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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 07.10.2012 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: Patty Eason, Danny Meigs, Bill Sattler, Tommy All Council Present. Gonzalez, Troy Hellmann, Rachael Jonrowe, Jerry Hammerlun Staff Present: Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary; Bridget Chapman, Acting City Attorney; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager; Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager; Kevin Russell, Director of Human Resources and Civil Service; Valerie Kreger, Principal Planner; Kimberly Garrett, Parks and Recreation Director; Heather Brewer, Urban Forester; Robbie Wyler, Historic District Planner Minutes, A Presentation and discussion regarding the Tree Preservation standards of the Unified Development Code (UDC) -- Valerie Kreger, AICP, Principal Planner; Kimberly Garrett, CPRP, Parks and Recreation Director; and Heather Brewer, Urban Forester Gonzalez absent. With a Powerpoint presentation, Kreger reviewed the tree preservation standards and requirements for the Council. She spoke about diameter breast height (DBH) and defined that to the Council as the width across the tree measured at 4.5 feet above the ground. She said, in the 1980s, regulations were adopted that reward tree preservation in the form of landscape credits. She noted, in 2001, the actual tree ordinance was written that addressed the preservation of trees that were 12" or greater. She noted, in 2003, the City adopted the UDC which maintained the 12" protected tree size. She noted in 2007, the City adopted heritage tree requirements as making tree preservation requirements applicable to all properties.She said, when the heritage trees were added, it started in 2005 when the City recevied a grant from Texas Forest Service to hire an Urban Forester. She said around 2005-2006, there were some concerns over the removal of large trees and Council directed staff to prepare a heritage tree ordinance. She said, in December 2006, staff came to Council with a draft ordinance to address heritage trees. She said, on the dais, the Council changed the heritage tree size requirement from 30 inches to 26 inches. She said this ordinance was adopted in February 2007. She spoke about what occurred in 2008 and added the statement "update protected and heritage trees provisions based on experience using ordinance" to the annual UDC amendment list. She said in 2010-2011,the UDC Task Force participants reviewed, dicussed, compared and adopted a new Chapter 8 covering both tree preservation and landscaping. Kreger described the tree classifications including what kinds of trees are under protected trees and what are under heritage trees. She noted Council can choose to designate any tree they would like as a heritage tree. She spoke about protected tree preservation and how it is applicable to all development in city limits or ETJ except single family and two family, regardless of tract size. She described the minimum percentage of City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 1 of 6 Pages protected trees to be preserved based on the average density of trees on the entire tract. She said, for the trees actually removed, a person is required to mitigate for 40% of the tree inches removed. She said, for protected trees, mitigation is at a one to one basis. She showed Council an example of a protected tree and she handed Council an example of the size of a protected tree. She spoke about Heritage Tree Preservation and said it is applicable to all commercial an residential development in city limits or ETJ (excluding pre -2007 residential). She said an applicant must obtain approval from City to remove or prune a heritage tree, which goes through the urban forester. She said, if she is not available to approve the request, it will bump up to the City Council. She said the mitigation required on a heritage tree is for 100% of the tree inches removed. She showed Council a picture example of a 26 inch heritage tree. She described the options for mitigation of removed trees including on site credit trees, on site replacement, off site replacement, soil aeration and supplemental nutrients and payment -in -lieu. She said they tried to include tree preservation incentives in the Ordinance as well. She described these incentives for the City Council. She said staff did some regional comparisons to other cities in the area and added the City is the largest at 12 inches. She noted Round Rock designates its heritage trees by species. She provided Council with a couple of example projects regarding the preservation of heritage trees along with development. She spoke about some discussion items and the applicability of the Ordinance in the extra -territorial jurisdiction. She spoke about multi -trunk heritage tree determinations to be addressed with the tree and landscape technical manual. Eason asked if there is any way to measure if our Ordinance is doing a good job at protecting trees. Kreger said staff would have to look at plans that come in and noted, off the top of her head, she is not sure how the City would measure that. Eason said she thinks that would be a good thing to do. Kreger said she is sure that is possible but noted she does not know how staff could do that. Hellmann said he thinks the city has reached a good balance on this issue, especially given the incentives recently offered. He said he is pretty happy with what the City has done so far. Meigs asked if staff has a feel for the feedback received since the last revision. Kreger said she has not received a lot of feedback and noted a lot of it is the landscape architects adjusting to new landscape regulations. Meigs said he would be interested in tracking the feedback and response to this so Council can know if the City is moving in the right direction or not. Sattler asked how the 26" number was picked by the Council in 2006. Kreger described the history of that issue for Council. Sattler asked and Kreger said she is not aware of any instance where the tree regulations deterred development in the City. Brandenburg said Wolf Ranch is a prime example of tree preservation in the City. Sattler spoke about an instance where he received complaints from citizens about tree preservation on private property. Jonrowe asked and Kreger recalled instances where the City approved the removal of the trees. She said there have been some approvals, for instance on a hotel that was supposed to come in. She said the tree did not stand in the way of the development. Jonrowe said, growing up in Texas, she values shade deeply. Jonrowe asked about the effect of the drought on the current trees in the City. Brewer said the City spent quite a bit of money removing the dead trees both for personal safety and fire hazards. She said the GUS folks are trying to stay on top of taking care of dead trees in the right of way. Jonrowe asked and Brewer said they try to stay proactive with the public areas. Jonrowe asked and Brewer said the City is using money from the mitigation fund to clear out the dead trees. Mayor said he has a strong conviction about the preservation of trees. There was much discussion. B Presentation and review of proposed amendments to the 2001 Downtown Design Guidelines -- Robbie Wyler, Historic District Planner and Valerie Kreger, AICP, Principal Planner With a Powerpoint Presentation, Wyler reviewed the current downtown design guidelines. He said the guidelines cover architectural styles, principals, features, materials, elements, additions, alterations, infill and much more. He described the area where the guidelines are applied. He said these guidelines are now being referred to as the downtown and old town design guidelines. He spoke about the importance of updating the guidelines and why it is necessary. He said staff wants this document to be very reader friendly. He began to describe the recommended updates to the downtown guidelines. He spoke about the changes to Chapter 2 regarding architectural resources. He said this is including both residential and non-residential style. He said there are not a lot of changes in chapters 3-5. Gonzalez arrived at the dais. He spoke about Chapter 6, building elements and said the major changes were the addition of guidelines for historic windows and doors, roofing styles, and purchases as well as historic maintenance and esthetic detail clarifications. He spoke about Chapter 7, re -use, additions and alterations and said the bid change was the addition of guidelines for demolition and relocation. He spoke about Chapter 8, site design, and described the updates to that chapter including the downtown master plan and UDC including further references for parking and sidewalks, addition of guidelines for outdoor dining and seating areas, tree lighting and fencing. He spoke about Chapter 9 regarding signs and how it is one of the most significant chapters. He spoke about the amount of certificate of design compliance that were submitted last year. He said the 2012 update to this chapter includes the addition of guidelines for specific styles of signs. He mentioned that some cities do not even have City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 2 of 6 Pages sign guidelines. He said Georgetown is fortunate enough to have guidelines like this that guides the standards for signs. He said, more times than not, it is a simple thing to follow through. He said there were no significant changes made to Chapter 10, awnings and canopies. He spoke about Chapter 11, which is a new chapter regarding colors. He said its purpose is to provide guidance when it comes to color schemes and application. He said no significant changes were made to Chapter 12, infill in Area 1. He spoke about Chapter 13, infill in area two and how the updates include the addition of guideline for building mass and materials. He said Chapter 14 is another new chapter regarding infill, construction and additions in Old Town. He said this is a new chapter that has been added to the design guidelines. He noted its purpose is to provide guidance/standards specifically for the Old Town Overlay District, primarily for residential purposes. He said appendixes A and B include a new glossary of terms as well as clarification on the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and the role it plays in the development of these guidelines. Mayor asked about how staff informs the public about these regulations. Wyler spoke about the public process including meetings held on this issue and public hearings. Jonrowe said she thinks the regulations are good as long as they do not stifle personal creativity. Jonrowe asked that Wyler said he will send her the links for the area one and area two maps. She thanked Wyler for moving the First Reading to the next meeting because it gives her some time to consider this and then come back with questions at the next meeting. She said she likes the idea of having the planning department handle temporary signs. She said she hopes these regulations do not stifle personal creativity. Jonrowe asked and Wyler said there have been maybe a handful of actual infill projects that have been brand new. He said a majority of these projects are using existing property. Jonrowe said there tends to be more issues surrounding new construction. Hammerlun thanked Wyler and said he too appreciates the separation of the Workshop and first readings. He said he is excited about the focus that the new reorganization plan will give to downtown issues. Sattler asked about the public hearings held on this. Wyler said there was a good turnout and noted staff got a lot of input.He noted, unfortunately, this was put on the back burner for a while. There were many questions regarding some of the changes to the guidelines. Gonzalez said he likes the cross referencing between the UDC and the master plan. He said he likes the detail on things such as paint color where the City dives guidelines and not just tight regulations. He said he thinks the City needs to look a little further and setting requirements for anything in the infill area. He said, overall, he sees an improvement. There was much discussion. C Overview of the proposed 2012/2013 budget and five year pian for CIP for General Capital Projects (GCP), including Facilities, Parks and Downtown Project -- Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer and Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager With a Powerpoint Presentation, Rundell reviewed the General Capital Projects which are projects that are not related to streets or the utility. She said they are the "other stuff." Mayor left the dais. She gave a brief outline of her presentation. She spoke about the capital improvement program and the cost of the projects. She said there is about $15.8 million related to the CIP projects, the majority going toward the new public safety facility. She said the program funding for 2012/13 comes from different sources. Brewer started the presentation with some of the projects that are currently underway, including the new Georgetown Art Center, the sidewalk expansion on Austin Avenue from 7th and 8th, the sidewalk on Austin Avenue from 2nd to 5th and the upgrade of the outdoor furniture in the downtown area. Mayor returned to the dais. Brewer showed the costs of the downtown projects over the next five years. She said the most major project addresses the parking issues downtown. She said they will be considering how this is to be best implemented. She said the design of the garage will try to blend in with the surrounding area. She described the project cost by fiscal year. She said the City is going to consider all sorts of arrangements. She spoke about the sidewalk improvements and the costs of those projects. She said priority will be given to any ADA issues the City may have. She said the last thing regarding downtown improvements is an update to the downtown master plan. She said staff would like to have a consultant come in, do an assessment and speak about what changes need to be made to the plan. Garrett spoke about the Parks Projects in the CIP. She said the first item is park improvements and she said it identifies maintenance and repairs that have not been addressed. She described parks capital projects as a way to utilize the 2008 parks improvements. She described the current projects in the Parks and Recreation departments including the trail expansion, Gamble Park and an inventory of current park assets and evaluation of current conditions. She described the Parks Capital Improvements as defined in the five year plan. She said the Parks Department and the Parks Board have developed a comprehensive list of all parks, identifying needed maintenance and repairs. She said some of the parks scheduled for maintenance and repairs are Booty's City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 6 Pages playground, McMaster parking lot and bleachers, Village Pool renovation and San Jose rehabilitation. She said the Parks Board has recommended staff proceed with the recommended projects. She described the 2008 parks bond improvements for the Council including replacing the creative playscape in San Gabriel Park and the purchase of land for the development of a west side park. Rundell spoke about the general projects in the CIP. She spoke about the current projects, which are related to public safety, including Fire Station 2, Fire Station 5 and public safety and training complex. She spoke about the facility master plan and noted Brandenbug has been working on this plan. She spoke about the renovation of City buildings including the old library. She spoke about the public safety facility and firing range. She said the contract for this project will be awarded within the next year. Hammerlun asked and Brewer said the City is working on the design of the arts center right now. Hammerlun asked and Brewer said we can not start the project until the Fire Chief moves out of his offices. She said they are planning to start in mid-September, early October. Hammerlun said he has expressed his concerns about the way the City does the conceptual work on projects as significant as some of these, for instance the parking garage. He said any preliminary numbers need to be real. He said, if we are going to talk about that project in future planning terms, we need someone who is committed to that number and someone who has a responsibility to live what that number. He said he has concerns that we have these cost place holders without any substance to back it up. Brewer said she understands his concerns and noted the City had a consultant draw up some of the preliminary numbers. He said the number Council sees tonight will be substantially different from what is actually approved and added the City needs to stop that process. Sattler asked and Rundell said the firing range will be built after the actual facility. Sattler asked and Rundell said the firing range will be built after the facility. She said the buildings are totally separate. Sattler asked and Garrett said the Council will be hearing a presentation in September regarding the future of the cemetery. Brandenburg spoke briefly about the cemetery and said he thinks the City needs to get out of the cemetery business. Jonrowe asked and Brewer said they have met with the downtown business owners several times about some of'these projects and noted the City has promised to do the majority of the work at night when the businesses are closed. She said they are also looking at a process where they only take up a section of the sidewalk at all times to make sure there will always be access to the businesses. Jonrowe asked and Brandenburg spoke about Gamble Park and noted the development of the park depends a lot on HEB. Jonrowe asked and Garrett said there have been mixed opinions regarding how the new playscape is going to look. Garrett said staff will be making site visits to see what the new playscapes look like. She said she would like to see it look and feel very similar to the current playscape. Jonrowe asked and Garrettt spoke about plans for the future of Chautauqua Park. Meigs asked and Brewer spoke about the parking garage and how the City is hoping to partner with the County to address the parking needs downtown. Brandenburg spoke about some of the future plans and concepts for the old library building. Meigs said he thinks the timing is right to have some discussions about the part of town. Brewer spoke about the concept of having a festival area around the municipal complex around the old library. Hellmann asked and Brewer said the $400,000 allocated for downtown project is for the purchase of land. Hellmann asked and Garrett said the funding for the west side park would be for the purchase of the land as well. He asked and Garrett said the current creative playscape was funded by donations and was built in 1993. She said it was a community install. Hellmann said there seems to be a lot of community ownership to that playscape and noted that is a project the City need to be careful with. Hellmann asked and Rundell said an east side fire station is not in this plan yet. There were many questions about the parks projects. Gonzaelz asked and Brewer said the City has learned some lessons in being downtown business owners. Brewer said, as the City moves to renovate or sell some of the buildings the City has downtown, the City will work with engineers and professional to get those buildings up to Code. Gonzalez asked and Brandenburg spoke about the various downtown City facilities that could be sold. Gonzalez spoke about how parking downtown will continue to be a challenge. Eason spoke about the furniture downtown and how the City should look for a different material that is longer lasting. Brewer said the code actually specifies a type of material to use for the benches downtown. Eason said the City needs to change that. Rundell said all of these projects will be included in the budget the Council will be discussing over the next couple of weeks. D Presentation regarding City of Georgetown's current efforts to establish and maintain a competitive position in its defined market -- Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager; Kevin Russell, Director of Human Resources and Civil Service; Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager 'Brewer said the General Government and Finance Subcommittee initiated this request. She said the City did an RFP for this compensation study and said there were a number of folks who wanted to work for us. She said the City selected Public Sector Personnel Consultants and she spoke of their credentials. Council gave feedback to the consultants on the benchmarks they wanted to use for this study. With a Powerpoint Presentation, Matthew Weatherly of Public Sector Personnel Consultants presented the Council with the project scope and deliverables. He said the scope was to include a review of job description City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 4 of 6 Pages content, the process for that and conducting a compensation survey comparing base pay ranges to like employers in the area. He said the employee participation is probably the most important to this study. He said the survey they were tasked with completing include proposed pay ranges for each job. He said they designed a fair and sustainable compensation plan. He spoke about position classification review. He said they are proposing some of the job titles be combined or reduced. He said employees completed a PAC to describe their assigned job duties and responsibilities. He said there are currently approximately 251 job titles in use for 490 positions and they are proposing 215 recommend job titles. He said they are recommendations job title modifications for clarification and consistency. He showed Council the data sources referenced for the survey. He said they looked statewide for other entities and additional employers of comparable size for management jobs. He provided Council with a pay range illustration that had a minimum, midpoint and maximum. He said the City's current pay range is a little wider than what the consultant is proposing. He said the City wants to make sure the pay ranges are competitive when compared externally. He said the midpoint is generally the going rate for a competent and competitive performer. He said they do not do comparisons based on minimum or maximum because cities have many different depths of pay ranges. He said he would like to ensure pay range growth. He provided Council with a base salary survey illustration. He said a total of 158 job titles were surveyed and added the current pay ranges for 66% of the job titles surveyed are already competitive when compared to the external market. He said the current pay ranges for 34% of the job titles surveyed are more than 5% below average survey midpoint. He said they looked at public safety pay scales and noted those are also pretty competitive. He said entry and top out for Police Officer and Firefighters are in line with market averages and added entry values for subsequent fire ranks are slightly low. He spoke about pay plan development. He said, using information collected from employees describing their job duties and the external market data collected from other employers, pay ranges have been proposed for each job title. He said when he moved from a paper to people comparison, preliminary estimates suggest that roughly 25% of non -safety employees are below the entry rate proposed for their job. He noted approximately $230,000 would be needed to bring 92 employees up to the new minimum, which is approximately $147,00 on general fund. He continued to speak about pay plan development and said that the City should not stop at just moving the people below minimum up to the minimum. He said if there are some journey level folks that are in the lower portion of the pay range that he likes to call sore thumbs. He said he does not want to have 5-7 year people in the lower third of the pay range. He said they have identified some folks that could move further into their pay scale. He said it would be $675,000 in spending and the impact on the general fund would be $380,000. He spoke about the public safety pay scales and said the current scales do not use some of the bottom steps for some of the occupations. He continued to speak about the recommendations. Mayor asked and Brandenburg said this would be an opportunity for Council to ask questions. He asked if the Council supports what is being recommended from the consultant. He spoke about the issue of the employees who are not currently at the minimum. He said there are multiple layers to this issue. He spoke about the importance of both recruitment and retention of the employees. Mayor asked and Brewer said an Executive Summary has been provided to the City Council in their agenda packet. Brandenburg said staff wanted to present this information all at once and added he would like for everyone to have this all at once. Mayor asked and Brandenburg said the City will come back with a plan for how to address these findings. Brandenburg said the City should not be a training ground for other organizations. Gonzalez said he agrees with the recommendations and the issue of how to get people up to where they need to be in their pay ranges. He said anyone who is not at a minimum range need to be increased to at least a starting point. He said he looks forward to further staff recommendations and how to implement this plan into the budget. Eason said she agrees with Gonzalez and noted this plan sounds reasonable. Jonrowe thanked the consultant for their work. Jonrowe asked and Weatherly said there were a few positions that are above market value. He said there is not an overwhelming number ahead and there is not an overwhelming number behind. Jonrowe said it was nice to hear the consultant talk about the steps. Jonrowe asked and Weatherly said there are not instances where people need 12%, 15% or 18% increases. He said if the City owes an employee 12%, it can give the employee 8% on year and 4% the next year. Jonrowe said there is something special about public sector employees and she noted the Council should repay the employees for their hard work. Hellmann said he agrees with Gonzalez and said he thinks the priority should be those employees below minimum and then, the following year, the City can move people to the mid -point. Meigs said he thinks this is good material and said there is an estimated 92 employees that fall below the minimum. Meigs asked and Weatherly said he could calculate the average tenure of the people below minimum for a future report. Hammerlun thanked GGAF for having the vision to address this and noted it is timely for the City. He said the City needs to move on this and stay competitive. He said he does not want to be a training ground for other cities. Sattler agreed and said this was overwhelming. He said he did not realize that this was the real case and noted it is good to have this information. He said he agrees with the "Gonzalez Plan" and noted the City needs to get started with this right away. He said, if the City wants to be a City of Excellence, it needs to pay the price to retain good employees. Meeting adjourned at 5:02PM City Council Meeting Minutest Page 5 of 6 Pages Approv117 ed/. Mayor Ge ge arver City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 6 of 6 Pages Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 05:02 PM.