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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDowntown Development Authority - Minutes - 07/10/2008MINUTES of July 10, 2008 REGULAR MEETING The Board of Directors of the Downtown Development Authority met in Regular Session at 7:30 a.m. on July 10, 2008 at Home State Bank located at 303 East Mountain Avenue, Fort Collins, CO 80524. PRESENT George Brelig; McCabe Callahan; Kim Jordan; Ryan Keiffer; Kelly Ohlson; William Sears; Patty Spencer; Steve Taylor; Jack Wolfe; Ellen Zibell STAFF Matt Robenalt, Project Manager; Joanna Stone, Administrative Assistant; Carol Bennis, Beet Street, Executive Director; Kathy Cardona, Financial Coordinator; Lucia Liley, Legal Counsel GUESTS INCLUDED Darin Atteberry, City Manager; Blue Hovatter: Chuck Seest, City Finance Director; Jean Lamm & Kari Munson, Beet Street; Rich Shannon, Pinnacle Consulting Group; Cari Merrill, Coloradoan; Clark Mapes, City Planning; Terence Hoagland, Landmark Preservation; Doug Johnson, UniverCity; Judy Dorsey, The Brendle Group CALL TO ORDER Mr. Wolfe called the meeting to order at 7:30 a.m. Roll call was taken. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mr. Taylor moved to approve the minutes of June 5, 2008 as amended. Seconded by Mr. Keiffer, and passed unanimously. BIG IDEAS Rich Shannon of Pinnacle Consulting Group presented progress of discussions with property owners regarding a river district master plan. So far 75% of the property owners in the area have been visited to gauge interest and the project has had mostly positive responses. Mr. Shannon sees this as a great opportunity for a public/private partnership. DDA staff will meet with Mr. Shannon and Mr. Hendee of BHA Design at the end of July for further discussion. BEET STREET Carol Bennis reviewed current programming for the Jazz Experience, Peace Corps Reunion and upcoming speakers for Science Cafe. Beet Street will announce new season programming around Labor Day. She also announced the Beet Street all day board retreat scheduled for July 14'. The goal of the retreat is to discuss governance and the Board's role. Ms. Bennis announced that Kari Munson has joined Beet Street as office manager and it currently on a temp -to -hire arrangement. DDA Minutes July 10, 2008 Page 2 CONSENT AGENDA Two employee issues were on the consent agenda: 1. Recommendation to renew Jean Lamm's contract as Director of Development for Beet Street; 2. Amend DDA/Beet Street staff contracts to reflect new vacation policy. Moved by Ms. Jordan, seconded by Mr. Sears: To approve the consent agenda as presented. The motion passed unanimously. WAYFINDING PROGRAM UPDATE City retained the design firm Nuszer Kopatz to create a downtown wayfinding plan. Advance Planning staff and the consultants are soliciting reaction to the preliminary designs and direction, which will soon be presented to City Council. Clark Mapes of the City presented the designs, noting that this project has been on the agenda for a long time and was included in the 2004 strategic plan. In response to Mr. Wolfe's question about who will pay for the project, Mr. Mapes noted that Advanced Planning paid for the design phase. He hopes that funds for implementation will come from a variety of sources, possibly including the DDA, GID, transportation grant funding, and the traffic department. Ms. Jordan noted the possibility of the use of signs in the public education piece for LEED certifications. Mr. Robenalt added the opportunity to integrate with the green building criteria. Mr. Atteberry described the current study as the master plan, to be followed by an implementation plan. Blue Hovatter commented that he hoped the City would take the opportunity to review all signs downtown. GREEN BUILDING PROGRAM Since a green building program was proposed in February, the project team has worked on simplifying the program. The basic mechanics of the proposed program are, when used in conjunction with either traditional tax increment commitment or a fagade grant commitment; a building owner may apply for a green building grant in two ways. If they are seeking LEED certification, the request can be for up to $50,000 for Gold certification and the purchase or installation of specific green elements as part of that certification or, up to $25,000 for LEED Silver certification if Gold is not achieved. If the owner is not seeking LEED certification, the request can be for up to $50,000 for the purchase and installation of renewable energy technologies. DDA legal counsel, in answer to earlier legal questions, has determined that a higher DDA investment in facade improvements equal to the cost of LEED certification and green technologies, and a longer fagade easement term is the appropriate method for ensuring a strong connection to the benefit nexus and staying compliant with the DDA statute. Staff recommended Board approval of $500,000 to fund the Green Building Grant Program. Judy Dorsey of the Brendle Group was available to answer questions. She noted that these criteria tie to the City's Integrated Design Assistance Program, Lucia Liley reminded the Board that the grant still cannot exceed that value of the easement, which is the DDA legal connection to the building. It was requested that there be further discussion of various scenarios at the annual Board retreat. Board members expressed approval of the changes made since the original proposal and felt the criteria were more measurable. Board discussed the second part of the proposal which funds renewable energy technology. Acknowledging that green building means more than just energy, it was noted that this provision would probably mainly be used in historic buildings or for pioneers who are not seeking LEED but are implementing other green building practices. Ms. Jordan noted that in the quest to curb greenhouse gasses, renewable energy is high on the list and, as in the example of her building, LEED does not work well for all building types. Moved by Mr. Keiffer, seconded by Ms. Jordan: To approve the green building program as presented in the amount of $500,000 with the understanding that there may be procedural and administrative issues to amend at a later date, The motion passed unanimously. DDA Minutes July 10, 2008 Page 3 DDA EXTENSION RESOLUTION 2008-06 This resolution provides a Board recommendation to City Council to adopt an ordinance to extend by 20 years the period which tax increment revenues can be collected pursuant to the DDA statute amendment signed into law in May 2008. Upon approval of the resolution and adoption of a Council ordinance, the DDA can then enter into formal discussion with the County, school district and other public bodies for a negotiated allocation and distribution of TIF revenues above the 50% allocation provided for in the amended law. This will probably be on the August 19`" City Council agenda. Board members urged staff to get out information that easily explains the rollback and tie that in with financial projections. Moved by Mr. Taylor, seconded by Ms. Spencer: To recommend adoption of Resolution 2008-06. The motion passed unanimously. RE -APPROPRIATION RESOLUTION 2008-07 Resolution 2008-07 recommends City Council re -appropriation of 2004 and 2007 bond proceeds for the purchase of the Elks building. Projects with existing funding commitments, which are not expected to seek reimbursement in the next several months, were identified by staff when aligning funds for this re - appropriation. Staff anticipates issuance of 2008 bonds in late September, and at that time projects with existing commitments will be re -funded with new bond proceeds. The re -appropriation ordinance was presented to City Council for first reading on July ls` and passed unanimously. Approval by the Board on this item will be documented and submitted to City Council at their second reading of the ordinance on July 15`". Board discussed the timing of the issue and process regarding issues that go before council. It was noted that the work session on the hotel had been pulled from the April City Council agenda, however the process should be reviewed in anticipation of more projects like this. Moved by Ms. Jordan, seconded by Mr. Keiffer: To recommend adoption of Resolution 2008-07. The motion passed unanimously. 2008 BOND RESOLUTION DISCUSSION (Note: Mr. Wolfe left the meeting after the introduction of this discussion and Ms. Spencer took over as Chair for the remainder of the meeting) With the amendment to the enabling stature, the DDA is now able to request an extension of original TIF term for an additional twenty years. Staff is recommending issuance of $68.2 million in tax increment bond projects to finance long anticipated community and public -private projects. Staff targeted the end of September 2008 as the preferred date to issue bonds for several reasons: the anticipated year-end completion of the alley master plan; the Beet Street Amphitheater site selection/feasibility study and preliminary design; and, the adoption of the downtown hotel finance agreement. These three projects with approved project commitments comprise more than 80% of the proposed bond amount. Other projects are the community market, Elks purchase, Penny Flats, Beet Street funding, museum, streetscape improvements, solar village, Fort ZED, railroad quiet zone study, One Library Park, 215 North College Avenue, administrative and miscellaneous expenses. Mr. Robenalt introduced the discussion, commenting that the Board could choose to act on the information and make a recommendation to Council or, consider the information and provide feedback at the August meeting and consider the bond at that time. The Board discussed whether the bond should be issued all at once, given the large amount involved. It was suggested that this be taken to the Council work session on the hotel and amphitheater as a heads up. Mr. Atteberry felt that he would like time to discuss the issue with DDA staff and City Finance staff on how best to advise Council on the issue. It was decided to re -address the issue at the next board meeting and see if there were any revisions after the Council work session. DDA Minutes July 10, 2008 Page 4 OTHER BUSINESS Billboards: In response to a question about the removal of the billboard frames over the buildings, Mr. Robenalt explained that they would be removed when the crane was in place for construction at 215 North College Avenue. Velodrome: At this time there are no plans for building a velodrome. UPDATES Sales Tax: Chuck Seest passed out the latest sales tax figures. June collections for May sales were up 7.4% for the month and 4.4% for the year in the DDA footprint. This compares with City wide figures of 2.2 % for May and 1.2% year-to-date. Mr. Ohlson requested figures with the Wal-Mart area taken out of the total. EXECUTIVE SESSION Moved by Mr. Taylor, seconded by Mr. Keiffer: To move to Executive Session to discuss real estate issues. This Executive Session for the purpose stated is authorized pursuant to CRS 24-6-402 (4) (1) (1). The motion passed unanimously. Moved by Mr. Taylor, seconded by Mr. Keiffer: To move from Executive Session back to Regular Session. The motion passed unanimously. Moved by Ms. Jordan, seconded by Mr. Taylor: To authorize staff and counsel to negotiate an easement for three parking places for the property owned by Tricia Diehl and to negotiate with the owners of the Elks Building for hazardous materials abatement. The motion passed unanimously. ADJOURN There being no further business the meeting adjourned at 9:30 a.m.