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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002.04.03 CITY COUNCIL MINUTES MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL April 3, 2002 7:30 P.M. STATE OF IDAHO, ) County of Madison ) SS. City of Rexburg ) Present were the following: Mayor:Bruce Sutherland Council Members:Paul Pugmire Nyle Fullmer Donna Benfield Glen Pond Shawn Larsen Marsha Bjornn City Clerk:Marilyn Wasden Finance Officer:Richard Horner PFC:John Millar City Attorney:Stephen Zollinger Pledge of Allegiance Introduction of scouts. Minutes Marsha made a motion to approve the minutes of March 20, 2002, which motion was seconded by Donna. All voted aye, none opposed. Wine Licenses Nyle made a motion to approve the wine license for Broulims. Motion was seconded by Shawn. All voted aye, none opposed. Idaho Housing Presentation Tom Pippin of BBC Research & Consulting reviewed and discussed the Housing Needs Assessment revised draft report dated April 3, 2002. He described the research methodology which was used in the current report. Population growth in the decades of the 80s, shows that Rexburg had the third largest growth rate in the State. Tom reviewed and discussed each of the graphs shown in the report, one showing that over the last 5 years Rexburg has shown a substantial building growth. The year 2000 shows total households of 4,274 with an increase in the year 2002 to 4,745. In the next 8 years Rexburg would need 382 new beds for the university, 495 new rental units for married students, faculty, staff and non- 1 related family, and 282 single family units. The study shows there is a possible need for a minimum of 800 new housing units by the year 2010 with a maximum of 1200 new housing units. Insurance Program Richard, representing the Employee Committee, reviewed a handout concerning the options to renew the city health insurance plan. He discussed the options, costs to employees, cost to the City and the recommendations from the Employee Committee. The Committee recommends the option which would increase the prescription card from $10.00 to $20.00, they would prefer to stay with the same insurance company rather than switch to another provider. Discussion. The difference in total cost this year will be in the neighborhood of a $40,000 increase. The National Brokers dental plan increased 40% which will necessitate looking for another provider. Glen made a motion to approve the 10% increase for this year, allowing the Employee Committee to choose which option to renew and with a request that next year the personnel committee review the options earlier and bring to a Council work meeting so it can be reviewed in depth. Discussion. Motion was seconded by Shawn. All voted aye, none opposed. Downtown Vision Committee Donna declared a conflict of interest because of items discussed concerning her day job with the Rexburg Chamber of Commerce. Mitch Neibaur stated this presentation is basically from the Chamber committee and the merchants. rd Lynn Archibald - 73 N. 3 East Lynn stated there had been a survey taken which had been distributed to five blocks in the downtown area, 55 surveys were distributed with 44 returned. Interesting items on the survey showed a range of 1-12 parking spaces in front of businesses, off-street parking showed more than half did not have off-street parking for themselves or employees, convenient parking was important, only 9 responded they had adequate street parking, most responded there was not adequate customer parking for future growth. Discussion of pedestrian safety on Main Street. rd Steve Oakey - 25 So. 3 East Steve feels the goal should be to keep the downtown community healthy and thriving. He mentioned facts which are facts right now: there is inadequate parking. The businesses are limiting their customer base because there are no more parking spaces. Rexburg will grow, as it grows it will not supply spaces for a new customer base. One of the three top accident locations in the State of Idaho take place on Main Street in Rexburg which is believed to be caused by the diagonal parking. There will be several million dollars available from the State to allow beautification and off-street parking if the diagonal parking is eliminated. Main Street next year will be resurfaced which is a window that will allow for the process of beautification and off-street parking. 2 Steve feels the City needs to overstep the fear we have of change and move ahead to benefit and improve downtown. Kurt Hibbert - ECIPDA Kurt reviewed available tools to help fund off-street parking for one lot, including block grants or urban renewal agencies. The Committee would like to see the City pick up this plan and move with it. Discussion on time lines of the tools before a decision needs to be given to the State by April 23. Mitch wrapped up the presentation, there is a need for off-street parking, two huge funding time tables, one with the State and the other trying to include the downtown area in the urban renewal plan. Bill Moss - 555 Edith Circle Bill discussed parking spaces on Main Street and feels he has a solution. He proposed keeping diagonal parking on Main Street to maintain the business integrity. He discussed narrowing the sidewalks and widening the streets, consider reducing speed to 20 mph and off-street parking should be considered. Too many people struggle with parallel parking, diagonal parking should be kept for the parking spaces and for safety. He is convinced that parallel parking will still have as high an accident rate, lower speed would have a better chance to lower the accident rate. Business on Main Street is fragile and removing diagonal parking would cause an economic problem to these businesses. Steve Oakey stated that Pasadena, California went from on-street parking to off-street parking completely to reserve the historic value and their community has thrived. Alan Smith - 57 E. Main Alan thanked the Downtown Vision Committee for all their work. He received a letter he had received from AMET, Inc., another downtown business, which wanted to charge the Main Street businesses $1200 a year for employees to park near the AMET fence as well as provide proof of insurance. Other businesses present discussed the problems of employee and customer parking. Susan Sharp - 39 E. Main Susan questioned if the City had helped fund AMET’s purchase of this property. AMET has a tremendous amount of property which is fenced off and is always empty. Discussion. Chuck Porter - 19 College Ave. Chuck has been on the Downtown Vision Committee and not all people on those committees are downtown business people. In meetings he has attended it seems there was a majority support for maintaining diagonal parking. He does support pursuing downtown off-street parking but is not in favor of losing diagonal parking and believes it would be detrimental to the businesses. He 3 supports downtown beautification, he believes there are other things that can be done with compliance to ordinances that would improve downtown, including businesses with garbage out front that is not taken care of and the removing of snow from sidewalks. Gene Stoddard - The Floral Shoppe and Towne Center Gene feels everyone should walk downtown and see the businesses which are closing their doors. He feels something needs to be done soon or more businesses will be following. He believes in off-street parking but feels that diagonal parking needs to be maintained. He presently has 8 diagonal parking spaces which will be reduced to 4 parallel parking spaces. He does not believe parallel parking is safer than diagonal parking. Mitch summarized that off-street parking is necessary, it will take a huge injection of funds to accomplish this, there is no money available but there are two opportunities to receive funds to do this now. Discussion. John stated that most of the meetings with the State had been with Mitch’s committee and not with the City. He suggested perhaps it would be beneficial for the City to meet with the State and discuss this firsthand. Paul also suggested a work meeting with the State and receive information first hand. The Mayor stated this matter would be deferred and he and John will meet with the State to discuss the facts and they will be presented at a later meeting. Budget Hearing Approval Date Glen made a motion to accept the date of September 4, 2002, as an official hearing date to approve the Budget. Motion was seconded by Nyle. All voted aye, none opposed. University Ordinance Stephen reviewed the University Ordinance which Planning & Zoning has been working on for several months. This was driven primarily when the Ordinance failed to identify permitted uses within the University district. By omitting the permitted uses in the University district it allowed all uses for buildings under 10,000 square feet and it ended up being a micro-managing situation in the University District. This proposed ordinance with various changes and the land use schedule reflects the changes approved by Planning & Zoning and the college personnel. Stephen suggested that because of the pile of plans waiting in limbo to be reviewed in the Engineering Department the Council might consider waiving the rules and pass this ordinance tonight. Richard Smith - 637 Millhollow 4 Richard stated that the presentation by the attorney had been accurate and he didn’t have much to add. In the past 10 months Planning & Zoning has been tremendously helpful and he would urge the passage of this ordinance tonight. Discussion with regards to streets maintained by the City and the college. Paul stated he dislikes immensely suspending the rules on ordinances. If there is a compelling reason to suspend the rules he would give consideration. Stephen explained that it has taken a great deal longer to fine tune this ordinance than expected which has created a backlog of plans that need to be moved on. Richard feels it would have negative impact not to suspend the rules and approved this ordinance and explained his reasons. Nyle made a motion to suspend the rules, seconded by Marsha. Voting as follows: NyleayeShawnaye GlenayeMarshaaye DonnaayePaulaye Nyle made a motion to approve the University ordinance as presented. Motion was seconded by Donna. Voting as follows: PaulayeDonnaaye MarshaayeGlenaye ShawnayeNyleaye University Ordinance becomes Ordinance No. 866 Jaywalking Ordinance Paul made a motion to take from the table the jaywalking ordinance. Motion was seconded by Donna. All voted aye. Stephen presented the recommended changes on this ordinance from the Traffic Safety Committee, which included a non-escalating $25.00 fine and where this ordinance is enforced would be determined where the cross-walks are located. Marsha read the state code, discussion on various items comparing the state code to this ordinance. Paul made a motion to amend the original draft of the jaywalking ordinance as follows: Beginning with the word “as” strike sub-sections a, b, and c from Section 7 and insert the words “with a fine of $25.00 per offense”. Shane seconded the motion. Voting as follows: 5 NyleayeGlennay ShawnayeMarshaaye DonnaayePaulaye Paul made a motion to adopt the ordinance as amended. Motion was seconded by Nyle. Voting as follows: NyleayeGlennay ShawnayeMarshaaye DonnaayePaulaye Jaywalking Ordinance became Ordinance No. 867 Nyle made a motion to go into Executive Session, seconded by Donna. All voted aye, none opposed. 10:50 p.m. Reconvened at 12:05 p.m. Discussion relative to helping Madison County and Madison School District keep the Detention Center in Rexburg. A work meeting was scheduled for tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. to continue discussion. Nyle made a motion to pay the bills, seconded by Shawn. Discussion. All voted aye, none opposed. The Council and Department Head working dinner is scheduled for Tuesday, April 23 at 6:00 p.m. to be held at the City Council room. Update on Projects Nyle made a motion to begin City clean-up on Monday, April 8 and to continue for a period of six weeks. Shawn seconded the motion, all voted aye, none opposed. John has received a bid for the backhoe from Pioneer Equipment for $59,586, Scott Equipment for $60,843 and Western Equipment for $68,455. The budget for the backhoe was $64,500. Nyle move to accept bid from Pioneer Equipment for $59,586, seconded by Donna. All voted aye, none opposed. Other discussions were the adoption of Idaho State standards specifications which will be presented later and the comprehensive trimming of trees on Main Street, the resurfacing of City 6 streets and contacting Utah Power & Light regarding increasing the wattage around the congested campus area. Nyle made a motion to adjourn at 12:25 p.m., seconded by Shawn. All voted aye, none opposed. __________________________________________ Bruce Sutherland, Mayor ____________________________________ Marilyn Wasden, City Clerk 7