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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - City Council - Meeting Date: 6/25/2018 City of Glendale °5850 West Glendale Avenue Glendale, AZ 85301 1!' El 17.1 $' I/ Meeting Minutes Monday, June 25, 2018 10:00 A.M. Special Workshop Meeting Civic Center Annex City Council Mayor Jerry Weiers Vice Mayor Lauren Tolmachoff Councilmember Jamie Aldama Councilmember Joyce Clark Councilmember lan Hugh Councilmember Ray Malnar Councilmember Bart Turner CALL TO ORDER Mayor Weiers called the meeting to order at 10:01 a.m. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Jerry Weiers Vice Mayor Lauren Tolmachoff Councilmember Joyce Clark Councilmember Ian Hugh Councilmember Ray Malnar* Councilmember Bart Turner Absent: Councilmember Jamie Aldama Also Present: Kevin Phelps, City Manager Tom Duensing,Assistant City Manager Jack Friedline, Assistant City Manager Jim Gruber, Chief Deputy City Attorney Julie K. Bower, City Clerk WORKSHOP SESSION 1. COUNCIL POLICY GUIDANCE—SESSION 6 Presented By: Brian Friedman, Economic Development Director Ms. Bower read the item by title. Mr. Phelps said staff was working with Council on two major topics, infill and annexation and the focus of the meeting would be infill and adaptive reuse. Staff did not need direction today but was providing information and looking for feedback. Staff would then come back with proposals for potential policies for discussion. Mr. Friedline said the final draft of Applied Economics' annexation policy study would be ready in mid-July. The development impact fee study'was moving forward on the west side and the next policy meeting would be sometime in September. Mr. Friedman introduced Neil Calfee of Calfee Development Advisors. The City had contracted with Calfee Development Advisors to help the City move forward with adaptive reuse. *Councilmember Malnar arrived. Mr. Calfee had met with stakeholders to get honest feedback about what was working and what was not working. He had conducted an anonymous survey and interviews and received 30 responses from respondents that included local property owners, brokers, business entities and zoning attorneys who were active in Glendale. Mr. Calfee said the questions focused on infill development or vacant parcels that were passed over in the initial wave of development. He explained that adaptive reuse was the repurposing of older buildings, over 20 years old, citywide but generally in the downtown area. Many of the responses received were enthusiastic and tended to slant towards downtown. The questions and answers were as followed: •Was Glendale viable for reuse: Yes, universally there was excitement for downtown with City Council Meeting Minutes-June 25,2018 Page 2 of 7 comments such as-good bones; very attractive for a certain type of developer; the West Valley's downtown •What type of development: Housing, office, more restaurants and bars that would stay open later to add some excitement •Other successful cities: Phoenix was a national model; Chandler; there were strong models around the Valley; customer service that went with it, separate office that guided people through the infill process •Most desired: Flexible sign codes and parking standards; investment in infrastructure, streetscapes and sidewalks; fee waivers or reductions; customer service program; clarity and consistency in the process •Recommended steps: Adapt reuse and infill ordinances of other Valley cities that had been time-tested; allocate staff resources; change policies; create a consistent vision for downtown; enforce code compliance around the downtown—residential and commercial; use City resources to buy buildings downtown to remove blight and kick start development; involve Mayor and City Manager in marketing to developers Councilmember Clark was positive and hopeful about the suggestions. Customer service was important to small business. Nothing had been said about the downtown merchants. She asked about a small business district. Mr. Calfee said it would be covered later in the presentation. He highlighted the following findings: •An infill ordinance would be helpful, but no one thing was keeping development from happening •Glendale was the best at getting big projects through the process but not so much for the small projects •Small business needed a focus •Lack of vision for downtown •Very attractive for development—needed to capitalize on that •Clarity needed in the process, right now, people had to know who to call for service Mr. Calfee said the first thing was to adopt an infill ordinance and provide better customer service. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff asked if it would be the downtown manager or would it be someone from Economic Development or Development Services who would be dedicated to providing customer service. Mr. Calfee said having someone within Development Services who intercepted the adaptive reuse projects would be key. It would be their job to guide the project through the process and assist when it hit a speed bump. The staff person would need the ability to cross departments such as Fire, Engineering, etc.for any project identified as adaptive reuse. Councilmember Turner clarified that it would be citywide, not just a downtown project. Mr. Calfee said that was correct. It was not that staff was not doing what they were supposed to do. It was that applicants were not sophisticated and were not doing what they were supposed to do. Mr. Calfee said another key was visioning for downtown. It was important to get everyone on the same page and be able to give the same pitch for downtown. It signaled to the broader community what the future was for downtown. Mr. Calfee said with the Super Bowl coming in 2023, Glendale should be able to host something in downtown. The opportunity should be considered because it was far enough away to get ready for it. City Council Meeting Minutes-June 25,2018 Page 3 of 7 Mr. Calfee said many of the suggestions could be accomplished with policy changes, such as a central business district(CBD)and an adaptive reuse ordinance, that could have a major impact and neither were terribly staff or resource intensive. Vice Mayor Tolmahcoff asked about a business improvement district(BID). Mr. Calfee said other communities were forming BIDs. Property owners formed a district and chose to tax themselves and the taxes were used for additional municipal services such as cleaning, marketing and professional downtown management. It was worth looking at because it gave downtown property owners a say in their future and had been very successful around the Valley. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff asked if it had funded a downtown manager. Mr. Calfee said that was correct. Councilmember Clark said with regard to a vision for downtown, it needed to be some kind of entertainment district. There needed to be one major destination location that would draw people and it needed to have its own brand. Mr. Calfee agreed that it absolutely had to have a draw but the challenge was what was it and it was only as good as the programming. Councilmember Clark said it could be a movie theater, museum or art gallery. Mr. Calfee said a movie theater was a perfect example of a churn. It crossed the demographic spectrum. In terms of the branding, Councilmember Clark was on to something. What had come up in the survey was that the perception was that it all about antique stores. That needed to change. Whether it was a logo or something else, needed to be decided. Councilmember Turner said new architecture should be sympathetic to the existing buildings. New infill residential should not diminish the historic look of the street. He did not believe there was enough conversation with people coming in about protecting the historic district they were moving into. Councilmember Turner said with redevelopment in historic districts and with a commercial/residential mix, relaxing the parking requirements could cause friction because of the impact on residential areas. That would need to be addressed. Councilmember Turner would like to develop a strategy to make underperforming commercial corners viable again perhaps by redeveloping them as multi-family. Mr. Calfee said there had to be tools such as: downtown-specific zoning; an Enhanced Services District(ESD); BIDs; City staff dedicated to downtown; a redevelopment area; Central Business District; an adaptive reuse ordinance; City Hall in downtown; and Government Property Lease Excise Tax(GPLET) abatement. Mayor Weiers said it did not seem like GPLETs were still being used. Mr. Calfee said GPLETs were still being used but the use was not being touted. GPLETs used to be used for longer terms but the legislature had tightened the term and it was now 8 years. For certain projects it still had a place. Mr. Calfee said there were also options such as direct financial investment in a project; build, City Council Meeting Minutes-June 25,2018 Page 4 of 7 provide or waive parking; land write-downs; and infrastructure investment. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff asked for clarification on the land write-down option. Mr. Calfee said it allowed the City to sell or lease property to a private party for less than market rate. It gave the City flexibility to provide incentives. Mayor Weiers said some of the challenges were the railroad tracks, Grand Avenue and narrow streets. He asked what the catalyst would be to make developers want to come to Glendale. Mr. Calfee said if the City did all of the things discussed, it would set the stage. It needed to build momentum with a proof of concept using the Mayor and Manager to find the right developer. There was a lot of good stuff happening in Glendale and the City needed to get the system in place. Councilmember Turner said Council had to figure out what it was looking for. Did it want to be the incubator or attract the chains and supplant what it already had. Mr. Calfee said it was both. It could bring in a name like Postino's and it did not supplant anyone, it added to them. It would be great to attract an Alamo Draft House. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff said Centerline was too big of an area to try to redevelop. Was Mr. Calfee saying start with a nucleus. Mr. Calfee said that was correct. If the City was going to make an investment, start with a concentrated area and it would show the investment. Mr. Phelps said areas for feedback included: •Redevelopment policies—was it preserving character and uniqueness of the historic elements or was it anything goes •Visioning—create future state through branding and marketing—was it too premature •Customer service tools—ombudsman or create an expert that handled in a predefined area •City-owned buildings—existing buildings (write-down)or acquire new buildings •Boundary of CBD •Downtown Manager funded by BID •City's direct financial investment—additional investment or reprioritize existing investment •Look at impact on other property owners if City wrote down property Vice Mayor Tolmachoff said Council had been waiting for over a year for the workshop on City-owned properties. Mayor Weiers requested the information prior to the workshop so Council had an opportunity to review it. Councilmember Clark said every issue Mr. Phelps listed should be discussed. Nothing the City had tried to date had worked. The City needed to be innovative and creative and try new strategies. Preserving buildings in downtown had not accomplished anything. Councilmember Clark suggested targeting one building and practically give it away to something like Postino and create a destination. Develop the vision, target something and give someone a deal. Stop repeating the same thing. Show people that the City was committed to downtown and was willing to take some risks. Councilmember Malnar suggested doing something with the amphitheater and pushing it forward to a planning stage. City Council Meeting Minutes-June 25,2018 Page 5 of 7 Mr. Phelps said tomorrow's workshop would provide an update on the past year's special events and recommendations for changes. There would be another workshop to talk about a downtown strategy. He was still hoping to hear if Council was interested in additional investment or reprioritizing existing investment. He was reluctant to proceed to a design level on the amphitheater without a strategy for the downtown and recommended a discussion on the vision for downtown. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff supported reallocating existing resources and liquidating assets. Special events such as Glendale Glitters and Chocolate Affaire had not moved the needle. She was open to redirecting the resources to something else. Councilmember Turner wanted to maintain a sense of place but it did not mean what was here could not be changed and added to. Councilmember Malnar asked if staff needed direction. Mr. Phelps said input would help with the infill and redevelopment policies but staff could bring back a range for discussion. The key was what did the City want the downtown to be and how did it differentiate the downtown from other areas of Glendale. More private sector investment was needed in the downtown. Mayor Weiers wanted to make sure the City was competitive with Phoenix and other cities. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff said the most critical thing was to adopt an ordinance. She requested copies of other cities' ordinances. Councilmember Clark said it was important to finally articulate the vision for downtown and the easier part was to implement the toolbox. She said Council could move ahead with adopting policies. Councilmember Hugh said the important part was that Council could reallocate funds and was willing to move forward. Councilmember Turner said the place to start with was a competitive ordinance. He did not want to lose businesses because the City did not have an ordinance. Mr. Calfee said that made perfect sense. It was a matter of being competitive because there were opportunities and it was also about the customer service component too. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Weiers adjourned the meeting at 11:41 a.m. I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the meeting of the Glendale City Council of Glendale,Arizona, held on the 25th day of June, 2018. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this 3rd day of July, 2018. J e K. Bower, MMC, City Clerk City Council Meeting Minutes-June 25,2018 Page 6 of 7