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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 04.13.2010 CC-WThe City Council of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met in Regular Session on the above date with Mayor George Garver presiding. Council Present: Council Absent: Keith Brainard, Dale Ross, Gabe Sansing, Ben All Council Present Oliver, Pat Berryman, Bill Sattler, Patty Eason ' • - • • • • • • • • -1 I I ' A Discussion and possible direction to staff regarding the draft CAMPO 2035 Plan -- Edward G. Polasek, AICP, Principal Planner and Elizabeth Cook, Community Development Director With a Powerpoint presentation, Polasek reviewed the CAMPO 2035 plan and explained how it is used within the City and State. He said there are significant changes between the CAMPO 2035 Plan and the 2030 Plan and he described those changes. He said introduced Joe Cantalupo, Executive Director of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), who presented the draft CAMPO 2035 plan to the Council. Mayor reviewed Cantalupo's role within CAMPO. Cantalupo said the plan is different from the 2030 plan and he explained the ways in which it is different. He said the 2035 plan is a regional transportation plan covering the five surrounding counties. He explained the differences between the nearby counties and he said finding transportation solutions for all of the counties can be difficult. He said the organization must produce a long range plan in order to receive federal funding. He noted the plan has to cover 25 years and it must be updated every five years. He said the 2030 plan expires the first week of June and the 2035 plan needs to be finished by then. Cantalupo reviewed the scope and extent of the plan and said the scope is huge. He reviewed the documents and information that is included in the plan. He said the document also includes policies that help implement the plan. He noted the crux of the plan is built around the "centers concept." He said the group identified areas in the region where there are existing or future growth areas. He said the whole notion behind the plan is that, as a region, we need to spend more time thinking about how to link land use and transportation issues. He noted the cities just need to be smarter about how they grow. He said CAMPO will not be giving up on any of the projects that they have committed to in the region. He showed Council a map of the roadway lists for mobility programs and projects in the area. He said CAMPO is also looking at locally funded projects and added almost a third of the money brought to transportation improvements have been brought to the region by the local governments. He said, if local governments are spending local money on something that will be part of the state or regional system, the regional body should have more of a say. He showed Council a map demonstrating public transit projects and he listed the many projects on that list. He noted they have also identified bicycle and pedestrian corridors. He said their goal is to make bicycle and pedestrian projects as part of the regular roadway projects. He noted they want to put those corridors within places where they feel growth will occur. Cantalupo showed the Council a corridor studies map and added it shows where they have identified areas with City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 1 of 5 Pages problems, but added they may not have studied what needs to be done to solve the problems in those areas. He said they are going to study those problem corridors and do studies to discover the demands to the areas and come up with a great transportation solutions. He said CAMPO is on a path to approval and noted they are in the middle of the plan approval and update process. He spoke about their public outreach and said they received over 3,500 comments on the plan. He said over 125 comments were gathered at opened houses held in late March and early April. He spoke about their public hearings, past and future, and the tentative plan adoption date of May 24, 2010. Brainard asked about getting in front of road needs instead of playing catch up on those issues. Cantalupo said there is no doubt that the region will be catching up for a long time and added the population will almost double between now and 2035. He said they are projecting that people will be driving a little less. He noted the idea behind the centers concept is to not ignore the fact that a community may like to try something different in terms of transportation. Sansing spoke about the 1-35 segment committee" and Cantalupo said he does not think CAMPO can move forward with anything related to 1-35 until they know what their plan and vision is for the entire corridor. Sansing asked and Cantalupo said the reality is, because the federal and state government can not give much money for transportation projects, the local communities are paying for a lot of it. He said it is a good opportunity for the cities to do something to improve the transportation in the area. Sattler asked and Cantalupo said they have completed a vision and system for the area's toll roads in the 2030 plan that will be carried forward to the 2035 plan. B Discussion and possible direction to staff regarding the Overall Transportation Plan Update -- Edward G. Polasek, AICP, Principal Planner and Elizabeth Cook, Community Development Director With a Powerpoint presentation, Polasek gave an overall transportation plan update to the City Council. He said the Council is just seeing this now because staff was waiting for the plan and growth scenarios from CAMPO to arrive. Speaker Becky Bray from Klotz and Associates, said they have been deliberately holding off a little bit on this project. She gave a brief background of the study and said the purpose is to update the 2004 Overall Transportation Plan (OTP), review transportation corridors, incorporate regional changes and determine the need for future corridors. She said since adoption of the 2004 OTP, the 2030 comprehensive plan was completed and the City underwent unprecedented growth and development. She added the City had a transportation bond election in 2008 noted, in that election, there are many projects that have been completed or are shortly underway. She noted it is important to look at the funding mechanisms available in the city and state. She noted, not only the city, but the region has changed and added Georgetown, Round Rock, and Pflugerville touch one another and the boundaries are on top of each other. She said there is a lot of interaction amongst the entities and the region. She spoke about the study area and said it includes the City as well as the extra -territorial jurisdiction (ETJ). She said there will be a very extensive public involvement process. She said ultimately, part of the 2004 plan was the transportation improvement program (TIP) ranking process and she noted that process will be refined. She spoke about the new OTP plan components and said it includes a sidewalk plan, a parks/trails plan, refinement of the roadway networks and analysis of future roadway networks. She spoke about results from a citizen survey they conducted recently. Speaker, Garrett Burchett, spoke about refinement of the travel/demand model. He said there will be a public workshop on April 14th on this issue. He said they provided each Councilmember with a exercise and chip game that will be done at their public workshops. He explained the chip game and said it will help Council decide where they would like to spend their money over the next thirty years on local transportation projects. He said, at the end of the exercise, it creates a general consensus and highlights priority corridors. He said they take this information and marry it with the technical information that they receive from City staff and the travel demand model. Brea spoke about the future of the OTP and added they will be gathering/incorporating public comments, review of the City Council and Georgetown Transportation Advisory Board (GTAB) concerns, refinement of the model to determine future corridor needs, comparison of Georgetown needs and CAMPO 2035. She said there will be a Fall 2010 Presentation of the final OTP. She gave the Council their e-mail address as well as their website in case they have questions. Mayor asked and Polasek spoke about the fixed planning boundary that is in the city's 2030 Plan. Sansing asked and Bray said they wanted to present to Council before they go to GTAB and added they would like Council, GTAB and GTEC's advice and opinions on the plan. Berryman asked about using the chip set and said Georgetown does not have any big employment centers and noted many people leave the City in order to work. She asked if they present that sort of scenario to the groups at the Workshops. Burchett spoke about how those issues are presented to the groups. Mayor said and Polasek agreed this presentation was more about process and a presentation about substance than the actual plan, which will be coming back to Council at a later date. Sattler asked and Polasek said he is not concerned about time as much as reflecting the community's needs City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 2 of 5 Pages and concerns. Council asked if it would be possible to have additional public gatherings and Workshops within their districts. Bray said she would be happy to set up additional meetings and noted the plan is only as good as the input received. C Presentation and discussion regarding the City of Georgetown's 2010 Facilities Plan -- Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager With a Powerpoint presentation, Brandenburg gave a summary of the 2010 facilities plan. He gave a brief background of the facilities plan and said the council adopted it in September 2003. He said the citizen bond committee was formed to address immediate needs and he summarized the immediate needs of 2003 and what has been done so far on those issues. He spoke about the needs that have been addressed, including the library, community center, fire station 1, information technology center and recreation center. He said the City has started to adopt standardized space needs. He spoke about what facilities have been built and what has changed since then 2003. He said the intermediate needs of 2003 have now become immediate needs. He spoke about the current immediate needs and corresponding solutions. Brandenburg spoke about fire station 5 and the renovation of fire station 2. He described options for the needs of both stations, including renovating the existing facilities or utilizing other nearby lots. He spoke about the immediate needs of the police department and municipal court. He said the economic downturn resulted in the re-evaluation of the purchase of the Albertson's building for a Police facility. He said another option for the police/municipal court is the renovation of the old library for police and the addition of a police department substation to Fire Station 5. He spoke about the Albertson's building. He said the net book value of the property is $4.2 million, including issuance costs. He spoke about using the Albertson's as a relocation for City Hall. He said this new City Hall could included Municipal Court, Management Services, Human Resources, Finance, Accounting, Facilities Management, Economic Development, Communications Department and Legal Services. He said he also spoke to the superintendent and noted the school district is looking for a new administrative building. He noted the thought is to pool resources together and have GISD move into the Albertson's building along with City Hall. He spoke about working together for the school district on this move. Brandenburg spoke about a future police facility and said the cost is up to $30 million. He said he would like to look at this potential building as more of a "public safety" facility with both fire and police administration in one location. He spoke about the immediate needs of fire administration and noted they need about 5,000 square feet for their staff and they currently only have 2,000. He spoke about the possibilities for the future of the current fire administration building. He spoke about moving the Convention and Visitors Bureau to the front of the current municipal court building and noted there are public restrooms out front. He spoke about the immediate needs of Georgetown Utility System and said there is a renovation underway at the Georgetown Municipal Complex (GMC). He mentioned the idea of a future electric facility and the fact that, if Council moves forward, they can have a new facility online in 2013. He listed other issues to consider including the old library, the old police station and the prospect of a downtown parking garage in the southwest quadrant of the downtown area. He said the library has been a huge success, but the meeting rooms have become quite popular, which demands more parking. He spoke about the needs of the old fire station, the city office building and the current City Hall. He reviewed new five year needs including space constraints in City Hall, decentralized operations, continued space constraints in the GMC (parking and storage yard) and additional fire stations (determined by growth and increased operational impacts). He summarized questions that need to be addressed regarding these issues. He reviewed the staff recommendation and said it is to relocate all administrative departments to City Hall at the Albertson's building, work with GISD about sharing part of that building, begin planning for a downtown parking garage and plan for a May 2011 bond referendum for a new public safety facility. He said other recommendations are to relocate the visitors center to the municipal court/council chambers building, sell the existing city hall building and city office building and build fire station 5 on shell road. He showed Council a timeline of the plan through fiscal year 2013/2014. He reviewed the recommended motions from staff. Oliver asked and Brandenburg said the downtown master plan calls for City offices to be located downtown, but not necessarily on the square. Oliver said the reality is that Albertson's is not downtown and it does not put feet on the street on the downtown square. Oliver said he is becoming more and more re -enamored with the idea of using Albertson's as a police department. Brandenburg said, just because the employees are downtown, does not mean they eat or shop downtown. Oliver asked if Council said to go with this recommendation, how long would it take to find out whether or not GISD is on board. Brandenburg said GISD will have to talk about it, but noted there is really no downside to this issue because, if they don't want to be there, there will be more space for the City to utilize. Brainard thanked Brandenburg for all of the work he has done. He said there is no right answer and there are a lot of moving parts regarding this issue. He expressed some agreement with what Oliver said and added there is no better location for the police department than the Albertson's building. Brainard noted he is not sure the Council would have purchased the Albertson's building for a new City Hall. He said he would City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 5 Pages like to look into the feasibility of using the Albertson's building as a police department and noted there are esthetic changes that can be done to ameliorate the appearance issues that have been brought up in the past. Sansing agreed that the best use of the building would be for the police department, but added City Hall is a good idea as well. He added having a public safety facility for all fire and police administration employees as well as small substations throughout the City would be the least expensive way to go. Berryman said the old library was designed to put a second floor on it and that could be used for the police station or City Hall. Brandenburg noted the City could do three story buildings at the location of the old library. Berryman said she is gravitating to the original idea of using Albertson's for the police station. She did, however, agree that it is a problem to have different City services scattered throughout the City. She agreed it would be nice to combine all administrative departments into one location. Sattler said this is visionary and noted he likes the idea of all the options and noted he is looking forward to chapter two of the recommendations. Eason said she thinks this was really well though out and noted she likes the idea of combining City Hall services in one location. She said, when the downtown master plan was created, people were talking about a government center that would be located right off of the square. She said the idea of opening up the square for retail and other services would open us possibilities for the downtown TIRZ to increase income and get more tourism on the square. She said she is interested in having Georgetown's tourism revolve around the arts and the museum. She said she has been concerned about the use of the Albertson's for retail, but supports the idea of using it for a police station. She said the City really needs to start combining all of the City Hall type services into one location. She said the City is way behind on doing this work and noted the Council needs to make some final decisions and get the ball rolling. Ross said he has problems with the Albertson's building being retail. He said there is synergy when City services are consolidated into one location. He said, from a public perception standpoint, it may not be good to use the building as a police department. He said the downtown area is an economic development opportunity and noted he would like to see more private companies in that area. He agreed with Eason and noted some of those spaces could be used for the arts and added he thinks the City offices should be consolidated and placed in the Albertson's building. Mayor said it is often said that an organization makes progress as it backs away from a crisis. Mayor said, as much as he appreciates working with the school district, the district will also be growing quickly and room for both entities to grow will run out very quickly. He noted the City should not only look at its "catch up"needs, but also its needs into the future. Oliver asked and Brandenburg clarified his needs for the regular council meeting. Berryman asked and Brandenburg described the space available at the Albertson's building as compared to the space needs of a City Hall. Berryman asked and Brandenburg described the space needs for the City and GISD combined. Rundell said the space needs estimate for the City also includes municipal court. Mayor asked and Brandenburg described the current City Hall square footage as well as the square footage of other related offices around the City. Ross said he does not like the "band aid" approach that some cities use for their space constraints. He said the City needs to make sure that it is spending its money once and not several times. He suggested the City plan for more than what's expected so that expansion may be possible in the future. D Review of the proposed Fourth Round of 2008-2009 Unified Development Code (UDC) Amendments -- Elizabeth Cook, Community Development Director Cook said a lot of information regarding the amendments was sent to Council and noted this is the biggest amendment group to date. She reviewed the largest amendments included in the upcoming Ordinance. She noted one of the amendments located in Chapter 2 clarifies the duties and abilities of the City's Boards and Commissions. She noted another amendment is to change the decision making authority of the subdivision plats. She said, in Chapter 3, a lot of the changes are subdivision related and she spoke about changes to plat approvals and waivers and the addition of a license to encroach section. She said they are proposing to add an item regarding denial of new applications if the applicant owes the City money for existing applications. She spoke about Chapter 5 and summarized the changes and additions made to that new Chapter. She said they have fine tuned the listed uses and spoke about the proposed changes including garage sales. She said they are proposing that there be a limit of two garage sales per year and they would not have to come to the City for a permit unless there was a code enforcement complaint on file. She said there is also a provision regarding automobile sales. Ross asked and Cook confirmed the suggestion of having only two garage sales per year per person was included in the amendments. Ross said he thought council did not want to restrict the number of garage sales per year. Eason said she would like to see the minutes of the item because she thought the Council wanted to do something to manage retail sales out of homes. Cook said she has this Ordinance scheduled for first reading at the next meeting. She said, in Chapter 5, they also addressed additional signage and options for auto dealerships along 1-35. She described the new provisions. She continued to review suggestions for Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 and mentioned an alternative sign plan option. She said one of the big changes is the proposal of a new Chapter 1 on nonconformity. She said Chapters 15 and 16 are new as well. City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 4 of 5 Pages She reviewed other small changes that are being made. Berryman asked about developments on the square and the refurbishing of the historic buildings. Cook said all of the inside of the buildings are building code related and added the UDC applies to the outside of the buildings. Brainard asked and Cook said the request by Council to look at the appeals process has been addressed in this list of amendments. Brainard asked and Cook spoke about requiring owners to build their sidewalks on the improved properties as well as adjacent properties so there are no holes in the sidewalks. Sattler asked and Cook spoke about the committee structure. Sansing addressed the sidewalk issue and noted there will be holes in sidewalks and added they are unavoidable. He asked and Cook said there are items on the task force agenda related to alternative sidewalk plans. She said they will be coming to Council in the near future to talk specifically about sidewalks. Ross said the holes in sidewalks affect those who are handicap. Cook described the installation of sidewalks in neighborhoods and noted it has been tied to the construction of individual homes and not to the entire development. Cook said this is something that can be looked at in the overall transportation plan. Recessed to Executive Session under Sections 551.071 and 551.072 -- 5:25 p.m. Returned to Open Session and adjourned -- 6:02 p.m. Approved City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 5 of 5 Pages The meeting was adjourned at 06:02 PM.