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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 03.23.2010 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: Keith Brainard, Dale Ross, Ben Oliver, Pat Berryman, Bill Sattler, Patty Eason Staff Present: Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Mark Sokolow, City Attorney; Jessica Hamilton, City Secretary; Kimberly Garrett, Parks and Recreation Director; Randy Morrow, Director of Community Services; Laurie Brewer, Assistant Director of Finance; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer • - - • • � 11 1111 1111 11 -- - • • • r • • - . A Discussion and possible direction to staff regarding the Parks and Recreation Capital Improvement Plan -- Kimberly Garrett, Parks and Recreation Director and Randy Morrow, Director of Community Services With a Powerpoint presentation, Garrett presented the Parks and Recreation Capital Improvement Plan to the City Council. She noted this item will allow Council to give staff direction on how to proceed with this project. She introduced members of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. She said the basis of the Parks Capital Improvemnet Plan is the Parks Master Plan, which was adopted in 2009. She spoke about the master plan and said it had strong citizen input and support. She said, in regard to the quality of parks within the last three years, 87% of respondents felt the quality had improved or stayed the same. She said the Master Plan's category of recommendations to be accomplished in the next five years were land acquisition, high profile recreational facilities, development, and existing park improvements. She reviewed the priority projects within each of those categories in greater detail. She spoke about the funding sources for the projects and said some of the short term sources are the 2008 bond fund, of which 35.5 million dollars were approved for parks related projects. She also said the City can apply for matching grants to leverage the bond funds but, in order to apply, the City needs to make a commitment to match. She also mentioned parkland dedication fees, which is a limited funding source. Brainard asked about the matching funds. Brainard asked and Garrett said the grant amounts given to Council are the maximum amounts the City can receive. Berryman asked and Garrett said the City will need to make a commitment to match the money received from the grants before they can apply. Oliver asked and Garrett said the City would have about three years to complete a project funded by a parks and wildlife grant. Berryman asked and Garrett confirmed this will be increasingly competitive because of the lack of funding elsewhere. Brainard asked and Garrett said she could provide Council with more information on what projects the grants will be used for. Mayor asked and Garrett confirmed the grants will allow for the bond money to be used as the matching funds. Garrett spoke about the 2008 citizen bond and noted it is parks and recreation's top funding source. She said the total cost of the bonds are $35.5 million, including issuance costs. She noted this includes funds for Garey park, amphitheatre, trail expansion, a west side park and parkland. She noted the bond election passed unanimously in each district. She showed Council an example of the City Reporter outlining the bond election City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 1 of 3 Pages from 2008. She gave Council a possible timeline of projects from the five year parks capital improvement project plan. She showed Council a timeline listing the projects as well as the cost of each project within each budget year. She said, in 2010/11 budget year, the large project would be San Gabriel Park improvements and an amphitheater/festival area. She said it would take $1.5 million to start the process and have it bid ready. She said if the City builds now, the construction costs and bond interest rates would be very low. She said the San Gabriel Park improvements could be tied into the recreation center parking lot for large events. She said the football field area is the ideal place for an amphitheatre because it is out of the flood plain. She said some of the possible events a City can hold at the amphitheater are orchestras, farmers market, car shows, concerts, and the food and wine festival. She spoke about operations and maintenance of the amphitheatre and said the City could utilize the convention and visitors bureau to help with rentals, bookings and promotion. She said the City could contract out this service as well. Garrett mentioned the first leg of the river trails expansion and noted it is $1 million to start the trail expansion on the South San Gabriel River from Blue Hole towards Wolf Ranch and downtown. She summarized the operations and maintenance of the trails and said there is low maintenance on the City's concrete trails. She summarized the staff and parks board recommendations. She said the CIP shows, in 2010/11, the City should issue $2.5 million in bonds. She noted these bonds would start the San Gabriel park improvements and amphitheater. She said, in 2011/12, the CIP noted the City will issue $5.5 million to construct the amphitheater/festival area in San Gabriel Park. Garrett spoke about what the tax impact would be if these bonds were issued and said it is estimated at $0.00254 per million of bonds issued. She noted, if $2.5 million were issued in 2010/2011, the tax rate would increase by $0.00635. Parks Board Chair, Kent Buikema, said the Parks Board is at the meeting and noted they are supportive of what staff is doing. He said he urges the Council's cooperation with the staff on this matter. Sattler asked and Rundell said the interest rate on the bonds is 4.7 percent. Brandenburg said the next item on the agenda will be about budget priorities and noted this information can apply to those priorities as well. He asked that Council give direction to staff as to whether or not they want to include this information on their list of budget priorities. Oliver asked about the west parkland and the timing of looking for funds for those projects. Oliver asked and Garrett said they moved that project up on the timeline to the 2013/14 budget year because of the amount of families with children coming into the City. There were many questions about the projects and project timelines. B Workshop discussion and possible action regarding the 2010/11 budget priorities and annual budget process -- Laurie Brewer, Assistant Director of Finance, Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer With a Powerpoint presentation, Brewer gave a listing of Council priority areas as related to the citizen survey. She spoke about the balanced transportation/efficient mobility priority area. She noted 66% of respondents to the citizen survey indicated that traffic/transportation is a top issue. She said, therefore, some of the strategies staff is offering to address these issues include: prepare for traffic signal integration/synchronization, fund priority sidewalk improvements from the Sidewalk Master Plan, fund intersection improvements including FM 1460 and SE Inner Loop, the projects listed in the bond program and prepare the GTAB study of road bond proposals based on OTP update recommendations. She said another strategy is to the advance the bond projects to shovel ready status. She said there is a funding gap between the bond capacity and the construction of the southwest bypass. Brewer spoke about the revitalization and economic development Council priority. She said the citizen survey noted 59% of respondents said managing growth and development is is a top issue. She listed other top issues under this category including more employment opportunities, downtown retail, citizen citywide tourism, regional shopping centers and industrial recruitment. She said a strategy would be to work with GEDCO to fund road improvements as well as infrastructure improvements to support a site for a future data center. She said another strategy is to prepare a master plan for South Austin Avenue. She continued to list the draft strategies for fulfilling this priority area. She spoke about the recycling priority area and the citizen survey results related to that topic. She spoke about draft strategies for these issues including implementing a goal of increasing recycling by 90% by 2012. She noted the staff would like direction from Council on how to prioritize these projects. Mayor asked and Brandenburg said staff tries to look at the priorities that have been set previously and then compare those priorities to the citizen survey. He noted the three priorities that came out on top were transportation, economic development and recycling. He noted staff then set out strategies to accomplish those three goals. He added staff needs direction from Council on what strategies to pursue at this time. Brandenburg asked if what was just discussed should be included as Council's priorities. Sattler said it would be good to know how much money the City has in order to figure out how to rank the priorities. He noted, if there is no money to do any of these projects, it would be wasting staffs time. Brainard asked and Brandenburg said the City has applied for $300,000 worth of CDBG money but the City has not yet been awarded anything at this time. City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 2 of 3 Pages Brandenburg added the City will not find out if they have been awarded those funds until the end of the year. Rundell described the amount of funds allocated in the budget for sidewalk improvements. Ross said he feels it is difficult to rank the priorities at this time and added it would be more helpful if staff could put ballpark numbers with these projects. Brewer said staff would like some feedback regarding whether or not Council wants to remove some of the items. Brandenburg said this could be a working document that Council can add items to. Brewer noted staff would like to know how to move forward with the priorities. Berryman asked and Rundell explained was a rail station TIRZ would be. There were many questions about the TIRZ. Mayor noted no one from Council has stated that any of the items presented should be removed from the list. He said Council would like to see dollar amounts for each project so that Council may move items around according to priority. Polasek spoke about the list of potential transportation projects and added staff would like to see major priorities chosen out of that list of projects. Briggs spoke about the ability of the City to synchronize and control the traffic signals after the City's population reaches 50,000 in the 2010 Census. Oliver said and Polasek confirmed it will eventually be necessary for Council to prioritize the transportation related projects. Polasek said the City will have the draft Overall Transportation Plan. Ross said these look like they are stand alone transportation issues but asked if staff felt like particular projects should be done at the same time. Polasek explained what projects he would like for staff to work on simultaneously with others. Sattler asked and Polasek said the 971 project was on the previous bond issue. Brainard asked and Polasek described the funding for the Southwest Bypass project. Berryman spoke of traffic problems in the area and Polasek said most of those areas will be improved through signalization and the synchronization of the traffic lights on the roads that are owned by TXDOT. Briggs described the process of synchronization of the signals in the City. There was much discussion The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 PM. Approved Mayor City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 3 Pages retary Ye W a Hamilton