City Council

Winooski City Council Meeting Monday, March 16, 2020 6:00 PM Claire Burke Council Chambers 27 West Allen Street Winooski, VT 05404 Mayor Kristine Lott - klott@winooskivt.gov Councilor Hal Colston - hcolston@winooskivt.gov Councilor Jim Duncan - jduncan@winooskivt.gov Councilor Amy Lafayette - alafayette@winooskivt.gov Councilor Mike Myers - mmyers@winooskivt.gov Jessie Baker, City Manager - jbaker@winooskivt.gov I. Call to Order II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Agenda Review IV. Public Comment V. Consent Agenda a. Approval: City Council Minutes of March 9, 2020 b. Approval: Payroll Warrant 2/9/2020 to 2/22/2020 & Quarterly; 2/23/20 to 3/07/2020 and Subsequent to Payout Warrant ending December and January & Accounts Payable Warrant ending 3/11/2020 VI. Council Reports VII. City Updates VIII. Regular Items a. Approval: Appointment of Deputy Mayor – K Lott b. Approval: Mayor and Council Procedures Policy – J Baker c. Approval: Conflict of Interest Policy – J Baker d. Approval: Council Schedule – J Baker e. Approval: Appointment: Library Commissioners – R Coffey IX. Public Hearing: Zoning Change on Parking 6:30 p.m. a. Unified Land Use and Development Regulations Amendment: Parking Waiver – E Vorwald Regular Items a. Approval: Development Agreement with Nedde Real Estate, LLC for the Redevelopment of Lot 7D on Abenaki Way – J Baker b. Approval: Act 250 Amendment Process for the Redevelopment of Lot 7D –J Baker c. Discussion: Main Street Revitalization Update – J Rauscher d. Discussion: Transportation Impact Fee Presentation – J Rauscher e. Approval: Grant Approval: BUILD Grant for Main Street – J Rauscher f. Approval: Job Description: Pool Attendant – R Coffey g. Discussion: St. Stephen’s Lease – R Coffey X. Adjourn  MINUTES The Mayor called the meeting to order at 6:05 P.M. Councilor Mike Myers led the Pledge of Allegiance. Members Present Mayor Kristine Lott Council Members: Michael Myers. Amy Lafayette, Hal Colston and Jim Duncan Zoomed in the meeting. Officers Present Jessie Baker: City Manager; Carol Barrett, City Clerk; Eric Vorwald, Planning/Zoning Director; Jon Rauscher, Public Works Director; Ray Coffey, Community Services Director; Heather Carrington, Community and Economic Development Officer; John Audy, Fire Chief; Paul Sarne, Communications Director Others Present: Alexander Yin, Doug Nedde and William Niquette, Nedde Real Estate, LLC III. Agenda Review Item d. Discussion: Transportation Impact Fee Presentation has been tabled to April 20, 2020. MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Lafayette to remove item d to the April 20, 2020 Council agenda as presented. Voted and passed 4-0 IV. Public Comment – None V. Consent Agenda MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Lafayette to approve the consent agenda as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. VI. Council Reports Councilor Colston said the recent bill that was passed is a summary on how the state is preparing to react in the State of Emergency. The goal of it is to make sure that Vermonters who are impacted by the Corona Virus, as well as businesses are given an opportunity the most expedious support and resources to mitigate it. Councilor Lafayette said there are some reports that came out of Downtown Winooski. Jessie will be covering this in her updates, so I will defer to her. Councilor Duncan – Attended a Working Community Kick off meeting last Thursday, learning about grants. We had a meeting with the Winooski Tree Advisory Committee preparing to draw up an Arbor Day celebration, which is on May 2 at 10:00 a.m. if we can hold it. There are looking at a workshop component. There was a plan to make some recommendations to the municipal infrastructure the coming Thursday based on Ash Boar action planning and the results of last year’s inventory. Charter Change Commission met on February 25, and discussed outreach plans and finalize a fact sheet for the proposed charger change language around all-resident voting. They have distributed around 400 fact sheets at Town meeting day. I attended a Housing Commission meeting last month and discussed additional data on gentrification. The commission is also looking at Rental Registry could be used to form policies. Winooski Housing Authority meetings have been pushed back. Council Myers would like to thank everyone who came out and voted on Town meeting day. I hope Winooski residents stay safe at this time. Mayor Lott thanked the residents for supporting our budget. I was able to meet with the Mayor’s coalition. We held a press conference at the State House supporting a shared agenda. It takes six Mayors approval to put anything on the shared coalition agenda. We were to support TIF Districts, ACT250 revisions, local options tax on commercial cannabis and support for weatherization funding. I was able to attend, Finance, Planning and Safe Healthy Connected Commissions. -Finance Commission – we discussed affordability in Winooski -Safe Healthy Connected Commission – we reviewed a presentation from a group of users of the skate park at Landry Park for potential improvements. -Planning Commission – continued discussion about Form Base Code and discussing set back and Form Base Code on our get way zoning. I also joined Jessie and other staff, other leaders in the community this morning to talk about different ways that we are addressing, planning and supporting the community in light of the COVID19 situation. Jessie will speak to that further in our City Update. I did want to recognize a lot of work that is already gone in from staff and from other members of the community and other organizations to kind of address that is coming in very rapidly and share the appreciation. VII. Updates The City Manager said we wanted to use City Updates tonight to give you a comprehensive overview of where we currently stand as a City and reaction to the COVID19. Our leadership team, Chief Audy is the Emergency Management Coordinator and myself have spent many many hours in the last week or so planning for this. See attached update. Councilor Colston is wondering how we are reaching out to our New Americans Community so that they are on top of this. The City said we have included ALVNVRP in our Winooski leadership meeting as well as faith leaders out in the community and the hopes that those folks can get to some of our residents who may not otherwise be engaged in some of our media channels. We have heavily relied on the homeschool liaison. They have been doing an exceptional job getting out messages about what is going on at the school and we asked them to include the City updates in those messages as well. VIII. Regular Items a. Approval: Appointment of Deputy Mayor – K Lott The Mayor said we will have to vote on this but I would like to retain Councilor Colston as Deputy Mayor. MOTION by Councilor Duncan seconded by Councilor Lafayette to appoint Hal Colston as Deputy Mayor. Voted and passed 3-0-1 Councilor Colston abstained. b. Approval: Mayor and Council Procedures Policy – J Baker The City Manager said this is pretty much the exact same policy you adopted last year. It is based on the model policy put out by VLCT, really codifies what we are currently doing as a governance organization, and follow our charter. I did make two updates to this document from the last procedures manual: 1- Clarifying the language that is in State Charter about one person being present for a virtual meeting. The State law is very clear that does not necessarily need to be an elected official it can be a staff person, so we changed that in this policy. 2- Section Article 12 - in last year’s policy it referred to liaison to organization structures within city government with the reconfiguration of the commission structure and now having the liaisons to the commission, I just changed that wording slightly, other than that it is the same policy that you adopted last year. Councilor Duncan noticed that the last time you made a change about where we are posting materials in Section 5 looks like the old version and section 4 looks like the new version. Could you change Section 5 subsection b to match what is in section 4 which is we will post in City Hall, Winooski School District, Winooski Library and also TD Bank and the O’Brien Community Center and that is the wording that is in section 4 subsection b. MOTION by Councilor Duncan seconded by Councilor Myers to approve the Mayor and Council Rules of Procedure with the suggested update to section 5B. Voted and pass 4-0. c. Approval: Conflict of Interest Policy – J Baker The City Manager said this is the exact same policy that you adopted last year. Again, built around the VLCT model policy. The City Manager explained what this policy does. MOTION by Councilor Colston seconded by Councilor Myers to approve the Conflict of Interest Policy as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. d. Approval: Council Schedule – J Baker The City Manager presented the Council schedule which outlines the previous agreed to Council schedule of the first and third Monday’s of the month. There are some exceptions; we are asking you to have short meeting on Thursday, June 25 to set the tax rate when the grand list is lodged. We are going down to one Council meeting in July and one in August and the one Council meeting in November because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Councilor Lafayette wanted to add the General Election in November. MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Duncan to approve the Council schedule as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. e. Approval Appointment: Library Commissioners – R Coffey Mr. Coffey said we are recommending the following slate of candidates to the Winooski Memorial Library Committee, with terms expiring as presented: • Prudence Dougherty (reappointment) (Term Expiring June 30, 2022) • Aurora Hurd (reappointment) (Term Expiring June 30, 2022) • Jessica Morley (Term Expiring June 30, 2021) • Jessica Wignall (Term Expiring June 30, 2021) Jessica Wignall zoomed in to the meeting. She said she is looking forward to it. As a member, I’m really looking forward to give back to the Community. I think the Library is such a valuable resource. I’m really excited for what it does for Winooski. MOTION by Councilor Duncan seconded by Councilor Myers to appoint the following slate of candidates to the Winooski Memorial Library Committee as presented. • Prudence Dougherty (reappointment) (Term Expiring June 30, 2022) • Aurora Hurd (reappointment) (Term Expiring June 30, 2022) • Jessica Morley (Term Expiring June 30, 2021) • Jessica Wignall (Term Expiring June 30, 2021) Voted and passed 4-0. IX. Public Hearing: Zoning change on Parking 6:30 P.M. The Mayor called the Public Hearing to order at 6:40 p.m. to discuss a proposed amend to the Unified Land Use and Development Regulations for a parking waiver. Mr. Vorwald said this is a public hearing that you scheduled from your February 18, 2020 to consider public comments on a parking waiver. This is new language that we are proposing for the Unified Land use and Development Regulations to identify an option to accommodate uses that are not currently listed in our regulations to establish what their minimum parking requirement would be but also to provide outlet for additional relief on the parking minimums beyond what is currently listed in our regulations. That process would require an applicant to go for the DRB and prepare some transportation demand management planning studies to take forward as well. This amendment outlines the process that will be going forward to the Development Review Board for that process. We have the schedule tonight for the public hearing. The Planning Commission in their discussion of this amendment before was forward to you all. They did have a lot of comment and spent some time discussing it at their meeting last week. We gave them an opportunity to spend some additional time to discuss the amendment and bring forward any comments or concerns that they had. Two items that they wanted to reiterate specifically were that the noticing of any waivers request to report to the DRB and how that would be done and making sure the adjacent property owners were properly noticed and were informed of those actions and also just general concerns of how the waiver may impact the adjacent neighborhood. Giving the current state of the environment, we have this on the agenda for a public hearing tonight but we are also recommending you to hold an additional public hearing. The date that is identified on the agenda is April 20, there is no need to do that if you want to push it back to May that is fine as well. We do not need to make that decision tonight. We have plenty of time to notice that either of those meetings. Alexander Yin, Winooski School Board Member – one of the reason why we know this is coming up and the waiver process has gone on is mainly because we need the parking. There is no parking minimum places like the school. This possesses a problem moving forward with the upcoming capital-planning project. Their encouraging us to move forward to give us an outlet for us to apply for so we can move forward on our tight schedule. I’m starting the Capital project for the school and I’m here on behalf of the school board to kind of express those concerns. If we’re going to push it on to May, it poses some construction problems. Mr. Vorwald said because you scheduled the hearing the draft language is eligible to be used. State Statute allows for a period of a 150 days from the time the elected body schedules a hearing for 150 days after that hearing is noticed. The language that is proposed can be used and it would be used if a request came forward. Therefore, the School in this case could take advantage of the parking waiver language prior to being formally adopted by the Council. Public Hearing closed at 6:45 and will bring back to Council for discussion. The Mayor said given that we have been advised by the Zoning Administrator and I think based on discussion with the Planning Commission to have another hearing on this. Councilor Duncan said I would support having a second public hearing at a time when we could have more public. Regular Items a. Approval: Development Agreement with Nedde Real Estate, LLC for the Redevelopment of Lot 7D on Abenaki Way – J Baker The City Manager gave a highlight of what’s included in these documents. The documents codify the development proposal that Nedde Real Estate put forward in response to our RFP and the language in it reflects they proposed. On a high level, this agreement includes the development of a new municipal parking garage, a hotel and office building. The development agreement allows the project to move forward with two out of three of those components. In exchange for Nedde Real Estate designing permitting and building a parking facility the City is going to buy that product from them for the 9.7 million dollars that the community bonded last year. There are a lot of provisions in the development agreement about how that will work for the sale of the upper 2 units the potential office space and hotel. The City will receive a total of $700,000.00 for those air rights. The Mayor recalls in executive session the Council was also positive that this agreement does move forward with the vision that we were talking about. Mr. Niquette said we really appreciate the attention that we were able to get from City staff over several months. It’s a great long history in the City as we know. We are really excited to move forward. MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Lafayette to authorize the City Manager to execute the Development Agreement between the City of Winooski and Nedde Real Estate, LLC for the redevelopment of Lot 7D on Abenaki Way as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. b. Approval: ACT250 Amendment Process for the Redevelopment of Lot 7D – J Baker The City Manager said this procedure is different because we are the property owners. It is our application that is going in. In the interest of the time line that has been established between the City and Developer we are very eager to get into permitting quickly and understand what issues might arise as part of that process, before designs and plans are finalized. The request before you tonight it’s to authorize the City Manager to sign the ACT250 application on behalf of the project and as the property owner, with the understanding that the Council still holds and retains the right to have a final review of the design and aesthetics for the project as a whole before permitting is finalized. MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Lafayette to authorize the City Manager to sign an ACT250 application on behalf of the City with the understanding that the Council retains the right to approve the final design and building aesthetics before permitting is finalized as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. c. Discussion: Main Street Revitalization Update – J Rauscher Mr. Rauscher said this is a brief update on the Main Street Revitalization Project. This is a high-level view of the project. See attached marked Main Street Revitalization – Project Update. Councilor Myers asked if we thought about the residents and businesses that are going to be displaced. Do we have a plan in place? Mr. Rauscher said we did an initial outreach but it was way too early to get that feedback. When we get into the construction phase that when we will reach out to the residents and businesses. Councilor Duncan asked if the CCRPC grant that you put in for does it still align with this schedule if it is supported through that parking study. Mr. Rauscher said the UPWP grant that Eric is working on that would be a July start, and that would fit in nicely with the 90% documents. We won’t know the full scope of the parking study will look like and we will have preliminary data. Mr. Rauscher also presented the General Fund MSR Deb –Revenue Model. Mr. Rauscher said the financial model is getting less complicated and price tag is usually coming down. The numbers will change until we get actual bid documents. d. Discussion: Transportation Impact Fee Presentation – J Rauscher This item is tabled until April 20, 2020 e. Approval: Grant Approval: BUILD Grant for Main Street – J Rauscher Mr. Rauscher said we have previously submitted the Main Street Revitalization project as candidate for this funding in 2018 and 2019. The applicable scope of Main Street Project is general fund surface transportation and utility undergrounding. (Approximately 12 million) The application deadline is May 18, 2020. MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Duncan to approve the BUILD Grant as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. f. Approval: Job Description: Pool Attendant – R Coffey Mr. Coffey said with the opening of the newly renovated Myers Memorial Pool schedule for June 14, 2020, we are beginning the hiring process for seasonal staff to support operations at the Pool. This includes the addition of 3-4 pool Attendant positions, which will be new staff positions within the City. The positions will report to the Recreation and Parks Manager, and will work in concert with other community Services staff to ensure the smooth operations of the Myers Pool this summer. The proposed pay rate for the position ($17.60/hr) was approved by the Council as part of the FY21 budget process. This rate was developed based on a review against our recently adopted grading scale for regular, non-union positions in the City. Given that these are seasonal positions, we are approaching the hiring process with flexibility to hire 3-4 staff dependent on availability of hours, but expect the total weekly hours for any one employee will not exceed 40. MOTION by Councilor Colston seconded by Councilor Myers to approve the Pool Attendant – Position Description as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. g. Discussion: St. Stephen’s Lease – R Coffey Mr. Coffey said he has been working with Mike O’Brien concerning the lease documents so long as the final versions thereof remain in substantial conformity with the documents received. The City Manager is hereby authorized to negotiate ministerial and non-substantive changes to the documents and when complete to execute them on behalf of the City. The following adjustments were made to the lease: • Cleaned up language related to the sale or removal of the Senior Center building at the termination of the lease. • Change language to allow the City to conduct interior renovations/improvements to the building without prior approval from the diocese. • Changed language to allow the City to rent the building (for no more than two consecutive days) to third parties without prior written consent from the Diocese. The two day maximum was included to address concerns the Parish council had about the impact on parking should a longer tern rental agreement occur.  • This lease update codifies a “handshake” agreement that had been made in relation to line-striping and paving of the parking lot serving the Senior Center/St. Stephens, whereby the City will include line striping and re-paving of the lot in its normal road maintenance program (as necessary) but that the cost of said activates would be paid for by the Diocese at the City’s cost. X Adjourn. MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Duncan to adjourn City Council meeting at 7:20 p.m. Voted and passed 4-0. ATTEST: __________________________ City Clerk