Council Regular/Special Meeting

MINUTES OF THE GILBERT TOWN COUNCIL IN SPECIAL MEETING OF TUESDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2018, AT 5:00 PM, MUNICIPAL CENTER 1, ROOM 300, 50 E CIVIC CENTER DRIVE, GILBERT, ARIZONA COUNCIL PRESENT: Mayor Jenn Daniels, Vice Mayor Brigette Peterson, Councilmembers Eddie Cook, Jordan Ray and Jared Taylor COUNCIL ABSENT: Councilmembers Scott Anderson and Victor Petersen PLANNING COMMISSION Chair Brian Andersen, Commissioners Seth Banda, Gregory PRESENT: Froehlich, Brian Johns, Les Smith and Alternate Daniel Cifuentes PLANNING COMMISSION Vice Chair Carl Bloomfield and Commissioner David Cavenee ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: Town Manager Patrick Banger, Clerk Lisa Maxwell, Town Attorney Christopher Payne, Development Services Director Kyle Mieras, and Interim Planning Manager Catherine Lorbeer CALL TO ORDER Mayor Jenn Daniels called the meeting to order at 5:06 p.m. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Councilmember Eddie Cook gave the invocation. Vice Mayor Brigette Peterson led the Pledge of Allegiance. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS Mayor Jenn Daniels welcomed everyone and had everyone introduce themselves. COMMUNICATIONS FROM CITIZENS None. AGENDA ITEM 1. Presentation and discussion of the 2020 General Plan update. Matt Klyszeiko and Kevin Kugler, consultants from Michael Baker, gave an overview of the process for updating the General Plan. Outreach efforts began in July 2018 with the consultants working to get input from the community. Instead of waiting for the public to come to workshops, they put out an electronic community survey and social pinpoint to get information. The consultants from Michael Baker will be looking for the best mix 1 of land use when the Town reaches buildout. The updated General Plan will be on the August 2020 ballot for voter approval. There was discussion about the Social Pinpoint program, how it worked and what data it collected. There was interest in knowing how the public learned about the various options available for providing feedback to the Town. Digital Government has sent out messages on social media and they have a schedule to continue sending out messages. Interim Planning Manager Catherine Lorbeer gave further information on various ways the Town is working to reach the community. Alternate Daniel Cifuentes asked if the consultants had looked mailers or door hangers. Mayor Jenn Daniels said utility inserts were good to reach people and much less expensive. Commissioner Brian Johns took the survey during the presentation. He found the comments on the Social Pinpoint map to be interesting and informative. Mayor Jenn Daniels said the Economic Development department has more up-to-date statistics than what was presented and that information will be sent to the Planning Commissioners. Vice Mayor Brigette Peterson noted most of the Council was new to the General Plan update process as they were not in office during the last General Plan update. This time the Town is using a consultant to collect the data instead of Town staff. Alternate Daniel Cifuentes asked if the impending use of autonomous cars and the increased use of Uber and Lyft were being considered. The reply was autonomous cars and data on smart cities is all being considered. Development Services Director Kyle Mieras said they have been talking to Waymo and having them review the transportation section of the General Plan. Mayor Jenn Daniels noted the Town now has a Transportation Manager who is also involved in reviewing the General Plan. Commissioner Seth Banda asked if there was any data about the users of Social Pinpoint. That information is included in the Community Survey but not Social Pinpoint. Commissioner Seth Banda said he is curious about who is providing feedback. 2. Presentation, discussion and Council direction regarding Multi-Family in Regional Commercial. Interim Planning Manager Catherine Lorbeer covered the merits and options for removing Conditional Use Permits (CUP) for having multi-family construction on a site zoned for Regional Commercial. If removed, only lofts above which are permitted by right in most regional commercial zoning districts would be allowed. That was added as a way to add flexibility and encourage mixed-use developments. Multi-family development would require a zoning change if the CUP option is removed. Vice Mayor Brigette Peterson asked when the changes were made. The reply was was approximately 2005. Mayor Jenn Daniels noted a subcommittee has been formed to look at making changes to the Land Development Code. Commissioner Les Smith asked what percentage of multi-family developmental would be optimal in the future. Mayor Jenn Daniels said the goal is to attract employers and for 2 most it is important to have a mix of different housing types. She said what she is hearing from citizens is they want the Town to stop building multi-family units. Vice Mayor Brigette Peterson noted the City of Chandler is 19% multi-family and they are still building. Councilmember Eddie Cook said the vacancy of homes around Deloitte is light now and a multi-family offering would be a good fit there. Commissioner Seth Banda asked about the vision of Town Council. Mayor Jenn Daniels said the citizens do not care about percentages. She said this is a tough conversation to have in a community that is rather affluent but Gilbert is home to a diverse group of people. Chair Brian Andersen said multi-family cases are the toughest cases that come before the Planning Commission. Mayor Jenn Daniels said the average citizen doesn’t understand CUP’s and requiring a total rezone is more transparent. The problem is this would be harder on developers. There was a discussion about multi-family developments. Apartments appear to attract transient residents. There is a difference between apartments, town homes and condos. Chair Brian Andersen noted most citizens do not know what apartments look like today. They are more like resorts. Demand will determine how many apartments will be built in the Town. There was additional discussion about homes bought for the purpose of being rented out in Gilbert. That data will be provided to the Planning Commission. Councilmember Eddie Cook said when he looks at this cases he know that commercial development is revenue generating. His goal is to generate money for the Town so taxes can remain low. There was discussion about mixed use development and what that really means. The guidelines created for CUP are subjective and that has caused some confusion. Councilmember Jared Taylor said he believes multi-family development increase collected sales taxes because he believes there will be more residents in Town in the future he sees the Town being able to collect taxes from on-line transactions. There was discussion about the possibility of this happening. Councilmember Jordan Ray said the old commercial model with the corner gas station and strip mall on every corner is going away. The Town has to look at non-traditional development. The Town will have to get stakeholders involved in changing this process. He does not want to create new rules that would be overly complicated. Councilmember Jared Taylor said he does not want to approve this change until he understands what problem it would be solving. Mayor Jenn Daniels said the Council looks at every request on a case-by-case basis on purpose. They need to start thinking differently about these requests. Interim Planning Manager Catherine Lorbeer said the process is for the Planning Commission to initiate the changes. After that happens the Town can involve stakeholders to get their input. The code changes will be very simple to remove CUP. Creating higher density zoning districts will be more involved. 3 3. Review of the Planning Commission/Design Review Board 2018 highlights and trends. Interim Planning Manager Catherine Lorbeer gave a presentation highlighting statistics for the Development Services Department and cases heard by the Planning Commission. Recently approved major developments were shown. The trends are for placemaking; urban places and authenticity; mixed-use; repurposing anchor stores; food, beverage and entertainment; and state of place index. Mayor Jenn Daniels thanked everyone for their hard work. Councilmember Eddie Cook said he likes to tell people that everything the Town does they all do things together as a team with a common vision. He apologized for not always sharing visions and communicating with the Planning Commission. Vice Mayor Brigette Peterson said the Commissioners have a tough job. They have to protect the General Plan. She discussed appropriate conduct of the Commissioners at their meetings. It is important to be transparent and have discussions in public. Councilmember Eddie Cook suggested inviting the Commissioners to the next Council retreat. Mayor Jenn Daniels said Council will continue to have a dialogue with the Planning Commission. Consistency breeds a community of trust. Commissioner Gregory Froehlich said knowing the big vision for the Town is very helpful. Commissioner Seth Banda noted he appreciates having this meeting with the Council and learning of the Council’s vision. He said at the last Planning meeting he heard a comment his vote was going to be overturned by Council and that bothered him. Mayor Jenn Daniels said getting the perspective from Commissioners is invaluable when cases come before Council. There was a procedural discussion on conducting the Planning Commission. The Commissioners would like to say the Pledge of Allegiance and Development Services Director Kyle Mieras said that can be added to the agenda. There was also a question on why the Council liaison is at the end of the agenda. There was discussion on how the continuance of an agendized item is continued. Mayor Jenn Daniels said the Chair of the Commission is responsible for reining in discussion. ADJOURN Mayor Jenn Daniels adjourned the meeting at 6:48 p.m. ATTEST: ___________________________ ___________________________________ Jenn Daniels, Mayor Lisa Maxwell, MMC, Town Clerk 4 CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the special meeting of the Town Council of the Town of Gilbert held on the 13th day of November 2018. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this ____ day of ____________________. ___________________________________ Lisa Maxwell, CMC, Town Clerk 5