District 3 Advisory Board

District III Advisory Board Minutes for Aug. 1, 2012 District III Advisory Board Minutes August 1, 2012 www.wichita.gov The District III Advisory Board meeting was held at 6:30 p.m. at the Wichita Water Center at 101 E Pawnee; nine District Advisory Board members were in attendance; six City staff and 11 members of the public were present (one did not sign in). Members Present Jody Bennett Terry Brewster Paul Davis Staff Present Elena Ingle Sgt. Brett Stull, Patrol South Danny Johnson John Turner, Battalion Chief, WFD Gay Quisenberry Jess McNeely, MAPD Wendy Ratliff Paul Gunzelman, Public Works Engineering David Robbins Janis Edwards, City Clerk’s Office Roger Smith Janet Johnson, Neighborhood Services Connie White Council Member James Clendenin Guests Listed on the last page Members Absent ORDER OF BUSINESS At 6:30 p.m. Council Member Clendenin called the meeting to order. Janis Edwards, Deputy City Clerk, swore in the DAB members. Minutes from the July 11, 2012, meeting were approved as submitted. PUBLIC AGENDA Scheduled items No items Non-Scheduled items No items Action: Receive and file. STAFF REPORTS Wichita Fire Department Report Battalion Chief John Turner reported there were no arson fires in the past month. He said what they are seeing most right now is deck and balcony fires due to careless smoking and grills. He said Wichita is also seeing a lot of high fire risk days, which is typically unusual for this time of year, but is occurring due to the drought. Dave Robbins asked what kind of calls the Fire Department made over the July 4 holiday; Chief Turner said most of the fires were due to discarded fireworks in trash cans that smoldered and then caught on fire. Action: Receive and file. 1  District III Advisory Board Minutes for Aug. 1, 2012 NEW BUSINESS Downtown Development Jeff Fluhr, president of Downtown Development Corp., gave a PowerPoint presentation on the projects and progress occurring downtown. He explained that Downtown Development is a privately funded organization and he encouraged everyone to stop by their office at 507 E. Douglas and see firsthand the numerous projects that are underway downtown. Following the presentation, Dave Robbins asked if the uncertainty facing the Transit system has any impact on Downtown Development. Fluhr said in any vibrant community, transit is an important factor. He said they are working on strategies that involve Transit and even Visioneering has experienced Transit bubbling up as a concern. He said a long-term solution is definitely needed. Roger Smith asked how far down the road until Wichita is a destination place. Fluhr said he feels like we’re already there. He pointed out that the Arena has been very successful and Wichita has a Museum District that is beyond what many comparable cities have. Also, he noted Wichita is the largest city in the State and needs to be recognized as such. He said the new Director for Go Wichita is coming here after working for Universal Studios for a number of years; he said she will have some fresh ideas in terms of marketing Wichita. Connie Klassen said something nice is needed near the 47th and Broadway intersection where the four highways come together – possibly something that promotes Wichita and Kansas; Fluhr agreed. Council Member Clendenin said he believes the increase in property taxes downtown, due to development, has helped the City through some difficult financial times the past couple of years. He asked what can be expected next. Fluhr said to look for Airbus to continue to grow and pointed out that all of the new projects downtown not only create construction jobs, but ultimately there will be 100s of jobs created by the new businesses in downtown. He also pointed out the downtown residential base is growing. Gay Quisenberry asked how the Downtown Development Corp. came to exist. Fluhr said the Corporation covers the area between Central and Kellogg from Washington to the Arkansas River and a group of businesses got together and decided to pay an additional mill to create the Corporation to promote downtown. Council Member Clendenin reported the City had received a grant to do the Street Scape on the East side of Douglas. Fluhr said that will be another very positive project for downtown. Action: Receive and file Community Police Report Sgt. Stull, Patrol South, arrived late and gave the Community Police Staff Report. Most of the Patrol South Officers were working a shooting at Mike’s Steak House. Sgt. Stull reported one person had been shot and one person taken into custody for questioning. Dave Robbins asked about police calls during the July 4 holiday; Sgt. Stull said he worked that day and it was very controllable. Connie White asked about the large number of garage break-ins; Sgt. Stull said these have been a problem all over the city – Patrol South had one suspect who has been arrested eight times. He said the 23 and 24 beats have seen an increase in larcenies and they are having some issues on the 299 beat including a 22 page warrant list. 2  District III Advisory Board Minutes for Aug. 1, 2012 Dave Robbins wanted to know if keeping people in jail is a problem; Sgt. Stull said yes. Roger Smith wanted to know how much it costs to run the tent jail in Arizona what we could do to institute something like that here. Council Member Clendenin suggested contacting the County Commissioners or State Legislators. CON2012-00036 5205 E. Kellogg Jess McNeely, Metropolitan Area Planning Department, presented a request for a conditional use to permit a night club within 300 feet of residential zoning, in Limited Commercial zoning, generally located south of Kellogg and east of Pinecrest. McNeely explained this establishment has operated as a pub for many years as a restaurant with a DE-R liquor license, but they want to be able to have karaoke, so that requires them to get an Entertainment License. Under the Unified Zoning Code the combination of an Entertainment License and serving alcohol is defined as a nightclub, requiring they obtain a Conditional Use because the establishment is located within 300 feet of a residential area. McNeely said all the properties within a 200 foot radius were notified and he received no objections. Connie White asked for clarification that the only thing really changing is the addition of karaoke; McNeely said yes. Gay Quisenberry asked how late it will be open now; McNeely said he doesn’t expect that will change. Dave Robbins said he has been to the establishment before to eat supper and watch a ballgame. He said the neighborhood is accustomed to it being there and he believes this will just be a continuation of what is already occurring there. Connie White (Robbins) made a motion to recommend approval of the Conditional Use subject to the five conditions sited in the staff report. Action: Motion passed 8-1. Intersection Improvement at Mt. Vernon and Oliver Paul Gunzelman, Public Works Engineering, and Tim Aziere, Baughman Engineering, presented a design concept for the improvements to the intersection at Mt. Vernon and Oliver. He said this intersection has a significant crash history with around 12,000 vehicles traveling on Oliver and 5,000 traveling on Mt. Vernon daily. The total cost will be $1,200,000 with $400,000 paid by the City and $800,000 paid by KDOT/Federal grants. Some of the features of the new intersection include:  reducing Mt. Vernon to three lanes, with the middle lane being a turn lane  elimination of the large dip  elimination of the little dirt road that runs alongside Oliver  addition of driveway cutouts and turnaround boots for residences along Oliver  addition of a bike lane on Mt. Vernon Gunzelman said two-way traffic will be maintained throughout the construction. Connie White wanted to know if the pads for the private drive turn arounds would actually be used for that, or if they would become just another parking space. Aziere said they won’t be big enough for parking; they will be small enough the driver will have to use part of the drive to turn around. The homeowners at the corner of Oliver and Meadowbrook wanted to know if they would have a turnaround boot; Gunzelman said no, because they have street access off Meadowbrook. 3  District III Advisory Board Minutes for Aug. 1, 2012 Elena Ingle wanted to know how the insurance business on the corner will be affected. Gunzelman said they are still looking at that. The business has encroached on the City right of way and laid asphalt over the sidewalk and made parking spaces on the right of way. Ingle asked what it would cost to purchase the business; Council Member Clendenin said it could easily be between a quarter to a half million dollars which would make it impossible to do the improvement with the amount of money available. Terry Brewster wanted to know why they designed it with three lanes instead of five. Gunzelman said the traffic volume on Mt. Vernon doesn’t warrant five lanes and they also had to make room for the bike lane. Ingle said she didn’t like the idea of three lanes on Mt. Vernon; Aziere said it’s already basically that way now because if a vehicle is stopped waiting to make a left turn onto Oliver, there’s only one lane available. Jim Gulick said a lot of speeding occurs on Mt. Vernon with some cars traveling as fast as 50 mph because there are no stop signs on Mt. Vernon between GWB and Oliver. Aziere said that is an enforcement issue and not a design issue. Ingle asked when the traffic counts were done; Gunzelman said they were done recently. She suggested doing the counts after school starts. Roger Smith wanted to know what the cost difference would be between three lanes and five lanes. Aziere said he didn’t know, but that property would have to be acquired on three corners and that would be very costly. Connie White wanted to know when the bike lane would be striped; Gunzelman said that would be a later project. Council Member Clendenin asked if the street going from four lanes to three at the intersection would help with the speeding issue; Aziere said it should have a positive impact on it. Dave Robbins said he thinks the three lanes is a good idea because currently if there are cars on Mt. Vernon on either side of Oliver waiting to make a left turn, neither one can go because they can’t see around the facing vehicle. He asked if there would be a left turn signal and Gunzelman said yes. Roger Smith (Johnson) made a motion to approve the design concept. Gay Quisenberry asked if they would bring the project back to the DAB once the design was completed. Gunzelman said no, it will next go to the City Council, but they will have a meeting prior to construction with the residents who live in the affected neighborhood. One citizen asked how long the construction will take; Gunzelman estimated between four and six months. Dave Robbins wanted to know how citizens who live on Oliver will get to their homes during construction. Gunzelman said they will maintain access as best they can. Motion was approved 9-0. UPDATES, ISSUES AND REPORTS Dave Robbins reported Planning Director John Schlagel attended the Fabrique Neighborhood Association meeting. Robbins said they would like to see more jobs come into their neighborhood. Roger Smith announced the East Mt. Vernon neighborhood will have their clean up on Aug. 18. 4  District III Advisory Board Minutes for Aug. 1, 2012 Gay Quisenberry said she recently visited the Mother MaryAnn clinic and it is very nice. They will have an open house on Aug. 16. Paul Davis commented that the picnic at Herman Hill Park to rejuvenate the South City Neighborhood Association was very nice. Danny Johnson said there is a cell phone provider that is targeting poor people. He said the company gives citizens 250 minutes free, and then charges them an exorbitant fee for anything above that. Jan Hunt said the name of the company is Assurance. Wendy Ratliff reported the numbers at the Lord’s Diner are still high with lots of children coming without their parents. Council Member Clendenin said there will be a special meeting on Aug. 29 for DAB members and the public regarding City Council Redistricting and the Bicycle Master Plan. He said Dave Robbins is the District III representative on the Redistricting Commission. He reported the 34th Street Bridge is currently in the design stage and he will have staff come to the DAB meeting in October and provide an update. Also, the New Communities project is underway in Planeview. Elena Ingle said the Aviation Museum is having a big event on Sept 28th and 29th. Janet Johnson said Lon Smith from the Aviation Museum will be at the next DAB meeting to do a presentation. Meeting was adjourned. The next meeting for District Advisory Board III will be held at 6:30 p.m., Sept. 5, 2012, at the Water Center at 101 E. Pawnee. Respectfully submitted, Janet Johnson, Neighborhood Assistant – District III Guests Connie Klassen Tim Aziere Steven Walters Jan Hunt Jim Gulick Tom Strickland Betty Strickland Pat Brozek Richard Lane Nancy Lane 5