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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - City Council - Meeting Date: 10/8/2018City of Glendale 5850 West Glendale Avenue Glendale, AZ 85301 Meeting Minutes Monday, October 8, 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 Ian Hugh Councilmember Ray Malnar Councilmember Bart Turner CALL TO ORDER Mayor Weiers called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Jerry Weiers Vice Mayor Lauren Tolmachoff Councilmember Jamie Aldama Councilmember Joyce Clark Councilmember Ian Hugh Councilmember Ray Malnar Councilmember Bart Turner Also Present: Kevin Phelps, City Manager Tom Duensing, Assistant City Manager Michael Bailey, City Attorney Sheryl Rabin, Deputy City Clerk WORKSHOP SESSION COUNCIL POLICY GUIDANCE — SESSION 8 Presented by: Brian Friedman, Economic Development Director Ms. Rabin read the item by title. Neil Calfee, Principal, Calfee Development Advisors, explained the five areas to be discussed in the presentation and the need for consensus direction on the following: • Redevelopment Plan Update • Central Business District (CBD) Tool and Boundaries • Adaptive Reuse Ordinance Recommendations and Boundaries • Infill Program Recommendation and Boundaries • Glendale Centerline Overlay District (GCOD) Update Mr. Calfee said the recommendation for the Redevelopment Plan Update was to add and clarify statutorily -available redevelopment plan programs and tools. There was a need to eventually rewrite and update the plan because the City would benefit from the use of additional tools. Councilmember Clark asked why the Redevelopment Area and the GCOD were not the same. Mr. Friedman said Council could choose to expand the zoning area or shrink the Redevelopment Area. Councilmember Clark asked if the Redevelopment Area could also be the GCOD. Mr. Friedman said that was possible but would take staff time. It was an overlay that the City would have to opt into. Councilmember Aldama said that if the suggestion was more inclusion in GCOD, he would not be in favor because of encroachment on residential areas. Councilmember Clark said some residential areas were outside of Market District boundaries and other residential areas were inside. Because it appeared hit or miss, she wanted to know the logic. City Council Meeting Minutes - October 8, 2018 Page 2 of 8 Mr. Friedman said an explanation for the different boundaries had not yet been provided. The Entertainment District boundary was staffs recommendation. The overlay was a bit aged, so Council could look at changing it or having a Downtown District Overlay. Councilmember Clark said the whole point was to simplify. There were too many boundaries. She wanted to consolidate where possible. Mr. Phelps said each of the tools were unique to the area. The challenge was that the different overlays were trying to accomplish different things. Council could attempt to reduce the amount because the consequences, good and bad, of adopting different overlays were unknown. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff said the Urban Land Institute's opinion was that the Centerline District was too big a problem to solve all at once and suggested focusing on downtown. Councilmember Turner said there was a limit on the Entertainment District that should be managed carefully. Mr. Phelps said the questions were what tools could be put in place from a policy perspective and what was the area to which the City would apply the tools. Council could limit the number of boundaries but did not have to do so. Staff was not prepared to discuss the boundaries from a policy perspective. Councilmember Clark suggested simplifying the boundaries and making it easier for developers. Councilmember Malnar agreed with simplification. He wanted to understand each one of the boundaries. Mr. Calfee said the Central Business District (CBD) boundary could mirror the Entertainment District. The tool was in place in most downtowns across the Valley, and it required Council action. State Statute required that it increase property value by 100% so that tax rolls doubled when the property was back on the tax rolls. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff asked if the property would have to double in property value by the end of eight years. Mr. Calfee said that was correct. Mayor Weiers asked what the recourse would be if the property value did not double. Mr. Calfee was not aware of any recourse, penalty or punitive measures. Mr. Calfee said an adaptive reuse ordinance was mentioned quite a bit with downtown. The issue was that older buildings had a difficult time adapting to new codes, which could stifle investment. The City of Phoenix was the Gold Standard and had a renaissance of building based on its ordinance. Standards were relaxed, and well -thought-out relief was granted. Mr. Calfee said the recommendation was to adopt an adaptive reuse ordinance based on Phoenix and apply it citywide. The recommended application was a dynamic rolling 20 -year time period. Mr. Calfee said another recommendation was customer -service designated staff to work with the applicants. The recommendation included use of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3, like Phoenix, based upon the size of the property. Tier 3 included older, aging, commercial strip shopping centers. The recommendation included allowing the City Manager or his designee to make exceptions to the criteria. City Council Meeting Minutes - October 8, 2018 Page 3 of 8 Vice Mayor Tolmachoff asked how the City would ensure property was not annexed and then buildings were reused rather than new development. There would not be redevelopment fees. Mr. Calfee said that was a potential but was not sure there was a way to prevent it proactively. The City could use an opt -in or could create a condition on annexation that the program could not be used. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff did not want a blanket statement that any annexation could use adaptive reuse. Councilmember Clark asked about the purpose of the Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 structure. Mr. Calfee said that smaller buildings would get more exceptions but there would be no compromise on life and safety issues. Councilmember Clark said it appeared subjective and asked for more information on the type of criteria under each tier. Mr. Phelps said it was about looking at the Council's goals and using more aggressive tools and being more selective. Councilmember Turner asked if it was typical for adoptive reuse to cover an entire city. Mr. Calfee said it was typical. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff asked about vape shops and if Phoenix allowed that use. Mr. Calfee was not sure if Phoenix had amended the ordinance to address that. Mr. Phelps did not see medical marijuana shops on the Phoenix list either. Mayor Weiers asked if a gun shop was the same as Cabela's. Mr. Calfee said it was not but it would be something to discuss with the City Attorney. Councilmember Aldama said there was a use or a need for tire shops but the City did not need five in a one-quarter mile strip. Mr. Friedman said a list would be provided at the December 10th session. Staff was seeking more details from the baseline being presented. He said it was the polices that related to the ordinance that were important. Councilmember Turner asked if it was appropriate to require Council approval when there were exceptions. Mr. Calfee said it was for Council to decide the level of detail it wanted. Mr. Phelps said it was good to have a framework for exceptions. Councilmember Malnar asked if the ordinance would contain specifics. Mr. Calfee said there would be a written policy that was different from the current policy. He said adaptive reuse did not relax Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. City Council Meeting Minutes - October 8, 2018 Page 4 of 8 Mr. Phelps said it could allow an existing system, such as sprinklers, instead of the current standard. It addressed the issue of having to bring an existing building to 100% compliance with current requirements. Councilmember Clark asked what was civil proportionality. Mr. Calfee said it was flexibility to apply to a certain point but not all the way, such as retention or fire sprinkler standards. A developer might not be able to get all the way but would work within standards. Mr. Friedman said it gave staff the ability to use its skills to administer small changes. Councilmember Clark was more comfortable if there were some criteria. Mr. Phelps said it was about providing flexibility and not about the number of employees, for example, but still protecting the public. Councilmember Clark wanted to give large and small developers a hint of the criteria that would encourage development in an area. Mr. Friedman said his department would develop a marketing strategy for communicating the criteria or new tools in the tool box. Councilmember Clark asked if staff would bring back the marketing strategy for the criteria. Mr. Phelps said staff would and he recommended keeping criteria at a higher level. Mr. Calfee said with regard to infill development of underutilized, vacant or property that was passed over in the first wave of development, staff was looking at a district approach. That was the reason for the boundaries. Mr. Friedman said staff was recommending Union Hills as the boundary for infill development. Councilmember Clark asked how the City would distinguish between developers who would come anyway and those who needed the incentives. Mr. Phelps said staff would look at the history of the parcel to see if there had been interaction with others who had looked and walked away. It was an attempt to be a catalyst for redevelopment. Also, to determine if the variance or relief being sought seemed reasonable. Councilmember Clark agreed that looking at the history of the property was an important criteria. Mr. Phelps said it was also a recognition of the struggle with residential infill. Councilmember Clark asked why a 20 -acre limit was chosen and not 10 acres. Mr. Phelps said it was about equipping the team with flexibility. He did not see the value in limiting it to ten acres. Councilmember Clark had no problem with flexibility but did have a problem with 20 acres. It should apply to smaller parcels. Mr. Calfee said the final topic was downtown -specific zoning. There was an overlay district in the downtown but it was an optional overlay which created challenges. The recommendation was to make changes to the Centerline Overlay District. A rewrite made the most sense to get it moving City Council Meeting Minutes - October 8, 2018 Page 5 of 8 and implement the program. Councilmember Aldama asked how the program was specifically promoted. Mr. Friedman said it really had to do with the employee engagement piece and how employees interacted with individuals walking through the door. Mr. Phelps said the Economic Development Department had gone through staffing changes. As part of that, staff had stepped back and looked at the skill sets necessary to bring in a different focus. There was now someone focusing on communication. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff said if the same tools were available citywide, why would a developer enter a struggling downtown. Mr. Calfee said it was because of how the City applied zoning, civil standards and economic development incentives. It was the layering effect and the intangible effects and excitement about what the downtown could be. Councilmember Clark appreciated the work and the concept of implementing tools for development. It seemed to be as complicated and confusing as possible and the City now needed to hire someone to interpret it for developers. Mayor Weiers said it was challenging now. One size did not fit all. Mr. Phelps said other cities had an infill person on staff. It could be a reassignment of responsibilities instead of a new position. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff asked if the appropriate time for discussion on incentives was December. Mr. Friedman said that was correct. Mayor Weiers asked if there were state or federal monies available to achieve the goals. Mr. Friedman said there were limited Community Block Grant (CDBG) funds available. The rest would be a waiver. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff asked if the downtown was registered as historic. David Williams, Planning Director, said there were registered historic districts throughout the downtown but the downtown itself was not registered as historic. The downtown area did not qualify federally but perhaps could through the state. Mr. Calfee said it could create another level that did not help preservation Councilmember Turner liked the idea of telescoping incentives. He would like a map at the next meeting that showed how much of the City might be included if it was 10 acres or 20 acres. He was not opposed to a dedicated staff person but would like to see it be along the lines of an ombudsman who was useful to all members of the community needing help moving through the process. He asked if the arrangement for a downtown manager meant that the City had dedicated staff to downtown. Mr. Calfee said it did not because it was not a City staff person. The Chamber was a different role. Councilmember Tuner said the City might want to look at what it was doing with that role. It might City Council Meeting Minutes - October 8, 2018 Page 6 of 8 be better if it was more organic. Mr. Calfee said in his experience organic did not work. An independent office was necessary to wrangle the issues and be an impartial body. Councilmember Tuner asked how the City would create a functional downtown manager. Mr. Calfee said an enhanced services district was generally how it was done. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff asked if it would be of benefit if the manager was a City staff person. Mr. Calfee said the position would be almost like an ombudsman to the downtown. Vice Mayor Tolmachoff said if the downtown manager should be a City employee instead of contracted through the Chamber because the position would be viewed differently by developers, then Council should have the discussion. Councilmember Aldama asked if Mr. Calfee thought the current downtown manager was efficient and why would the City not use what was already in place. Mr. Calfee was not saying the downtown manager should be a City employee. There should be a separate position employed by the City, that would work on the downtown goals and to help with conflicts. Councilmember Aldama said that was what a downtown association did. He wanted to have a robust conversation on strengthening what the City had in place. Mr. Phelps said the City had wanted to put someone in place who would develop relationships and trust with all of the merchants. Each year of the agreement had different deliverables set out in the five-year agreement. The first year had been about mobilizing. The City would now see deliverables. It was also about cost. The best merchants' associations were self-funded. He did not believe that strategy would work for downtown Glendale. Mr. Phelps said the Economic Development Department did not have the right kinds of tools to change the dynamic. An ombudsman was different than a downtown manager and could be put in place internally. There needed to be strategies, both internal and external, and the merchants and property owners had to be willing to invest in the downtown. There was Council consensus to proceed with the Redevelopment Plan Update. Mr. Friedman said the Redevelopment Plan was a specific Council action and Council could manipulate it. There were six different criteria for doing that. The CBD had regulations as well. Staff had paired the two that it could — the CBD and the Entertainment District. Redevelopment was likely going to be larger. Mr. Calfee said the block grant was separate and apart from redevelopment of the downtown. Mayor asked if there was consensus on the designation of the Central Business District boundaries. He was comfortable with the matching boundaries. He asked if Council had the option to tweak it when it came back. Mr. Friedman said that was correct. Councilmember Aldama was very concerned there would be encroachment on the residential areas. City Council Meeting Minutes - October 8, 2018 Page 7 of 8 Mr. Phelps said staff would take today's comments and come back with recommendations. Council could then engage. Councilmember Turner asked if there would be exceptions. Mr. Calfee said Council could set the boundary. Mr. Friedman said it was currently approximately a half square mile. Mayor Weiers said there was Council consensus to proceed. Councilmember Aldama said his consensus was for staff to come back to Council with everything discussed. Mr. Friedman asked if staff had permission to create the draft ordinances for adaptive reuse and infill. There was Council consensus to create the draft ordinances. Mr. Friedman said the final item was the Centerline Overlay District updates. There was Council consensus to proceed. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Weiers adjourned the meeting at 12:34 p.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 8th day of October, 2018. 1 further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this 21st day of November, 2018. J . Bower, MMC, City Clerk City Council Meeting Minutes - October 8, 2018 Page 8 of 8