Old Webster Business District Advisory Commission

Old Webster Special Business District Advisory Commission MEETING MINUTES APPROVED MEETING DATE: Tuesday, October 24, 2017 LOCATION: City Hall CALLED TO ORDER: 8:04 AM MEETING ADJOURNED: 9:11 AM NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, November 28, 2017 NAME PRESENT ABSENT Ron Clipp, Chair X Chris Hite X Joe Rath X Stacie Swederska X Morry Cole X Mark Hinkle X Tim Delanty X Micki Hansel X Scott Kemper X Matt Armstrong, Council Liaison X Mara Perry, City Liaison X Also in attendance: Fran Sudekum – Administrative Support APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion to approve September minutes was made by Joe Rath, seconded by Scott Kemper, and unanimously approved. OLD BUSINESS Winter Banners • New Winter banners have arrived. A purchase order from a previous year for $2,500 and $1,865 from the Miscellaneous Budget Category #701 was used; total cost was $4365. • Old Orchard Business District needed to replace their Farmers’ Market banners and wanted to use the same design for their Winter banner. They chose to have their banners say “Webster Groves” instead of “Old Orchard.” Mara Perry placed phone calls to numerous Old Webster Commissioners to inquire if they would want the Old Webster banners to also just say “Webster Groves” instead of “Old Webster.” Half of the Commissioners said yes and half said no. Since the banner order needed to be placed prior to the next meeting in order to have the banners up in time for the Old Webster Open House; the banner order was not changed. Ron Clipp suggested the next time an order is placed for new banners; a discussion should be held whether to use “Old Webster” vs. “Webster Groves” on future banners. District Parking • Short-Term Parking – Mara is still working with Public Works on the public on-street 15-minute parking spots; it may need to go thru the Traffic Advisory Commission which rarely meets. • Long-Term Parking – o Existing Spots: Mara spoke with Webster Groves Presbyterian Church about the potential to lease parking on their Moody lot for employee parking using the current lease arrangement with First Congregational’s parking lot as a model; it would be a short-term lease as changes to the neighboring Bank of America lot may be on the horizon. The intent is to identify some of the existing spots as employee parking during the day. The lot is already used quite a bit during the day by neighboring businesses for both customers and employees, so caution on the number of spots covered by the lease should be taken. A discussion was held on payment options for the short-term lease; possibly doing repair, maintenance, sealing and striping, snow  removal as part of the package with a reduced monthly fee vs. just paying a monthly fee. Commissioners agreed on to possible offers: 1. A 3-year lease (with a renewal option) for 30 spots. At start of the agreement a full repair and maintenance on the lot will be done, seal and stripe the lot will be done every three years, snow removal is included, Sundays are for church use only, M-F 30 spots are for employees from 7AM to 4PM (signage included), 24-hour notice for full use by the church six times a year for funerals. 2. A 3-year straight lease. o Configuring New Spots –Miki Hansel provided a potential configuration for new parking spaces on South Gore adjacent to the east end of the Bristol Elementary School playground. Currently, there are 9 on-street parking spots. Miki determined using angled spaces would not garner enough spots to make it worthwhile and recommended 90-degree angle spots; which would add 10 additional spots to the District’s public parking. She also recommended making the sidewalk 5’ instead of 4’ to allow more space at the existing wall. Two power poles would need to be avoided. The grading required would destroy the roots of the existing trees however and they would not survive. The configuration will bump out into the street a bit. The City has the right of way to the back of the sidewalk; the school district owns the land from there west and it would have to be purchased from them. Mara will take the information to Public Works to continue the discussion. NEW BUSINESS Recycle Dumpsters – Overflowing recycle trash dumpsters are causing an eyesore. Several businesses are not breaking down their boxes, as a result, the boxes take up more space in the dumpsters; more will fit when the boxes are broken down. Currently the bins are emptied twice a week; perhaps changing the days of the week they are emptied to Tuesdays and Fridays instead of Wednesdays and Fridays will address the weekend volume better; also, possibly picking up three times a week could be looked at. Verifying the dumpsters are actually being emptied on schedule is needed as well. In addition, adding signage on the dumpsters reminding businesses to break down their boxes should be added. Continued non-compliance could result in a fine perhaps (with warning letters first). New 5K Run – There will be a new 5K Run in January in Old Webster. It will use the same route as the one used by Milagro. Constant Contact Email List – Joe Rath requested permission to use the City’s Constant Contact email list to send Old Webster Trade Association’s monthly meeting notes to the businesses in Old Webster. Mara gave her okay to use the list and to add the Trade Association’s list to Constant Contact. CITY UPDATE • The developer for the former YMCA property has resubmitted a new request for a different rezoning of the property. This one is asking for 44 units and is three stories instead of five and does not include any commercial. Its name is the Ridge House Apartments. • Work continues Olive + Oak’s next-door space; it has been named The Clover and the Bee. • A new dentist is going into the space next to Jersey Mike’s on Watson. • New residential housing continues at a crazy rate. ADJOURNED Meeting adjourned at 9:11 AM. NEXT MEETING The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at 8:00 AM – City Hall.