City Council

27 WEST ALLEN STREET WINOOSKI, VERMONT 05404 (802) 655-6410 CITY OF WINOOSKI (802) 655-6414 (fax) KATHERINE R. DECARREAU CITY MANAGER MAYOR SETH LEONARD COUNCILOR NICOLE MACE sleonard@winooskivt.org DEPUTY MAYOR BRIAN CORRIGAN CITY COUNCIL COUNCILOR ROBERT MILLAR COUNCILOR BRIAN SWEENEY bcorrigan@winooskivt.org Agenda Monday, March 7, 2016 6:00 p.m. Claire Burke Council Chambers I. Call To Order II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Swearing in Ceremony IV. Public Comment V. Consent Agenda a. Approval: Council Minutes of February 1, 2016, February 16, 2016 & Liquor Control Minutes of, February 16, 2016 b. Approval: Warrants as of March 4, 2016 Subsequent to Payout Warrant for November and December VI. City Update VII. Agenda Review VIII. Public Hearing 6:15 p.m. a. Approval: Parking Ordinance – Section 25.03. Fines, Penalties and Scofflaw IX. Regular Items: a. Discussion/Approval: Free Parking Days – K Decarreau b. Approval: Appoint Ted Regula to CSWD – K Decarreau c. Discussion: Ordinance Review for Held Items a. Smoking in the Parks – Ray Coffey b. Bedroom Size Minimum Criteria – John Audy d. Discussion: 106 East Allen Street – Sale of Bus Stop Area and Design Consideration –K Decarreau and John Audy e. Discussion: Zoning Code Review – John Audy a. Zoning Districts b. Lot coverage v Floor Area Ratio c. Accessory and Cottage Dwellings d. Non-Conformity e. Planned Unit Developments (PUDs) f. Discussion: Hotel Update – K Decarreau and Seth Leonard g. Discussion: TIF Budget – K Decarreau and Angela Aldieri h. Discussion/Approval: City Council Meeting Schedule – K Decarreau i. Approval: City Council School Newsletter Schedule – K Decarreau j. Discussion: Conflict of Interest Policy; Council Policy, Procedures, Protocols, Liaisons – K Decarreau k. Discussion: City Manager Appointments X. Adjourn MINUTES March 7, 2016 minutes Winooski City Council The meeting was called to order by the Mayor at 6:00 p.m. The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance by Deputy Mayor Corrigan Members Present: Mayor Seth Leonard Councilors: Brian Corrigan, Brian Sweeney, Nicole Mace, Robert Millar Officers Present: Katherine R. Decarreau, City Manager; Carol Barrett, City Clerk; Angela Aldieri, Staff Accountant; John Audy, Code Enforcement Director; Ray Coffey, Community Services Director; Peter Wernsdorfer, Public Works Director; Ethan Hausman Others Present: David Roy, Wiemann Lamphere Architects; Karen & Lukas Zweeres, Regina Mahoney, CCRPC; Dave Marshall, CEA; Maura O’Neill, WCP; Ted Regula, Lance McKee, McKee’s Pub; Barbara Martin, Audrey Sinclair, Nathan Dagesse, Tammy Taylor, Hussan Sadik, Khadija Husein, Sarah Petrokonis, Cheryl Brosnan, Madison Wright, Nasteha Abdullahi, Kim Soukone, Jessica Bridge, Kate Nugent, Winooski Coalition; George Bergin, Ryan Smith, Mike O’Brien III. Swearing In Ceremony The City Clerk administered the Oaths to Brian Corrigan and Brian Sweeney. IV. Public Comment: None V. Consent Agenda MOTION by Councilor Corrigan seconded by Councilor Millar to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. VI. City Update The City Manager said today the City is celebrating its 94th Birthday. We sang Happy Birthday and served cake. - The budget was passed and so that means 4 positions were approved. We are looking to get the Admin. Position going and having a job description very soon. - Economic Development Position by July 1. - We received a draft letter from the auditors and it looks like we will have a fund balance of $176,000.00 - Circulator Meeting with Peter and Alex to discuss schedule of the construction at the Circulator. - Riverside/Colchester Ave design study at Medical Center 7:00 p.m. - Bridge Railing replacement next summer - Talent Show April 8th - Start my vacation tomorrow Ray Coffey in charge. The Mayor said we should be receiving a briefing schedule for the F35 suit from the Air Force within the next couple days. VII. Agenda Review: None IX. Regular Items: a. Discussion/Approval Free Parking Days. The City Manager said traditionally we have free parking day for New Years Eve and St. Patrick’s Day. She said she is looking for approval for St. Patrick’s Day and at a later date we will discuss other free parking days. March 7, 2016 minutes Winooski City Council MOTION by Councilor Sweeney seconded by Councilor Millar to approve free parking day on Thursday, March 17 St Patrick Day as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. b. Approval: Appoint Ted Regula to CSWD The City Manager said CSWD received a letter of resignation from James Ticehurst. Ted has served as our Alternate. The Mayor read a letter from Ted Regula stating that he wanted to be appointed as a board member. MOTION by Councilor Corrigan seconded by Councilor Millar to appoint Ted Regula to the CSWD board as presented. Voted and passed. VIII. Public Hearing 6:15 p.m. a. Approval: Parking Ordinance – Section 25.03. Fines, Penalties and Scofflaws The City Manager read the changes to the Ordinance. See attached Parking Ordinance. She said we heard feed back about the fines. The staff has had meetings with downtown. Lance McKee is wondering if we could give out warnings. He said first time offenders have been hit very hard. He would like to see the times changes from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. maybe tweaking of hours for breakfast. MOTION by Councilor Mace seconded by Councilor Sweeney to approve the changes to the Parking Ordinance Section 25.03 Fines, Penalties and Scofflaw as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. The Public Hearing ended at 6:36 p.m. IX. Regular Items: c. Discussion: Ordinance Review for Held Items. a. Smoking in the Parks – Ray Coffey Mr. Coffey read the following Memo – Recommendation for City of Winooski Ordinance Change to Prohibit use of Lit Tobacco Products in Public Parks. See attached. Mr. Coffey said the commission members felt very compassionate about this. The root of it was to declare park space for all users. Councilor Corrigan said we stopped short of asking what is being banned based on what’s currently heading to legislature. Mr. Coffey said there have been statewide surveys done on adult population, youth data is countywide data. A group of students from Winooski School District representing groups from VCAB, OBX and ATI. Three students spoke and some of their concerns were the effect on animals, people’s health, siblings shouldn’t have to breathe in second hand smoke. The students also said they have been picking up cigarettes butts in the parks. Mr. Hausman said we need to define park properties. There are parks atop of Weaver St., West St and what about parking lots that abut parks. Councilor Sweeney said we should discuss park by park basis, parking lots. We expect children to congregate. Councilor Mace sad she absolutely supports non-smoking. Her concern is we are going to force people to smoke inside. We need to also know about enforcement challenges. Mr. Coffey said we need to know how to divide up the parks, where do you go and what the space limitations are. The Mayor gave an overview of the discussion and asked if we should have a blanket policy. Councilor Millar wouldn’t support a blanket ban. If we selectively enforce it we tend not to enforce consistently. We need to consider a more targeted solution. The Mayor said we should go back to the group about how we want to designate what’s and where’s. Councilor Mace said we should look at Burlington’s Park Ordinance. Mr. Coffey will come back on April 4th. b. Bedroom Size Minimum Criteria Mr. Audy said the current requirements have been on the City books starting back in 1974 and were based on age, this presents potential legal issues. We can not discriminate against age. The city’s concern is with our demographic and diversity and not to exclude housing opportunity’s. I’m recommending that we alter the original proposed to allow the two occupants for the first 70 square feet and 50 square feet there after. We are not trying to create an occupancy limit we are trying to control or manage over crowding. The Public Housing Agency does a pretty good job managing that. It isn’t our biggest problem here in Winooski. I spent time with Mike Ohler, Housing Retention Specialist who works for Burlington Housing not exclusive to Burlington Housing. I also tasked the Hoarding Task folks to look at the proposed language. The Mayor said this is more proactive, preventative instead of reactive to what we are seeing on the ground. Mr. Audy said there is March 7, 2016 minutes Winooski City Council education that we can do with the landlords. Councilor Sweeney said we are moving in the right direction with the new proposal. Councilor Corrigan said the new proposal is excellent. Councilor Mace would like to hear from the Refugee Resettlement Program. Mr. Audy said HUD has the regulations in place already. Councilor Millar asked what qualifies as temporary. Mr. Audy said the 31st day you would become a tenant. The essentials are: Housing Specialist, Mike Ohler, Placement, living room as a bedroom, temporary rental. We will bring this back on April 4. d. Discussion: 106 East Allen Street – Sale of Bus Stop Area and Design Consideration The City Manager said we have to consider the sale of the bus stop area and design consideration. Mr. Dagesse of 106 East Allen St. and Mr. Roy of Wiemann Lamphere Architects gave a power point presentation on a proposed project called City Lights. Mr. Dagesse said we expanded the scope to 4 floors, 2 level garages and currently looked at a condo project that could turn into apartments. The Mayor asked about commercial space and what level would parking be for commercial use. The City Manager said we talked about the exit and entrance. She said there would be intermittent delays with traffic and there is no reason to mandate it. Mr. Dagesse said there 17 residential spaces. They talked about the façade covering the parking garage. Mr. Dagesse said it would be wood slat similar to River House and River Run The unit pricing would be from $160,000.00 to $350,000.00. Councilor Corrigan asked if they were going to have bus stop signage referring to CCTA. The City Manager said there are three parties involved CCTA, CCV and the Developers. Councilor Mace’s concern is the requirements with the exterior not clear about the metal and orange that fits with the theme. Councilor Millar said the rendering right now it’s a gray wall. There was also conversation about the construction, where the cranes will be staged. Councilor Millar left at 8:20 p.m. The City Manager said we are continuing to work with CCTA with pickup and drop offs and would approve the sale of the bus stop. We will also have our DRB join us at our next meeting. This item will be on the March 21 agenda and we will also discuss the sale of the bus stop in executive session. e. Discussion: Zoning Code Review Regina Mahoney, CCRPC and Michael O’Brien, CCRPC board member gave a power point presentation on the Residential Zoning Districts. Councilor Millar returned at 8:38 p.m. Mr. Audy explained the lot coverage. He said a lot of the lots just barely meet the 75’ frontage. He said there are lots that are long. Families who have been here for multiply generations. They can no longer afford to stay in that massive house so they are really looking to maximize the property. A way to do that without giving up all the green space is to allow them to split house into a duplex. Our current regulations allow for an accessory apartment detached or part of. This comes with some pretty strict rules, and accessory can only be a certain size and the main house needs to be owner occupied when it sells. A detached cottage piece allows for a non-owner occupied, 2nd or 3rd union depending on what district you’re in, with minimal size to be in backyard to utilize that longer skinny lot. The City Manager said our goal here tonight is if anything needs to be pulled out and discussed separately we can do that. The two things we are trying to do tonight are to make sure everybody understands where things are going and if there is anything that we disagree on like we did with ordinances will pull them out and talk about them individually. There was some discussion concerning non-conforming use. Ms. Mahoney said it’s addressed in section 4.9 and the language has not changed. See attached power point presentation. f. Discussion: Hotel Update The City Manager said, what we’re looking at tonight is moving toward approving this project. Where were going to be approving is the design again. We are also going to be approving an easement for the driveway and were going to be agreeing to go into the ACT250 process together because we own property and they own property. Anything out of the 90/90 that gets built on is ours, so what will happen is we do join ACT250 application. We are also agreeing to support the application for CDBG funds of up to a million dollars. She also said she and Seth met and I’m going to let Seth weigh in. The design and the development agreement are both March 7, 2016 minutes Winooski City Council in your packets. There is a parking memo that covers the A room hotel. I have been in contact with Adam and we have to talk about the extra 17 rooms above the original plus a restaurant that is going to be public, so there will be extra demands so they will have to go back to John and work thru what that requirement is which is parking. Again, we need to approve the design that’s what we’re after today. The Mayor said what was proposed to us from the last go around we would be a joint applicant on the VCDP grant process. Part of this is the Council came up with a list of questions. We posed those questions back in the role and again for public purposes when this comes to a vote I’m recusing myself out because the relationship of the party involved. My goal with the City Manager is working with Adam. See attachment 3. We had a conversation about general benefit through the community. What’s the value of this community? What’s the design and zoning requirements being met through this from a process stand point but there is still outstanding work to be done especially from an ACT250. In relationship to the way the development agreement interacts with the association agreements downtown. We asked for financial updates which the developers have provided here. We asked for a timeline. The City Manager said there is a final award on April 4 but there is a hearing on March 31. Mr. Marshall said there is an application date of April 4th that drivers certain things that need to be put in place prior to that application being formally made. One of them is a public hearing too basically to hear the application and associated with that is a fifteen day notice period that needs to be published in order to facilitate that lead. We are trying to provide as much time for the application to mature prior to that particular hearing. We chose March 31 as the best date, the latest date would have been April 1, which is a Friday. We went back to Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. to basically have that particular public hearing on the particular application. We were hoping that the City Council would enable that to be published so that we could hold that meeting. There still is a more important component for the City which is actually a resolution supporting this application and that is where all the details need to be put into place by March 21. This will be the next meeting so that you are in position and comfortable doing that. If you’re not, the deal gets shut down and wait till next application period. The Mayor asked what the design and zoning process looks for us next. In terms of a joint meeting process with this body and DRB. the City Manager said it’s not a joint meeting but they are invited because the Mayor and Council make the decision. She said you will see final documents where the building is positioned, this moved around up until last Friday. Mr. Marshall said last time we met with the Mayor the site plan had some very complicated request of the City. The applicant realized that it was just asking to much to occur in to short of time and that he brought his design back to you together and shaved something’s out and got it back into the foot print that is consistent with the ACT250 master plan and consistent with the development agreement and to a point where to simplify those issues. Mr. Marshall said the DRB is here to assist you if you have questions based on their experiences and dealing with certain issues. This is a great resource to basically utilize in making a decision whether it is here or 106 East Allen St. Those are the tools that are designed into the system to basically assist the City Council looking at application that comes before the council. The City Manager said we’re looking here at the siting. The building has been pulled out of the right of way so were working on getting the state to move the ROW. We know longer have to do that, the building has been pulled out of the ROW and back within the boundary of the design agreement. It does have an access point that still goes over that plaza and takes in one of the UFO’s. The plaza was not built with federal funds. We are going to have some conversation where that UFO would go under this scenario. The access point which the City would continue to own and the hotel would have an easement over and were going to have an easement agreement that they will construct and maintain over the life of this. That element is a circular driveway. See attachment 4. They met our request in their letter and they’ve done everything except what I think is the last thing is a parking issue that has been addressed, but other than that I think were satisfied that they’ve met everything in the letter. Part of that is their backing the boundaries of the original development agreement Mr. Marshall noted attachment 4 see exhibit a, b, c. Those are the components. We are trying to create flexibility. This document wasn’t intended for you to absorb all of it between Friday and now. It was intended to introduce it to you. Mr. Marshall explained the document. The City Manager said you will see the final drawings on. Mr. Marshall said he would like to submit them soon that they can be distributed to you so they can absorb them. The architect has developed additional information since this package was available after March 7, 2016 minutes Winooski City Council Friday morning. The City Manager said that the building fits within the development agreement and will not require any land outside of that with the exception of where that driveway comes in and where the curb cut comes in and the curb cut comes in the first two or three parking spaces on Winooski Falls Way. It comes in directly where that UFO is. The developer has asked for an easement which means that one of the things we have to do is make sure we have good solid construction and maintenance agreements on that and make the developer responsible and not us. The City Manager said we still don’t have the final restaurant numbers yet and John needs that to finish the requirement. Mr. Marshall said we have the figures. The City Manager said that has to happen, it hasn’t happened with us. The design again, the building got finally sided, you have drawings up there that are not complete and probably not what the final look is going to be, so when those come in Greg Rabidoux will have those. Mr. Marshall said we have elevations already and he’s updated the renderings and has improved versions of what you’re seeing here. He said the Association remains the developer’s issues. There is some question about where they move outside of that 90/90 into that bigger space. There was a statement in the declaration of covenants between all of the people who bought original properties. They all have to agree that they will use, if that space is going to be used for something other than recreational purposes. The City Manager said Adam is going to be here on March 16 and he is going to start meeting with folks. Mr. Marshall said he is going to reach out to them by phone and then meeting in person. She said we are going to be partner with the ACT250 and Development agreement. We will still own the bigger piece of the lot and we will be a partner in that ACT250 so we will go in together rather than us alone. You have to agree to do that and give Seth permission to sign that application. The ROW is no longer an issue. The park is and that is another issue that is outstanding. We can tear up the park but if we move one of those UFO’s it comes under federal guidelines and were working with RCP on that process. Can we relocate it? The final part of this is the financing you saw that the project is a 14 million dollar project. There’s approximately 1.5 million dollars that Adam is still looking for. $850,000 he would like to come from CDBG. He hired a consultant on that, which we asked him to do. A CDBG is a program of federal funds that go to the Sate to award. It goes to the Agency of Commerce in Community Development and they award these grants. You can get up to a million dollars on a commercial property. He wants a million dollars based on the number of jobs and right now we are at 25 full-time equivalents. We have to apply to the VT Community Development Program. That process is we have to agree to part of that and is us getting part of those fund to remediate. We are responsible for mediating any containment on that site. We believe there is petroleum. We have very good reason there was a gas station there and were going to find petroleum products. So part of the funding that we are asking would actually go to the City. The money is imported to the City and the City loans Adam that money and there is payback, usually a 30 year term. When the money gets repaid not all of the money goes to the City necessarily. Ms. Aldieri said there are individual arrangements. The City Manager said at this point we need to get a loan agreement together with how that gets paid back. Again, usually the State takes half and we take half. Ms. Aldieri said it will be part of the actual grant agreement. The State dictates the terms. A lot of these are renewed or forgiven at the end of 30 years unless it’s a for profit entity. The Mayor said this was structured as a hybrid of $850,000.00 to the developer and $150,000.00 for us. Our proposed piece of it was a grant as I understood. The City Manager said this will get negotiated thru this hearing process and will figure that out. The Mayor said we have laid out the terms of the letter. There are still some terms of the letter that aren’t quite met and that would be my final analysis. I also had a meeting 2 weeks ago, where I think I didn’t hear what I would call a satisfactory direct path forward on the association agreement. The Association agreement and understanding is a significant issue and one that needs to be addressed sooner than later. The City Manager said it’s fair to say that we made extraordinary progress in the last 2 weeks. There are a lot of things that have to come together in order for us to hear on March 21. There are a lot of things that will come together very quickly after that. From my perspective they have to come together by the 21st of March. We need a final design and something to react to and frankly for your sake I would like to get that no later than the 15th or 16th of March. Mr. Marshall said he would get those plans to you in an alternate way. The City Manager said you have the site plans, the site plans are checked the parking remains an issue. I understand the number of rooms has increased. March 7, 2016 minutes Winooski City Council Councilor Mace said she noticed the parking agreement was going to be at the O’Brien Community Center. I thought the parking was going to be at the other lot. The City Manager said this original letter was long before we ended up finalizing that lot. There has been a lot of moving parts. The other piece was that lot was intermittently bid on. She said three lots now four lots are moving against each other but all at the same time. We decided for safety because we are not building there. This project has a day time Monday thru Friday requirement and an evening and weekend requirement that’s different. Zoning allows you to do different requirements. What we are talking about is Monday thru Friday during the day. The other piece of zoning where it’s allowed is customer parking that is required is part of that zoning can fit in public parking. Its employee parking that you absolutely need to address. Zoning allows the Public Works Director to waive if in his or her opinion. The customer parking can be easily absorbed in on street or garage public space. What we are trying to work through is looking at a 100 seat restaurant serving lunch and dinner, so there is a lunch crowd that has to be addressed and that’s not in the mix. You have 80 rooms with no restaurant and that is what John, David and the Developer need to come to terms with. Zoning requirements allow us to not be right on this space. How far away is where were still working and whether we think the O’Brien Center may meet that standard and we are still working on that. Councilor Mace said parking is a hugh issue. The Deputy Mayor asked if there were any further questions. Councilor Sweeney said the pieces are parking, Association agreement, final design review agreement to go forward with the VCDP application and ACT250. The City Manager said what we need tonight is to go forward with VCDP. We have to warn that meeting before you can hold your hearing and pass the resolution just because of the timing. We would like permission to warn that meeting and if you decide that you’re not going to support it we can pull the meeting. The Deputy Mayor asked if there were any other questions. Councilor Mace asked if the project was reliant on VCDP funding. The City Manager said there is a remaining hole according to Adam. Mr. Marshall said he’s not prepared to speak to that. See attached attachment 3: Adams responses to our letter. The City Manager said among the things I’m concerned about is when you approve the design guideline at the end we don’t want to have all of the features that you liked designed out at the last minute. Because it’s value engineered out and that how you save the final project. The other thing I’ve made very clear is the back of the building can’t be west and north side even though those are not the main access points that people are coming into and that is made clear. Mr. Marshall said the council will have some plans presented to you that show certain features. You have the ability to basically create conditions requiring certain things be included as part of the approved project and what you don’t want to do is have the situation erode away. You need to make sure that John as the teeth that are necessary to say that the conditions of the City Council says, this, this and this. I’m held to see that each and every one of theses things are being followed. Those are the tools that you have as part of dealing with those specific components of the design review district or downtown district as set forth in the design guide lines. These are the tools that you need to be thinking about when you come up on the 21st. You are in a very comfortable position and when you pass judgment on your final vote on exactly what you’re voting on. I can’t speak to the financing component. The City Manager said she would take the financing question back and we have to engage our Attorney’s and make sure all of the agreements that we have covered is what you want and include what your design elements are going to be. She said she was struggling on both the parking because we haven’t received the final restaurant number of seats. I asked about retail and the original design had retail shops, those are gone. If there is any retail it will be the things you see when you go in a hotel you can buy chips, water etc. That is all taken care of by the staff. The parking will be John, Pete on the availability and Ray to the extent it goes to the community center. Again, we just keep working through this. If we are not ready and you’re not comfortable you don’t have to go forward. The applicant clearly would like to get the VCDP process going March 31. Councilor Millar asked when would be the next opportunity for VCDP. The City Manager thinks its three times a year. When funds become available and there are funds available now. The Deputy Mayor asked if there were any further questions. Ms. O’Neill asked where the guest would be parking. The City manager said it’s at the discretion of the Public Works Director. We can incorporate what we believe is customer parking in public parking. They can park on the street they can park in the 50 public spaces in the garage. The Deputy Mayor asked if there were any further questions. The City Manager said this wouldn’t go forward unless you have a March 7, 2016 minutes Winooski City Council Resolution. We can do that on the 21st of March. The City Manager said Adam would be here on March 21, 2016. g. Discussion: TIF Budget The City Manager updated the Mayor and Council on the TIF Budget. See attached. She said this is a conservation budget and we need to approve the budget by July 1. Tax rates we don’t have yet. VSAC and Hall Keen are established. Vt. State College is determined by legislature. We are making progress with receiving payments on the retail ground lease, housing ground lease. She also went through the revenue and expenses. The fund balance is part of what we want to look at. When do we start making extra payments? h. Discussion/Approval: City Council Meeting Schedule MOTION by Councilor Corrigan seconded by Council Millar to add March 28, to the City Council Meeting Schedule. Voted and passed 4-0. See attached schedule i. Approval: City Council School Newsletter Schedule MOTION by Councilor Mace seconded by Councilor Corrigan to approve the School News letter schedule as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. j. Discussion: Conflict of Interest Policy, Council Policy, Procedures, Protocols, Liaisons The Mayor said to review these items and if you have any question email the City Manager or myself and we will bring it back for approval. k. Discussion: City Manager Appointments The City Manager is recommending Executive Session. MOTION by Councilor Millar seconded by Councilor Sweeney to go into Executive Session at 10:15 p.m. to discuss the sale of the bus stop and to also discuss City Manager appointments. Voted and passed 4-0. MOTION by Councilor Millar seconded by Councilor Corrigan to adjourn City Council meeting at 10:30 p.m. Voted and passed 4-0 ATTEST:____________________________ City Clerk March 7, 2016 minutes Winooski City Council