for "In -House Pavement" to continue the overlay program. Alderman Marr said he thought the $613,000 was already funded. He moved that the Committee accept the 2005/2005 CIF program with an added footnote that it would be revisited for reallocation if the bond issue doesn't pass and to move the $613,000 to the funded column for in-house pavement of streets only (excluding trails). The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. 6. Presentation of the final study for street impact fees for transportation improvements as performed by Duncan & Associates. Tim Conklin distributed a report on street impact fees based on a potential street bond program and future costs that have been calculated. They are calculated both with right-of-way and without right-of-way. Without right-of-way, the fee for a single family home is $3,443. With right-of-way, it is $3,799. The policy issue is, if we include the right-of-way and we have a developer dedicate right-of-way, we will have to give credit back to the developer. If we don't include right-of-way, the developers will continue to dedicate right-of-way per the Master Street Plan and we will not have to give credit. These costs are based on estimated costs of the street bond program. This is for future development. The impact fees would be utilized to help fund 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 25, 2005 Page 9 of 9 the street CIP projects if the bond program is passed. This is just part of an overall program on how to pay for some of these street improvements. In response to a question from Alderman Reynolds, Tim stated that we are required under State law to allow manufactured homes within one zoning district so we do allow them in residential/agricultural zones. 7. Scheduling of the next Street Committee meeting. Alderman Marr asked to make sure that the traffic calming policy is added to the next Street Committee agenda. No date was set for the next Street Committee meeting. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org