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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/07/2013 Work SessionCity of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2013 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, October 7, 2013 at 5:57 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors VanGordon, Wylie, Moore, Ralston and Brew. 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. i Councilor Woodrow was absent (excused). 1. Springfield Transportation System Plan — Review of Draft Plan. Transportation Planner David Reesor presented the staff report on this item. The Springfield 2035 Transportation System Plan (TSP) provided a 20 -year blueprint for how the City should maintain and improve the transportation network to meet growth demands within Springfield's existing Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). This Springfield 2035 TSP would replace TransPlan (amended 2002), with respect to Springfield. TransPlan had served as the adopted TSP for both Eugene and Springfield. In 2007, House Bill 3337 was signed into law, requiring the two cities to develop separate UGBs. With separate UGBs, the State of Oregon's Transportation Planning Rule required that Springfield and Eugene develop city- specific TSPs. While the Springfield 2035 TSP was an "update" of TransPlan, it was the City's first independent TSP. Over the past several years, City and consultant staff had engaged the public, partner agency staff, and appointed and elected officials in an in -depth planning process to plan for Springfield's future transportation system. Consistent with state law, this TSP addressed all modes of transportation. It clearly outlined goals, policies and action items to guide implementation of the Plan and contained project lists for 20 years and beyond. The TSP Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) and Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) both recently reviewed the draft Plan and recommended approval. Comments on the final draft TSP had been collected and summarized from the TAC, SAC and public to -date, and were provided in Attachment 3 of the agenda packet. Springfield Staff met with the City Planning Commission on September 17 "', 2013. The Planning Commission asked some clarifying questions, but did not suggest any additional edits and passed the draft Plan to Council for review and comments. After this Council work session, Staff would continue the adoption process with a Lane County Board work session scheduled for October 29 "i, 2013. Subsequent public hearings would follow with the City Planning Commission, City Council and Lane County Board of Commissioners. Mr. Reesor presented a power point presentation. The TSP covered all modes of transportation and major facilities. Councilor Wylie asked about TransPlan. Mr. Reesor said TransPlan was a joint plan for Eugene and Springfield.' Upon separation of the two cities' UGBs, each city was required to draft their own plan. i City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes October 7, 2013 Page 2 Mayor Lundberg said TransPlan was part of the Metro Plan Mr. Reeser said TransPlan would remain in the Metro Plan as the regional plan, but this would be Springfield's local plan. He explained the TSP process and reviewed the adoption process. Following this work session, staff would present a work session to the Lane County Board of Commissioners (LCBC). After all of the work sessions, public hearings would begin with the Planning Commissions, City Council and LCBC. The document was created to be easy to read, with technical information included in the appendices. He noted the chapters of the document. Mr. Reesor reviewed the goals, priorities and actions ofthis plan. The goals were high level and the priorities supported each of the goals. He noted the projects in the plan and said they had tried to make those projects very flexible to allow them to take advantage of opportunities while they arose, while keeping some guidelines in place. He discussed the different projects in this list. A map showing the location of each of the projects by category was displayed. Mr. Reeser noted that although this was a 20 -year plan they had included projects that could be considered beyond the 20 -year mark. Councilor Ralston asked where the Highway 126 and 52 ,d Street intersection was included. Mr. Reesor said it was in the Priority list. He discussed the study projects, the frequent transit network and the financing piece of the plan. There was a wide disparity between funds available and the cost to do all of the projects. No TSP showed every project being completed. Councilor Brew said the Plan showed the As Development Occurs cost,' but not the revenue coming in from the developers. i Mr. Reesor said that was true. Much of the costs would be from the developer. Councilor Moore referred to the recent report that the Franklin /McVay project had been adopted as a high priority for funding with federals funds. She asked if that was included in this Plan. Mr. Reesor said the funding sources in the TSP did include federal funding sources Mayor Lundberg said this was our wish list so everything was there in the event funding became available. Projects needed to get into the list and worked through the system to eventually become reality. Not everything would come to fruition and some things may change. Mr. Reesor said in the transportation world, there was a lot of federal funding that could possibly come, but it changed often and was not always reliable. Staff did their best to project based on historical information. He asked for questions and comments from the Council. There was time between now and the first public hearing to allow staff to make changes based on their comments. Mayor Lundberg said Opportunity projects in the Marcola area had roundabouts as an option. She would be interested to see where the freight routes would go in that area. She wanted to make sure those routes weren't short- changed in our planning efforts. She would like to see where the different freight corridors were located throughout town. If there were roundabouts at each of those points, they may not be a practical solution if those areas were to remain a freight route. i City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes October 7, 2013 Page 3 Mr. Reesor said there was a truck route map in the Draft TSP, but staff could work with the engineers to see where the proposed roundabouts overlapped with the future truck routes. They could also add language where needed to include `signal or roundabout'. Councilor Brew said when looking at the areas for UGB expansion, they all had issues with transportation. As those areas got finalized, the transportation needed to be considered in those areas. Mr. Reesor said the current TSP only included the current UGB area. If the City did expand their UGB, staff would come back to amend portions of the TSP for those areas. Mayor Lundberg said flashing lights were noted in the Opportunity section. She was reminded that they didn't have a flashing light for people crossing the street from Thurston High School across to the Children's Development Center. There had been three accidents at that location last year. She would like to see something added there. She would also like to get rid of the flashing lights at 2 °d and Q Street. There was an intersection about a block from that light and there were a number of issues in that area that were being studied. She would like them to look at the full intersection. Mr. Reesor said they would look to see what type of street 58'h Street was and add it to the list for future projects. Mayor Lundberg said they had talked for a long time about having a connection between Wayside Loop and RiverBend Hospital for bicyclists and pedestrians. It was listed under As Development Occurs and she would like to see it looked at sooner to get people off the main roads. Mr. Reesor said they could move it to the Opportunity list. Councilor Moore asked about the crossing at the Fire Station at 5`h Street. She asked if some of the older style lights for crossing could be updated to the flashing lights. Mr. Reesor said the newer lights were more appropriate for that type of Crossing Mr. Grimaldi said the light on 5 °i Street was also for the fire station Mr. Reesor said he would need to talk to the traffic engineers more about that particular light Mr. Grimaldi said staff would also look into the timing of the light. Mayor Lundberg said it was important for Council to remember that we were getting close to the public hearing and adoption of the TSP. Mr. Reesor said he would return to the Council for a public hearing in December. 2. Booth Kelly Business Plan Update. Facilities Supervisor Jim Polston presented the staff report on this item. The City of Springfield currently owned and operated the Booth -Kelly Center, which included a,number of large industrial and commercial warehouse, storage, manufacturing and office spaces. Some but not all spaces were currently renting to Springfield businesses. However, even with many positive attributes, Booth Kelly, like many industrial and commercial spaces in the area, suffered from unoccupied space, deteriorating infrastructure and increasing operating costs. These facts, along with the interest the Budget City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes October 7, 2013 Page 4 Committee expressed in Booth Kelly at its May 21" meeting were the reasons for this update to Council on the efforts to create a business plan for the Booth Kelly facility for this transitional period, or at least until the industrial /commercial market rebounded from the current doldrums and allowed for more robust reinvestment. Following the Budget Committee discussion on this topic, Development and Public Works Director Len Goodwin put together a group of staff including Greg Mott, John Tamulonis, Marcy Parker, Sophia Seban, Mr. Polston and several others, to get a handle on possible directions for Booth Kelly. If Booth Kelly was to continue to function effectively until a major redevelopment took place, an interim plan to provide needed preservation and maintenance was necessary. Regardless of which option was eventually chosen by Council, City Staff would continue to work together in an attempt to ensure continued success of the facility. Currently staff from the Office of the Director and the Operations Divisions were working as a team to maintain and operate the facility. Operations staff was overseeing the maintenance, preservation and capital improvements at the facility. Staff from the Office of the Director oversaw tenant needs and worked to continually attract new tenants while working with existing tenants to maintain our existing leases. A Request for Proposals had been sent out to have a facilities plan done on the Booth Kelly site. Mr. Polston presented a power point on this subject. He referred to a map showing each site and which ones were currently leased, as well as a list of the different tenants. Mr. Polston reviewed the following 5 options being presented to the Council. 1. Status quo approach to operating the facility with minimal investments by finding tenants preferring low -cost space over extra amenities or who are willing to make improvements for a fair low -cost space. 2. Selective focus on improving certain buildings /suites into flexible rental space for incubator /business development purposes. 3. Selective removal of the most deteriorated structures to create space for potential redevelopment. 4. Selective addition of structures on a build -to -suit or Request for Proposal (RFP) basis. 5. Removal of all structures and prepare site for total redevelopment. Staff would also work to leverage funds if and when possible to supplement City funds in making needed improvements. Some possible resources included: • Apply for and use grant monies to help create business opportunities and do environmental cleanups if needed, continue holding special events and increase energy efficiency. • Include environmental, beautification and recreation improvement to the site, if possible, as future phases of the Mill Race project. • Continue to improve partnerships and work with agencies such as Willamalane, the University of Oregon, Lane Community College, Chamber of Commerce and NEDCO to help advance Booth Kelly. Mr. Polston discussed funds available for some repairs and improvements of the facility. He referred to some slides showing some of the improvements that had been made at the site. In the short term, staff felt it wasn't the appropriate time to make big investments, but to keep necessary investments and expand the tenants. Staff would be back before Council to discuss long tern plans. Councilor Brew said his inclination was to move forward with Option 2 by partnering with NEDCO for microbusinesses, etc. He asked if there was a Master Plan for the Booth Kelly site. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes October 7, 2013 Page 5 Mr. Tamulonis said there was a very old Master Plan. It had been difficult as companies had recently been moving in and out of the different communities. In a couple of years as things filled up, they would have a better sense of the market. Councilor Ralston said the parking was listed as vacant space. Mr. Polston said it was not actually vacant space, but there were some vacant office suites near that area. He explained the configuration of that area. Councilor Ralston said years ago there was a grocery store at that location. He asked where that had been located. Mr. Tamulonis noted on the map where the different stores were located. Some of that space had to be torn down due to safety concerns. Councilor Ralston said we had to adjust as we went and he preferred Option 1 along with some partnerships with other entities. It was a great place for NEDCO to have the incubator businesses. Councilor Moore asked how much of the area was owned by the City Mr. Tamulonis noted the full 17 acres owned by the City on the map Councilor Moore said she would love to have a tour of the facility as they looked toward long -tern planning. She recently heard a keynote speaker at the Main Street Conference who spoke of place making. She felt that Booth Kelly would be a great `place'. She noted that somewhere in Florida, they built a Springfield which was a Simpson Amusement Park. She thought Booth Kelly would be a great place for a Simpson Amusement Center. Councilor VanGordon said he was in favor of an Option 2 `lite'. Looking at the amenities and bringing in a non -profit made sense to him. In the following year's budget, they could perhaps start looking at things like WiFi and shared utilities. The tenants that were attracted by the rate structure were looking for storage and warehouse space. As they started to clean up the building they could look at adding those amenities to attract tenants for other uses that brought in people and activity. Mr. Polston said there had been a number of options considered, including the ideas from the Sustainable City Year (SCY) students that provided some great directions this facility could go in the future, maintaining the major architectural elements in place. Councilor Wylie said she hoped that eventually during redevelopment, they would keep some of the historic parts of the site. Long term she would like to see the terminus of the high speed rail at this location along with hotels and restaurants. Councilor Brew said the reason he didn't choose Option 1 was because we had been in Option I for a long time and he would like to move forward. When looking at buildings to retain, they needed to consider that this was formerly a mill site and there was likely a lot of industrial contamination under the asphalt. They would need a comprehensive environmental review of the site before trying to market or redevelop. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes October 7, 2013 Page 6 Councilor Ralston said he would like to see Option 2, but it required capital investment which the City didn't have. He was willing to make improvements if we had a tenant that was lined up that wanted something specific. Mayor Lundberg said she liked an Option 2 `lite' version, although she saw the railroad tracks as an issue. She noted that younger entrepreneurs wanted spaces that could provide multiple uses. She had brought up Booth Kelly with the University of Oregon for those types of businesses or start-tip programs. In the study, we needed to look at how to configure the spaces in the short-term. Not too many years ago Booth Kelly actually made the City money, but was now a drain on our budget. She would like to look at what we could do to improve the facility and make it someplace that people liked. Lane Transit District (LTD) used part of the area for overflow parking which should be upgraded with lights, etc. to make it safer. Mr. Polston said a study would show where the hot spots were located. Some projects would be costly, such as roof replacement, but the study could show where things could be done at a lower cost. Councilor Moore said Astoria had redeveloped their waterfront area. Clatsop Community College had a program that involved rehabilitating buildings and provided information on what could or could not be done. She suggested staff contact the head of that program (she could provide name) for a study. Mayor Lundberg said they could also contact the UO or others besides NEDCO as NEDCO was already stretched thin. She said Council was interested in staff looking more into Option 2. Councilor Ralston said he wanted to know the costs Mr. Polston said staff would work on that and bring something back to Council. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:03 p.m. Minutes Recorder — Amy Sawa G- Christine L. Lundberg Mayor Attest: lTl l �- Amy Sowa City Recorder