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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/05/2012 Work SessionCity of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield; Oregon, on Monday, November 5, 2012 at 6:01 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors Pishioneri, VanGordon, Wylie, Moore, Ralston and Woodrow. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Mary Bridget Smith, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. 1. Temporary SDC Reductions. Development and Public Works Director Len Goodwin presented the staff report on this item. On February 6, 2012, the Council, by Resolution 12 -02, temporarily adjusted SDCs for the period from February 7, 2012, through and including December 31, 2012. That program, which provided for 100 percent reductions in City SDCs in certain circumstances and 50 percent reductions in other cases, expired December 31, 2012. Absent further action by Council, SDCs would, on January L 2013, be collected at the full amounts imposed. (The current rate sheet was attached as Attachment 2 of the agenda packet). During the current temporary reduction program, the City had collected about $441,000 in local SDCs. All of those were from developments covered by the 50 percent reduction aspect of the current program. During the past nine months no development applications had been submitted which would qualify for either of the 100 percent reductions opportunities. In addition, the Springfield Economic Development Agency had agreed, on a temporary basis, to assume the obligation to pay any SDCs attributable to development in the Downtown Urban Renewal Area which complied with the standards of the approved Downtown Design Plan. After studying the result's of the past nine months, staff recommended that while the incentive for large development be continued, the incentives for specific job creation targets, and the incentive for all other development be discontinued. Staff also recommended that the Council consider discussing with SEDA the opportunity to extend the agreement to assume the obligation for SDCs for downtown development that complied with the Downtown Design Plan, and consider expanding that program to include development in Glenwood that conformed to the Approved Glenwood Refinement Plan, Phase 1. Mr. Goodwin noted that because of the reduction program, the City gave up $440,000 in SDCs, primarily from the residential side. This was a challenge as the City's SDC funds were already low, and in the coming year, the City would collect less than 60 percent of what was budgeted and less than 50 percent of our long -term financial plans for those funds. That raised the question of whether or not the City would have adequate funding for capital improvement programs funded by SDCs. The City relied heavily on SDC revenue to support expansion and growth in transportation, wastewater and stormwater systems. User rate and fuel tax revenues were used largely for preservation activities. This wasn't an immediate crisis, but could mean that as things turned around and needed expansion, the City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 5. 2012 Page 2 City would be looking at inadequate funding. In the past; in the case of stormwater and wastewater, that had led to a great deal of reliance on debt financing, which could also affect user rates. Mr. Goodwin reviewed the options available to Council regarding the temporary reduction program. Based on Council's direction, staff would bring back an action item before expiration of the current program. Councilor Pishioneri noted the number of homes built from February to August and the same time period prior, and said he didn't feel it provided enough of an opportunity to see if this was a trend. He had talked with many people that built only because of the reductions. He noted the number of people it took to build those 98 homes. It seemed too soon to eliminate this program, but this was a good check -in point to see if it was working. He would support continuing it or scaling back the reduction slightly to see if it affected home building. He asked if the University of Oregon study that indicated a rebound in the economy was local to Springfield, regional or national. Without the program, the City may not have had the $441000 they did receive in SDC's. The program was helping and he didn't want to consider eliminating it. Mr. Goodwin said in the 8 month period noted, there were 66 homes constructed, with 49 constructed the previous year. It was difficult to tell how many of the homes built were from this program, or because of a renewed confidence by the builders. Councilor Moore said there was a slight increase in residential permits during the last year, but there had been a reduction in the years prior. She would like more history showing where we had been over a longer period of time. She asked if the residential homes were built as infill or where more infrastructure was needed. Mr. Goodwin said most of the building was done by two builders and was done in two subdivisions that had been developing over the last few years. There was some infill development as well. Councilor Moore said because the streets and facilities were already in place there was not a high outlay for the City. She was concerned about stimulating business, but also was concerned about the fairness issue. Councilor VanGordon said there were a lot of questions about what to do regarding the residential program. At this point, he would like to continue a program for both, but separate the two. He recommended continuing the commercial and looking at other options for residential. That would give the City an opportunity to talk with homebuilders to determine how many permits were due to the SDC reduction and how many would have been built anyway. Capital improvement was a concern so if they wanted to continue with something they needed to determine what projects would not be funded. He didn't want to do something for commercial and not for residential. It was clear something should be done for commercial. Mr. Grimaldi said Council could look at the residential issue in a different way by looking at what the City could afford to do. It would be difficult to determine whether or not the program helped. Everyone who participated in the program did receive a benefit, but it was difficult to say whether or not they would have built without the program. if they looked at what the City could afford to put into the program, they could get a number to work with to determine how to distribute funds. At some point, the City would need to reduce expenditures in order to make things balance. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 5, 2012 Page 3 Councilor Pishioneri noted that Willamalane had also eliminated their SDCs as a partner. if the City discontinued their program, that needed to be communicated with Willamalane. Mr. Grimaldi said Willamalane's benefit had a limit of 40 homes and had already expired. Councilor Pishioneri said he agreed with keeping the program for commercial. Residential was worthy of looking at again to see what made sense. Mr. Goodwin referred to a program mentioned by Councilor Pishioneri for delayed SDC payments. That was not part of this program, but could be considered as an option. When the City first tried to stimulate development, Council approved having SDCs paid at occupancy. That program expired some time ago but could be considered as an element of a program. Very few people took advantage of that program at the time, but that could have been due to the economics at the time. Councilor Woodrow asked if collecting the full amount helped with the City's borrowing power. Mr. Goodwin said it did indirectly. SDC revenue could not be pledged as security for debt as it was too volatile, but debt service could be paid with SDC revenue. That had been done to a large extent for wastewater and stormwater bonds. if the City continued the program; there was a question of whether the SDC revenues would be adequate to service the debt and conduct other capital activities. If it was inadequate to service the debt, we would rely on user rate revenue for that purpose, which would have an impact on user rates. Councilor Woodrow asked if there was a tipping point if we continued with the program. Mr. Goodwin said that was very difficult to estimate. There would be a tipping point. That could be better answered in March or April when staff began to look at rates for next year. Councilor Ralston said according to the agenda packet there were no projects that took the 100 percent credit. He wanted to see that accomplished and was a goal. That was the most important aspect of this program. He would like to look at the timing of the payment that had been in place in 2009, but he didn't want to pass development costs off to users. We couldn't afford to continue not taking in revenue for much longer. He felt maybe there should be a cap. He was supportive of the concept, but was more supportive of the 100 percent. Councilor Wylie said she was supportive of the staff recommendation, including negotiating with SEDA for some of the charges. She was ambiguous about the residential. but would like to look again at the delayed collection of SDCs. It had been a good program and would start paying off for the City. Councilor Moore said the City's tax base was increased every time a house was built which was a long term benefit. The City competed with other areas for homebuilding and she wondered how Springfield compared with others in regards to our fees. One of the larger communities also lowered their commercial SDCs. She agreed that should stay in place longer because those types of development took longer. She would also like to include SEDA's involvement for Downtown and Glenwood. Councilor VanGordon said he liked the idea of delaying the payments, especially if the market was picking up again. Councilor Woodrow agreed. She also supported the program for commercial continuing Cit}, of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 5, 2012 Page 4 Mayor Lundberg said the Council seemed to support the delayed payment on residential and continuing the reduction program for commercial. The thing that concerned her about the residential side was that the SDCs were figured into the purchase price and people were still struggling to get into homes. She was still sensitive to people being able to buy homes. This was not currently the peak of the season, so she didn't want to discontinue the program right now. She would like to look at this in the perspective of what the City could afford. She would also like to see the total of all the SDCs, including Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission and Willamalane SDCs. Showing all of them together gave them a better idea of the total costs. Councilor Pishioneri said he also wanted to know all of the up -front costs. Mayor Lundberg said Springfield was different than other communities because we had Willamalane. Councilor Ralston said they could infer that the additional houses built in 2012 were built because of the program. Some houses would be built anyway and all homes built during that time had benefited from the reduction of SDCs. He felt we needed to be careful that we cap it at some point. Mr. Grimaldi said based on Council feedback, staff would go ahead and extend the commercial /industrial program and bring it back to Council for approval. A work session could be scheduled before the end of the year to look at the residential program. A SEDA meeting would also be scheduled to discuss the SDCs for Glenwood. 2. Latino Community Listening Session Results City Manager Gino Grimaldi presented the staff report on this item. Springfield officials were looking at opportunities to reach out to and engage our Latino community. TEAM Springfield agency representatives met on September 18.2012 for a listening session with community members to discuss what Springfield was doing well; what could be improved; how Springfield could better communicate with our Latino community members and how the Latino community would like to be engaged with Springfield. Councilor Woodrow said she attended the Listening Session and found it to be very valuable. It created the beginning of some relationships that were not previously established and provided opportunities to have a good exchange of ideas, feelings and expectations. People expressed themselves openly. She would like to see what was learned and exchanged and would like to see if they could expand that beyond the Latino community to all members of our community. Springfield had numerous subcultures and it would be beneficial to reach out to all. Each subculture group was different. She would like to see this concept grow and learn more about other subcultures in our community to create an environment that was open for everyone. Mayor Lundberg agreed this was very useful. There were many cultures in our community and we needed to reach out to everyone. She would also like to see us follow -up. She did note that someone who had attended the meetine had not seen the notes and she asked if those would be sent out. Councilor VanGordon said some of the themes he noted from the conversation were participation and leadership positions. They needed to have a conversation around the process to let everyone know they could apply for board and committee positions. This could possibly be done through listening sessions City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 5, 2012 Page 5 such as this. Before the January TEAM Springfield meeting, he would like to see an example of what a `report card' would look like. The notes cited an example from Santa Barbara. He would like to know the City's ability to provide translation services such as staff members that were bi- lingual. Ideas that came out of this type of session should be used as a springboard and to keep people involved and engaged. Councilor Woodrow said during the listening session, she learned that the City needed to find a way to make involvement attractive to them that addressed their community. It was not attractive for them to look at the open positions because they felt there was separation because their culture was different. She asked some of the attendees how she could attract those members to be part of the parade and they said to make it something they could feel a part of, notjust something they were joining. Doing so created an inclusiveness that led to attractiveness. It was not going to be an easy bridge, but it was there. It was nice that they felt comfortable speaking up and having an open discussion. Councilor Moore said she appreciated this first step. She also appreciated what the Library had done. There were many positive things going on in our City and Library. Springfield had a large Latino population. She asked if they could get the website in Spanish. Mr. Laudati said programs geared towards Latino residents were put out in Spanish. Translation for the rest of our website was not part of the last website development. Councilor Woodrow said the School District indicated during the meeting that they had staff willing to translate information for our web page. They noted that they would not necessarily translate everything on the website, but could translate for specific topics. Councilor Moore said she was interested in knowing what SUB, Willamalane and the School District did in that regard. Mayor Lundberg said she leaned that this was a two -step process. We first needed to have people feel they were contributing to events. Many Latino families had young children and it was difficult to serve on boards and commissions. They needed to start by offering to do something in the community such as a community event to bring people together. They had more to accomplish before they could expect people to get fully involved. Councilor Woodrow said this needed to be ongoing and continual. Mr. Grimaldi said there were other communities in Oregon having similar conversations, such as Salem as part of their Sustainable City Year (SCY) program. A report from that program was co- authored by Monique Lopez who was currently an intern in the City Manager's Office. A copy of that report would be provided to Council. Although parts of it were Salem specific, there were many things that addressed some of the comments from tonight's meeting. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:51 p.m Minutes Recorder — Amy Sowa Cip' of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 5, 2012 Page 6 Christine L. Lundbero a Mayor Attest: ft. Amy S 'a City Re rder