Committee of the Whole

CITY OF VERONA MINUTES COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MAY 21, 2012 1. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Jon Hochkammer at 5:35 p.m. 2. Roll call: Jon Hochkammer, Jeremy Charles, Scott Manley, William “Mac” McGilvray, Steve Ritt, Clark Solowicz, Richard Streich, Evan Touchett. Absent (excused): Brad Stiner. Also in attendance: Bill Burns, City Administrator; Bruce Sylvester, City Planner; Joe Giver, Fire Chief. 3. Public Comments. None 4. Minutes of the January 30, 2012 Committee of the Whole Meeting. Motion by Ritt, seconded by Charles to approve the minutes of the January 30, 2012 Committee of the Whole Meeting. Motion carried 7-0. 5. Downtown Redevelopment. Mr. Burns and Mr. Sylvester presented several recommendations for the downtown area including:  Establishing prohibited uses in the downtown overlay district.  Limit Indoor Institutional uses in the downtown overlay district.  Apply existing design requirements to the revised downtown overlay district.  Consolidate the downtown and Verona Avenue overlay districts into a single district. Questions and comments from the Committee Members included:  Would prohibited uses be limited to the primary use of the site or any use on the property?  Should tattoo parlors and body piercing uses be included?  How are non-conforming uses affected if there is a change in ownership of the property?  Are there ways to slow down the process for permitted uses to allow the City to work with applicants to evaluate the best use of the property?  Is there a way to utilize the design overlay district to come before the City if there is a change in use on a non-compliant property?  The City should consider seeking a right of first refusal on key properties.  The City should focus on using the design overlay district to seek changes to properties when there is a change in ownership.  How would properties in foreclosure be dealt with?  Council Members should receive notification of property redevelopment within their districts.  The City should develop a process to review available properties. 6. Multi-Family Development. Staff presented information about multi-family development within the City. Policy recommendations include:  Allow some new subdivisions to not require a mix of single and multi-family development.  Establish a maximum ratio of single-family to multi-family development.  Consider increasing the number of single-family homes that may be permitted in a single year.  Create an annual cap on multi-family housing.  Exempt some multi-family housing from caps such as mixed-use redevelopment or senior housing.  Require developers to provide notification of potential future multi-family development. Comments from the Committee Members included:  I would like to see a cap on the amount of multi-family development.  I like the idea about talking to owners about voluntarily downzoning multi- family parcels.  I would like see a carve-out for high-quality senior housing from a cap on multi-family units.  I do not want to see multiple buildings per parcel allowed by right without going through the Planned Unit Development Process.  I do not like the policy to require all subdivisions to have a mix of housing types. This should be evaluated on a case by case basis.  I would like to see the limitation on maximum building size in the community residential zoning district repealed.  I like the requirement for signage to notify residents of the potential for multi- family development. 7. Fire Department Facilities Mr. Burns and Chief Giver reported that Norm Arndt from S.E.H. has presented an executive summary of the fire facility evaluation and location study. The initial findings from the study include:  The current station is well located to serve both the current district population and the projected growth areas.  The district does not need to look at adding a second location. The current facility serves the geographic area well and there is available capacity on the fire apparatus.  If the district makes a significant investment in the facility, it is recommended to start with new construction rather than renovating the existing facility.  The district could explore options such as additional automatic mutual aid agreements and traffic pre-emption devices to help improve coverage and reduce response times. The full study report is expected to be available by the June Fire Commission meeting. Mr. Burns also explained that the City of Fitchburg has initiated discussions  with the City of Verona and Village of Oregon regarding how the three communities could work cooperatively in the area of fire protection services. 8. Adjourn into Closed Session. The Committee did not adjourn into closed session. 9. Electronic Document Management System. Mr. Burns provided a brief presentation of the City’s Laserfiche document management system and described options for provided elected officials with access to City documents. Committee Members responded to a brief survey regarding their interest in electronic access to documents. 10. Adjourn. Motion by Ritt, seconded by Touchett, to adjourn the Committee of the Whole meeting at 7:28 p.m. Motion carried 7-0. Bill Burns City Administrator/Recorder