Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-05-18 Business and Economic Development Committee Minutes BUSINESS & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 5 pm City Council Chambers Minutes Councilors: Chair Weston, Blanchette, Bronson, Durgin, Gratwick, Hawes, Longo and Nealley Staff: Conlow, City Manager; McKay, Wallace – Community Dev.; Bolduc, Pereira, Patterson – Economic Dev.; David Gould - Planning; Paul Nicklas - Legal; Others: Steve Ribble, Chair of the Cultural Commission; Ron Gastia, Bangor Police Chief; Parke Clemons, Republic Parking; Debbie Cyr, Finance Director; Tracy Willette, Parks & Rec Dept.; Jeremy Martin, Code Enforcement Chair Weston stated that Councilor Gratwick would sit in as a voting member of this committee until such time that Councilor Nealley arrived. CONSENT AGENDA 1. Community Development Residential Rehabilitation Loan – 15 Autumn Street Councilor Durgin made a motion to approve staff recommendation on this item as presented. Seconded by Councilor Blanchette. Unanimous Committee vote. REGULAR AGENDA Councilor Blanchette stated for the record that in the City’s 2011 budget there was no funding for the Cultural Commission put forth but they had a carryover from 2010; if the BED Committee approves all 3 of these grant requests at this time the funds will come out of that carryover. Shirar Patterson added that if the following 3 grant applications are approved it will bring the Cultural Commission’s budget down to $18,950 for future activities. These 3 grant applications were recommended for funding by the Cultural Commission at their April 27, 2011 meeting. 2. Cultural Commission Grant Recommendation for Fusion Bangor, University of Maine Museum of Art and River City Cinema This is the first grant application as recommended for funding approval by the Cultural Commission. Fusion Bangor, as the fiscal agent representing Fusion, the University of Maine Museum of Art, and River City Cinema for an event entitled “PechaKucha”. This project is an arts and cultural project that will happen quarterly with 8 different presenters each night. The recommended funding is for $2,000. Councilor Blanchette made a motion to approve this Cultural Commission grant request for $2,000 as presented for the “PechaKucha” event. Seconded by Councilor Longo. Unanimous Committee vote. Councilor Weston stated that with respect to Item #3, the Maine Discovery Museum is a client of the company of which he is a partner. The intent of Item #3 is for a $2,000 grant for a specific exercise for which the money will be used. He discloses this in case someone would like to discuss whether or not this is a conflict. Councilor Blanchette then made a motion that Councilor Weston does not have a conflict on this issue. Councilor Durgin seconded the motion. (Councilor Nealley at this time arrived to participate as a voting member, so Councilor Gratwick did not vote on this issue.) Unanimous Committee vote. 3. Cultural Commission Grant Recommendation for Maine Discovery Museum This is the second grant application as recommended for funding approval by the Cultural Commission. The project is entitled “Art in the Heart of Downtown” - it is an artist in residency program that is currently going on. They wish to expand it for the 2011-2012 school year. The recommended funding is for $2,000. Councilor Durgin made a motion to approve this Cultural Commission grant request for $2,000 as presented for the “Art in the Heart of Downtown” event. Seconded by Councilor Blanchette. Unanimous Committee vote. 4. Cultural Commission Grant Recommendation for Bangor Museum and History Center This is the third grant application as recommended for funding approval by the Cultural Commission. The project is entitled “Children’s Great Fire of 1911 Walking Tour” – this will be a treasure hunt style activity so that children can learn about this event. Children from the Bangor schools are involved as well as the Discovery Museum and some other collaborators. The recommended funding is for $2,000. Councilor Blanchette made a motion to approve this Cultural Commission grant request for $2,000 as presented for the “Children’s Great Fire of 1911 Walking Tour”. Seconded by Councilor Longo. Unanimous Committee vote. 5. Republic Parking Proposal Rod McKay presented to the Committee the issue of improving enforcement of parking regulations in the downtown. Even though there is sufficient parking in the downtown, the challenge is to make sure it’s available to patrons of the businesses who contribute to the economic well being of the downtown. The Downtown Parking Advisory Committee seeks ways to make parking more efficient in the downtown. Over several years, the City has made several policy changes and is continually making policy changes but there is not a good source of data to know whether or not those changes really are making the system any better. Republic Parking proposes utilizing its Violation and Ticketing System (VATS) for citation and management in Bangor. This new technology would reduce the parking abuse, improve the revenue stream, and improve enforcement and data collection through the use of digital cameras, computers and roving vehicles. However, it would take a significant capital investment. The initial proposal by Republic Parking was presented to the City Council before the end of 2010. The instruction from the Council at that time was to move forward with doing an analysis of what it would mean to the City in terms of budget impact. Staff has done this. Rod further reviewed how the current system works as compared to the proposed system. In this proposal the impact to staffing would be that the 4 current part-time parking enforcement staff would no longer be needed; they could be replaced by 1 full time person that would operate the vehicle. The Management Fee proposed by Republic Parking would be $24,000 per year, increasing by $2,500 a year through year 5. There are other cost savings such as in vehicle maintenance but the main savings would be in personnel costs. Another benefit is that the Police Dept. would no longer have the responsibility for downtown parking enforcement allowing them to do other police functions. Staff is recommending that Committee authorize them to begin discussions with affected parties, and to prepare the necessary Amendments to the Management Agreement between the City of Bangor and Republic Parking System, Inc. for the Committee’s consideration to include extending the term of the Agreement with Republic Parking from September 20, 2013 to June 30, 2016. City Finance Director Debbie Cyr spoke with respect to the impact in the general fund that will happen if this parking proposal is approved. She added that there are a lot of concerns around costs, and decreasing the number of employees. If the Committee is in general support of this proposal, staff will continue to work through it and hopefully bring forward more information as part of the budget process in the next two weeks as well as Human Resources developing some information. Chair Weston stated in conclusion that the motion then is more to keep moving in the spirit of the conversation but not to accept the package as presented tonight. Chair Weston took a poll of the Committee: the majority of the Committee is in favor of continuing with moving this discussion forward. 6. Vendor Policy Update Asst. City Solicitor Paul Nicklas has drafted an amended version of the City’s Policy for Use of City Owned Property which deals largely with commercial vendors. The revisions clarify the policy as well as aligning it with other City policies and ordinances. More substantive revisions include requiring event sponsors to submit vendor lists ten days in advance, to allow sufficient time for inspection by the Code Enforcement Officer, and eliminate unused or redundant categories of vendors. Parks & Rec. Director Tracy Willette, responded to a concern from Council Durgin on vendors selling merchandise prior to parades. Tracy explained the current permit process for vendors; he further added that his Dept. will start to ask event applicants (over and above food vendors) who their vendors will be. This will start the process for Parks & Rec to see who they are – if they’re licensed properly and if they meet City codes, etc. Ultimately it becomes an enforcement issue if they’re not. Councilor Bronson suggested that the vendors should be issued a permit-placard that they would have to display where visible during their involvement at events. Councilor Blanchette expressed a concern with the location of vendors (especially novelty vendors) at parades as they’re allowed to be on the side of the roadways, where children want to buy the items and with floats coming down the streets this can be a hazard to the children. If the vendors are stationary and required to be set back off the street then this hazard can be prevented. Paul Nicklas stated that one of the ways the city is hoping to close various gaps in policy is to not allow anyone to be at an event if they’re not on the required vendor list that is required 10 days ahead of time of the event. Another is to require anyone who doesn’t have a victualer’s license in the City to obtain a lunch wagon license (for food & beverage vendors) to the extent that there are additional gaps in that policy. Jeremy Martin of the Code Enforcement Office stated that in getting a list for an event is fine but again we’re not permitting and there’s no mechanism in place to permit, regulate or license those individual vendors and that’s probably what it sounds like the Committee wants to do. 7. Community & Economic Development Department Update a.) Rod McKay stated that $513,000 in community dollars has been spent on sidewalks over the last 10 years in the downtown area. In 2008, 2009 & 2010 the City funded those activities with the Downtown TIF, not with Community Development funds. In 2011, Community Development funded this activity once again. In the older neighborhoods of the City we have funded $658,000 for sidewalks; $591,000 of neighborhood streets. b.) Shirar Patterson reviewed the recent insert that appeared in the June issue of the Down East magazine on downtown Bangor. Both the City and the Downtown Bangor Partnership (DBP Board) worked very hard to get downtown businesses represented in this as well. She also reviewed the new brochures (that focuses on the tourist/visitor) that will be distributed at downtown businesses, rest areas, airport, CVB. c.) A grant opportunity is now available through the state through the bond issue entitled “Communities for Maine Future”. It provides grant funds up to $400,000 with a 50% match requirement for improvements in the downtown area. A Letter of Intent to apply is required by June 3, and then an application has to be submitted by July 1. Staff intends on submitting a Letter of Intent to the state to apply for the funds. The intended use of these funds is for signage that includes the downtown area, waterfront, and Bass Park to include the arena. The second priority would be to make improvements that are already in our planning process for West Market Square and making that connection between the waterfront and the downtown area. Councilor Nealley inquired if any funds can come from the City matching side of downtown TIF or other CDBG monies. Rod McKay replied that we have over half a million dollars worth of planned improvements for next year; a lot of that money is available through the Community Development program that the City Council has already approved. There’s a remaining piece that will come through the downtown TIF proposal for next year which will more than provide the 50% match that is needed for the program, so it is not necessary to come up with any new money to allow the City to go after the additional $400,000. Chair Weston asked staff if it would be possible to get updated on the Economic Development activities on a regular basis in the near future. 8. Discussion on Long Term Waterfront Planning Rod McKay reviewed the waterfront plan as it has progressed over the years. It’s basically the same plan that staff started with years ago except more land has been made available for parking, open space, and recreational uses as well as a performance area that comprises about 3.4 acres. The balance of space at the waterfront does provide for several development sites – 3 along Front Street, 1 up off Summer Street, and an area along Main Street between the railroad track and further down Main Street. The City’s interest has been to develop it commercially, hopefully for a hotel site. All together there are about 16 acres of development sites and 16 acres of park and open space area. Zoning is designated for the most part as waterfront development - a lot of things are allowed in that zone but there are development standards that have to be met. He further reviewed what’s going on at the waterfront from Union Street along Main Street all the way down to 395. Several years ago this was a Community Development Project Area; the intent was to go in and make the necessary infrastructure improvements, review the zoning and existing land uses, look at the social issues and the housing / property conditions in that area. Staff thereafter came up with a comprehensive plan of how to address those issues. Rod added that he is going to recommend that staff go back and develop a comprehensive plan for the Third-Main Street area (goes from Main Street, up to Third Street, Buck Street, and over to Union Street) and designate that as a Community Development Neighborhood. The intent is to look at all of the same issues and come up with a redevelopment plan that would address them. Staff will review this with the Committee and City Council to develop a plan that will hopefully be adopted by the City Council, and then begin in 2012 with a Community Development targeted neighborhood. City Manager Cathy Conlow stated that a few months ago there were some re-zoning issues that cropped up in this neighborhood. One of the questions was how does the City begin to address rezoning. She asked Planning Officer, David Gould, to put together a map of the existing zones in that area along with some quick criteria on what is in each of those areas, so that eventually we can get ourselves to a master plan that moves us in the right direction. David Gould proceeded to do a review of the different zoning districts that encompass the downtown to the waterfront. He further reviewed the zoning in the residential areas in the vicinity of Bass Park. Chair Weston asked staff what direction they are looking for from the Committee at this time. City Manager Conlow replied that this information is the beginning of a comprehensive planning discussion about this area. Now that the City is preparing to build a new arena at Bass Park we did some rezoning of particular areas there was done, and staff wants to make sure that the zoning is what it should be for existing uses and for the future – there are now the Waterfront District, the Downtown District and Bass Park Zone District as well as some residential. Is that the way we should keep it or do we want some other zoning and standards to begin to encourage a pattern of development that perhaps is different. This will be a long-term process. Chair Weston further asked if there are specific questions that Committee can answer tonight with direct purpose that will help staff move into a certain direction. Consensus of committee is that staff further look at the roundhouse site and Bass Park as a future concert type venue. Councilor Durgin stated that commercial development, access to the waterfront and maintaining a location for the concerts in the future gives us a picture of how this can all be fit together. We should put most of the available space between Main Street and Railroad Street on the market and how staff decides to market that is their decision – he added that it should be marketed heavily. If it’s the consensus of the Committee to reserve the roundhouse site for future development for concerts, use the Bass Park area for additional development for concerts and outside events but keep access to the waterfront for the public and also get upscale, high quality development at the waterfront that people can be proud of in the City. This is going to bring us the economic base that we need to make other things happen along the waterfront. Rod McKay, in reply to Chair Weston’s question as to how the City will market the development sites at the Bangor Waterfront, stated that staff will rely on their own communications to develop the land. This information will contain environmental studies done, set-backs shown, the potential development sites where the structures can be located and the maximum building size allowed. A motion was made to go into Executive Session – Economic Development – lease Negotiations – 49 Florida Avenue – 1 M.R.S.A. § 405 (6) ( C) 9. Executive Session – Economic Development – Lease Negotiations – 49 Florida Avenue – 1 M.R.S.A. § 405 (6) ( C ) 10. Committee Action on Above Item The Committee voted to recommend to the City Council termination of the lease agreement with the Philtrum Corporation as of July 31, 2011. 11. Executive Session – Economic Development – 110 Hildreth Street – 1 M.R.S.A. § 405 (6) ( C ) 12. Committee Action on Above Item No Committee action was taken.