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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/06/2017 Work Session City of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY FEBRUARY 6, 2017 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon,on Monday February 6,2017 at 6:00 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors VanGordon,Wylie, Moore,Stoehr,Woodrow and Pishioneri.Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi,Assistant City Attorney Kristina Kraaz, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. 1. Consideration of Assigning a Development Code Update/Replacement Project Commencing in FY18. Anette Spickard,Development and Public Works Director, presented the staff report on this item. The Springfield Development Code was adopted in 1987, replacing the City's previous zoning code. The City relies on the Code to regulate where uses can be located by zoning district,minimum lot sizes, setbacks and several other routine development standards.The Code also implements the City's comprehensive plan policies,Council priorities and the"pass-through"enforcement of all applicable state and federal land use laws. A decision to update the Development Code gives the City the opportunity to take a holistic look at how development is regulated and to implement new Council strategies,priorities and initiatives for the development,redevelopment and reuse of land and buildings in the city during the next 20 years. The Development Code is the principal document that regulates the implementation of the various state and federal land use,transportation and environmental mandates applicable within the City of Springfield.This connection between these laws and their effective implementation"on-the-ground" enables the City to maintain compliance with these state and federal"pass-through"laws. At the same time,the Council relies almost entirely on the Code to ensure that specific initiatives and policies, including the redevelopment of Glenwood,affordable housing, economic prosperity, and Downtown revitalization have the best chance for success. In most cases,the current text of the Code is written broadly enough to support new policy initiatives or brick-and-mortar projects identified by Council. However,the evolution of the Code over the last 30 years has resulted in a complex Code that is not easy to use for either the community or the staff and can hamper rather than support the economic development and neighborhood quality investments desired by the Council. Staff requests Council input on whether a Code update is desired and the extent to which it should be done. Three possible options are presented for discussion below. • Option I -A full development code update and rewrite.If this option is desired, staff will prepare a choice of code models that Council can choose from such as a form-based code, a "smart code",a minimalist model to only satisfy state and federal laws, or retaining the traditional model. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes February 6,2017 Page 2 • Option 2—A less intensive update that retains the traditional code model and solely focuses on making the existing code easier to navigate and removes redundant sections. • Option 3 —No code update at this time. Ms. Spickard described each option. Staff recommends Option 1 as this gives the Council the most opportunity for being responsive to community and developers' needs and will position.the City for attracting major new investments as a result of the Springfield Look,the 2021 World Championships, University of Oregon expansion and other regional and state influences. She noted that next week the Council is scheduled to meet with the Development Advisory Committee to discuss their ideas to improve development processes. Councilor Pishioneri said he supports Option 1.He likes the idea of going through and using a minimalist approach, using state and federal law as a frame. He wants to make sure Downtown Development Standards are retained so we keep the feel we currently have in our downtown. The code should be written in a way that we can get to `yes' instead of saying no. He would like to see it have flexibility and allow smart growth. The timing is well justified for a number of reasons. He wants to make it broad enough to allow development. Councilor VanGordon said he agreed with Option 1,and felt it would help make the City competitive in the future, He liked the memo that went out in the Communication Packet last week that outlined the three-pronged approach for a strategic business process improvement. Transparency and ease of use is important to him. He wants it easy enough to read for the average person to understand. There is a lot of staff time that is taken in understanding the code so it's important to make it more clear to reduced staff time to administer the code. He doesn't want to bring our bad habits from the old code forward.They need to think about what they want, rather than what they have done,and how they can get to that result.He wants to see something new and useful when staff brings the first section for review. Councilor Woodrow said she agrees with Option 1. She would like to see ease of navigation and removal of redundancy. She does not want them to just renovate something we have,but coming up with something new. She felt the timing is right. We need to be conscious of issues that have come to the City over the last few years and make sure they are part of the strategic goal of the document. Councilor Moore agreed. She would like to review each section as it is completed rather than the whole thing at the end.It is important to have an effective search engine for the general public and developers. She would like it constructed in a way that it could be updated when needed. She asked about the cost. Ms. Spickard said this could possibly be a three-year project. They would need a team of staff dedicated to this work and do it right.They would bring a section to the Planning Commission every month or six weeks for review.Her thought is to take staff to dedicate to this project and backfill their positions to continue the day-to-day work. Once they have an idea of what the Council wants,she can draw up a proposal.It will be a significant investment. Councilor Moore asked if there are grants or funding for this project. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes February b,2017 Page 3 Ms. Spickard said the primary planning grant through ODOT has been a good source of funds for the City in the past,but then becomes a project under ODOT's umbrella which could take away some of the City's control of the project. Staff will look into other funding options. Councilor Moore asked if it would be a three year budget cycle. Mr. Grimaldi said it could be.Also,because it would be a project with a set beginning and set ending, one-time funds could be used without hurting the City in the long term. Councilor Moore said it is a big project and it makes sense to do the full thing. Councilor Wylie said it is hard to make a choice because she doesn't know how much each option will cost. It is important that we upgrade and do what we need to do,which could be Option 2. She doesn't want to reinvent the wheel if someone else is going through the process. Circumstances are always changing so they could spend a lot of money updating it,and then it is out of date. She would like to look at the costs. Ms. Spickard said staff could come back in another work session with what different,more modern codes look like so the Council could see what that would look like. Councilor Pishioneri said if we develop something, it should send a message that we are open for business. It is not only important this document is easy for citizens and developers to understand,but also for staff to understand and work with so they can get to `yes' without concern. He doesn't want to see staff waste a lot of time because they are trying to understand and interpret the code.The other message is that we want homes at all price points because they are needed. This message needs to go out to those that can make a difference. Councilor Woodrow said she seriously looked at Option 2,but it appeared to be patchwork. She felt that putting their heads together on one project would require fewer updates in the future.It's important to have it easy for staff as well as developers and homeowners to understand. Mayor Lundberg said some of the things she had noted regarding this update were: competitive, minimalist, flexible,transparency, ease of use, encourages innovation, and clear language. One of the things that causes problems at times is when a project comes in that conflicts with one of our refinement plans. She would like to know how we could build in some flexibility within these types of situation to the best of our ability. She would also like to have the ability to be flexible to encourage innovation. Things change rapidly and she wants to look at how we build into our codes a way to accommodate those innovations. She is fine with the example principles in the Council Briefing Memorandum,and she also agrees with a full re-vamp of the Code.Reading the history, it appears the Code was originally written in the 1930's,and was then updated in the 1980's. She would like to figure out how to make it 21"century and how to make it last 30-50 years. They need to address the fact that we want to be competitive. She asked staff to bring back some options of what it could look like. Ms. Spickard said would she would schedule that work session. Councilor Pishioneri said when looking at codes in other cities that had already been updated.,he would like to find out the success or pangs from those changes.He wants to make sure all stakeholders are involved, including the HomeBuilders Association(HBA). He wants to look at how those models actually work and their success rate. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes February 6,2017 Page 4 Councilor Moore said they need input from the community. Ms. Spickard said it would definitely be a public process. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:28 p.m. Minutes Recorder—Amy Sowa Christine L. Lundberg Mayor Attest: p Amy Sow City Recorder