PBIA Advisory Board

City Hall Meeting Minutes 601 4th Avenue E Olympia WA 98501 PBIA Advisory Board Contact: Hans Shepherd 360.570.3722 Thursday, July 9, 2015 6:00 PM Council Chambers 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Corso called the meeting to order at 6:04 p.m. 1.A ROLL CALL Present: 12 - Chair Mary Corso, Vice Chair Connie Phegley, Boardmember Sarah Adams, Boardmember Ken Adney, Boardmember Nancy Grace Campbell, Boardmember Alana Carr, Boardmember Sheila Irish, Boardmember Jeannine Kempees, Boardmember Bobbi Kerr, Boardmember David Rauh, Boardmember Phil Rollins, and Boardmember Sunday Williams Excused: 2 - Boardmember Janis Dean, and Boardmember Jeffrey Trinin 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Boardmember Rauh motioned, seconded by Boardmember Phegley, to approve the agenda. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 12 - Chair Corso, Vice Chair Phegley, Boardmember Adams, Boardmember Adney, Boardmember Campbell, Boardmember Carr, Boardmember Irish, Boardmember Kempees, Boardmember Kerr, Boardmember Rauh, Boardmember Rollins and Boardmember Williams Excused: 2 - Boardmember Dean and Boardmember Trinin 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 3.A 15-0690 Approval of June 11, 2015 PBIA Board Meeting Minutes Boardmember Rollins moved, seconded by Boardmember Williams, to approve the minutes. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 12 - Chair Corso, Vice Chair Phegley, Boardmember Adams, Boardmember Adney, Boardmember Campbell, Boardmember Carr, Boardmember Irish, Boardmember Kempees, Boardmember Kerr, Boardmember Rauh, Boardmember Rollins and Boardmember Williams Excused: 2 - Boardmember Dean and Boardmember Trinin City of Olympia Page 1 PBIA Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 9, 2015 4. PUBLIC COMMENT Chris Beug from Obsidian voiced concerns about the City of Olympia's commercial permitting process. He expressed interest in the City putting an emphasis on a positive customer service experience. He also wanted to see the City work with new business owners to ease the permitting process and streamline the code review process. He mentioned he had a very positive experience working with former Building Official, Tom Hill. Roussa Cassell reiterated Beug's message. She said her design firm works mostly in residential but has completed 5-6 downtown commercial improvement projects. She indicated she understands the code needs to be followed but felt the City was using the strictest interpretation of gray areas in the code. Chair Corso expressed concern about the situation and worried about future business owners being discouraged to open shops downtown. She said she will draft a letter to the City expressing her concerns. 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS Mary Corso reported that Kim Murillo, owner of Little General, emailed a statement of intent to fill the vacated position on the board. Dave Rauh moved to nominate Murillo for the vacant position. Grace Campbell seconded the motion. All were in favor. Murillo will fill the vacated seat until the end of the year. If she wishes to continue as a board member, she will have to be elected in by the ratepayers during the next election cycle in February, 2016. 6. AMBASSADOR PROGRAM UPDATE Boardmember Carr gave the ambassador report. It included: * Master Cleaning list for downtown is in first draft status. It will be available for distribution at the August, 2015 PBIA Board meeting. * The ambassadors are in the process of hiring a new part-time ambassador and an additional clean team member. They will be walking around the candidates in an upcoming weekend. Members are encouraged to email Sharon Holley (Downtown Ambassador Program Manager) if they are interested in meeting the candidates. Her email is sharon@capitalclubhouse.org. 7. BUSINESS ITEMS 7.A 15-0691 Parking Services Update Community Planning & Development Business Manager Karen Kenneson provided a Parking Services Update: City of Olympia Page 2 PBIA Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 9, 2015 * Staff has begun upgrading over 100 three-hour meters to the new IPS smart meters. Installation will halt during Lakefair week. The new meters have been working great with little maintenance. A map of the new meter locations is available on the City's website. * The City sold 2,400 parking meter tokens in 2014. Approximately half of the tokens have been used. So far, the City has sold a little over 1,000 tokens in 2015 and just over 600 have been used. The City has ordered 10,000 new tokens that read, "valid in credit card meters." The hope is that token usage will increase with the newly installed parking meters. * The City is in the process of preparing to update the parking strategic plan. All action items in the previous plan have been completed. In the new plan, the City has the basic goals of increasing short term parking in downtown and better managing existing on-street parking. * The City recently completed an update of the Downtown Economic Development Map. The results showed that 47% of the street level square footage is surface lot parking. When adding on-street parking, there are over 10,000 parking spaces in downtown Olympia. The City is using this map as a tool to help plan where an eventual parking structure may be located. The final plan won't be completed until 2016. Contact Ms. Kenneson for any questions. Boardmember Rollins requested that the City look for areas where more on-street parking can be added. Vice Chair Phegley said we can do a better job at utilizing existing parking and was in favor of the idea of a public/private partnership approach. She wants to see better signage. Ms. Kenneson noted there are challenges because the City only owns a small amount of surface lot parking. Chair Corso expressed an interest of focus groups during the planning process. Boardmember Irish expressed concerns about safety in parking structures. She mentioned that Tacoma experiences a lot of crime in parking structures. Boardmember Williams expressed concern about the possibility of nine-hour meters converting to shorter time periods. Boardmember Rollins complimented the City on the appearance of the new meters. Boardmember Carr and Vice Chair Phegley expressed appreciation for the City's responsiveness to emergent parking issues. The report was received. City of Olympia Page 3 PBIA Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 9, 2015 8. REPORTS Boardmember Rollins gave the Marketing Committee Report: * Radio ads have been recorded and started airing on Mixx 96.1. * The committee is working on the copy writing for the welcome post card for new businesses. * The committee discussed Lakefair and possible ways to market downtown to fair patrons. Boardmember Irish said her staff is willing to hand out parking tokens throughout the week. Chair Corso moved, seconded by Boardmember Williams, to purchase 100 parking tokens. The motion passed unanimously. * Chair Corso reported she was recently interviewed for the Dick Pust show on Mixx 96.1. She requested that the PBIA try to get on the show every three to four months to promote downtown Olympia. Vice Chair Phegley gave the Clean & Safe Committee Report: * The Artesian Leadership Committee is considering planting three trees in the ground at the Artesian Commons. The total project cost would be $17,000. She requested a breakdown of the cost. The City is also planning on installing permanent tables and chairs at the Commons in the near future. * The Cigarette Butt Bin program is going very well. Some of the bins have been broken but are being fixed. * The bar owners and bartender meeting went very well. The bars are planning to hang "keep it cool" signs in each bar to promote a safe and respectful environment. * The PBIA hosted a de-escalation training at the Washington Center. The Committee also informed the ratepayers of a sexual assault prevention training at the Evergreen State College. * There is an upcoming meeting on 24-hour restrooms on July 24. Multiple downtown stakeholder groups plan to attend. 9. OTHER TOPICS * Downtown Staff Liaison Brian Wilson mentioned the tires on the probation crew's watering trailer need to be replaced. The flower basket budget has limited remaining funds and the total cost would exceed its balance by $168.51. Boardmember Rauh moved, seconded by Boardmember Kerr, to use $168.51 of contingency funds to pay for the difference. The motion passed unanimously. * Mayor Pro Tem Jones thanked the Board for the work they do and for the letter they City of Olympia Page 4 PBIA Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 9, 2015 wrote regarding the Community Renewal Area. The Board asked the Council to consider focusing their efforts on the Griswold's property before moving forward on the Water Street redevelopment area. Mayor Pro Tem Jones reassured the Board that focusing on Water Street does not preclude work in the core. He mentioned the City Council wants to work on both areas but does not believe the CRA is the proper tool for the Griswold's location due to a lack of scale. He added that the CRA is better applied for area-wide development projects. Vice Chair Phegley stated she believes the City placed a priority in pleasing a few developers as opposed to listening to the downtown business community. Boardmember Rauh said the Griswold's location has a negative effect on all surrounding areas. He also referred to a recent ratepayer survey that showed the respondents were near unanimous in their desire to see the Griswold's property be redeveloped. He also raised concern that the Water Street project will displace existing businesses. Mayor Pro Tem Jones said there is no tangible proposal for Griswold's at this time. He reassured the Board that Council is committed to doing something at the Griswold's site but future discussion is needed. 10. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 7:37 p.m. City of Olympia Page 5