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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-07-10~~E IDIAN~-- CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING AGENDA Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at 3:00 PM 1. Roll-Call Attendance X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird X Mayor Tammy de Weerd 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Adoption of the Agenda Adopted 4. Consent Agenda Approved Pages 1-2 A. Approval of Fiber Optic License Agreement with the Ada County Highway District for the Split Corridor Phase 2 Project B. Approval of Task Order 10340 for Professional Design Services for "Water Treatment Equipment Specification and Design of New Iron and Manganese Removal Treatment Facility" to CH2M HILL Engineers, Inc. for aNot-To-Exceed Amount of $272,000.00 C. Approval of Award of Bid and Agreement for Independent Contractor Services for "Well 10B Pumping Facilities Construction" to Star Construction, LLC. for the Not-To- Exceed amount of $448,186.00 D. Approval of a Budget Amendment for Contract Legal Services 5. Items Moved From Consent Agenda None 6. Department Reports A. Legal/HR/IT Department: Budget Amendment for Personal Wellness Profile Screenings Approved Pages 3-4 B. Community Development and Legal Departments: Downtown Right-of-Way Encroachments, Amenities and Streetscape Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, July 10, 2012 Page 1 of 2 All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian. Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing, please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting. Improvements -Draft Allowances and Standards for Sidewalk Cafes and Other Uses on Downtown Sidewalks Pages 4-12 C. Community Development: Budget Amendment for Mobile PC's for Contract Inspectors for a Not-to-Exceed Amount of $14,750.00 Approved Pages 13-15 D. Mayor's Office: Idaho Public Utilities Commission (IPUC) Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) Letter Discussion Pages 16-17 7. Future Meeting Topics Adjourned at 3:46 p.m. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, July 10, 2012 Page 2 of 2 All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian. Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing, please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting. Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday, July 10, 2012, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, David Zaremba, Keith Bird, Brad Hoaglun and Charlie Rountree. Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Bruce Chatterton, Caleb Hood, Emily Kane, Scott Colaiani, Pete Friedman, Mark Niemeyer, Steve Siddoway, Warren Stewart, and Dean Willis. Item 1: Roll-call Attendance: Roll call. X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird X Mayor Tammy de Weerd De Weerd: Okay. I will go ahead and call this meeting to order. For the record it is Tuesday, July 10th. It's 3:00 o'clock. We will start today's City Council Workshop with roll call attendance. Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance De Weerd: Item No. 2 is our Pledge of Allegiance. If you will al( join us in our pledge to the flag. (Pledge of Allegiance recited.) Item No. Z: Adoption of the Agenda De Weerd: Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda. Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun. Hoaglun: There are no changes on the workshop agenda, so I move approval -- I move adoption of the agenda as printed. Bird: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as printed. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 Page 2 of 18 Item 4: Consent Agenda A. Approval of Fiber Optic License Agreement with the Ada County Highway District for the Split Corridor Phase 2 Project B. Approval of Task Order 10340 for Professional Design Services fior "Water Treatment Equipment Specification and Design of New Iron and Manganese Removal Treatment Facility" to CH2M HILL Engineers, Inc. fior aNot-To-Exceed Amount of $272,000.00 C. Approval of Award of Bid and Agreement for Independent Contractor Services for "Well 10B Pumping Facilities Construction" to Star Construction, LLC. for the Not-To- Exceed amount of $448,186.00 D. Approval of a Budget Amendment for Contract Legal Services De Weerd: Item 4 is our Consent Agenda. Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun. Hoaglun: I move approval of the Consent Agenda and the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest. Bird: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Madam Clerk, will you, please, call roll. Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea. De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 5: Items Moved From Consent Agenda De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda. Item 6: Department Reports Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 Page 3 of 18 A. LegaUHR/IT Department: Budget Amendment for Personal Wellness Profile Screenings De Weerd: So, we will move to Item No. 6 under Department Reports and Item 6-A is our Legal Department. Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. The budget amendment in front of you is far the wellness profile screenings that we did in the fall and we had a few that we caught up in the spring. Last -- in the prior fiscal year we only paid for a portion of fihe cost of these wellness screenings and we had a very big drop off, so -- let me back up. Twa years ago we paid all of it. A year ago we paid a portion. This year the wellness committee recommended that we pay aportion -- pay the full cost of the screenings, so we would get greater participation of the employees and we did. We had over 150 employees participate in the screening process. But because we did it after the budget had been set for the wellness committee for the year, that impacts our bottom line on how much we can provide for any other type of programming. We have a contract as you all recall with St. Luke's to help us program different activities and events to track all the point system and everything else. That contract is about 14,000 dollars a year. We also sponsor classes and we pay a portion of the cost to defray a little bit of the cost to the employees and that costs us about 6,000 dollars a year or so and, then, we have incidental costs to some of the programming of the events. This 5,000 dollars basically impacts our ability to cover any of the other types of programming costs like the classes and the different activities that we do and so you may recall I did bring that up before and said we are going to do this this year, we are going to ask for that, but next year we are going to change the way the program is structured, so we won't be asking for it in another fiscal year. So, we didn't ask for a change to the wellness funding or to this one, but this one year we did ask -- we are asking to have it put back into our wellness account so we can complete the year with the rest of the program that we have. De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Nary. Any questions from Council? Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Hoaglun: What was that amount for the total bill? Nary: I think 5,250 dollars. Hoaglun: Thank you. Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun. Meridian City Council Workshop July 90, 2072 Page 4 of 18 Hoaglun: I would move approval of the budget amendment far persona{ wellness profile screenings in the amount not to exceed 5,250 dollars. Bird: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, will you, please, call roll. Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea. De Weerd: All eyes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. B. Community Development and Legal Departments: Downtown Right-of-Way Encroachments, Amenities and Streetscape Improvements -Draft Allowances and Standards for Sidewalk Cafes and Other Uses on Downtown Sidewalks De Weerd: Item 6-B I believe is who? Oh. Caleb. Caleb or Emily or -- Zaremba: Tag team. De Weerd: If's a tag team. Not Pete. Hood: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, you get bath of us today and, actually, there are others that have been involved, but we drew the short straws and we will be presenting to you today. De Weerd: Yeah. We saw them push you forward. Hood: This item we have actually talked about before. It was actually last November that we were here in a workshop setting and talked about some drafit right of way encroachment standards and processes and 1 took some of that direction and are ready to update you with a plan of attack. I just mentioned that there are others that have been working on this. The who in this are on the screen. This is actually taking place in our ongoing work group, the streetscape and community character working group, which was originally established about two years ago essentially just to make sure that our needs are met by the transportation agencies. We have dealt with things like the cost share issues, maybe some things that aren't covered in impact fees. We just do it -- use it as kind of a coordination meeting internally as well. So, that's sort of what's been going on. This group meets every other week. The last few monfihs we really have been focusing on what we are here to talk to you about today and that's right of way encroachments in downtown. As you can see in this slide we are -- we have developed some strategies and processes that we would like to share with you today to regulate those encroachments. Currently ACRD has authority on the right of way Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 Page 5 of 18 downtown and we have been working to establish standards, regulations, and a process to allow those businesses and the public to better utilize fihe walking areas and the improvements that happen in that realm. Moving onto the next slide here. So, this -- what we are going to talk about today is focused in the downtown core and we use that term within the documents that we have drafted thus far. It's -- visually you can see it goes north of Ada Street up to Carlton and, then, east to west from Meridian Road over to East 3rd. So, that is the geographic area we are talking about, the downtown area. The other exhibit on this slide shows the realms. And this is pretty important as we use some of the terms that are both in the draft code and in the lingo that we will probably speak of today a little bit. I would just call your attention to a couple of things at this point I think. The use zone, which is really amenities focused -- and when we say amenities there is a list there of, you know, tables, chairs, planters, those type of things -- and the street furnishings zone are the two main zones that you will -- that we will be referring to. There is other exhibits that will do a better job than me painting on the slide, but the street furnishing zone is a more permanent thing. Street lights, those types of things. And, then, of course, your clear .zone. VVe need to maintain a pedestrian zone. So, those are really the three zones and if you can kind of get those -- understand those I think you will be able to track this as we talk about this today, so -- 1'm going to pass the mike to Emily at this point. Kane: Okay. You want to trade spots? Okay. For the record, I'm Deputy City Attorney Emily Kane in the Legal Department. There are two --- we have kind of a two phased approach for this -- for assuming authority from Ada County in regulating encroachments on the sidewalk downtown. The linchpin is that we need to first assume the licensing authority and we will do that by agreement with the Ada County Highway District. ACHD does have a similar agreement in place with the city of Boise, so that can serve as a realty close template to what we are interested in doing, So, our work is nearly complete, it's just a matter of tweaking it to fit our specific needs and negotiate some of that with Ada County. My guess is that that will be complete by the end of the month. We are working to get it done as quickly as possible now that we do have a plan in place, but we are not quite there yet. However, you will see that, hopefully, in the next few weeks. In the short term once that licensing agreement is in place we would like to recommend that we allow and regulate encroachments in the use zone through our temporary use process. We have a temporary use permit available for promotional sales unit, which is typically a sidewalk sale or an extension of the business into -- usually their parking lot, but in this case we could extend that business use into the sidewalk. This TUP would be good for 160 days. So, that would carry through the summer season. Any service of alcohol will still require modification of the license to serve alcohol. A liquor catering permit would be available, but that's, of course, three days, so that is truly a temporary use. But it's certainly an option. And, then, other uses of the streetscape would happen through a sub license with the city and that would be a derivative of our license agreement with ACRD. So, again, in the short term we would sub license everything except for promotional sales units in the use zone, so a TUP would be available for that limited use. And, then, everything else would require a sub license with the city. So, any other encroachment. A planter, a -- and I guess in -- well, I will talk more about that later, but more -- other improvements or encroachments on Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 Page 6 of 18 the sidewalk will require a city sub license. And, then, always there is a clear zone requirement that pedestrians and wheelchairs and people just generally will be able to use the sidewalk to walk, of course, with a five foot area. Okay. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: On the liquor catering or permit or whatever, the license actually is just fior the premises, isn't it? I mean for the legal description of the building. So, can you change the license to allow it to go outside of the premises? Kane: It's my understanding -- excuse me. It's my understanding that, yes, you could. Bird: Okay. Kane: That as long as the business owner has the authority to expand the service area that would be okay. So, in some cases the business owner or the service area is not owned by the licensee necessarily, they might be a tenant in that building, so in this case they would extend and be a licensee as to part of the premises. So, it`s really a matter of ownership of the premises. Bird: Fallow up. Emily, on the exterior, if you add alcohol out fihere, would that have to be -- have a fence or something around it, so that half a block up the street you don't have open containers or something like that? Is that -- would it have to be enclosed, the area outside? Kane: Yes, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Bird, yes, the city would have the ability to place those kinds of stipulations on the expansion of the license and also through the TUP process that could be a condition of the temporary use permit. Bird: Okay. Kane: So, there are -- I think in some cases it would need to be customized to fit that particular property, particularly since downtown there is -- there is same sidewalks that are very skinny and some that are wide enough to accommodate tables and chairs, planters, and a fence. in some cases that might not be available. Bird: Okay. Kane: An available option. However, to delineate fihe service area from the rest of the sidewalk I think is certainly reasonable and that could be a stipulation of the permit. Bird: Thank you, Emily Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 Page 7 of 18 Kane: Thanks. Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Question for Emily and -- I was just curious about 160 days versus 180 days, which is six months. I mean some spring they could be open mid-April and go unfil mid-October and that's six months. I was just curious about the 20 day difference. Kane: Uh-huh. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Hoaglun, the -- as you know, every temporary use permit has its own temporal limit and this was the limit was established for promotional sales units and why 160 and not 180 I guess I couldn't tell you, but certainly it's for calendar year, so you could use 160 days per business for 2012 and, then, the clock stacks again in 2013. So, if necessary, you could do another promotional sales unit in 2013. Hoaglun: Okay. My other question -- and this might be more for Caleb. Because walking -- with my office downtown Boise and I run into these things walking down 9th Street and that is some people put out sandwich boards, so they get a permit, they want to advertise, that has to be out of the clear zone I would assume and we would make sure that's done, because it gets really tight when you have the fenced off area where they can serve alcohol and, then, you have got the tree and the tree well and, then, they throw and sandwich board out there and throw a dog and a biker in there as well and it gets chaotic, so -- Kane: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Hoaglun, yes, 1 think that the signs -- under the temporary use permit signs are allowed. I don't actually remember how many signs, but certainly it was -- that can be another condition of the temporary use permit. But the location of the sign, the number of the sign, or maybe no signs would be allowed understand the TUP. We -- in the long term, which Caleb will speak to you, in a moment, the streetscape encroachment certificate would not necessarily entitle -- or rather would not entitle that certificate holder to any additional signs -- temporary signs or limited duration signs would still be under the sign -- would still require a separate sign permit. We struggled with this a little bit as to -- for example, an umbrella that might say the name of the business or might have an advertisement for a Coke or a beer or something that is technically a sign, because it contains text. So, we have kind of been around the block on that issue, but the -- the main thing is that we are not trying to let signs proliferate under the streetscape encroachment certificate or the TUP for promotional sales. Hoaglun: Yeah. Madam Mayor and Emily. I don"t mind if they have a sign and they go through the process, get the sign, I just want to make sure it's not in the clear zone trying to divert your attention, it's got to be off, because we do need that access for people, so -- Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 Page 8 of 18 Kane: Yes. And certainly the clear zone is an overlay regardless of what else is going on. De Weerd: Any other questions? Rountree: I have none. Hood: So, maybe before I jump into some of the long term things, 1 think some of this discussion -- I just want to be clear. This is phase one. The short term -- 160 days we fully plan -- hopefully with Council's blessing here in the next couple of months -- to have along-term solution to this. The TUP would just be for the season. !t's something that we can kick off right away, we don't envision needing '160 or 180 days, we should have something on the books here in the near future. The 160 is already on the books for the TUP ordinance. Same with barriers or fencing for eateries and bars. We will -- we are looking to require barriers for those businesses as they want to expand here. So, that is one of the standards that we will ask for your comments on. We do have a 36 inch barrier requirement, so you can delineate where food and beverages being served and consumed versus the public realm. So, this next three months we can piece something together real quick and we can condition those individually, but there will be a standard, hopefully, in the next three or four months that just requires that for signs, for barriers, for different things. A clear zone even that will be very black and white and say you can and can't do this. So, onto the long-term plan, which we just don't have all the ducks in a row yet to come straight away with -- with code, but are working on it. That is in your memo for today, so, hopefully, you have had a chance to look at some of -- of that -- that memo, which included the master license agreement that ACRD and Boise have on the books currently. It was just amended here I think last week or the week before to allow same valet parking as well. But it will be modeled after that. And, then, the second part of that is a draft. We are still working on it, but -- and we put together some code for Title 8. That's where we envision this going longer term, which Title 8 is -- be some work anyway. So, we thought this could be a good place to start with Title 8. So, again, we will regulate -- and I'm going to go back to the use zone on the street furnishing zone. So, the use zone area or the areas near the buildings -- really, if you can think of those -- that area as amenities, you would need an encroachment certificate through the planning department and city code would apply to the standards. So, how you can use that area on an interim basis. So, that's one zone. And, then, the street furnishing zone -- so, again, near the curb are more permanent -- meant for more permanent improvements. It would require a sublicense with the city. You wouldn't need the encroachment certificate, it's just a sub license, so we can insure that the way that those improvements are going in meet the city standard and specifications. So, if you are putting in trees you got the right grates, the right type of tree, and that's primarily through legal now. Parks will be urging that to make sure that the trees are proofed for type and whatnot. That's really the two -- all in the same public realm, the processes. The use zone and your street furnishing zone. And that's sort of how we have tackled it and what our proposal is to you today that -- to discuss a little bit and, then, what will came back to you on the near future with, hopefully, same preliminary discussion and adoption. This really just illustrates what I tried to tell you Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 Page S of 18 and you have seen this diagram now a few times. Your use zone with your movable amenities, again, you would require the streetscape encroachment certificate, a clear zone, and a street furnishing zone. So, here is our -- our timeline. And, Emily, you want to run through the first couple things here. Kane: Okay. The -- again, the first step is to execute the license agreement with ACHD. I'd like to get that done by the end of the month. And the very next day we can start accepting applications for TUPs for promotional sales units in the use zone. We would, then, approve the amenities encroachments and the TUP process. And to be clear, this can happen now, it's just that ACRD, as the license authority, has control over encroachments on the sidewalk. So, this is intended to be a streamlining of that process and, frankly, it may be less expensive for downtown business owners. Hood: And what we wanted to -- what I will highlight next on this is the stakeholder outreach. We would like to get the word out there, talk with some business owners downtown that we know have some interest in this or just generally like to be involved with these types of things. We have I think about four or five names at this paint, but if there is others in particular you want us to contact I think we were talking about Rick's, Steve at the smoke shop next door. The bike -- the bike shop and Molly with Corkscrew were kind of the few that we were going to make individual contact, because there has been -- we know of some interest on those parts and maybe try to work a couple of more business owners into the mix, have them look at the draft standards, but astory -- work with Frank on doing a story in the Valley Times, if not a notice in the Valley Times, and, then, the city website, we'd really like to use that to -- to reach those others that haven't seen some of our other media and invite them to a little mini work session here at City Hall. Hopefully we will get same attendance and run through this with the business owners and kind of explain how this can work and what some of the draft standards are. So, that's our -- our vision for moving forward and, then, come back to Council, obviously. I know you have been sitting there for all day, so I don't want to take too much time, but I do want to -- if you don't mind, just spend a couple minutes turning the pages of the draft Title 8 and see maybe if we are on the right track. We took, you know, some of your comments last time we talked about, you know, the quality of furniture, should we regulate that it needs to be of a quality material that won't blow away or -- you know, those types of things. So, we have really scaled that back and we are really focused in on draft Title 8 and in the standards that you don't see yet and that's one of the reasons why we are not ready to go to the long term plan today is we are still working on bringing together city wide standards for street lights and tree grates and all that and cleaning up some of the streetscape standards that we currently have. I just want to spend a couple of minutes going through this to make sure we are on the right track and you're familiar with at least the way we regulate the use zone if you don't mind. So, I'm going to start on page six, which is, again, related to the streetscape encroachment certificate. And just point out that we -- one of the things that we will talk about here is an application -- we need to develop and application -- this is a new application, we haven't developed that or a checklist. We have some things that we would like fio see with the site plan and whatnot, and, then, a fee schedule. So, we need to -- we need to come up with some proposal for those couple of things and have Meridian City Council workshop July 10, 2092 Page 10 of 18 those ready to roll as we adopt this process. We envision also for the -- I'm turning to page seven of thirteen in the packet. As a term of the certificate we envision these being valid for one year, with a renewable every year. That could change, but that seems to be standard practice for most other cities that have a similar ordinance, it's renewable annually, but, then, if you get a problem child you don't have to renew it or if they are not in compliance you wouldn't have to renew that. But -- and we weren't -- we weren't thinking about with these having it be a -- a revenue generator, we weren't planning on charging them, but for maybe an application fee for our time to process and review their site plan and issue the permit. We weren't looking at providing them like a square foot, you know, cost or whatever. But that is certainly -- that varies. Boise city does. Some other agencies do charge far that -- that use zone and if that's the direction, then, we can go that way, but we aren't planning at this point to -- to charge any ongoing or rental lease fee if you will. Flipping the page to page eight, the allowed use on amenities, they are listed there. I'm not going to read them all for you, but they are the things like tables and chairs and the fencing or barriers are what are envisioned there. And we will probably add some additional outdoor dining requirements. Again, we are focusing primarily on safety here. We are a clear zone with safety, so we are not -- we are not creating a safety hazard for motorists or pedestrians or anybody else using this public realm as our overarching goal. The prohibited encroachments, then, is in Section D. Again, I'm not going to run through all those, If you have any comments on any of this, though, please stop me at any time. Again, we haven't -- we haven't set up the processing fee or application for this inner -- or not interagency, but the agreement for the streetscape improvements, but we will do that -- get that put together and bring that back to you as well in the near future. Hoaglun: Madam Mayor and Caleb? I did have a question on page 11. It was -- when i read it I didn't understand. Make sure I find it here. Or was it on ten? It said that anything placed in the -- oh, item seven. All encroachments placed in the street furnishing zone under a streetscape sub license shall become the property of the City of Meridian upon expiration of the streetscape sub license. In -- can you explain that? 1 mean it's not like, okay, they put their tables and chairs out there and, then, the season's over and they happen to leave them there, I was thinking, oh, do we own those now? I don't think that was the case. Hood: I will let Emily explain some of that, but remember what zone we are in here. We are in the streetscape zone, we are not in the use zone anymore. Hoaglun: Okay. Hood: So, this is related to the more permanent improvements that are being made. I think we need to have some internal discussion about the one year expiration and renewal. Once somebody improves a streetscape we have agreed to maintain that. I don't think it needs to be renewed annually, but this would be for more permanent improvements that are of general benefit to the overall community. Emily may have to explain a little bit more why it's worded as such, but we are in that improvement realm. Meridian City Council Workshop Juiy 10, 2012 Page 11 of 18 Kane: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, Councilman Hoaglun, so the -- Caleb is right, it goes by the zone. So, the -- the blue zone, the use zone is for amenities, that's the streetscape encroachment certificate, so it's more of a permit and we wouldn't take the personal property that people put out there, as people are required to remove their amenities when their certificate expires, but that is always -- that always belongs to somebody else. Improvements that are put in the green area in the street furnishing zone, pursuant to a sub license agreement, would be governed by that agreement and, typically, it's things like street lights and trees and bike racks, benches, and garbage cans and things tha# we don't want people to take with them when they -- when their license expires. It's a fixture that becomes part of the streetscape. So, it's kind of two different concepts. One is for the outdoor dining situation and one is for the beautification of the street and putting in stuff that will stay there. Hoaglun: That helps. Okay. Kane: There are two sections here and I think you -- you skip to the next one Hoaglun: Yeah. Thank you. Hood: And just to clarify, there are a few things that are allowed in the street furnishing zone that aren't permanent amenities and those are also called out on page 12. Newspaper stands, for instance, are an amenity that we would allow in the street furnishing zone, but, again, that's sort of the exception of the rule. We allow very few encroachments in that realm that aren't a permanent fixture, so -- Caleb: And, then, we have got a small penalty encroachment -- or enforcement section there, too, so it's very legal in its form and I wanted to just run through with you real quick and see if you have any comments at this point, but, again, we took your direction from late last fall and think we have captured the spirit of that discussion and I would stand for any questions at this point. De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: Madam Mayor. Caleb, I'm not -- I know what you're trying to accomplish and it -- specific to the public right of way, but when 1 look at the definitions of the city core and look at your map, is that too exclusive? Could it be broader? I mean I can see maybe potentials on Main Street further north where somebody might want to use the public right of way, assuming we know where it is. 1 guess there is -- the function that's behind the -- it's the back side of the sidewalk. But it might actually go into some of the front yards there that people might want to use and it's almost all commercial anymore and the same thing -- we have extended it down Meridian Road to Carlton and for those two blocks north of the City Hali -- or north of State Street there are converted residential or apartments, so it's covered there, so do we have to say it's got to be with this -- I can think of places that are not in the downtown core where this might be applicable where the commercial buildings are very close, if not abutting the back of Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 Page 12 of 18 sidewalk and they might want to use it. So, I just throw that out. Is there a down side to making this more flexible? Bird: Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, I think -- I don't know if there is a down side. We would certainly have to look at what we have written and kind of modify it if that's where we want fio start. The geographic area that's here matches the adopted streetscape standards that we have right now for downtown. So, that's why just -- we just kept it where we have north, south and east, west cross-sections, that's right where we thought we would start. But certainly we can make it city wide if that's what we want to do. The problem is we are going to have to have multiple sections, because this cross-section with a minimum 13 foot from curb to building face isn't typical for anywhere else in downtown -- ar in town. So, we would have to come up with some other standards if you want to -- if you have an extra wide sidewalk. We will need five. You have two there, you could use it, you can't do a lot typically in two. If somebody wanted to improve it with street trees we could certainly look at allowing folks to use a five or seven foot wide sidewalk. The problem is going to be the ADA and that clear zone stuff. But, yeah, we could establish the -- whatever you want, it's just having that cross-section is really only envisioned in the core with your street trees. Rountree: Right. With that. Caleb: Right. Rountree: I'm thinking just the concept of that way we have control to some degree of what people might want to do in that right of way zone no matter where it is. And ACRD has opted that as long as we meet certain requirements it's okay. Caleb: And, again, !think -- Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, I think we can expand this over time. I would want to look at blocks or neighborhoods before we just paint that broad brush and say anywhere you can do this, because (just -- f think it would be almost impossible. It looks like you could do it somewhere, but it really would make it Hearty impossible or having a clear zone and some use area would be difficult. But, yeah, again, i think in concept we could -- we could do that if that's the direction. De Weerd: Anything further from Council? Bird: I have nothing, Mayor. Have you covered everything? Caleb: Okay. Thank you. We will be back with the standards and any other comments we hear here in the -- go over the timeline real quick again, so we can have that engrained as we leave. De Weerd: I believe -- yeah. Caleb: Okay. Meridian City Council workshop July 10, 2012 Page 13 of 18 C. Community Development: Budget Amendment for Mobile PC's for Contract Inspectors for aNot-to-Exceed Amount of $14,750.00 De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Our next item is from our Community Development director. Chatterton: Madam Mayor, Council Members, here is Community Development back begging for money again. In this case we have a fund to pay for it, if you agree. We are sort of a victim of our own success. Permitting is up about 25 percent roughly, month over month, compared to about a year ago and as you all are aware with our system of having contractors provide inspections, we are also contractually obliged to provide connectivity equipment -- in this case laptops -- with air cards so that they can access Accela Automation, our tool for permitting. What we have before you is roughly -- was 14,750 dollars that covers the cost of the laptops. The largest share of this is the actual Accela software licenses. Those are -- those are a bit speedy, but necessary, as well as the air cards and some maintenance on the software as well. This will allow us to continue to serve our customers and hopefully get at some additional revenues for the coming year and we are feeling goad about that. So, happy to answer any questions you might have. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce. Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: In contract -- these subcontractor, we are committed to providing computers far them? Chatterton: Yes. That's correct. Bird: They provide their own vehicles. They use their own vehicles. Part of the reason for this, council member, is that we put forward the Accela Automation tool and without these laptops they wouldn't -- and in particular computers which have been speed to work well with Accela Automation by IT, they wouldn't have that connectivity in the field. It's very important. Bird: And how many computers are we purchasing for this? Chatterton: Two. Bird: Two computers. Chatterton: Yes, Bird: Who for? Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 Page 14 of 18 Chatterton: I'm sorry? Bird: We got subcontracts with four people. Chatterton: Yes. Bird: Who -- Chatterton: Oh. Well, I believe that these are for structural inspectors. Bird: Just for -- just for structural? Chatterton: I believe that these are for structural. Actually, I'm not -- council member, I'm not sure which particular inspectors these are for. Part of the issue -- and one of the biggest elements of the workload is the amount of commercial work and we did 99 single family permits last time. Bird: Yeah. I realize that. Chatterton: So, I honestly don't know which inspectors these are for. I could find out and let you know. Bird: Okay. What have we been doing before, Bruce, when we were doing 600 and some permits a month? Chatterton: Well, at the time we didn't have Accela Automation, so it wasn't implemented, it wasn't -- it wasn't necessary, Bird: Okay. But this is just for two computers. Chatterton: It's for two computers and the biggest -- Bird: The licensing -- and all the licensing, yeah. Chatterton: Yes. That's correct. The licensing. Bird: Okay. De Weerd: And the wireless cards. Chatterton: That's correct. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 Page 15 of 18 Zaremba: I would add that I believe we already have four or maybe six of these and Bruce Freckleton reminded me that two or three years ago when we bought those, we made the decision only to buy as many as we had people to sit in the seat in front of them for, knowing that at same point when permits came up -- I think we still have the same number contractors, but some of them are bringing in more staff and can't share a computer and work at the same time. So, this is actually finishing a purchase that we started several years ago now that we actually need more seats to sit. I don't know if that makes sense, but -- Bird: It seems like it's awful expensive license for just two computers. Zaremba: Well, the license is the big part. Chatterton: Madam Mayor and council member, I agree, Accela is a great tool. It -- and I think it provides us with a high level of customer service, but, yes, it is expensive. Bird: No problem. No questions. De Weerd: Any other questions from Council? Rountree: I have none. De Weerd: Okay. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I move we approve the budget amendment for mobile PCs for the not to exceed amount of 14,750 dollars. Hoaglun: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 6-C. If there is no discussion, Madam Clerk. Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea. De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Chatterton: Thank you very much. Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 Page 16 of 18 D. Mayor's Office: Idaho Public Utilities Commission (IPUC} Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) Letter Discussion De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce. Under 6-D for the Mayor's Office we have Robert. Simison: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. What we have in front of you today is a draft letter to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, which has been prepared to encourage the Idaho Public Utilities to give Idaho Power as much leeway as they possibly can to negotiate with some of the renewable energy providers in the state. Not to go into too much history or information on the background, but Idaho Power has to pay a set rate by the federal government to purchase wind, solar, geothermal, and the PUC has tentatively come up with a way to allow Idaho Power to have some sort of a negotiated discussion with those groups, but this letter is intended primarily to encourage the Idaho PUC to find a way to keep rates as low as possible for all consumers, because regardless that's who ultimately pays and in our case it impacts what our -- not just what the people in the city pays for their electricity, but what the city pays in electricity with the wastewater treatment plant being one of the largest electrical users in the city, if not the Treasure Valley. So, with that letter before you I would be happy to take any edits or comments you have regarding the letter. De Weerd: Thank you, Robert. Any comments, questions? Bird: I have none. I have none. De Weerd: Edits? Hoaglun: Quick comment, Madam Mayor. De Weerd: Yes. Hoaglun: I'm in favor of the letter. I mean this is something -- an issue that most utilities around the country are facing. I know BPA, Bonneville Power Administration, earlier this spring was having a heck of a time. They have some customers in Idaho where they were running the water through their dams, but six, eight cents a kilowatt hour and -- was the cost, yet the wind was blowing and they were required to purchase the wind power and that was 27, 28 cents a kilowatt hour and that cost is passed onto the rate payer and they weren't able to choose which is the lowest cost for the consumer, they were doing what was required by law and I think this -- this would help for all of us and our citizens in Meridian to at least try to get lower -- lower energy costs. That's a good thing. De Weerd: And some of the same concerns we have in cost of power with the Dynamus project and what that means to our taxpayers as well, so it's a very timely subject. Any edits or any concerns with the letter? Meridian City Council Workshop July 10, 2012 Page 17 of 18 Rountree: I think it's a good letter. Bird: Looks good to me. De Weerd: Okay. Very good. Well, we will get it out. Simison: Thanks. Item 7: Future Meeting Topics De Weerd: Thank you, Robert. Okay. That ends our Department Reports. Council, any topics under future meeting topics? I know Ralph had brought up a topic he wanted to -- he had some concerns over the Fourth of July and some of the illegal fireworks that are being not allowed, but at least set off in our city limits, as I directed him to talk with the chief, because I know it's an equally timely project or topic and concern of the city's. We do have a local ordinance that -- that addresses it, but certainly it's very difficult to enforce. It needs to be done at the state level. So, Ralph, we will give you the phone numbers and names of all of our elected officials and you can start a letter writing campaign. Hoaglun: And Madam Mayor -- Ralph, I have some names that complained to me that I can pass onto you, too. So, they would be interested, so -- and, Madam Mayor, future topics. Do we want to discuss roundabout landscaping at some future meeting? De Weerd: Yes. That is something that we had asked to -- to certainly have Caleb bring to ACHD's attention and so we will ask him to bring that back and report -- Hoaglun: Thank you. De Weerd: -- to you all. Okay. Anything further for City Council agenda? I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Rountree: So moved. Bird: Second. De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 3:46 P.M.