District 5 Advisory Board

Page |1 District V Advisory Board Minutes June 3, 2019 www.wichita.gov The District V Advisory Board meeting was held at 6:30 p.m. at Fire Station #21, located at 2110 N. 135th St. W., Wichita, KS 67235. ATTENDANCE Members Present Staff Present Nancy Duling Capt. Ken Ast, Wichita Fire Department JV Johnston Officer Bradley Haught, Wichita Police Trevor Kurth Department Council Member Bryan Frye David McGuire, Park & Recreation Department Tracie Partridge, Senior Librarian Members Absent Philip Zevenbergen, Associate Planner, MAPD Jose Gutierrez Gary Janzen, Public Works and Utilities Rachel Murphy-Thomas Shawn Mellies, Public Works and Utilities Roman Rodriguez Shawn Henning, Finance Department Ben Kittrell Allie Salz, Finance Department Jill Kerschen Cory Buchta, Community Services Angela Breer Representative Troy Palmer Alissa Unruh Guests Trey Rios, Youth Member Marylin M. Sharp Dennis Clary Lou Sheets Andrew Crane ORDER OF BUSINESS Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Bryan Frye Approval of June 3, 2019 Agenda: PUBLIC AGENDA This portion of the agenda provides an opportunity for citizens to present issues that are not part of the regular agenda for the meeting. There is a five minute time limit for each speaker. 1. Scheduled Items None 2. Off-agenda Items Nancy Duling (DAB): It has been brought to my attention there is a need for a sidewalk on 37th Street from Tyler to Ridgeport – past Ridge. There are 450 kids riding their bikes to school. A (Mellies): There is ditch on the side – that makes it very difficult to sidewalk there. A (Frye): We will take a look at that. The challenge is the open ditch. Andrew Crane (Public): Couple of questions on New Market Square bus stop and when we are going to get sidewalks on other side of 21st and when we are going to get a new push button at Tyler and 21st. A (Frye): We’ve talked about some of these before. A (Mellies): The south side of 21st and Maize there’s ditch there. The easy answer east of Valley View is the drainage way. Trying to fit everything in that existing ditch would be pretty hard to do. 1  Page |2 A (Frye): We’ll revisit. Lou Sheets 1249 N Firefly (Public): I’d like to know when we’re going to finish paving on firefly 135th street and 13th. City engineer said in contracting right now. It’s been quite some time. A (Mellies): Talked to consultant today and they are getting very very close to taking care of that now. Cox is still doing their relocation in that area. We still have right of way we have to acquire to finish that project. Sheets: We’ve been waiting on this for 10 years. What is holding this up? A (Mellies): Acquiring right of way and moving the utilities. I can send you the plans when they are finalized. Sheets – Long range when will this be done? A (Mellies): 9-10 months. Recommended Action: Receive and file BOARD AGENDA 3. Updates, Issues and Reports NONE STAFF REPORTS 4. Fire Department Report Captain Ken Ast reported:  Fire service in D5 – 10 fire alarms this month – no loss value or cause 262 total incidents  Tomorrow citizens fire academy graduation in Council Office  15 graduates from fire academy – part from a grant and allowing us to put truck 5 on  Starting doing a D shift with some of those graduates. That will help with staffing and overtime issues 5. Community Police Report Officer Bradley Haught reported:  Beat 16, 19, 199 –  16 beat between Big Ditch and Tyler and Maple and 13th – YTD violent crimes down 4 percent – down 29% on property crimes.  199 beat down 13% violent crimes down 39% property crimes  19 beat up 38 percent violent crimes. But small numbers 13 v 7 – Property crime down 7 percent  Riverfest is going on. Doesn’t affect staffing on the street. Attendance is up. Crime has stayed low.  Early June is when shootings historically spike in Wichita. Not sure why or if that’s a national trend, but that’s a spike in Wichita. Trying to put some things in place to lessen the opportunity for those to occur. Trying to identify high risk victims through DV calls or repeat victims and perpetrators. Then try to put services in place.  Central and Ridge in apartment complex. Cox trucks and work trucks – people are stealing hoods off of these trucks. 3 of the 8 have occurred in apartment complexes.  Riverfest is the busy season. Today was extremely busy with call after call. 6. Park & Recreation Department Report David McGuire reported: 2  Page |3  Ribbon cutting at Pracht happened on 18th of the month. An hour after ceremony the rain hit. Nice event. 50 or 60 people attended.  Summer activities brochure is out.  Teaching scuba diving in Harvest Park.  Ton of activities – feel free to grab one.  Will be talking about aquatics master plan at City Council tomorrow.  Special events – Cars in the Park at Watson Park June 22nd. Movies in the park at Buffalo Park and at several diff parks. Concerts in the Park at McAdams Park – Dive-In movies at Harvest Park.  Cooking classes, self-defense, and exercise. Q (Frye): What time will movies in the park start? A: 6 – 11 younger family movies first then another movie. 7. Wichita Public Library Report Tracie Partridge reported:  May 28 registration for summer reading incentive program – 1 week 4k children and teens  Westlink: 1500 which is 38% of total participation right now. Baby Book worms – Kids Read – Teens read  193 reading activities going on  Story times start this week – story times for babies up to age 5.  STEAM camp June 11 – June 14 topics all space related  ALL activity for adults – program called Big Ditch about history of the construction of the Big Ditch  Westlink – Relay Races with Dad – 2nd year for father’s day program. Adult male in their life that is really important. June 15 at 2:30.  In a Not So Far Away Galaxy June 22 intended for ages 5 – 16. Storm Troopers will be there. Maybe Chewbacca. Characters and activities from Star Wars movies. 8. Public Works & Utilities Report Shawn Mellies shared the following:  2018 OP3 program – 13th through 119th and Maize micro surfacing to start this month  2019 program residential streets – pavement prep work will start this fall. Arterial streets prep work for certain areas will start this fall.  Preservative seal 21st from Maize to Ridge  Hoover Bike Path final design has been approved by City Council, construction to begin early 2020 – will connect Sedgwick County Park to K96. Fill in gaps and add a signal  29th and Maize goes to Council tomorrow to be approved. C (Frye): 29th and Maize we want additional funding for the design and then for the construction to get that moved up. If things fall right and we have a complete design, we may be able to get that moved up. NEW BUSINESS 9. Scooters Pilot Program Mike Tann, Transit Director, presented on e-Scooter Pilot Program. I was asked by Councilman Frye to come give an update on what a pilot program would look like if a scooter provider wanted to come to Wichita. Wanted to make sure we brought everyone in on this. Tried to review current practices that a number of communities had already gone through. When we started, over 60 communities that had scooter programs. Started discussion with companies that came to us. Bird 3  Page |4 and Lime started this process. Bird slowed their interest in Wichita. Some of that has to do with what they thought Wichita was as a city. Their standpoint – they had some issues with other communities. Other companies were more right sized. Our own bike share company Zagster had expressed interest. More right sized for Wichita than some other companies. Using a lot of boilerplate from places like Kansas City. Work off of what other cities are doing. Talked to transit board. Talked to two DABs that would be heavily impacted – DABs 1 and 6 – 90 % in those DABs. Wanted to make sure council has been advised. Started discussion of how Pilot might look. Changes would have to be done to municipal code – reading will occur tomorrow - Allow use in bike lanes - Prohibit use on sidewalks - Prohibit parking in certain areas - Ability for city staff to impound scooters - Operators must be 18 years old Have employees that would gather up scooters every night and deploy them in the morning. Not independent contractors but actual employees. Want ability for city staff – transit – to impound scooters. Pilot provider knows where scooters are at all times. All operators must be at least 18 to enter a contract. Wanted to be flexible and give direction. Something that could be controlled. Wanted it to be a purveyor of free market. Wanted to maintain initial fleet size for the pilot. Wanted to make sure they had a proven and tested maintenance and safety program. The ability and willingness to share data with us. Ability to establish speed and use restriction zones. Very easy to do. We want ability to control that. No operation of scooters on sidewalks. Only to be operated on streets with speed limit less than 40 miles per hour, bike lanes, and bike paths. Inoperable by dusk or 9pm – whichever is later. Parking violations – City can remove immediately. Fees – impound fee, annual administrative fee – general fee. Tomorrow is for the purpose of the first red of the ordinance changes. Second read will be next week. Then pilot would go into effect with Council blessing. Any interested applicant that would apply that would require City Council approval. Each company needs to understand rules of engagement in City of Wichita. Q (Public) Andrew Crane: What about blind and visually impaired? They use the sidewalks. A: If they are on the sidewalk, that is a violation that will be enforced. C (Frye): And they have to obey the same rules as motor vehicles when they are on the streets, correct? A: Correct. Q (Public): How will you control people that have their own scooters? A (Shawn Henning): Anyone can buy them now. That’s something that will be difficult to control. But I think that would be a reach for us to start managing that. Would probably have to be done on a case by case basis. C (Public): I’ve seen motorized skateboards on Main Street. Q (DAB): What is the projected revenue and where would that go to? A: We don’t know what to expect. Their success rate is 3 rents per day per scooter. It could pile up quick. The plan for the city is to reinvest in those assets, like bike share. Signage, street painting, to improve those amenities and programs. Q (DAB): KC has dollar per vehicle per day, Tulsa a dollar per vehicle per day, another city a dollar per vehicle per day. A: Those pilots were abandoned because they were asking for too much. That’s why we asked for less. Q (Public): The sidewalk issue – how has that issue been in other cities? And do we have enough bike lanes and paths to accommodate scooters? A: We do in the areas where they will be deployed. Most other cities don’t allow on sidewalks – at least the ones we modeled after. Minneapolis hasn’t been successful because they have wide sidewalks and nowhere else to go. We are fortunate because we have bike lanes. 4  Page |5 Q (Public) Are helmets required? A: They will be highly recommended. C (Frye): That’s the same for bike share, too, right? A: That is correct Q (DAB): I know you presented at Wichita Sedgwick County Accessibility Board – will there be info going back to that board? It’s important to keep them in the loop. A: Yes. Couple of other things for transit – this summer we kicked off summer service – free bus route every day Monday through Saturday to Zoo and Sedgwick County Park and Extension Office at 21st and Ridge. Available for farmer’s market and to enjoy the park and the zoo. Beautiful shelter that hadn’t been used in 6 years. That is free. Saturday for Riverfest, entire system will be free. All summer all students with student ID can ride system entirely for free every day. If they don’t have a student ID they can go to our office on Emporia and get an ID. 10. Preliminary Budget Overview Allie Salz, Finance Department, presented on the preliminary budget. ZBB – Zero-bases budgeting – These are the goals – keep Wichita safe, grow economy, etc. City created budget simulator – ends June 15. We want as many people as possible to take it. Put in your property value and it will show your assessed taxes. You can increase or decrease certain services. It will tell you how it will impact your tax bill and the services offered. June 15 we will release a report to city council. It will help inform the social media town hall. Calendar – June 15 simulator will close June 26 Social Media town hall July 23 City Manager presents budget August 6 Public hearing August 13 City Council adopts budget Just getting started with budget process and we need all of your feedback. General Fund is about 1/3 of city budget. What makes up general fund rev – largest portion is property taxes – utilities makes up a large portion – rent and penalties make up another large section. 2.5 mill surplus in 2018. This looks like it might not be great compared to pre-2008 but it’s the difference in the economy. More on recession impact on revenues – lagging affect. Property tax lags because of appraisal cycle – not modeled in future budget projects – difficult to forecast. GF Expenditures – salaries and benefits – police and fire – labor intensive – continue to fund even during economic downturn because public safety will always be a priority. Cuts had to be made during some downturns – cut from streets, libraries and parks to save public safety. Reserves important for flexibility for an emergency and cash flow Things look good going forward – staffing study Focusing on investing on equipment and projects that will increase efficiencies. CIP – Capital improvement Program. Process prioritizes each project by department. Each project has a scoring matrix. Developed in 2018 – scored all projects submitted – CIP and Budget interact. Operating budget pays for public safety and employees – CIP things like street maintenance and construction. 5  Page |6 Since 1970s, 7.5 is the lowest mill levy. Money from CIP comes from water utility and sewer utility – 3 flexible funding sources. Transit guest tax and local sales tax. Q ( DAB): What is transient guest tax now? A (Frye): I want to say 6.5. Q (DAB): When was the last time that was looked at for an increase? A (Frye): There are two different kinds (CM Frye explained the different kinds). CIP is for 10 years. Legal debt limit – COW less than 25% of that limit. We have city policy deb capacity. Compares debt service payments to property tax revenue. Adopted CIP Update – Aquatics Master Plan, More street maintenance and rebid projects, library branch study, police and fire stations. Q (FRYE): On budget simulator – has two enterprise funds. Why are they on simulator? A: Difficulties with golf fund and sustainability possibility there could be a general fund required in future, and storm water is mostly out of interest. C (Frye): But supposed to be how this will affect tax bill. I question its inclusion. Old school simulators in a new economy. We have to continue to grow economy. New revenue streams like scooters for example. Key piece is taking better care of infrastructure – more dollars in roads, aquatics master plan – taking better care of the stuff we have. Why we saw library branch study. Matrix is something new we started two years ago to identify critical needs. This is the meaty work we have to do every year. Budget simulator is a great tool. Allows people to see how small changes impact their tax bill. A: Transient guest tax is 6 percent. Q (Public) Andrew Crane: What about putting that in transportation too. A: Transit is included in that as well. C (Public) Andrew Crane: Good because transit needs a lot of help. A: We put money into that from the sale of the Hyatt. We waited until our new transit director got here to start spending that money – he’s been here for a year and we’re starting to do that now. 11. Paving Improvements Shawn Mellies, Public Works and Utilities, presented on a petition for to pave North Wheatland Place between the 400-700 blocks. Wheatland Avenue just got paved. That was combination of Bay Country lots and housing development on west side of Wheatland Avenue – had neighborhood meeting on 31st of January. We talked to the Neighborhood Association and went through process. Talked about how improvements would have to happen. Talked about interest rates. 2.5 to 3 percent. Wheatland is basically complete. Proposed paving petition estimated to be $430k. Cost could come down. 100% assessed to improvement district. City pays for intersection. They were completed with Wheatland Avenue paving. Cost just over $20k per lot. Driveways are a direct assessment. Contractors go out and talk to property owners. Improvement district outlined in Pink. Blue are lots that did not sign. Areas with cul-de-sacs and curves it gets complex. Developer picked up a bigger share than what he had to. Wheatland avenue paving is complete. Showed images of the dirt roads. City standard is asphalt with curb and gutter. There is still a ditch. We could not lower road enough to get rid of ditch. Will probably still have open ditch. Open ditch means reduced cost. That higher cost is to excavate and get rid of open ditch. We will have another neighborhood meeting to discuss what we can and can’t do. Required to pave drive approach with project. Pay back cur to right of way line. Showed more pictures of area. Looking for recommendation to approve petition. Will talk about drive ways. Low curb where we don’t know where driveways will be. Q (Frye): Drainage on Wheatland – there are storm drains on east side of what we just finished? 6  Page |7 A: Two areas. One here and one here. Both on east and west. Area on east and west that picks up ditch. One here that has man hole that picks it up. Q (Frye): So it’s not going into the ditch? A: It goes into the inlets there. C (DAB): I think we ought to do it. It’s something that should have been done a long time ago. I used to live in that area. A: 4-6 months before we can start with construction. Could be completed this year. Depends on how could winter is and utility relocation. C (Public): We’ve been waiting 40 years for this. Let’s get it done. 12. CUP2019-00013 Dave Yearout, Metropolitan Area Planning Department, presented an application on behalf of New Market V, LLC – Slawson Companies (Owner)/Professional Engineering Consultants – Charlie Brown (Agent). The applicant is requesting amendment #1 to the New Market V Community Unit Plan (CUP) DP-278. Amendment to CUP approved years ago, to New Market 5 – lot in middle has many improvements. Lot to north – large lot to south is vacant. Biggest change is signage. Modification on height and potential gross area- but that is dictated by required parking. Planning commission to hear on Thursday. Agent is hear tonight. Tweaking signage to be consistent with sign code. Lot of changes on Maize Road in that area. Ask questions to me or Rebecca. Q (DAB): Any opposition? A: Phone calls of people in area just asking why they got a letter. No concerns. One land owner to west wanting to know if it will move closer to them. C (Frye): Building height for parcel A says 56 feet. A: Primary purpose for adjusting building height for use as 3 story office building. Backs up to drainage way actually floodway. Normally 45 is 3 stories. C (Frye): This says 56. I don’t have a problem with the 56 feet. There are buffers there. A: And a 7 floor hotel across the street. The intent is flexibility. Wide buffer makes it clear down the road. C (DAB): The two of us approve it. Meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m. The next DAB V meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m., Monday, July 1, 2019, Fire Station #21, 2110 N. 135th St., Wichita, KS 67235. 7