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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/14/2006 Special Council Meeting Minutes MINUTES OF SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: November 14,2006 PLACE AND DATE Marana Municipal Complex A. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL By Mayor Honea at 7:00 p.m. COUNCIL Ed Honea Herb Kai Bob Allen Jim Blake Patti Comerford Tim Escobedo Carol McGorray Mayor Vice Mayor Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Present Present Present Present Present Present Present STAFF Mike Reuwsaat Gilbert Davidson Jim DeGrood Frank Cassidy Jocelyn Bronson Town Manager Deputy Town Manager Assistant Town Manager Town Attorney Town Clerk Present Excused Present Present Present B. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE AND INVOCATION/MOMENT OF SILENCE Led by Mayor Honea. C. CALL TO THE PUBLIC Russell Clanagan stated that Saturday is the 24th Annual EI Tour de Tucson cycling race and that he would be riding his fifth EI Tour. In past years the Town has made a financial donation to Tu Nidito on whose behalf he is riding. They have been able to raise approximately $16,000 for Tu Nidito (your little nest) which is a support group that helps families with children who are facing serious illness or death or a loss of a parent. GENERAL ORDER OF BUSINESS D. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION/POSSIBLE ACTION 1. Relating to Development; update on the status of The Villages of Tortolita project as it relates to the proposed annexation and rezoning (Barbara Berlin) Council Member Kai was excused for conflict of interest. Ms. Berlin stated the proposed project Villages of Tortolita involves annexation of roughly 440 acres within Pinal County and the target number of residents will be about 1550. The annexation process has not yet begun. The Town can file a blank petition at any time. However, at the time, the Town must have a noticed meeting to discuss the annexation no 1 MINUTES OF SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: November 14,2006 earlier than 20 days after the filing and no later than 30 days. Staff does not yet have a complete list from the Department of Revenue that gives valuation to all the utilities in the proposed annexation area. This is something we would like to have prior to submitting the blank petition, although it is not required. There are some issues with regard to jurisdiction primarily with police and respect to arrests. There will be a number of intergovernmental agreements with Pinal County with respect to use of the jail, animal control, election services and other services that we would need County services for. The other issue would be to extend our impact fees for parks and transportation into the annexed area of Pinal County. Mr. Reuwsaat stated in meetings with Council and staff a discussion with Pinal County was had and they are amenable to the annexation. Mr. Reuwsaat stated from an administrative side he did not see anything that would stop us from moving into Pinal County. Mr. Racy addressed Council and stated this project is different than other developments before the Council in the past which have been almost entirely residential. This project is much more modern, but similar to the original Continental Ranch project in the industrial components. The commercial destination components, some community center components and along with the interchange make this an exciting and complicated project. Present on behalf ofthe developers are Mike Zipprich, Gary Jones, and Gregg Wolin. The principal planner is Teresa Evidente. The engineers are John Casey, who is working on the interchange project and Jason Mercer, who is involved in all the engineering aspects and some of the waster water aspects. The project proposes modestly different engineering standards than have been used in the Town to create more curvilinear nature to streets and other aspects and to integrate all the communities. There are separate villages within the project. The theme is to tie them all together. Village I is the 440 acres in Pinal County. The location of the new interchange is in Village V south of the Pinal Air Park interchange. The interchange plans are estimated to be 95 percent complete by January. The Spanish Colonial wrought iron motif is carried throughout the project. It will be used in a community square and symbolizes the connective nature of the different villages within the project. A 200 foot wide open space buffer is placed along the railroad. Extensive neighborhood and regional parks will be included throughout the project, water features if affluent or reclaimed water source can be obtained. The project is divided into five villages. Engineering studies are underway with respect to drainage. Annexation is not wide-spread, but it is not unusual for jurisdictions to span a county line. Marana would be the sixth city or town in Arizona to cross a county line. Currently Queen Creek, Winkleman, Apache Junction, Sedona, and Peoria all span county lines. Felony convictions need to be transported to the appropriate county, but they are all things that are routinely managed by a number of other jurisdictions for which we have gotten support for from Pinal County. The project as proposed has a zoning cap of 6500 units. That is for mixed use, medium density, and higher density components. This project will construct a grade separated new interchange to provide access to this area and also create connectivity down to San Lucas, Marana Road and dramatically help with circulation throughout the area. It the project builds out at the maximum density and at the Town's figure of2.6 residents per home that would be significantly less than 50 percent of 2 MINUTES OF SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: November 14,2006 the current population. A private sewer plant was original proposed into Pinal County and may still be an option. It has been looked at putting sewer lines into the county's plant along the Santa Cruz River. The challenge with that is getting affluent back out for reuse throughout the community and this project and being able to put that affluent to legally beneficial use to get water credit for it. One of the things that the Town may want to consider are various options to enter into its own 208 amendment. The project will require 208 amendments in both Pima and Pinal to extend into Pinal County even if we go entirely into the county plant, but there are options to do a sewer plant for this project, for this project and some other north Marana projects. What the developer believes is a more intriguing option is a scalping plant that removes and cleans a percentage of the fluid from the flow, sends the rest of the flow down the line to, for example, the county plant, but recovers a substantial amount of affluent at a reasonable cost that could then be put to beneficial use by the Town. Council Member Escobedo stated that Tortolita Village currently has an application with State Land that would almost double this property in size and wanted to know how that was coming along. Mr. Racy addressed Council and stated there is a planning permit on the State Land that borders it. He does not anticipate folding that into this project, but his client is doing transportation interconnectivity into that -- water and sewer interconnectivity. They border the entire project so we needed to work with State Land so it made sense to doing the planning permit. There are some significant archaeology challenges on that land. The drainage issues on State Land are much more challenging. Much of the Villages land has been farmed, all of it grazed at some point, so it is significantly more disturbed than some of the portions of State Land. Mr. Reuwsaat addressed Council and stated one direction would be to proceed with the annexation and then pursue the affluent. Mayor Honea asked if everybody understood the Pinal County portion of the annexation. Council Member Escobedo asked about the annexation portion on the Tortolita Village. Mr. Racy stated it was Village number one. Council Member Escobedo asked if as we move into Pinal County if it was just that particular Village that will be annexed into the Town. Council Member Escobedo asked if it is still two to one and does this property actually fit that parameter. Mr. Racy stated the length cannot be more than twice the width. This easily meets that requirement. Mayor Honea asked if the water could be treated to a high quality fairly easily in a scalping plant and could a little detail be given on that. Mr. Racy stated that this plant is a fairly small facility, fully enclosed, would fit on a single residential lot, and could be in a structure that looks like a house. Mr. Mercer addressed 3 MINUTES OF SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: November 14, 2006 Council and stated the intention of the scalping plant is to take the liquid and send the solids down, so by using a simple process of membranes you generate an affluent that is of high quality, a high standard that you can use for reuse. With the scalping plant you minimize the nuisance odors you get from a full fledged facility. It can be located in residential areas if that is where it needed to be. It is a quick, economical way to generate some affluent without having to get into the full treatment process. Mayor Honea asked what the percentage of the flow would be. Mr. Mercer stated it would be around 30 to 40 percent. Council Member Escobedo asked as the area grows how much more can be added or would there have to be another facility in the future. Mr. Mercer addressed Council and stated that it is easy to scale the capacity of the plant. Most of it depends on where you place it and can you efficiently get flows into it and then back out. Mr. Reuwsaat addressed Council and stated the goal is to maximize the amount of renewable resource back to the Town. Mayor Honea stated he was assuming that Council was giving him direction to go ahead and proceed with whatever will be most beneficial to the Town. Council Member Escobedo asked if the direction was for staff to look at both options. Mr. Reuwsaat stated that the interchange provides only the second all weather access crossing across the railroad and onto 1-10. 2. Relating to Transportation; provision of transit and paratransit services in Marana (Jim DeGrood) Mr. DeGrood addressed Council and stated that with the adoption of the Regional Transportation Authority the Town will be receiving new transit services not previously received. New transit service will require decisions in terms of how to meet certain Federal requirements such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. Currently, the Town has two transit services; the Pima County rural transit service which is deviated route service and the Sun Tran Service. The Town is charged for the Sun Tran service. Currently, the Town spends about $70,000 annually on transit. That's about a 50/50 split between the rural transit services and Sun Tran. With the R T A there are a number of new services. There is a circulator bus service which serves mostly the Continental Ranch area. The boundaries of the service area are not defined. No service hours or nature of service has been established. For budgeting purposes it was assumed that there would be two buses operating on a daily basis for eight to ten hours a day. The R T A put into the budget a little over a million dollars for the first year of service and then about a half million dollars for the years after to fund the continuing operation. The 4 MINUTES OF SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING MARAN A MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: November 14, 2006 R T A also has an express bus service which originates in the Continental Ranch area and goes downtown. That would have about three trips in the morning, and three in the evening which is consistent with other express bus services that are operating in the region. There is also a Park and Ride lot identified. It needs to be fairly close to the freeway and it needs to be convenient for users on both sides of the interstate. With these services there will be some gaps in coverage. With the circulator bus service there will be a requirement to provide service to those who are disabled. There is a service gap in the Town. Currently, there is no handicar service extended into the Town. Mr. DeGrood stated he has spoken with the Transit coordinator for Pima County, and they indicated they would be willing to add the handicar service to our intergovernmental agreement so we could access their service on a cost per trip basis. There is another system operating which is the Oro Valley Coyote Run service. It will not only pick up people who are ADA eligible, but people who are over 65 and do not drive. Oro Valley spends about $700,000 a year to operate that system. The Dove Mountain area would be without service. The State is now making a larger pool of funding available and because the Town recently got an adjustment in the population based allocation the Town expects to receive about $78,000 in this current fiscal year for L T AF II funding. That money can only be used for transit and it requires a 25 percent match. Mr. DeGrood stated he recommends that a manager's committee be formed involving citizens that are interested in transit to make some recommendations to the manager for bringing forward to Council for discussion and consideration. Mr. Reuwsaat addressed Council and stated he would like to form a committee and begin a process to make recommendations back to Council particularly as it relates to the upcoming fiscal year budget. Council Member McGorray stated that she would like to hear some statistics on how many of the regular buses are equipped with lifts for wheelchairs. She stated she would like to see coordination between all the entities and even charts so each can be compared. She emphasized that there is a real need for public transportation, especially for people with disabilities. Mr. DeGrood stated the City of Tucson Sun Tran service is approaching 100 percent lift equipment on their buses. Mr. Cassidy stated that from a legal perspective it is probably better that a motion not be made if it is going to be a manager's committee making recommendations to the manager who would then forward them to the Mayor and Council. 3. Resolution No. 2006-184: Relating to Water; approving the Town of Marana Drought Preparedness Plan (Brad DeSpain) Mr. DeSpain addressed Council and stated all the recommended strategy to determine whether it is a drought or not is based upon CLIMAS (Climate Assessment project for the Southwest) which is a U of A program that takes into consideration the average participation for the water year, drought monitoring from a D2 to D4, the overall ground water level declines, and the number of days that there are over a 100 degrees. In Stage I which would be 5 MINUTES OF SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: November 14, 2006 a moderate drought, 70-90 percent precipitation a D2 overall drought and ground water levels declining from 1 to 2.4 feet annually with 45 consecutive days of 100 degree temperature. With that are the measures that would be utilized to help make customers and residents aware through an education process. There is work with the County to put these same types of ordinances in place. The overall goal was to develop a drought response plan for the region where no matter which community you lived in you knew what the stage meant. That worked real well with the exception ofthe City of Tucson and they say they never will be in a drought situation because of the CAP allocation and the recharge recovery they can do out of Avra Valley. The other issue with Stage I is continue an overall water management effort for renewable resource supplies. Stage II is abnormally dry. The CLIMAS information would show that it is 50-70 percent of precipitation for the year, a D3 drought monitoring. The overall ground water levels would have declined from 2-1/2 to 4 feet annually and 60 consecutive days of 100 degree temperature would request voluntary reduction measures, would limit landscape irrigation to two days a week between 8 pm and 8 am, hotels and restaurants would be asked to conserve water, avoid other outdoor water uses including misters and car washes, continue to work with County to put the ordinances in place, continue overall water management efforts to use renewable water supplies and work with neighboring water providers. Council Member Escobedo asked ifthe D2-D3, D4 was just the type of drought. Mr. DeSpain stated that was a drought based on information that goes into CLIMAS which is the evaporation ratio, the temperature for that day, the length of time for the temperature. It is almost a daily, almost hourly type of information that goes into making that determination. Stage III would be extreme drought, 25-50 percent of the precipitation, a D-4. Ground water levels would decline 4 to 5 feet per year and there is 75 consecutive days of 100 degree temperature. There would be recommendations that there would be no potable water for construction. The Town would institute drought surcharge to tier five of the rate structure, request additional voluntary water reduction measures, limit landscape irrigation to one day per week between 8 pm and 8am, pools not be filled, continue to work with the County to put ordinances in place, continue overall water management efforts to use renewable water supplies, and work with our neighboring providers. In Stage 4 there would be a precipitation ofless than 25 percent for the year, D4, overall ground water levels would decline five feet or more annually, and there would be over 90 days of consecutive 100 degree temperature. Vice Mayor Kai asked regarding the overall ground water levels are five feet or more annual decline if that meant wells that belong to the Town or the Trust or is it just wells in the general vicinity ofthe Town and which wells are identified as that. Mr. DeSpain stated those would be in the Town's service area, either the Trust or the Town of Marana wells. Mr. DeSpain stated there would be no approval for water service agreements and SAHBA has an issue with that, but there is a statute which addresses that. The Town would institute a drought surcharge to tier III and IV of the rate structure in addition to tier V, no potable water for construction. The Town would request additional voluntary water reduction measures, limit landscape irrigation only to trees and shrubs one day a week between 8 pm and 8 am, no irrigation of turf or ground cover, continue to work 6 MINUTES OF SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: November 14, 2006 with County to put their ordinances in place, continue overall water management efforts to use renewable water supplies and work with the neighboring water providers. Staff is trying to establish a plan as the drought continues. Mayor Honea asked whether the drought could vary depending on what area you live in and where is Marana right now. Mr. DeSpain stated the Town is in a moderate drought at this point in time. If you take into consideration the supply that we provide upgrading from the Rillito narrows, we are severe there. CMID, and the Town as well as Tucson have been encountering as much as 40 feet of draw down in those wells in the last four years. It is about ten feet a year, so it is a severe issue there. The affluent is not recharging in the channel like it previously did. There was a good recharge in the month of August for about 22 days. We're now down to the point where there is probably only about a 20 percent recharge of that affluent that is occurring between Ina Road and Rillito narrows. Vice Mayor Kai asked if this drought response plan was tailored for the Town of Marana or whether the plan was used by other northwest municipalities. Vice Mayor Kai asked if this could be modified if conditions are changing for the Town of Marana. Mr. DeSpain stated that it's basically for the region, but each water provider still has the opportunity to change those conditions until they meet what they need to do. The idea was to start with something that people would get acquainted with in stages and then it can be changed to involve the individual providers' needs. Mr. Reuwsaat stated we have to balance the decisions based upon the whole picture for the Town of Marana. Upon motion by Council Member Escobedo, seconded by Council Member McGorray, Resolution No. 2006-184 was unanimously approved. E. ADJOURNMENT Upon motion by Council Member Escobedo, seconded by Council Member McGorray, the Council voted unanimously to adjourn. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing are the true and correct minutes of the Marana Town Council meeting held on November 14, 2006. I further certify that a quorum was present. lyn C. ronson, Town Clerk