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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/07/2007 Work Session City of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, MAY 7,2007 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, May 7, 2007 at 6:22 p.m., with Mayor Leiken presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Lundberg, Wylie, Ballew, Ralston, Woodrow and Pishioneri. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Recorder Amy Sowa andmembers of the staff. 1. Proposed Amendments to the Metropolitan Area General Plan Diagram and the Springfield Zoning Map. City Planner Gary Karp presented the staff report on this item. The subject site was formerly known as the "Pierce" property. The current Metro Plan designations and zoning are: Campus Industrial (56 acres), Medium Density Residential (35.7 acres) and Community Commercial (8.6 acres). The applicant requests approval of a: Type II Metro Plan diagram amendment to change the 56 acre Campus Industrial designation to: Community Commercial (11 acres); Medium Density Residentia1/Noda1 Development Area (19 acres); and CommerciallNodal Development Area (26 acres); and amendment ofthe Springfield Zoning Map from Campus Industrial to Community Commercial, Mixed Use Commercial and Medium Density Residential (same acreages). Both applications are interrelated; they both must be approved because of the required consistency between the Metro Plan designation and zoning. All issues related to the effects of the proposed development on neighboring properties raised during the Planning Commission public hearing are issues that will be addressed during the Master Plan review process, a condition of approval of these applications, which will be reviewed by the Planning Commission at a future public hearing. The Master Plan will contain proposed mitigations to positively respond to the issues raised by the neighbors. In making their decision on these applications, the City Council should consider if: the City will be better served by converting Campus Industrial land to Commercial and Multi-family Residential; Springfield's citizens, especially the neighbors, can be assured that a "quality" development will be constructed over time; and whether the removal of the Campus Industrial designation can be absorbed or should be offset by a commensurate addition of Campus Industrial designation elsewhere in the City as an element of the upcoming commercia1/industria11and supply demand analysis. Mr. Karp distributed materials that had been distributed to the Planning Commission ofa Lowe's in Stockdale, Arizona. He also distributed the first diagram of the Metro Plan. Councilor Ralston listed several concerns and questions: 1) How much industrial land was available in Springfield?; 2) How would the traffic issues be resolved? 3) Campus Industrial was a better fit for this area and would provide more living wage jobs; 4) It could work against redevelopment in the Mohawk area. Mr. Karp asked Mr. Tamulonis to discuss the Industrial Lands in Springfield. City of Springfield , Council Work Session Minutes May 7, 2007 Page 2 Mr. Tamulonis discussed the history of the Pierce Property and the property where Wa1Mart was currently located. He discussed some of the issues with this area that had prevented other companies from locating in this area. He noted the large amount of Campus Industrial property still available in Gateway and other areas in Springfield, currently over 100 acres. The Jasper Natron area could also include nearly 180 acres of Campus Industrial property. Transportation Planning Engineer Gary McKenney addressed the traffic issue. He said the application was for a plan amendment and zone change, and was required to address the Goal 12 Transportation Planning Rule. Conditions would be included in the plan analysis to meet Goal 12. Part of the master plan would require additional transportation analysis and other requirements at that time. The condition would include having no greater impact than if the property was developed as currently zoned. Councilor Ralston said most traffic would take the Mohawk exit to access that area. He noted the difficulty with traffic in that area at the present time. Mr. McKenney said one condition was to make a minor ODOT improvement now to address traffic issues. ODOT and the City would be involved in any transportation planning as appropriate. More analysis would be done during the master planning. Councilor Lundberg asked about trip caps. She said one of the reasons PeaceHealth was a fit out in Gateway was because traffic mitigation could be done by scheduling hospital staff with different shifts. The proposal tonight included high amounts of residential and business with no set travel times. She asked how the trip caps were monitored. Mr. McKenney said this calculation included both residential and commercial. It was not a trip cap, but a method of limiting the amount of development in each zone based on trips. It would be limited to the conditions recommended. The traffic analysis used a technique that considered the residential going to commercial. Without the residential within this development, there could be higher trips from travelers needing to travel from other locations. He explained one of the conditions of approval regarding trips. Councilor Lundberg said she was not a proponent of planning too far in the future because things changed. The proposed site was never very good as Campus Industrial in the first place. She noted the consideration of having residential near places like Kingsford. It didn't seem residential would be a good fit in this area for a lot of reasons. Councilor Pishioneri discussed nodal development and asked ifthere was currently a nodal designated in this area. Mr. Karp said on page 6-117 in the agenda packet, there was a map of potential nodal development areas in the TransPlan. This property was located in Site 7C on that map. Mr. Metzger said Council gave direction to staff for six nodal sites. The Pierce property was noted as a property with a high potential for nodal, but wasn't included in the top six. The Pierce Property could be a successful node. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 7,2007 Page 3 A Councilor said it seemed contrary to where Council wanted to go for nodal development. Mr. Metzger said the character and density of homes was important for nodal development. Councilor Pishioneri said he noted a large list of neighbors with concerns. He hoped there had been and would be a lot of communication with the neighbors regarding their concerns. Mr. Karp said the applicants had a neighborhood meeting before the Planning Commission public hearing. Many of the questions from the neighbors weren't addressed in the criteria of approval, but would be addressed in the master plan. The master plan would include mitigation conditions to hopefully address those issues. This application had not been as emotional as the Home Depot request several years ago. There were a lot of legitimate questions. Councilor Woodrow asked what areas would involve ODOT. Mr. McKenney said the interchanges at Mohawk and 42nd Street from Highway 126. Councilor Wylie said it was exciting to see this type of development. She asked how many employees there would be at Lowe's. The applicant, Mr. Satre, said he didn't know off hand. Councilor Ralston asked if this would affect redevelopment in Mohawk. He asked about restrictions on truck traffic. Mr. Karp said the master plan would include more detail. Mayor Leiken said Council would hear testimony and conduct the first reading of the proposed amendment ordinances during their regular meeting. He reminded Council this application was for a zone change and Council needed to determine whether to allow something to move forward with different zoning. He said he was interested to hear what the public had to say. 2. Proposed Stormwater and Wastewater User Fees. Environmental Services Manager Susie Smith presented the staff report on this item. She noted that for almost twenty years Gary Colwell had run the figures for these rates. With his passing came a need to have someone step in to do the work. She said she appreciated Jeff Paschall and Meg Alloco for stepping up and getting the figures prepared. The current rates for local and regional wastewater and local stormwater user fees were adopted by the Council in May of 2006. At current rates, the local and regional wastewater user fees will not produce sufficient revenue to fully fund the proposed FY 07-08 budget and the Council-adopted Capital Improvements Program (CIP). The attached Council Briefmg Memorandum provides an evaluation of alternative rate increase options for Council consideration. No rate increase is proposed for storm water user fees. Re2ional Wastewater User Fees. The Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission (MWMC) adopted an 8% increase in regional wastewater user fees to become effective July 1, City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 7, 2007 Page 4 2007 following a public hearing on April 19th. The primary factor driving this and projected future increases is the Commission's capital financing plan associated with implementation of the 2004 MWMC Facilities Plan. The Plan includes a twenty-year list of capital projects intended to provide sufficient environmental performance and treatment capacity to serve community growth through 2025. The twenty-year cost of these projects is $196 million (in 2006 dollars). Local Wastewater User Fees. The Council is requested to consider options for an increase in local wastewater user fees ranging from 3.5% to 6%. The factors impacting the operating budget revenue requirements in the coming year include inflation, litigation costs, and a modest increase in personnel services. However, the primary factor driving the need for increased wastewater fees in FY 07-08 and subsequent years relates to the funding requirements of the local wastewater CIP. Until wastewater system development charge (SDC) revenues increase substantially, user fee revenues will continue to be the primary funding source for capital projects. Updates to the Sanitary Sewer Master Plan and the SDC methodology are underway, with expected completion in early-to-mid FY 07-08. Each of the user fee rate options presented for Council consideration assumes increased SDC revenues in the future. A 0% increase option is not presented, as it would result in inadequate revenue to fund the CIP, which reflects Council priorities for community growth and which was recently adopted by the Council. Three local wastewater user fee alternatives have been developed. Option 1 is an increase of user fees by 3.5%; Option 2 is a 5% increase; and Option 3 is a 6% increase. Staff is recommending Option 3. An analysis of these options and the impact on future years is provided in Attachment A in the agenda packet. Stormwater User Fees. No user fee increase is proposed for FY 07-08. Additional information on the financial condition of the stormwater program fund is provided in Attachment A included in the agenda, packet. Ms. Smith referred to the detailed memo in the agenda packet. She discussed the three options and noted that there would still be significant borrowing with any of the options. Councilor Ballew asked when the SDC study would be complete. Ms. Smith said optimistically by January 1,2008. Councilor Ballew asked if the six percent increase was for three years. Ms. Smith said Council would be acting on next year's rates only, It would add approximately .75 to the average residential bill. Councilor Ballew recommended looking at Cottage Grove's rates as a comparable and indicated that Cottage Grove's rates were quite high. Councilor Ralston said it looked like the combination of increases would be approximately $1.68 per household with the six percent increase in local wastewater user fees. He said the responsible thing to do would be to raise the fee six percent. Councilor Pishioneri asked if six percent was too low. What could they do with more? City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 7, 2007 Page 5 Ms. Smith said staff would be updating the plan and the SDC process. That would give the City an opportunity to place more of the burden on new development, so they would pay their fair share. Councilor Lundberg said she would prefer looking at the SDC's to make sure the burden wasn't placed on individual users. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:05 pm. Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa '. ' \. ~;{fL- Mayor Attest: ~A Amy So oul3-- City Recorder