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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/02/1996 Regular Council Meeting MinutesMARANA TOWN COUNCIL APRIL 2, 1996 PLACE AND DATE Marana Town Hall April 2, 1996 I. CALL TO ORDER By Mayor Honea at 7:04 p.m. II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Led by Mayor Honea IH. INVOCATION Led by Mayor Honea IV. ROLL CALL COUNCIL Ed Honea Sharon Price Tom Clark Ora Mae Harn Sherry Millner Herb Kal Bobby Sutton Jr. STAFF Hurvie Davis Dan Hochuli Sandra Groseclose Jerry Flannery Dave After Brad DeSpain 16 Members of the Public Mayor Vice-Mayor Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Town Manager Town Attorney Town Clerk Planning Administrator Town Engineer Utilities Advisor V. APPROVAL OF AGENDA A motion was made by Ora Harn, seconded by Tom Clark and carried unanimously to approve the Agenda as written. VI. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES A motion was made by Sharon Price, seconded by Tom Clark and carried unanimously to approve the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of March 19, 1996 and the Council Retreat Minutes of March 15 and 16, 1996.. VII. CALL TO THE PUBLIC/ANNOUNCEMENTS Jayme Kahle, Northwest Fire District: He wanted to let everybody know that the Northwest Fire District now has a station that is open in the north section of Marana. The station is open 24 hours. Ora Harn: The annual CDBG celebration will be held tomorrow at 2:30 pm at the E1 Pueblo Neighborhood Center. MARANA TOWN COUNCIL APRIL 2, 996 Hurvie Davis: Mr. Davis announced that Jane Johnson, currently his executive assistant, has been named the new Human Resources Director. VIII. STAFF REPORTS Staff reports are on file at Town Hall. IX. GENERAL ORDER OF BUSINESS A. Consent Agenda 1. Resolution No. 96-31 and Ordinance No. 96.22 - Adoption ora proposed amendment to the Town of Marana Personnel Policies relating to drug and alcohol testing of Town employees. 2. Ordinance No. 9S.21 - Karok Investments Ltd, 1-10 Extension of Zoning - Request to extend. the expiration date of a Conditional Rezone granted by Pima County. 3. Ordinance No, 96-20; Krauss Thornydale Extension of Zoning - Request to extend the expiration date of a Conditional Rezone granted by Pima County. A motion was made by Bobby Sutton, Jr., seconded by Ora Harn and carried unanimously to approve the Consent Agenda as written. B. Public Hearing; Sliverbell/Linda Vista Road Annexation - Consideration and approval of an annexation of 37 acres located south of the present Town limitst adjacent to the western border of Silverbell Road in a portion of the N 1/2 of Section 20, Township 12 Southt Range 12 East~ G&~RB/kM~ Pima County, Arizona. Hurvie Davis: This is a public heating for an annexation that we have under consideration. The owner of the property, Ken Ryan, has been working on this matter with Jerry Flannery. Jerry Flannery: Mr. Ryan wishes to develop the property with a subdivision. He is asking for a cluster type subdivision through a rezoning process. Ken Ryan, 3990 W Ironwood Hills: He would be happy to answer any questions that Council might have on this matter. Herb Kal: He would like to know how Mr. Ryan proposes to serve the area with water and sewer. Ken Ryan: There is the treatment plant that is being built east of this project for Continental Ranch and outlying areas. The water will be brought in from Silverbell Road south of our project. Herb Kal: Who will be the supplier for the water? Ken Ryan: Tucson Water. Herb Kai: He would like Mr. Ryan to elaborate on thc cluster building plan. Ken Ryan: The concept is 32 lots which would be in a semi-custom/custom format. Dan Hochuli: State law is clear that the Town will annex thc property and transition the property to the closest Pima County zone. Hurvie Davis: We will allow Tucson Water to service this area until such time as the Town has its own system in place and is able to serve the property. Any water infrastructure that is put in by this developer would be turned over to the Town of Marana at no cost. Herb Kai: He is very concerned about how water is served in that area. Mayor Honea declared Council out of Public Hearing. C. Resolution No. 96-32 - Application for Special Events License, requested by Carondelet Health Care Corporation of Arizona for the Centurion's Annual Fund raiser in support of Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital. 2 Hurvie Davis: This is an application for a special events license for the Centurion's Annual Fund Raiser to be held at the Sportspark. Tony Melior, Centurion's Event Chairman: He would be happy to answer any questions that Council may have. Ora Harn: She would like to know how they are going to screen for under age drinking. Tony Melior: The tickets all state that you must be at least 21 years of age to attend the event. The Marana Police Department has agreed to provide security for the event. We will be glad to work with them. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: Will there be tents set up for concessions? Tony Melior: We will have our own concessions set up. With Council's approval we will be hiring a caterer for the food and we will be dealing with beer distributors in Town. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: What is the theme this year? Tony Melior: It is going to be an Olympic theme. This will be our 27th year for holding this event. A motion was made by Bobby Sutton, Jr., seconded by Sharon Price and carried unanimously to approve Resolution No. 96-32 approving the Special Events License request for Carondelet Corporation of Arizona for May 11, 1996 at the Sports Park. D. CalMat - Appeal to Council of decision to deny Ready-Mix Concrete Plant without an amendment to the CalMat Specific Plan for the property located in W 1/2 of Section 6~ Township 12 South, Range 12 East. Jerry Flannery: The CalMat Specb~c Plan was approved back in the late 1980's by the Town. It covers about 494 acres. It presents three development phases. The first is the initial phase which basically talks about resource extraction. The second is the transitional phase which allows for resource extraction as well as some mixed uses to be followed to reclaim some of the properties. The third and ultimate phase is the development phase. The land uses that are proposed to go into that area would be fully reclaimed, complete with a full circulation plan. In Phase Three this property would be used as a gateway to the Town of Marana. We have been working with CalMat since they came in and submitted an electrical permit. It was processed and came to the Planning Department. The Planning Department notified CaiMat that this project would need to go through a Specific Plan Amendment. Their options were to appeal this decision or proceed with the Specific Plan Amendment, .They requested an appeal. Tonight we have two options that have been suggested. Either way, the Specific Plan needs to be amended. The choice is whether or not CalMat is allowed to go ahead with the batch plant in conjunction with the Specific Plan to be amended. Staff agrees, if Council so directs, that a Temporary Use Permit be submitted concurrently with a Specific Plan Amendment. That way Staff can ensure that the Specific Plan is amended. The Temporary Use Permit would be allowed in the time that the Specific Plan Amendment is being processed. Hurvie Davis: He would like Mr. Flannery to explain where the plant is now and where it would be relocated. Why does the plant need to be moved? Jerry Flannery: Right now the batch plant is located off the frontage road, between Arizona Portland Cement and CTI. They want to relocate this so they can centralize their facilities. This action would eliminate some of their costs. They also feel that the Avra Valley on ramp is too steep for some of their vehicles to use. Herb Kal: If the Council were to grant a Temporary Use Permit to move the plant whileCalMat applied for an amendment tothis Specific Plan, what if there were some hang ups? Would they have to move the plant back? MARANA TOWN COUNCIL APRIL 2, 1996 Jerry Flannery: A Temporary Use Permit can be revoked at any time. The condition of accepting a Temporary Use Permit would be that the Specific Plan be submitted concurrently. If there were any problems along the line and Council so directed, Staff would come to Council and make a presentation. We don't perceive any problems but we could revoke the permit at any time and CalMat would have to remove the plant. Mayor Honea: Is any of the Specific Plan in the flood way or is it in the flood plain entirely? Jerry Flannery: The southern portion of the project would be considered to be in the flood way. Most of the usable properties within the Specific Plan overall are in the flood plain. That is why they had to come back for a Flood Plain User Permit. Lee Edmonson, Regional Manager, CalMat: In 1992 we came to the Council with a Flood Plain Use Permit proposal. The reason we want to move is simply one of convenience and costs; we want to consolidate the operations. Ora Harn: She remembers discussions about moving the plant back in 1992 when she was mayor. She recalls discussing the visibility of the plant and the vegetation that was a~reed upon by CalMat. She really supports the moving of the plant; it could be a win/win situation for us all Herb Kai: Was there a time table CalMat was supposed to follow to put the plants and shrubbery in to buffer some of the views? Lee Edmonson: Part of the problem is that we were not able to implement the Specific Plan as it was wr/tten. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: Do we need to include in the motion that we want the Temporary Use Permit issued at the same time? Jerry Flannery: Yes, if the Council were to choose option iii, the second sentence would read I further move the Town of Marana afiow CalMat to proceed with their plans to move the ready-mix concrete plant on to the site under a TUP while at the same time amending the Specific Plan. Tom Clark: He met with representatives from CalMat late this afternoon. They assured him that the lighting would be of the nature that it would not affect the people in Rilfito. Dave Aider: Staff will be looking at all the issues involved in this project regardless of what action the Council takes tonight. A motion was made by Ora Harn, seconded by Bobby Sutton, Jr. and carried unanimously to direct CalMat to amend their Specific Plan. I further move that the Town of Marana allow CalMat to proceed with their plans to move the ready mix concrete plant onto the site while they are under a Temporary User Permit while at the same time amending the Specific Plan. E. Ordinance No. 96.19 - Amendment to the Town Code; Bed Tax Hu~vte Davis: We have proposed before Council this evening an Ordinance to amend the Marana Tax Code to increase the lodging tax from 1% to 4%. We have done a survey of municipalities along the Interstate through Arizona that we may compete with, primarily the City of Tucson. Tucson currently has a 4% bed tax with a $1.00 per night room charge. We currently have two motels in Town and there are more coming in. We feel this is an issue that needs to be revisited. The monies would generate an additional $73,000.00. We currently receive about $25,000.00 based on the current taxes that we collect. With the increase in the number of motels coming into Town, we would think that revenues would increase further. The monies would go into the General Fund to provide services to the general public in the Community. Roy Cuaron: This action would increase our financial base, yet it doesn't impose a burden on the citizens of the Town. Of all the cities and towns in Arizona that impose this tax, there are only five out of sixty that impose a bed tax of less than 1%. Marana is one of the five. Even if we increase the tax fram 1% to 4%, we are still going to be charging less than our closest competitor, the City of Tucson. Ora Harn: If we went to 3% instead of 4%, wouldn't it give us a good advantage to convince motels to move into Marana instead of Tucson? The 4% tax seems a little high. Mayor Honea: We talked about that a little bit. The general consensus of the staff was that nobody asks a hotel what their bed tax is. With the extra dollar Tucson charges, the total tax is about 5.3%. Our tax would still be cheaper than Tucson's 4%. Herb Kal: What would be the total tax on a room bill? Roy Cuaron: If the Ordinance passes as written it would be a total of 4% for the bed tax plus 2% for the sales tax, a total of 6%. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: He tends to agree with Council Member Harn. Wouldn't that 1% give us more of a competitive edge over the City of Tucson? Roy Cuaron: Obviously the lower tax is going to have an advantage over a higher rate, but he cannot determine the exact impact. Dan Hochuli: Right now Pima County charges 1% bed tax, which is credited against a municipality's tax. There is talk of raising that to 2% and that 2% would also be credited against the municipality. It is his understanding that it applies against both our underlying transaction privilege tax as well as the bed tax. Right now we have a 25 transaction prix/liege tax and a 1% bed tax, so we have a 3% hotel tax. If Pima County raises their bed tax to 2% the hotels in Marana will pay Marana's 3% and will not pay any of Pima County's tax. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: We were charging 1% to the three new motels that are coming in. Was there any discussion on this with these developers? Is this going to create an uproar? Hurvie Davis: He has not been approached by any of the prospective hotel owners about what the tax rate is. He does not believe it is an issue. Ora Haru: She feels that 4% is too much, and when you gouge the public you have people who won't come and visit your community. A motion was made by Ora Harn, seconded by Bobby Sutton, Jr. and carried with Council Member Clark voting Nay to adopt Ordinance No. 96.19 amending Section 1-447-447 of the Town's model cities tax code to increase the transient lodging tax from one to three percent. F. Ordinance No 96.18 - Amending the Marana Tax Code to create a tax exemption for residential leases. Mayor Honea declared a conflict of interest in this item and turned the dais over to Vice mayor Price. Hurvie Davis: This item was before Council at the last meeting, and at that time no action was taken. Staff is recommending that we exempt residential leases from the 2% tax. This would apply only to residential leases, not commercial leases. This tax is very difficult to monitor and enforce. He finds it very hard to rationalize why we have a 2% rental tax. We are penalizing those very people who cannot afford to buy a home. We have identified an area surrounding our Community that we would ultimately annex into the Town. There are a number of apartments in these areas. We have encountered opposition from the apartments because if we annex one apartment, the apartment right across the street which is still in the County does not have to pay the 2% tax. Roy Cuaron: 22% of the cities and towns who use the model cities tax code have repealed their residential rental tax. The reasons vary but the primary one was a lack of enforcement capabilities. How do we monitor this? Mr. Cuaron went over with the Council Exhibit A which was included in tonight's packet. A 400 unit complex with a base monthly rent of $600.00 is going to generate about $2.8 million. The Town's 2% residential tax would be about $58,000.00. If you take that same complex and use the Town's multiplier, that would equal an additional new population of 1,156. We would then be able to collect $230.00 in state shared revenues for each new resident. This is approximately $265,880.00. Overall by eliminating this tax we encourage expansion of the Town's boundaries and we also increase our revenue base with state shared revenues. In order for the rental tax that would be generated by one person to equal the state shared revenues, the base rent on his/her unit would have to be $900.00 a month. The Town benefits more from eliminating the tax and encouraging expansion of the Town boundaries. Hurvie Davis: Apartment complexes are usually self contained. The majority of our services costs would be in police protection. We encountered this problem when we were annexing the Orange Grove Mobile Estates area and the apartments across the street. Representatives from the apartments indicated that they were supportive of Marana, but they could not accept the residential rental tax. It would have placed them at too much of a disadvantage with their competitors. Judy Dakin, Evans Withycombe Management: Ms. Dakin represents Orange Grove Village Apartments at 3500 West Orange Grove Road Tucson, AZ. Our biggest stumbhng block about being annexed into Marana is the 2% tax. We would have two options if this tax were to stay in place, option 1 we would absorb the tax ourselves or option 2 would be to pass it on to the residents. The 2% is a big issue for us. A motion was made by Ora Harn, seconded by Herb Kal and carried with Council Member Tom Clark and Vice Mayor Sharon Price voting Nay and Mayor Honea abstaining from voting to adopt Ordinance No. 96.18 amending Section 1-445 of the Town's model cities tax code to create an exemption for residentiaI leases. G. Designation of Assured Water Supply Brad DeSpain: We will have a designation of assured water supply in May. Although our hydrology showed that we have 60,000 acre feet, the Arizona Department of Water Resources, Office of Assured Water Supply will reserve that amount for us but they will not give it to us in our designation. They will designate 49,000 acre feet to start with. As we continue to grow we have to amend from that 60,000 acre feet. They continue to say that we should have the assured water supply by this May. H. Resolution No. 96-29 - Intergovernmental Agreement between the Town of Marana and the City of Tucson for the construction of enhanced bus shelters located on Ina Road and within the Town limits. Hurvie Davis: When we first got involved with the issue of enhanced bus shelters on Ina Road, we were under the impression that we had to have the shelters constructed, advance the funds and then would receive reimbursement through the City of Tucson. Just today we found out we not only have to handle the construction of the shelters but we have to do the design and specifications for those shelters as well. We have a limited staff in our Town, he does not feel we have the resources that are necessary to come up with the bus shelters. This is a rather lengthy and time consuming process. He would like to have this item pulled until Staff can have further discussions with the City of Tucson and the State of A~:~zona. Ora Harn: This is a nice project which doesn't cost a lot of money, but her thoughts were that she would like to see this item continued. Maybe Mr. After could contact the University of Arizona and ask one of their students to see if he/she would like to work on this project. Dave Atler: He feels that is a terrific idea. We would have to look at the time tables, which are fairly short. A motion was made by Ora Ham, seconded by Tom Clark and carried unanimously to continue this item and also to have the Town Engineer look into contacting the University of A~:~zona to see if they would like to take this item on as a project. I. Mayor's Report Mayor Honea: Mr. Davis and Mayor Honea met with the Chance~lor of Pima College a couple of days ago. He wanted to come out and talk to them about the possibility of placing a P/ma ColIege Campus in the Marana area sometime in the near future. We discussed that the University of Arizona owns a piece of property at the corner of Sandario and Marana Road. It was a very rewarding meeting and very positive. Mayor Honea attended the Staff meeting this week. He was glad to see how well everybody interacts together. Vice Mayor and Mayor Honea met with CalMat to discuss the item that 6 MARANA TOWN COUNCIL APRIL 2, 1996 is on the Agenda tonight. He is very pleased that yesterday Northwest Fire Station 66 opened to serve Marana. Next week the Mayor and Vice Mayor will be meeting with Mr. Mike Ingrain. He wants to come and update them on the project at the old Shamrock Dairy site. J. Manager's Report Hurvie Davis: Last week he met with Jerry Collins of Collins-Pena Consulting Engineers. Service needs to be improved on various projects the town and Colhns-Pena are involved with. As a result of the meeting the service has improved. We are trying to keep up with the work load that we have facing us and everybody is working well together. We have had several meetings with the SportsPark regarding the July 4th Event. We have reached an agreement on all the issues. Costs continue to increase each year but we have worked on keeping costs of games and rides at a minimum. He continues to spend a considerable amount of time on various water and sewer issues with Brad DeSpain. He received a letter today from Ms. Susan Shields who is the Director of the Pima County Solid Waste Management Division. The letter was in regards to the Tangerine Landfill. Methane gas has been detected at the Landfill near the water storage pond. He has had a number of people suggest to him that there be another Town picnic this year. He has been talking to Sandy Groseclose and Jane Johnson on this matter. He is looking into ways to try and keep the litter off the roadways in Town. X. FUTURB AGENDA ITEMS Mayor Honea: He would like to start looking at some of the items that were discussed during the Council Retreat. One item is the DeAnza Trail and the possibility of running the trail from Cortaro to Sanders Road. He would like to see this put on the Agenda to be discussed so we can begin work on this project. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: We also talked about security issues at Council meetings and when Court is in session, he would like to see this discussed. XI. ADJOURNMENT A motion was made by Ora Harn, seconded by Tom Clark and carried unanimously to adjourn. TIME: 8:52 p.m. AUDIO TAPES OF THE MEETING ARE AVAILABLE AT THE MARANA TOWN HALL CLERK'S OFFICE. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are the true and correct minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of the Marana Town Council held on April 2, 1996. I further certify that a quorum was present.