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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006/04/10 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Study Session ST.CITY Louis OFFICIAL MINUTES PARK CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION April 10,2006 The meeting convened at 6:30 p.m. Councilmembers present: John Basill, Loran Paprocki, Susan Sanger, and Mayor Jeff Jacobs. Phil Finkelstein arrived at 6.42 p.m. C. Paul Carver arrived at 7:05 p.m. Paul Omodt was absent. Staff present. City Manager (Mr. Harmening); Director of Human Resources (Ms. Gohman); Management Assistant (Ms. Honold); Director of Parks and Recreation (Ms. Walsh); Organizational Development Coordinator(Ms. Gothberg); and Recording Secretary(Ms. Samson). Guests present: Carol Humphrey from Friends of the Arts. Tom Buffington from Citylmage. Will Stockton and Marjorie Herdes from Mobius. 1. Community Arts Grant Program Management Assistant Marcia Honold presented the staff report. Councilmember Sanger asked who could apply for the grant. Ms. Honold said individuals or groups may apply. Councilmember Basill asked what would become of unspent grant dollars. Ms. Honold anticipates staff would return to Council and request to carryover the grant money to the next year and re-evaluate the level of funding needed. Mayor Jacobs asked how the Community Arts Grant Program will be marketed. Carol Humphrey, Fnends of the Arts (FOTA), said pending approval, the kickoff will take place at the Children First Ice Cream Social on May 21st. Ms. Humphrey said there will be an open information/training session for those interested in applying, an ad will be placed in the Sun Sailor, and Margaret Rog will help with the public relations. Ms. Rog was recently hired by FOTA as their director of planning and development. Councilmember Sanger asked if FOTA was involved he public art on West 36th Street and Ms. Humphrey said there will be a meeting regarding that with city staff and FOTA members. Mayor Jacobs commented that at the Youth Summit, he heard participants suggest using the park structures to do arts programming, e.g., visual arts, plays and drama. Cindy Walsh, Director of Parks and Recreation, added the youth also requested poetry classes. Adults, as well as children, are welcomed and encouraged to participate in arts programming. Ms. Honold said the minimum grant request is $250. Ms. Honold said applicants are not restricted to St. Louis Park residents but the event must occur in St. Louis Park. Councilmember Paprocki said he would like to have a proportion between event art, i.e., music, poetry, etc. and permanent art to be built upon each year, and that would demonstrate the longevity of the program and encourage funding into the future. Mayor Jacobs said we probably need a few fairly visible projects early on to build interest. Councilmember Finkelstein hopes everyone's sensitivity will be considered. Ms. Humphrey said FOTA has a good sense of what would be acceptable and what would not 2. Communication Focus Group Discussion Study Session Meeting Minutes -2- April 10, 2006 Organizational Development Coordinator Bridget Gothberg introduced Tom Bullington from CityImage. CityImage was hired by the city to prepare a communications plans and is looking for perspectives from staff, community members and Council. Mr. Bullington asked Council: What do you think is the most effective communications method the city presently uses and why? Suggestions by Council members included using a combination of methods, more internet based communications, and a weekly e-mail newsletter to residents that want one. Concern was expressed over delivery of the Sun Sailor Apartments and condominiums often do not receive the Sun Sailor. It was suggested that staff work with the Sun Sailor to see if delivery could changed Mr. Bullington asked Council about existing communications that do not work well. Council said that "Dear Resident" letters are not effective and for current information, the Park Perspective is not as effective because of it is sent out bi-monthly. Council appreciates that the Park Perspective gives informed reasons why things happen such as ordinances and asked if legal notices could be posted in Park Perspective if it was distnbuted more frequently. Mr. Bullington asked for comments about the new city web site. Mayor Jacobs said he has heard positive comments about it. Councilmember Paprocki gave it a 9.6 rating out of 10.0. Councilmember Sanger said perhaps a better search engine would be beneficial. Council asked if staff has completed a viewer-ship rating for Cable TV. They also asked Mr. Bullington to consider ways to use the neighborhood leaders and neighborhood associations to expand communications, to send stories to Public Radio, and to count of news stories—positive vs. negative. Councilmember Finkelstein requested the Park Perspective be included in the Council agenda packet. 3. 2005-2006 Visioning Update Consultants Will Stockton and Marjorie Herdes requested Mayor Jacobs provide background on Visioning. Councilmember Basil' said he has received a number of emails stating the city should reverse course on the sales of excess land, and he asked if that came up during the Visioning process. Councilmember Carver inquired about green space. Councilmember Sanger said economic development has gotten lost. From the Vision 2006 Results to Date report, Ms. Herdes listed the top successes. Mr. Stockton discussed Vision Goals and Challenging Possibilities. Ms. Herdes said new action groups will be established for new challenges and action groups will be proposed for existing goal areas. Ms. Herdes said there are about 80 people who expressed interest in being in one of the new action groups. Organizational Development Coordinator Bridget Gothberg said she is receiving calls of interest everyday for the new action groups. City Manager Tom Harmening said the next steps would be to recruit people for the action teams. Study Session Meeting Minutes -3- Apnl 10, 2006 Councilmember Sanger said the people in her group were adamant about preserving open space and green space. She said they also asked about an environmentally friendly building code and more alternative energy. Ms. Gothberg said in her interviews, the subject of environment constantly came up and it was mostly about clean air and clean water. Councilmember Sanger asked: What is the role of Council? Mr. Harmening said there are several roles that Council can play. If Council is comfortable, staff would like Council to accept the results thus far. Mr. Harmening continued, that means we have received the results from the Visioning process and we are asking action groups to move forward and provide us with their final recommendations on where we should be going. Mr. Harmening said staff would also like Council to participate in terms of supporting the process outwardly as we move forward, and long-term help keep Visioning alive through goal setting and through speaking in the community. Councilmember Sanger asked if Councilmembers will be involved in action groups. Councilmember Sanger said if it is only staff, she would be concerned. Ms. Gothberg said the Vision Partnership Board was intended to be an oversight governance board. Mr. Har memng said in general terms, staff envisions roles for the action groups similar to that of the 1995 process. Mayor Jacobs prefers no Councilmembers to be on the action groups. On that point, Councilmember Carver agrees with Mayor Jacobs. Councilmember Carver said the whole purpose of the Visioning process is not what a particular Councilmember wants but what the city wants. Councilmember Carver is hesitant to accept the report at this time. He would like further information. Councilmember Carver agrees with the overall process. Visioning is the right thing and he needs more clarity. There were some questions on the placement of dots by participants at the February 12, 2006 Vision Summit. Ms. Herdes explained that dot placement was not a vote for certain items. It was done simply to get a sense of prionty. In regard to the placement of the dots, Councilmember Sanger said the people at the meeting cannot be dismissed because it was unscientific. Mr. Stockton said the dot information Council is seeking can be pulled together and produced for Council. Councilmember Basill cautioned that the city needs to send consistent information Councilmember Paprocki said let's separate these things out and move forward. Councilmember Sanger suggested Council appoint chairs to the action teams. Mr. Harmening recapped the next steps: Staff will ask Council, after proper information and documentation are provided on what has been accomplished so far, to acknowledge the work that has been done and accept the work done, and ask for action groups to be formed. Second, eight action groups would be formed around the new areas and the leaders of those groups must have leadership abilities and an understanding of policy and public process. In addition or as a part of that, we will also form four action groups—Children First, Safety, Business, and Lifelong Learning—using existing organized resources that are available, who will revisit what was done in 1995, review the progress made since 1995, and make further recommendations for the Council. The Partnership Group will oversee the entire next step and a community member will be asked to serve as the chair and cheerleader of these actions groups. Presumably, the chairs of the action groups would also form some kind of group similar to that of 1995. Finally, the work should be completed by late fall. Study Session Meeting Minutes -4- April 10, 2006 4. Review Agenda for City Council Workshop Mr. Harmening discussed the City Council Workshop with Council 5. Status Report on Bass Lake Site Mr. Harmemng said it was made clear to Park Nicollet that the Bass Lake site is not being sold to Park Nicollet but that Council is willing to look at some concepts of an EDI on the property along with some other possible uses, be it housing or other municipal uses. Mr. Harmening said Park Nicollet met with Community Development staff initially. Park Nicollet is working with United Properties and Park Nicollet will return in about one week with a preliminary sketch or with concept plans. They would like to appear at a study session in May. Mr. Harmening reminded Park Nicollet that they need to meet with Wayside House and Council will expect a report on that meeting. Councilmember Sanger said institutional uses for the Bass Lake site were not discussed. She said it would be helpful if staff could provide concept plans of what institutional uses might look like. Councilmember Basill said if we are not interested, then Council owes it to Park Nicollet to say so. Councilmember Basill said Council will need to give Park Nicollet clear direction after their next study session appearance. Councilmember Finkelstein agrees with Councilmember Basill. Councilmember Paprocki agrees with Councilmember Basill but the focus of this development should be the housing, however, a buffer on Beltline Blvd. would be needed. Mayor Jacobs would like to at least explore the idea of having some sort of a recreational use at Bass Lake along with the EDI. Councilmember Sanger would like to see a recreational use in town too, but not necessarily at Bass Lake. Councilmember Carver said he does not agree that this particular site is good for single-family housing. From a synergy perspective, this is the area we can use to create more of that community synergy. At the previous meeting, Councilmember Carver said a performing arts center, which we don't have at Excelsior and Grand, would encourage people to stay for a vanety of activities. Councilmember Finkelstein would like to see affordable housing under$200,000 and high-quality, but not condos. Councilmember Sanger would like to have concept plans for different kinds of housing or a mixture of housing and how that would fit on the site. Mr. Harmening said there is nothing that compels Council to sell this property. He asked if Council would like to spend the time and energy for staff to develop concept plans for various ways in which Bass Lake could be developed without an EDI. Councilmember Sanger said yes for a point of comparison. Mr. Harmening said the city would have to hire someone to do that. Councilmember Finkelstein asked if Council could have a ballpark figure. Study Session Meeting Minutes -5- Apnl 10, 2006 Councilmember Carver said he doesn't want to spend money to compete with Park Nicollet just for the sake to have something to compare. The difference being if there was another bidder for that site, they would be doing it. Councilmember Paprocki said Council needs to make an informed call on this; he favors spending money to get concrete information. Mr. Harmening will discuss this with Kevin Locke and he will get a cost figure. Councilmember Carver is still opposed to spending any city money on concept plans, but still wants a voice. 6. Future Study Session Agenda Planning Mr. Harmemng and the Council discussed study session agenda planning The meeting ended at 9:40 p.m. City Clerk / May r