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Home My WebLink About2005/04/25 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Study Session CITY ST. Louis OFFICIAL MINUTES PARK CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION April 25, 2005 The meeting convened at 7.20 p m. Councilmembers present: John Basill, Susan Sanger, Sue Santa, Paul Omodt, Phil Finkelstein, Sally Velick and Mayor Jeff Jacobs. Staff present: City Manager(Mr. Harmening), Chief of Police (Mr. Luse); Police Captains (Mr. Ortner and Mr. Dilorenzo); Police Lt's. (Ms. Dreier and Mr. Kraayenbnnk); Community Development Director (Mr. Locke), Planning and Zoning Supv. (Ms. McMonigal); Asst Zoning Administrator(Mr. Morrison); Planner(Mr. Fulton); City Clerk (Ms. Reichert) 1. Annual Report - Police Advisory Commission Chair Michael Baum and Vice-Chair Linda Trummer presented the annual report of the Police Advisory Commission to the City Council. A full report of the commission's activities was presented as a hand-out to the council. Ms. Trummer reported on the past year's activities As a new commission, a great deal of work had been done to determine focus and form relationships with Police Department Staff Several subcommittees had been formed which will continue to work in 2005. Mr. Baum continued with information about goals for 2005 which include work on a community survey, publicity, a citizens' police academy, children first activities and developing community partnerships Council commended the commission for their good work and asked to be kept appnsed of their activities. 2. Police Department Activity Update Chief Luse and several Police Department staff members were in attendance to provide council with an update on programs and activities being undertaken in the Police Department. Chief Luse began by saying that the concept of community policing had become the norm in the SLP Department and the department organization has been successfully modified to reflect that model. Chief Luse is hoping to be a "beta site" for a study being done by the Federal Gov't on community policing. He updated the council on policies related to high-speed chase, use of tazers, victim support, and outreach efforts for vanous residential and commercial neighborhoods in the city. Mayor Jacobs asked if efforts were being made to strengthen the presence of officers at the Junior High level. Chief Luse and Mr. Harmening responded that discussions were in progress with School Distnct administrators to move toward a greater presence at the Jr High School. Both council and staff agreed that one of the department's primary goals should be to provide better education and support for that particular age level. The School Supenntendent and City Manager are working on a funding agreement to provide those services. Study Session Minutes -2- April 25, 2005 Similarly, outreach activities at multi-family housing facilities such as Louisiana Court and Meadowbrook Manor are an important part of the work of the department. The Meadowbrook Collaborative has been operating successfully for many years, and a similar program is in the development stage at Louisiana Courts. Chief Luse stated that use of methamphetamines is a significant public health crisis facing our community. Because use of the drug is highly addictive and physically devastating to users, prevention rather than intervention after the fact is key. Reports from each division supervisor provided council with information about structure of the divisions and major activities assigned to each. They provided council with updates on patrol policies, dispatch and communication issues, information system management, the cnme watch block captain program, homeland secunty issues and recruitment efforts. 3. Proposed Amendment to Redevelopment Contract with Aquila Senior, LLC Representatives of the developer were present to request changes to the development contract regarding a change from HUD to Fannie Mae as the long-term financing partner for the development and to request a change to the contract regarding coop buyer's assets. Councilmember Santa stated that she had been comfortable with HUD involvement in the project because of standards for upkeep over the life of the building. The developer responded that both HUD and Fannie Mae have the same standards, but FM financing of the project would allow for an earlier construction start. Their program would also provide more flexibility for the buyer in terms of determining monthly costs. Councilmember Finkelstein was concerned that units would not remain affordable in the future. Mr. Hunt responded that the terms of the development contract would remain the same, and that the units would be limited equity for the life of the TIF district. Regarding the developer's second request, the developer's marketing representative stated that changes to the system which provides income and demographic information for marketing of the development had provided additional information that had not been available at the time the - development agreement had been approved. The new information showed that estimates of target market assets had been low, and were much higher than originally thought. This in turn limited significantly the number of eligible buyers in SLP Council questioned the validity of those results and asked to see more information to support the request Councilmember Sanger was concerned about contributing TIF dollars to the development when the marketing information showed that potential buyers could afford to pay higher prices. She had not supported approval of the development agreement and was now even more opposed to contribution of TIF financing. Councilmember Basill supported the request saying that use of the TIF dollars was justified in that the use assisted the city in meeting its housing goals. The intent had been to provide TIF Study Session Minutes -3- April 25, 2005 financing to assist in demolition and clean-up of the site. Council's hope to market the units to residents in the neighborhood helped our city's seniors to remain close to family and friends and would open up single-family homes to families looking for suitable residential properties. He did not believe the fact that our city's seniors have been good stewards of their assets should change the original intent of the council's approval for the project. He would rather modify the asset limit and serve our city's seniors as originally intended. Councilmember Omodt also stated that he felt he understood what the developer was requesting and why, and he did not see a problem. The developer expressed concern that if the asset limits were kept at the level originally approved, that the target market would change significantly and the development would have more appeal to seniors from a broader geographical area Raising the asset limit would not preclude seniors with fewer assets from relocating to the development, and would broaden the base of SLP residents who would qualify for the limited equity program. Councilmember Finkelstein was concerned that the data was not correct and had difficulty believing that the assets of our residents were higher than originally thought. He wanted more information provided prior to approval. Councilmembers Santa, Velick and Sanger also wanted to see the data. Mr. Harmening asked the developer what would happen if council did not approve the TM contribution. The developer responded that it would be difficult to move forward with the project as proposed and they would need to consider other options. Mayor Jacobs also wanted to see the data and did not want to make a decision at this point. He would like staff to prepare a report with more information including pros and cons. Mr. Hunt asked if council was generally comfortable with the issue of the financing changing from HUD to Fannie Mae. Council agreed with that assessment. Mr. Hunt then clarified that the proposed change to the asset limit would remove the value of the primary residence from the formula. He suggested that if council was more comfortable with a cap on home value that could be added to the formula as well. Mr Harmening summarized stating that, based on discussion, the new formula will be proposed with a home allowance cap of$250,000 with a modest appreciation escalator attached. Next steps would be to place the issue on an upcoming EDA agenda along with the information council had requested. 4. Zoning Code Issues Related to Expansion of Single Family Homes Mayor Jacobs asked to defer the item due to the late hour Councilmember Sanger asked that one issue, the allowance of cluster housing in the city be addressed prior to adjournment. Study Session Minutes -4- April 25, 2005 Councilmember Sanger was opposed to any kind of cluster housing in an R-1 district Councilmember Basill echoed her concerns stating that he would extend that to R-2 and R-3 districts. Staff was concerned about eliminating cluster housing completely due to the fact that existing homes would be made non-conforming. Staff was directed to prepare an ordinance to remove cluster homes from R-1, R-2, and R-3 districts. Mr. Locke offered to bnng this item back to council for discussion at a later date with modifications based on council's concerns about cluster housing to protect properties that might become non conforming. Councilmember Finkelstein noted there were also other concerns and issues to deal with such as subdividing. Mr. Harmening agreed stating that staff would study the issue further and propose amendments more consistent with council's values. 6. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 10:50 p.m. 29, �� / I. C� y Clerk M. or /