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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/09/2018 Study Session Meeting Minutes id MARANA A ESTABLISHED 1977 M.ARANA TOWN COUNCIL STUDY SESSION 11555 W. Civic Center Drive, Marana, .Arizona 85653 Council Chambers, January 9, 2018, at or after 6:00 PM STUDY SESSION Ed Honea, Mayor Jon Post, Nice Mayor David. Bowen, Council Member Patti Comerford, Council Member Herb Kai, Council Member Carol McGorray, Council Member Roxanne Ziegler, Council Member CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL. Mayor Honea called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Town cleric Bronson. called roll. Council Members Comerford, McGorray and Ziegler were excused. There was a quorum present. PLEDGE OF ALLEOIANCE/INVOCATION/MOMENT OF SILENCE. Led by Mayor Honea. APPROVAL OF AGENDA. Motion to approve by Council Member Bowen, second by Council Member Kai. Passed 4--0. CALL TO THE PUBLIC, No speaker cards were presented. DISCUS SION/DIRECTION/POSSIB LE ACTION D1 Relating to Traffic and. Highways; consideration, discussion and direction regarding landscape architecture for the Marana Main Street/Sandario Road. roundabout (Heath Vescovi-Chiordi). January 9,2018 Study Session Minutes � Presented by Jamsheed Mehta, who noted that this is part of the realignment project of Marana Road and is actually the first phase of several major transportation-gelated improvements in norther. Marana. The roundabout is more of an afterthought as we initially focused on the engineering aspect of creating a good circulation system for north Marana. This would be the centerpiece or the gateway to a future downtown in Marana., and we need to do something that is memorable and can also be the catalyst for designs that will follow. The Planning center was engaged for a design. Tonight's presentation is intended to give council the opportunity to weigh in on the various concepts. The idea isn't necessarily to pick one and have consensus` it's rather to bring forth major considerations. There are four or five major themes for consideration before getting to the final design. Tim Johnson from the Planning center presented. He gave some background on the project and how the Planning center and staff conducted a charrette about the things that are important to this project. The site was built up in a three-dimensional element. One of the first steps was to look at architectural precedents in the area such as the municipal complex and the Marana Health center in terms of scale and materials. Planning and entitlement documents and guidelines were also reviewed. one of the main objectives was to create a balance of diversity of the concepts - heritage, culture and tradition as well as more contemporary elements that reflect what isgoing to be a future urban environment. options for structures and public art are incorporated for scale and location. purposes. The space available for design of the centerpiece is 30 feet. Daniel Bradshaw, senior designer for the project, gave a broad overview of the six concepts,, noting that they were given direction to show diverse array of ideas. There are three contemporary or unique concepts and three variations on those concepts.. Concept Al is contemporary using emerging materials and motifs and symbolism.. Concept A2 is similar but showcasing a more traditional aesthetic using rustic materials. concept B1 is contemporary using emerging materials and a more progressive expression rather than a heritage expression. concept B2 again brings in the rustic/vernacular materials and heritage motifs and symbolism. concept C1 and c2 are traditional with western and Spanish colonial revival styles. Al - is a celebration of Time and :dace to commemorate the heritage but embrace the future through a contemporary aesthetic. concept A2 - Marana .boots, features the same formal symmetrical forms but everything is more traditional with a western or southwestern territorial style. The banner structures are more vertical in form than on Concept Al. c=oncept B1. is Synergy Through Shared values with five walls illustrating the five focus areas of the town's Strategic flan. This is a contemporary concept,, showcasing metals and polycarbonates. concept B2 is a Solid Foundation for Success. Rather than tapered walls, the walls are stepped and bisected by the representative of water spilling from the center of the monument. As opposed to showcasing public art, a banner structure is featured. concept c1 - a Gateway to Downtown, is a different approach. bather than low wails, the concept features a structure -- a symbolic January 9,2018 Study Session Minutes 2 representation welcoming people into Marana. The dome atop the structure could be bronze or copper. Instead of a dome, the roof could be the or no roof at all. It takes up about 400 square feet of space. Concept C2 is similar to C1 but features a more elegant structure. Mayor Honea asked about the apron around the roundabout. His concern is about safety and creating an attractive nuisance, Council Member Bowen asked if the last structure/monument is intended to be gathering place and might produce a lot of pedestrian traffic. Mr. Bradshaw noted that the space is about 20 feet. Landscape materials could help impede or discourage access. Council Member Bowen likes A2 or something with a structure in the middle. Mayor Honea is looking for something to keep people out of the middle of the roundabout and likes A2. Vice Mayor Post and Council Member Kai both like concept A2. Mayor Honea asked if water was stubbed out. Mr. Bradshaw noted that there is water and electricity, Mr. Mehta stated that the cost is a factor and the funds we are tapping into for this project come from the previously approved downtown reinvestment fund. Phasing this design could better accommodate a more extravagant plan. Council Member Bowen would like to see a range of financing/cost options. D2 Relating to development; Discussion and direction concerning the draft downtown and mixed-use zoning district provisions and update on the Land Development Code comprehensive revision (Frank Cassidy), Mr. Mehta noted that staff is bringing forth the first of several chapters of the revised land development code. While doing that, we have to opportunity to focus on the downtown area. Mr. Cassidy and the consultants, PlaceMakers, are focusing on the downtown mixed use and blended use. If there is interest to develop from property owners, we would like them to have the benefit of knowing what is coming. Mr. Cassidy presented and introduced Susan Henderson and Hazel Borys from PlaceMakers. He gave some details going back to the kick-off process for the land development code re-write of about a year ago. Staff wanted to create a walkable downtown by creating a mixed use district by looking at the form of the buildings - having them front-loaded onto Marana Main Street with parking lots behind the buildings - rather than the uses. During the kick-off charrette,, staff also talked about having a mixed use opportunity for other parts of town, and that is where the blended use district comes in. We would be creating this zone name in name only - not placing it on the ground. The blended use zone would be available for a rezoning for anyone with 40 acres or more. For the downtown staff would like Council to adopt that kind of flexible zoning right up front. The underlying zoning stays in place, but we are calling it an overlay zone, the downtown overlay. Once this goes through the public hearing process, we are asking Council to place this overlay on this geographic area. Once the overlay is in place, the property owners would have the flexibility of automatically January 9,2018 Study Session Minutes 3 using these mixed use zones we will be talking about. The mixed use zones that would apply in this area we call the downtown zone itself which is more commercially oriented. 'There is also a downtown neighborhood zone which is still a mixed use zone up to three rather than four stories. You can choose where you put the downtown neighborhood and the downtown zone, with a couple of caveats. If you are right along Marana Main Street, that would be the downtown zone commercial zone. If you are immediately backing up to residential, the rule is for within 100 feet,, the downtown neighborhood zoning applies. We don't want existing residential backing up to heavy duty commercial. The 40-acre use only applies to the blended use area. After adoption, for a property owner to take advantage of these downtown zones, it would be an administrative process, and they wouldn't come back to Council. We have provided Council, the Commission, and the property owners with a copy of this proposal, Either or both options could be used given this flexibility. If they choose the downtown overlay option, it is going to be a form-based zoning where the buildings will be front- loaded to the roads. The 40-acre element only applies to the blended use zone. In the downtown area, this zoning can mostly be brought forward on a parcel by parcel basis, and it doesn't require 40 acres, But if someone builds a front-loaded project on Marana Main Street, and their next-door neighbor decides to do a traditional restaurant with parking in front, it could look a little funky. But we are hoping that in addition to creating these more flexible zoning elements to also come forward at some point in the future with some possible financial incentives to coax people to use more of the town's vision - to perhaps use some of those downtown reinvestment funds to assist with the cost of some parking. If we were to do that, we would probably require adjacent properties to come forward at the same time so that you don't get the hop scotch effect. But for now, all we are trying to do is set up the zoning piece. Mayor Honea would like to see the visitor center in that area. Council believes it will work. Staff will take it to a Planning Commission public hearing at the end of this month and bring it back to Council in late February or early March. D3 Relating to Administration; presentation, discussion and direction regarding the framework for development of the fiscal year 2018-2019 budget and its role in the implementation of the Strategic Plan (Jamsheed Mehta and Erik Montague). This is the beginning of the comprehensive budgeting process which continues to be an evolution. Mr. Mehta gave an overview of the presentation items. The final point will be for Council to direct staff as to what they want. He identified the accomplishments in the previous and existing strategic plan that will be completed by the end of this fiscal cycle. Those included the town"s portion of the Tangerine Road Corridor project, the Marana Road realignment and roundabout, building the Tangerine Sky Community Park, the Honea Heights Pocket Park and the Splash Pad at Crossroad Park. Also underway or completed are the Tangerine public art (deer) unveiling, the Council adoption of Strategic Plan IV, adoption of the Economic Development strategic plan and the rewrite of the Land Development Code. January 9,2018 Study Session Minutes 4 M.r. Montague presented on the budget outlook which is based on preliminary revenue estimates as submitted by the departments. He outlined the key assumptions, i.e. continued growth in the regional economy and improvement of key state revenues, a modest improvement in sales tax revenues, population growth, license, permits and fees for 650 new homes and some commercial activity and a slight increase in the inflation rate of about 2.2 percent. Staff anticipates a modest increase in sales taxes. For the state shared revenues to grow, that will depend on population growth. After the general fund balances presentation by Mr. Montague, who noted that for fiscal year 2018, the estimated fund balance will be about $21.9M, Mr. Mehta continued with preparations for fiscal year 2019, noting that the state of the town's economy is reasonably good, and we have met the targets that were identified, giving credit to Council's leadership and the fact that department heads and their staff have done their best to ensure that we have completed projects that we said were needed as part of the larger comprehensive plans. we identified community needs, Council strategic initiatives, and other key opportunities. This is another opportunity for Council to suggest to staff what you may have heard from your constituents or what you may have been thinking of over the last several months for new initiatives. As an example, a year or so ago, we identified on neighborhoods such as the Colonias. Efforts did go forward, and we are looking at the Adonis neighborhood and Honea Heights. we also looked at future annexations. Given that we have talked so much about downtown this evening, maybe during this next fiscal cycle, we put additional focus on downtown areas to see what we can do next to assist in using the Land Development Code as a tool to lure business to this area to be the catalyst or agent for growth in north Maran.a. Perhaps those are things that resonate with Council as well. Council Member Bowen stated that focusing on the downtown area is an excellent initiative to provide incentives for people to build, and that should be a specific focus going forward. He has been concerned for some time about our roads and the ability to maintain them to be the ability we have come to be known for. Roads that fall under the responsibility of the general fund will be very expensive. He doesn't want to get to a point where we can't keep up with our preservation schedule. He would like some effort devoted to look at sources of funding and begin now to plan on how to keep things going. The three main things about this town that people always look at are our roads, our public safety and our parks. Those have to be done right. Mayor Honea raised the topic of a visitor`s center and a new building in the downtown area at the entrance to our downtown, when people come into our community, we need to show therm something that presents the face of the community we are building. He would like to build a new center, owned by the town but perhaps leased to the Chamber of Commerce. Perhaps we can free up some revenue in the next fiscal year to begin that project. vice Mayor Dost said that he would be interested in taking another look at that. Council Member Kai stated that in light of the new home starts we are projecting, infrastructure will be essential to make that number Keep growing, He has heard that there are some bottlenecks on the pipes going to the sewer system. He would like to January 9,2018 Study Session Minutes 5 spend more time getting those bottlenecks cleaned up. If we don't we won't have the builders corning. Mayor Honea also stated that north Marana is the new explosion area with lots of opportunity, and drainage is still a very important issue. He knows that we are doing studies right now. Mr. Mehta stated that he has taken notes on the Council preferences. Some fall into the category of doing studies or analyses to identify where we stand. He noted that the staff is aware of the bottlenecks referenced by Council Member Kai, and those are being addressed in the impact fee schedule. Beyond that we need, to identify sewer capacity and our conveyance system that will take us into the next 15 years. Regarding roads, as it stands now based on previous analyses, and our six--year pavement management cycle, the hope is that every road will be touched at least once in those six gears and more frequently in some cases. There is another point that we do need to consider which is that will require another quick study is do we have the funds to keep on at that pace? Several neighborhood communities that were built 15--20 years ago will all come due for major reinvestment at approximately the same short timeframe. our financing cycle is predicated on equal distribution of those revenues, so it does require us to carne back and identify the gaps. In the meantime, we do have additional funds beyond our Highway User Revenue Fund (HURF) which is the primary source for most of our pavement preservation projects, and the additional source is the county--wide regional local roads project in which we are the recipients of about $1.1M for this current fiscal year and hopefully about the same for the next few years. It will definitely help enhance our pavement program, but we will get back to ,you on the additional needs as older roads come to their end of life. Mayor Honea asked how- much money we use from the tipping fees from the landfill for transportation. Mr. Montague responded that we collect between $300K and $350K annually. Half of that is being dedicated or allocated to the transportation fund for the next phase of the Avra Valley Road project. The other half has been allocated within the individual Public works Department and has traditionally been used or assist with or defray costs associated with things like the neighborhood reinvestment program or other infrastructure costs that are not eligible through IIURF. Mr. Mehta noted that staff has a list of Council recommendations put forth this evening- maintenance of roads, a good public safety department, and parks and recreation as well as infrastructure to keep building corning, a new visitor's center - a portion of which could be leased to the Chamber. Mr. Montague concluded with the Marana budget process and key dates. we will continue to work with citizens through the Community Development Spring outreach to various neighborhood groups to provide updates for input into the budget process as we have done in years past. Key dates include February 2 for departments to provide their requests. we will use that information along with revised revenue numbers to frame the budget meetings and hearings between the manager's office and individual departments. we will have a comprehensive fee schedule process again as an annual refresher. we are anticipating few adjustments this year. By the middle of April we will be bringing the manager's January 9,2018 Study Session Minutes 6 recommended operating budget. By the middle of May we will be 'bringing the tentative budget to Council for adoption of our tentative expenditure limit, and on June 19 we will be asking Council for adoption of the final budget. EXECUTIVE SESSIONS Pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03, the Town Council may vote to go into executive session, which will not be open to the public, to discuss certain matters. El Executive Session pursuant to A.R.S. §38--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. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Notwithstanding the mayor's discretion regarding the items to be placed on the agenda, if three or more Council members request that an. item be placed on the agenda., it must be placed on the agenda for the second regular Town Council meeting after the date of the request, pursuant to Marana Town Code Section 2-4-2(B). ADJOURNMENT. Motion to adjourn at 739 p.m. by Vice Mayor Post, second by Council Member Kai. Passed unanimously 4-0. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing are the true and correct minutes of the study session/presentation of the Marana Town Council held on January 9, 2018. 1 further certify that a quorum was present. ocelyn C/Bronson Town Clerk ARANA AZ F.S TA B L 1 1!?7 January 9,2018 Study Session Minutes 7