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Home My WebLink About1996/01/22 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Study Session MINUTES 11, STUDY SESSION ST. LOUIS PARK CITY COUNCIL Monday, January 22, 1996 Council held an executive session with the City Attorney to discuss matters of litigation At the close of the executive session, Council reconvened for a study session Mayor Dorfman call the meeting to order at 7 40 p m Present were Councilmembers Jeff Jacobs, Sue Sanger, Ron Latz, Jim Brimeyer and Robert Young . Also present were the City Manager (Mr Meyer), Personnel Officer/Asst to City Manager(Mr Wysopal), Dir of Community Development (Mr Harmening), Economic Development Coordinator (Mr Anderson), Director of Finance(Ms McBride) and Housing Coordinator (Ms. Quarfot) 1. Early retirement This item was removed from the agenda. I „ 2 Creating a focus for 1996 Community Development Block Grant Mr Wysopal reviewed this report Mr. Meyer said 1996 will be a transitional year for the CDBG program, beginning with its move from Administration to the Community Development Department Mr Wysopal said an idea is to utilize relevant Vision St Louis Park statements to try to target specific programs For example among Vision priorities are children and housing Staff was proposing three possible projects: Multi-family housing rehabilitation project,Neighborhood- based public building improvements, and Improvements to the Rec Center to accommodate disabled persons to more actively participate. A suggestion is that, unlike the past when agencies requested CDBG allocations from the City, the Council now identifies areas of concern and agencies are encouraged to submit proposals Mayor Dorfman felt the tighter the guidelines for allocations are defined, the easier the transition for distribution of funds will be Councilmember Sanger asked why money would be put into a profit-making business rather than into a low income project Mr Wysopal said traditionally funds have been directed yearly to low- income areas 1 Study session minutes January 22, 1996 Councilmember Brimeyer asked if it were possible to leverage funds for projects, like a revolving loan program He did not know if this were permissible or not, but perhaps worth looking into It was the consensus that Council look more closely at item 1 and 3 of the suggested possible projects along with private rehabilitation with homeowner education Mr. Meyer said this would not preclude an on-going study of single-family rehabilitation as well 3. Tax-forfeit property 9221 Frederick Ave Mr. Harmening reported that it is star's conclusion that the City request of the County conveyance of the parcel to the City for public use There would be no cost associated with this Council was in agreement with this and the item will be placed on the February 5 agenda 4 M-X Mixed Use ordinance Ms. Jeremiah noted staff hopes to ensure that mixed use development will not be overly dominated by any one use. At first reading of this ordinance, concerns about that had been raised She distributed a matrix showing a mixed use development analysis of 3 livable communities concepts in this area She said a PUD must contain uses from at least two of the following categories• commercial, hotel/motel, office, human care, institutional, and residential The floor area of any one category of uses shall not exceed 80% of the total floor area of any phase of the PUD Councilmember Sanger wanted Council to retain leverage over the percentages and be able to suggest other uses Mayor Dorfman would like to see some stronger language reflecting areas would be user-friendly such as use of bike paths, walking paths, etc This item will be on the February 5 agenda for second reading of the ordinance 5 Project area boundaries Tax Increment Finance district Mr Anderson reviewed this report which examined establishment of a TIF distnct and modifications to the current project area vis-a-vis the Victoria Ponds development The district and project area must be established at the February 5 meeting even though the public hearing is not scheduled until March 15 Prior to that date the size of the distnct or project area may be111 decreased but cannot be increased 2 tStudy session minutes January 22, 1996 Councilmember Latz felt Option 1 was a great opportunity to finance development of the trail system, however, since no increment is generated from the trail section of the proposed district, Option 2 appeared to be next best, i e expansion of the project area to include major portions of commercial and residential areas There was some comment about inclusion of Shelard, but it was felt other areas of the City were currently more needy than Shelard This item will be placed on the February 5 agenda 6 Ryan Preliminary PUD proposal Ms Jeremiah displayed the site plan submitted by Ryan on Jan 22 There was significant modification in the new plans particularly as relates to Phase I and future phases, square footage and parking Two areas of concern remained long expanses of parking and reduction of the freestanding (pylon and monument) signage 111 With respect to the plan modifications, the City Attorney has recommended holding another public hearing to elicit public comment. She views the modified plan as, in effect, a new preliminary PUD application There were some significant changes to the new site plan Mr McHale was present to talk about the plan He said he felt they could make accommodations as to the signage (reduce the number of signs and their size) and felt they could break up the parking expanses by staggered plantings, trees, etc This item will be placed on the February 5 Council agenda with the recommended action to hold a public hearing on February 20 . 7 1996 legislative update Ms. Quarfot reviewed this report Legislative initiatives for 1996 include Residential Special Service District/Housing Improvement areas Allow petitioning the City to establish a residential special service district/housing improvement area by multifamily property owner, condo/townhome association or single family neighborhood. 3 Study session minutes1. January 22, 1996 Livable Communities/Pre-1979 TIF District Would reduce the penalty (reduction of LGA/HACA payments) for districts receiving Livable Communities funding Firefighters Special legislation for the City would exempt paid on-call firefighters, dispatchers, community service officers and clerical positions from the civil service status Truth in Taxation Examination of the current law is intended to provide cities a better opportunity to select hearing dates for Truth in Taxation hearings. 8 Rec Center Renaissance update Mr Gears gave an update on the proposal to date The updated timeline is February 5 - Council will be asked to approve a contractual agreement with the design team which will authorize consultants to undertake design development April 15 - Council will be asked to approve the final design and ask consultants to proceed with development of construction documents July 15 - Council asked to approve final construction documents and authorize public bidding August 19 - Award of contract Community survey is nearly complete Articles have appeared in the Park Perspective and Sun Sailor and a 4-color brochure has been mailed to every resident and business in the City A video has been running on cable tv Reciprocity with Golden Valley, Minnetonka and Edina is being explored as well as other community uses Revenue projections were briefly discussed The study session adjourned at 9 30 p m. ,i$ r, 1 - ► ' ' ecording Secretary 4