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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-04-18 Business and Economic Development Committee Minutes BUSINESS & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 5:15 pm City Council Chambers Minutes Councilors: Durgin, Gallant, Longo, Sprague and Weston Staff: Conlow, Vanadestine, Bolduc, Gould, Wallace Others: Carol Epstein, Stillwater Realty LLC; JimTower In Councilor Gratwick’s absence, Councilor Durgin sat in as Chair over this meeting. Councilor Longo made a motion to go into Executive Session on the following item. 1. EXECUTIVE SESSION – Economic Development - Lease Negotiations – 1 M.R.S.A. § 405 (6) ( C ) 2. Committee Action on Above Item Councilor Longo made a motion to move staff recommendation to approve the lease negotiations with Stillwater Realty LLC as presented. Seconded by Councilor Gallant. So voted. 3. ORDINANCE, Amending Chapter 165, Land Development Code, Section 92, Urban Service District (USD), of the Code of the City of Bangor, by Changing Bar, Tavern, or Lounge to a Permitted Use David Gould, Planning Officer, reviewed this item stating that this Ordinance amendment will take the use of a bar, tavern or lounge in an Urban Service District and change it from a conditional use to a permitted use. All the performance standards will remain the same. This change will facilitate reuse of existing buildings without having the Planning Board review the Conditional Use criteria and its procedural costs and time line. Councilor Sprague made a motion to move staff recommendation to forward this item onto the Planning Board at their May 1, 2012 meeting. Public Comment: Jim Tower, Manager of Aerios, LLC (corporate owner of Diamonds Gentlemen Club) stated that as staff is reviewing this particular ordinance asked that they look at some additional changes as well. In particular, hours of operation in the downtown district are regulated within the ordinance. For various reasons, Diamonds would like to operate until 3 am in the morning. Chair Durgin replied in response that the ordinance amendment before the Committee today is one that deals with primarily Urban Service District issues. He then asked Planning Officer David Gould to gather and review background information on Mr. Tower’s comments/suggestions to see if there are other ways to incorporate his request for a public hearing in order to get a vote one way or the other on the matter. The Planning Office will report back to the BED Committee with their findings and recommendations. The motion to move staff recommendation on the Ordinance Amending Chapter 165, Land Development Code, Section 92 as presented was favored with a vote of 2; 1 opposed. The motion carried. 4. Main Street Corridor – Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area (NRSA) Update Rosie Vanadestine, Interim Director of Community & Economic Development, reviewed for the Committee information from the draft Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy plan. The Committee’s review and comments are encouraged before it is finalized and goes on to the thth Public Hearing on May 9. A final approval at the Council meeting on May 14 will allow staff to submit the plan to HUD for their approval. Along with the Department of Community & Economic Development, other City departments involved with the planning and meetings for this project include Planning, Code Enforcement, Engineering, Police Department, Parks & Recreation and Public Works. Sections included in the NRS Plan are: Plan Overview Includes neighborhood and geographic areas and definition of the boundaries from Main to Third and Union to Buck Streets (about 130 acres +/-). Staff has also obtained information from the City’s assessing records that outlines the number of lots, number of units, single, multi- family, commercial or vacant. Staff has cataloged all of this information. Also, in the plan Census data is included such as population, area median income and poverty level (70% of the households in this area are low to moderate income). Have also identified the number of people who are on social security, receiving public assistance and food stamps. Ninety-one percent of the units are occupied and 10% of them are vacant. Seventy-three percent of the units are renter occupied and 27% of the units are owner occupied. Most of the buildings were built before 1978 and 1940. Unemployment data is also included, and the number of police calls that have been made to that area since they’ve started tracking that from November of 2011 through the end of February 2012 (a total of 1,400 calls in 4 months). Community Consultation This section’s information outlines what staff has done to include the community – which includes the two public neighborhood meetings that have been held. Staff has cataloged all of the comments that were made at the public hearings as well as from the surveys. The comments were divided up by the respective City departments and each department has commented on those. Assessment Component This section involves the economic conditions within the NRSA. In this area there are 34 businesses (they employ 1,147 people). Will have a breakdown of business types and information on access to capital and will look at housing, rents, home prices and housing quality. Furthermore, will be discussing the new arena, waterfront improvements and the expansion of Hollywood Slots. With this information, staff can demonstrate that there already is a lot of investment taking place there as well as determining what other opportunities might be forthcoming for economic development and how we will create additional jobs. Crime and security will be part of the assessment component as well. We will also need to determine what other organizations are ready to assist with our help in that area. Economic Empowerment This section focuses on the meaningful jobs and how performance measures can be created. In the initial submission for approval of the NRS plan it is not required to identify funding resources. Once the submission is approved by HUD, then every year the City will have to identify in their annual action plan what the City is going to accomplish in the NRSA and how much money is going to be targeted and where those funds are going to come from. The Request For Qualifications (RFQ) for the consultant is finalized and should be out soon. Planning Officer David Gould will be reviewing the old parking and street plan (originally done in the 1990’s) in order to see what the intention was for street parking . Staff will be working with the consultant and reviewing all of the plans and traffic studies that have been completed and they will assist in creating a comprehensive infrastructure plan to address streets, sidewalks, lighting, sewer/water connectivity and landscaping. This information will be prioritized by need and by street and will be scheduled for funding annually as well as included in the annual action plan. An overview of this plan is scheduled to be delivered at a Neighborhood Meeting at Doughty School auditorium on Thursday, April 26, 2012 @ 6 pm. City department heads will be in attendance to speak about their role with the plan and what items their departments will be contributing to the plan. th On May 9 staff will be back to the BED Committee for the public hearing held for the NRS plan th and also for the CDBG Annual Action Plan. It will go to the full City Council on May 14 and th submitted to HUD on May 15. Meeting adjourned.