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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/27/2012 Study Session Minutes'.J-t� ARA[ A / I \ """�Frk STUDY SESSION MINUTES 11555 W. Civic Center Drive, Marana, Arizona 85653 Council Chambers, March 27, 2012, at or after 6:00 PM Ed Honea, Mayor Patti Comerford, Vice Mayor David Bowen, Council Member Herb Kai, Council Member Carol McGorray, Council Member Jon Post, Council Member Roxanne Ziegler, Council Member STUDY SESSION CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL. Mayor Honea called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. Town Clerk Bronson called roil. All Council were present except Council Member Post, who was excused. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE/INVOCATION/MOMENT OF SILENCE. Led by Mayor Honea. APPROVAL OF AGENDA. Motion to approve by Council Member Bowen, second by Council Member McGorray. Passed 6-0. DISCUSSION/DIRECTION/POSSIBLE ACTION D 1: Presentation of the Tangerine Corridor Conceptual Plan Final Report by graduate students in the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the University of Arizona. Kevin Kish introduced this item as a project of both the UA and the Planning Department/Development. Beth Scott, Assistant Professor in the School of Landscape Architecture, Matt Stuart, Hillary Turby, and Aaron Liggett were introduced. Karilyn Roach was also part of the team but was unable to attend the meeting. Ms. Scott, on behalf of the team, expressed to Council their appreciation for the opportunity to work on this project to give the students a real life learning experience. She noted that this was primarily an exploratory exercise intended to give students exposure to what it would be like to work with Planning staff. The basic premise for the project was to look at the Tangerine corridor as a potential industrial development corridor using the major planning documents of the town. Matt Stuart introduced the project. He thanked Kevin Kish, Cynthia Ross and Steve Cheslak and the rest of the development services staff for their help and guidance with the project. The project began approximately 10 months March 27, 2012 Council Meeting; Minutes 1 ago and covers six unique districts spacially located on about 4600 acres along Tangerine Road from Interstate 10 to the Dove Mountain intersection. The process was a five-step process which included research and data gathering, analysis of existing conditions, development of land use alternatives, analyzing best use practices case studies from jurisdictions across the country, which resulted in the conceptual plan of the six unique districts, a complimentary mix of uses and linkages between districts. The goals that were established were to attract, retain and foster business development and growth, create better connectivity between jobs and residents and provide a full spectrum of services, support education that fosters strong workforce development, establish a distinct character for the corridor, development infi•astructure to support business location, expansion and retention, and preserve and enhance the natural environment within and adjacent to the Tangerine Corridor. Workshops with development services staff and members of the professional community led to the creation of three alternative development scenarios — attracting investment, meeting end-user needs and creating an achievable mix of economic growth. This process was supplemented by best practices and a variety of case studies. This led to the preferred conceptual plan. Hillary Turby and Aaron Liggett then explained in detail each of the six districts. The districts are Sports and Entertainment, which is close to a multimodal transportation hub connection to I-10, the railroad, local arterial roads, shared use paths and future transit lines serving the metropolitan area; Off ce/Lifestyle, an employment center focused on attracting a broad range of non -industrial corporate interests in close proximity to residential areas; Luxury/Retail with a moderate intensity mix of retail, office and entertainment; Hi-Tech/Educational creating a regional center for workforce development; Hi-Tech/Research and Development with a complementary mix of uses to support knowledge industries and product/technology development deployment; and Industrial/Research and Development supporting collaborative business opportunities and industry clusters. The presentation concluded with Matt Stuart discussing the guiding principles of the planning and design process and lessons learned from case study research. The six categories of best practices were land use mix and scale, development quality, incentives to attract and retain business, transportation options, social benefits and conservation and open space planning. The project recommendations were to obtain input from stakeholders and the general public, modeling to providing additional guidance in locating developments and their potential conflict, expansion of case study and best practices research, and analysis of successful, high-quality multimodal transportation networks. D 2: Resolution No. 2012-21: Relating to Intergovernmental Relations; endorsing the proposed amended Camino de Manana Annexation to the Mountain Vista Fire District. Mr. Cassidy presented this item noting that Northwest Fire had annexed part of this area which required Mountain Vista Fire District to modify their boundaries. Mountain Vista requested Council approval of the new boundary map. Motion to approve by Council Member Bowen, second by Council Member Ziegler. Passed unanimously 6-0. March 27, 2012 Council Meeting Minutes 2 D 3: Relating to Land Development; Overview of proposed Marana Land Development Code comprehensive revision process. Mr. Cassidy presented this item noting that in 2006 staff began a process of developing a new format to insert the Land Development Code (LDC) into the Town Code. He had planned to show a complete mock-up of the entire document but encountered computer problems. He described how the new format would provide greater ease of access, including being able to add graphics for better understanding of situations. The look of the document will be just like the Town Code. The process that he would like Council approval for is a two-step process. The first step reorganizes what is current according to the table of contents and with simpler and terms and stylized similarly to the Town Code. The second part of the process will be to come back to Council with the separate chapters and do substantive, significant re -writes. The first part would come back to Council in about four months, depending on how long it takes to review before the Planning Commission, There will be at least two presentations before the Commission. Reorganization of the chapters would be from the most general to the most specific. He noted that there would be a lot of red -lined notes, most of which won't be substantive. Mr. Davidson interjected that this process is very important and has been going on for some time to get it to this point. It's important on its own and as part of the ongoing effort to improve and enhance all town services and policies. Mr. Cassidy stated that the new re -organization will make it easier to take pieces out and work on them. It's not designed to just sit on a shelf. Motion to direct staff to proceed with the LDC revision process in a manner consistent with the feedback provided by Council by Council Member McGorray, second by Council Member Bowen. Passed unanimously 6-0. D 4; Presentation: Relating to Administration; presentation and update surrounding key elements of the FY2012-2013 budget development process. Ann Berkman gave an update on the health plan renewal. She discussed the results of the employee survey wherein approximately 175 employees responded. The general consensus of the survey was that most employees would not consider moving to the 750/Teal plan; however, only 42% of employees would pay more for their current coverage, the 100/Copper plan. The proposal for the current 100/Copper plan is for the benefits to remain the same but with revised contributions. The current 750/Teal plan would have almost no contribution changes. However, the design includes no out of network services, reduced cost of the primary care co -pay and no change in pharmacy benefits. Next steps will be communication of information to employees through meetings with staff, worksheets, both electronic and paper, to review current usage and identify the best plan for their needs; FAQs and scenarios to help employees see cost savings if they migrate to the 750/teal plan. She then referred to a chart of costs to stay with current plans and the savings to migrate from the Copper to the Teal program. Next, Erik Montague provided a revenue update from the presentation he gave at last week's meeting. The ongoing revenue numbers are up about $500K for state shared revenues and other agency revenues. He noted that staff has worked very hard over the past few years to maintain a structurally balanced budget, and that is intended to ensure that ongoing revenues support ongoing programs. Those revenues that you see one time only go toward one-time programs. March 27, 2012 Council Meeting Minutes 3 Gilbert Davidson then segued to the recovery planning aspect of the budget. He noted that at the beginning of this fiscal year, Council approved a recovery planning process which included three major allocation or reinvestment elements: current staff, strategic positions and resources and tools. He further noted that although the revenue numbers won't be completely stable until employees decide which health benefits plans they want, The general unallocated and ongoing revenue remaining which can be put toward employee compensation is about $350K. That money could be invested in employees in three different scenarios. One is an ongoing adjustment (COLA or some adjustment to the base pay), the second scenario is a partial COLA and one-time contribution or reward, much like what the Council authorized at the holiday last calendar year, or a one-time adjustment only. Discussion ensued from Council with the general consensus that a partial COLA and a one-time adjustment in pay seems most equitable to all employees. Mr. Davidson noted that as the economy continues to track in a positive direction and we look at current compensation and classification studies, the town will be at a more favorable competitive advantage with other municipalities with some type of a base pay adjustment. A COLA is just a percentage added onto the base pay. D S: Relating to Utilities; discussion and direction concerning the proposed transfer to Cortaro-Marana Irrigation District of the Town's non -potable water system located within the geographic boundaries of CMID, and concerning the draft agreement between and among the Town, CMID, and Cortaro Water Users' Association to accomplish the proposed transfer (Frank Cassidy). Mr. Cassidy noted that he had been remiss in noting the staff involved in the reorganization of the Land Development Code, and he asked to rectify that. They were primarily Kevin Kish, Keith Brann and Lisa Shafer. On the CMID issue, the town currently owns and operates a non -potable water delivery system in the north Marana area. A large portion of that area is also in the district boundaries of CMID. Gladden Farms and Rancho Marana are in the district boundary. Currently, the town uses groundwater in the non -potable system. In Arizona law, the town is required to replenish gallon for gallon groundwater delivered through the non - potable system. The replenishment cost causes the cost of the water being delivered through the non -potable system to be passed on to the customers. The town's outside water counsel, Rita Maguire, has studied ways the town could not have a replenishment obligation. The conclusion, after much discussion with various attorneys is that if CMID were to operate the non -potable system, they could deliver water through the non -potable system without either entity having a replenishment obligation for that water. Adding that loss of replenishment obligation to the fact that citizens in the district pay a property tax for the benefit of getting a certain amount of water, and that having CMID deliver that water, gives them the ability to deliver that water back to those areas, that creates a great potential cost savings to customers in the CMID area. But the catch is that for this to work, CMID has to own and operate the non -potable system. So we have to figure out a way to transfer that system over. The amount of money the town makes on non -potable deliveries is basically negligible. Last year it was about $221,000 on revenues from water, and it cost about $224,000. This is an opportunity for the Council to provide some feedback on what they would like to see in an intergovernmental agreement for the non - potable system. Staff has been working on a draft for Rita Maguire's review when she is back in town. But Mr. Cassidy wants to make sure staff is addressing any concerns the March 27, 2012 Council Meeting Minutes 4 Council may have. Mayor Honea asked if we know what rate CMID would charge. And another concern is if the system is turned over and the town no longer has control over the pricing but the town wanted to get the infrastructure back, there would be no recourse to do that. He concerned about having verbiage in the agreement relating to infrastructure. Council Member Kai added some background information regarding CMID's involvement in providing water to Gladden Farms. Mayor Honea noted that saving the town money was not the reason for doing this because it's basically a wash either way. The reason for doing it is that citizens in Gladden Farms HOA are paying about twice as much as in other HOA's. Mayor Honea also stated that if the system is transferred, the water rates should go down. He asked if there was something to the effect of what that rate would be. Mr. Cassidy responded that negotiations aren't at that point yet, although discussion among staff has been how to roll out the subject to CMID. He has during presentations by representatives of CMID to Gladden Farms homeowners, it would have to be significantly less because of the fact that there is a certain entitlement to irrigation water deliveries by virtue of paying the property tax and not having the replenishment obligation. There would have to be some level of reduced cost, but how much that is difficult to know right now. Council Member Ziegler asked if Council Member Kai had a conflict during this discussion as a member of the CMID board. Mr. Cassidy responded that in Arizona conflict of interests are specifically defined in the statute, and the way they're defined is almost by exception. Everything is a conflict of interest unless it's defined as a remote interest, and one of the things defined as a remote interest is somebody sitting as an unpaid member of another governmental body, so technically it's not a conflict of interest. In response to another question by Council Member Ziegler, Mr. Cassidy responded that the customers in Gladden Farms and Rancho Marana will benefit from the agreement, but as development of the farm areas occurs, it creates a business model for CMID going forward. An irrigation district is urbanized, it loses the farmers, and this provides them with a business model that allows them to continue to stay in business and help the town by taking away from the town this replenishment obligation. Mr. Davidson noted that a valuable lesson learned is that Gladden Farms was designed without residential meters to each lot, so the town needs to re -think individual connections to homes for future development. Reducing the replenishment obligation also brings up the issue of conservation of water for future development as well as open space and community parks. Mayor Honea also raised the question of whether the town could be a customer and purchase water at a lower rate and not have to replenish it. After discussion amongst Council, Mr. Cassidy stated that staff would go through an iterative process as they continue with negotiations and come back to Council to make sure they are on the right track. Mayor Honea clarified that there should be more discussion and information brought to Council on dollars and where things are going before final negotiations take place. Executive Session pursuant to A.R.S. X38-431.03 (A)(3), Council may ask for discussion or consultation for legal advice with the Town Attorney concerning any matter listed on this agenda. ADJOURNMENT. Motion to adjourn at 7:48 p.m. by Vice Mayor Comerford, second by Council Member McGorray. Passed unanimously 6-0. March 27, 2012 Council Meeting Minutes 5 ra ,ate "f , :.. r'�