January 30, 2010

What has the city council been up to?

January 6: Regular Session and Committee of the Whole

 Organizational items

• New council officers were chosen for 2010.

• Council Member liaisons to various city commissions were selected.

• Council interview committees to fill citizen appointments to boards and commissions were established (mostly the same as last year)

• The Council Sidewalk Committee and the Jack Hopkins Social Service Funding Committee were set for the new year.

Legislation for First Reading

Ordinance 10-01: To approve a new Planned Unit Development (PUD) southwest of the intersection of W. 3^rd St. and Patterson Drive, known as Patterson Pointe. Petitioners: Mark Figg and Mike Baker, Patterson Pointe LLC.

Ordinance 10-02: Refinancing a Parks District bond to take advantage of lower interest rates and save money.

Ordinance 10-03: Refinancing a Sewage Works Revenue bond to take advantage of lower interest rates and save money.

Committee of the Whole discussion

Ordinance 10-01: Summary of the main features of this new PUD:

1. Divided into three areas according to use

• Area A – along W. 3^rd St. – commercial on the ground floor with residential above (2 to 4 stories)

• Area B – south of Area A in the interior of the site – residential 2 or 3 story townhouses

• Area C – current site of New Tech High School

2. Affordable housing: Petitioner has committed to providing 30 bedrooms (probably 10 units) as “affordable housing.” They are committing to rents affordable to someone at 100% Average Median Income, and an affordability period of 10 years. The units could be made more “affordable” if the petitioner gets assistance from a federal or state program.

3. Reduction of impervious surface (more greenspace): Currently the site is 86% impervious. Petitioner plans to “day-light” the creek that is currently mostly underground running from west to east just south of Area A. Impervious surface will be reduced to no more than 70% in Areas A and B, and no more than 60% in Area C.

4. Traffic: Petitioner has agreed to put in a traffic signal at Patterson Dr. and “Old” 3rd St. when the project is built out. Area A was designed so cars could enter the commercial area with minimal impact on through-traffic along 3rd St.

5. Street design: The plan that was presented to the Council had somewhat of a grid system of streets, but only 2 streets were to be “public” due to the lack of connectivity of the other streets. The city’s Public Works department does not want to take responsibility for streets that only serve private residents.

6. Interaction of Area A with the street: The plan was to have a “parking lane” along the front of the project, and this would provide a slower driving lane and angled parking, separated from 3rd St. by a green median.

The discussion focused on increasing connectivity by having an internal street connect to Patterson Drive south of New Tech High School. There was also much interest in revising the parking lane design along the front of the commercial buildings to make it more user-friendly for pedestrians and bicyclists, and possibly to use the development as an opportunity to slow down the traffic on W. 3^rd St. Affordable housing was also discussed, and Lisa Abbott from HAND communicated that they are unable to commit to funding the affordable housing component because the plan was not advanced enough at this time.

Ordinances 10-02 and 10-03: Very few questions were asked since these seemed like straightforward cost-saving measures.

January 13: No meeting

January 20: Regular Session

Committee Reports

Council Sidewalk Committee: The Sidewalk Committee, which consisted of myself and Chris Sturbaum, Mike Satterfield, and Dave Rollo, decided to fund three projects: Marilyn Drive (which had been promised the last 2 years, but funding fell through), a portion of E. 3^rd St. (north side), and stormwater improvements on Southdowns Dr. We also highly recommended the use of Greenways funds for part of E 3^rd. St. The Public Works department, which controls the Greenways funds, assured us that they would contribute $100,000 to E. 3^rd St. unless emergency needs elsewhere arose this year.

Legislation for Second Reading

Ordinances 10-02 and 10-03 were passed unanimously

Ordinance 10-01: Patterson Pointe. The Council can add “reasonable conditions” onto PUDs that were approved by the Plan Commission. The following reasonable conditions were adopted:

1. Connecting the residential portion of the development to Adams St. via a public street south of New Tech High School. This requires reconfiguration of the parking lot at New Tech and the school bus drop-off/pick-up plan.

2. Decreasing the number of lanes on “Old” 3^rd St. to the east of Patterson Drive, at the intersection of the two streets.

The Council could not agree on which of the following two conditions were the best, so they decided by a vote of 5-4 to let the developer decide , in consultation with the Plan Commission and city staff.

3. Eliminating the parking/slow driving lane in front of the commercial buildings on W. 3^rd St. and around the corner to Patterson, and replacing these with on-street parking.

4. Revising the parking/slow driving lane in front of the commercial buildings to straighten it out.

Legislation for First Reading

Ordinance 10-04: Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program implementation at the intersection of Mitchell, Southdowns, and Circle Drive.

January 27: Committee of the Whole

Ordinance 10-04: Justin Wykoff, manager of engineering services, discussed how the proposal came from the SoMax Neighborhood Association, the four designs the neighbors considered, the results of the balloting (84% in favor), and the funding of the potential project. Several neighbors spoke in favor of the project, saying that the intersection is unsafe for pedestrians and bicyclists to cross, and that it was difficult for a car to safely cross or turn onto Mitchell from Circle or Southdowns due to speeds and the blind curve to the south.

A few neighbors are opposed, but they did not come to the meeting. We have emails from some of them.