City Council

City Hall City of Olympia 601 4th Avenue E Olympia, WA 98501 Information: 360-753-8447 Meeting Minutes City Council Friday, March 1, 2013 1:00 PM Room 207 Community Renewal Area Ad Hoc Committee Meeting 1. ROLL CALL Present: 3 - Mayor Stephen H. Buxbaum, Mayor Pro Tem Nathaniel Jones and Councilmember Steve Langer 1.A STAFF PRESENT City Manager Steve Hall, Community Planning and Development Director Keith Stahley 2. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Buxbaum called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. 2.A APPROVAL OF AGENDA Mayor Buxbaum asked for a motion to reorder the agenda and to move directly to the first consultant presentation. The motion was moved, seconded and passed unanimously. 3. COMMITTEE BUSINESS 3.A 13-0173 Community Renewal Area Consultant Interviews ECONorthwest: The first consultant team, consisting of Abe Farkas and with Lorelei Juntune with ECONorthwest and Morgan Shook with BERK, made a brief presentation and reviewed information included in the RFQ 2013 that was provided to them. Ms. Juntune noted that Mithun Architects would be part of the team supporting this project . They provided the Committee with an overview of their approach to the project and how they might address public participation and community education. The consulting team noted there are many other redevelopment tools not included in the backup materials that the City may wish to consider as it moves forward with this process. They noted the desire to bring more residential housing to downtown and indicated the CRA process could help to define a vision for downtown . City of Olympia Page 1 City Council Meeting Minutes March 1, 2013 The Committee asked a number of questions and the consultant team responded. They asked the City to develop a clear understanding of the desired outcomes and define the level of tolerance for risk. This input will help them lead a successful planning process. They also noted the biggest fear was that without clear direction they could deliver a plan that was not effective or useful. They encouraged alignment of community and City expectations to the greatest extent possible. National Development Council (NDC): NDC representative Michelle Morlan gave a PowerPoint presentation. She stated NDC is focused on project financing and has an abundance of experience in this area. She said a CRA plan should identify opportunities and connect vision to action . She noted that the creation of a CRA plan requires the designation of a boundary and a declaration of blight. Ms. Morlan then responded to questions from the Committee. She noted that the City has recently established a Section 108 Loan Program and said the best use of those funds in relationship to the CRA would be in the acquisition of property . She added that to be successful she will need a team at the City to help to support these efforts . Ad Hoc Committee Deliberations: The Committee discussed the relative merits of the two proposals and the different approaches they represented. Given the past work of NDC, the Committee anticipated that NDC would have a continuing role in our redevelopment process through the Section 108 underwriting process and other activities. The Committee agreed that ECONorthwest was a better fit with the needs of the community at this time and will recommend to the full Council that staff move forward with scoping a contact for City Council approval. 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 4.A 12-0809 Approval of October 12, 2012 Community Renewal Area (CRA) Ad-Hoc Committee Meeting Minutes The minutes were postponed and moved to the March 29, 2013 meeting. 5. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Buxbaum adjourned the meeting at 3:00 p.m. City of Olympia Page 2