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Page 1 of 6 Star City Council Retreat Notes February 24 & 25, 2017 Those Present: Mayor Chad Bell, Councilmen Richard Lockett, David Hershey, Trevor Chadwick and Kevin Nielsen; Staff: Legal Counsel Chris Yorgason and City Clerk Cathy Ward. (The meeting began at 10:00 am.) The Mayor thanked the Council for their service and time put in for projects for the City. He expressed the frustration of things not moving as fast as everyone would like, but stated things were getting accomplished. The first section of the Retreat was exercises in what Council wants to see and what they believe the goals were for the City. Committees: Most committees are up and running. Discussion was held on posting of meeting agendas and how they need to be formalized a little better. A committee member needs to be assigned to make sure the meeting agendas are posted and cancelled properly. Please don’t rely on City staff to post these – we will help as much as we can, but this is not our job. Staff are the ones that hear from the public when a meeting is posted but there are no cancellation notices put up or given to City Hall. Once these meetings start happening more routinely and agendas and minutes done properly, we will start posting them on the website. Minutes need to follow the proper format. (Yorgason stated that this is required by Idaho Law). Ward stated that she is getting minutes that don’t have who was in attendance, consensus on projects, etc. Discussion was held on committee member’s jobs and goals. We need to get the committees focused. The Mayor would like to see EDC start focusing on bringing business to Star. Nielsen talked about an informational piece they would like to do and showed an example. Also, EDC would like to create a video to present to businesses. The Council needs to determine what kinds of businesses they want recruited. All committees have questions for the public and what they would like to see. Ward stated that we can send out a mass mailing to the citizens in the city limits. Ward stated there are also some grants coming available to help fund the video and information EDC is wanting. The EDC has done the leg work on some transportation items. The committee continues to clarify their goals. They will then get projects approved through the Council. The Activities Committee is working on the Hometown Celebration. Larry Osborn oversees the HTC. Theresa Tinsley has agreed to do the parade again. They want to do vendors and will ask Star Snax to participate as a vendor as well since the concession stand won’t be open. This year the parade will kick off the event. There will be no beer garden. Other projects are Trunk or Treat and Tree Lighting. The Mayor stated that we are holding a Star Service Fair at Hunter’s Creek on June 3rd. Kim is leading this. Participants will be churches, Lions & Chamber and other service ---PAGE BREAK--- Page 2 of 6 groups. There will be booths where people can learn about opportunities to help the community. We need a service project. It was suggesting that we look at an “Art in the Park” event. The Beautification Committee has four people on it – Tom Erlebach, Gerard Cattin, Travis Ruby and Mike Olson. Chadwick wants to push to get the hotel taken down, add some art within the City and have some interacting pathways. The Mayor wants to look at the big picture – downtown revitalization is a long-term plan. The Beautification Committee is looking at signs. Grants were discussed. Financials: The Mayor stated we need to have a workshop meeting with the Sheriff’s office regarding the Police budget costs. Ward reviewed the financials. (The meeting broke for lunch at noon and resumed at 1:00 pm.) Land Use: Ward stated that the Ada County Highway District is looking for our transportation improvements. Lockett stated that he and Ward met with ACHD and talked about the priorities in the City. Items that were brought up were the path to the new middle school, a bridge across the ditch on Plummer Road and the improvements to S. Star Road. Lockett stated that he and the Mayor will be meeting with ITD, ACHD and the developer of S. Springs to talk about a traffic signal. Neilson stated that his motion was that the Council meet with the agencies. The Mayor stated that if the entire Council meets with the agencies it will have to be in a public meeting and we will not get the people in charge at ITD/ACHD to attend and get the answers we need. Neilson wants to attend the meeting. The Mayor stated that there are numerous things we need to have a conversation with ITD about. Discussion was held on the need to make changes to the Unified Development Code. The Mayor stated that Yorgason and Ward have been working on updating the code. Yorgason stated that he could have a preliminary draft within a month for Council. We need to schedule a workshop just for review of the UDC. Ward stated that she had a few land use questions that needed clarifying, none of which concern pending applications: - The 500-foot block length continues to come up. Consensus was that if the subdivision is already platted it didn’t need to meet the 500-foot requirement. - Do we want everyone in City limits connected to Star Sewer and Water. Consensus was that we do. ---PAGE BREAK--- Page 3 of 6 - A developer asked if Council would consider annexing and zoning property at an R2 designation. Consensus of the Council was that they would like property at an R2 zoning designation. - A developer asked if Council would be interested in more park property. Consensus of the Council was that they would entertain it. - We received a letter from the public requesting the banning of the selling of illegal fireworks in Star. Consensus of the Council was they would not ban the sale. Projects: City projects in the works or just beginning are: 1. Ice Rink – The Mayor stated that he met with the ice rink group; they requested a MOU with the Council. The Mayor contacted Yorgason, but the group had yet to meet with the City Attorney. 2. Boat Launch – We put off the boat launch this year due to the increased costs of the bids. The Corps permit is good through March 18, 2018, so if we want to install the boat launch this next Fall we need to budget for it. 3. Skate Park – There are still things to do for completion of this project. We need to get the grass in; Erlebach has gotten half of the turf donated, the City will pay for the other half. We need to get astro turf and will talk about the shade shelter at the next budget. 4. The BMX Track – The Mayor has contacted several people to get the design done for this track, but has not heard from anyone. 5. Trees/Shrubs - The Buildings and Grounds Supervisor, Bob Little, has put together a bid to have a qualified arborist come in and trim all the trees and shrubs as they have not been taken care of. Little’s staff will remove all the dead trees and shrubs. The Mayor stated we would be moving forward with this. 6. Streetlights – Little got an estimate on adding additional plug-ins at the park and City Hall and received an estimate to put plug-ins on our decorative streetlights. The cost of the plug-ins for the streetlights is too expensive. 7. Maintenance Building – Discussion was held on the maintenance building at Hunter’s Creek, items that will be needed are: a hydraulic lift to be able to work on lawnmowers, a washout hydrant, work bench, compressor, and air lines. It will be fenced. Discussion was held on the conex boxes. 8. Two lots at Hunters Creek - We need to find out if sewer and water have been tied to the two lots. Yorgason will find out. 9. 960 S. Main - Council would like to schedule a time to do a walk through at 960 S. Main. ---PAGE BREAK--- Page 4 of 6 10. Concession Stand – Have we heard from the renter and will he have it open this year. Ward will find out. (The meeting adjourned for dinner at 5:00 pm and reconvened at 6:00 pm) Comprehensive Plan Map: Council looked at the Highway 44 and 16 corridors. Nielson talked about the changes we had previously discussed, like the two additional designations – Mixed Use Commercial and Mixed Use Residential. We have not added those yet as we don’t have any definitions. These definitions were discussed. It was decided that it did not need to be a qualifying amount of either commercial or residential, they just need to make sure they had at least one commercial or one residential unit. Consensus was that Star Road/Chinden needs to be designated for larger commercial; and maybe even from Chinden to McMillan. Ward stated that she is working on getting the maps updated. (The meeting adjourned at 8:20 pm.) (The meeting started at 9:00 am.) Comprehensive Plan Text: The Mayor stated that we didn’t need to go through every word, but if there are grammatical errors, please send them to Ward. The maps and tables need to be updated. We can get the graph data from COMPASS. Discussion was held on the UDC medium to high density being 8 to 10 and high density to be 10 units and up. Open space requirements may need to be changed. We should consider better defining the term “open space” and stop allowing drainage swales to be used in open space calculations. This will be an item for our workshop. Amenities is another requirement that may need a better definition so developers can be more creative. Consensus of the Council was that we would review the Comp Map in quads with the divider being Star Road and State Street. Any changes to the Comp Map will require the designation to follow property lines. Council worked on a definition for Mixed Use Commercial and Mixed Use Residential: ---PAGE BREAK--- Page 5 of 6 Mixed Use - Commercial: The objective of commercial mixed-use development is to require a commercial element with the potential for one or more additional transitional uses on the same location. Examples could be retail shops along a highway with apartments, condominiums, office space or light-industrial behind providing a transition that is suitable to adjacent property, or a multi-story building with commercial uses on the ground level and residential uses above. Mixed Use - Residential: The objective of residential mixed-use development is to require a residential element with the potential for one or more additional transitional uses on the same location. Examples might include a neighborhood with retail frontage, recreational center, light office or day-care facilities. We need to get rid of the single Mixed Use designation. We need to remove the “High Tech” designation and we need to add the word “coving” to our definitions. These changes will be created and reviewed at a future workshop. Encouraging Diversity in Residential Development: Creative and innovative approaches to residential development are encouraged to provide for diversity in appearance, amenities, walking and open space. Coving, clustered, equestrian or agrarian developments are ideas for consideration. Providing higher-density residential using designs that are attractive and complementary to existing lower-density areas can help Star grow in a harmonious and effective manner. Council discussed the desire to determine the length of the Central Business District. It was Seneca Springs to Center Street. We should consider having an in-fill policy – it needs to have flexibility and we need to create incentives. We should consider taking out Policies in 5-1-6. Discussion was held on the open space definition. Yorgason will get a definition. Next Meeting: The Mayor stated that we will be talking with the Ada County Soil & Water Commission. It was suggested to have them come talk with the Council at a pre-council meeting. (The meeting was adjourned at noon.) ---PAGE BREAK--- Page 6 of 6