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December 4, 2007 C/C MinutesMeridian City Council December 4, 2007 Page 17 of 77 MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 12: Public Hearing: Substantial Amendment of CDBG Five-Year Consolidated Plan and 2007 Action Plan: De Weerd: Item No. 12 is a Public Hearing and -- oh, there you are. I will go ahead and open the Public Hearing on Item 12. Kane: Thank you. Madam Mayor, Members of Council, I'm Emily Kane, I'm a Deputy City Attorney for the City of Meridian. As you may recall, CDBG stands for Community Development Block Grant, which is a grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and as required to apply for the CDBG funds that were allocated for the city, we submitted a draft of our proposed five year consolidated plan and 2007 program year action plan to HUD by August 15th, according to HUD's regulations and I have been working with HUD representatives since that time to address their reasons regarding the regulatory eligibility of our planned CDBG programming under the original plans. So, with HUD's assistance, the plans, as amended., are now in compliance with the regulations., but in the course of making those revisions, the plans underwent a substantial amendment, which requires that we solicit public testimony regarding the amended plans and initiated another 30 day public comment period before HUD will release the funds under the revised plans. So, this item is on your agenda tonight to allow public to testify regarding the amended plans, which have been available for review by the public on our website and by hard copies in notebooks at the library, the senior center, and City Hall for the past two weeks. So, I will be available to answer any questions you may have following the public testimony. De Weerd: Thank you. This is a Public Hearing. I would invite any of the public that would like to comment on this item. Staff, any comments? Council, any questions regarding this? I know we have seen the extensive part of it prior -- earlier this year and these are just a few clean-up items that we had to come back through the process; is that correct, Emily? Kane: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council that is correct. The substantial amendment was generally regarding the description of the activities that would be conducted under the plans and under the definition of substantial amendment, as it was defined in our citizen participafiion plan, under the original plans and as amended that requires us to just make sure the public has the opportunity to comment on the -- it's not exactly reworded, but the newly compliant portions of the action plan. De Weerd: The most exciting part. So, Council, no questions for Emily at this point? No public testimony? Then I -- Meridian City council December 4, 2007 Page 18 of 77 Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Rountree: I move that we close the Public Hearing on Item 12. Bird: Second. Zaremba: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a couple of seconds on closing the Public Hearing. All those in favor say aye. All ayes motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: Next steps, Mr. Baird. Rountree: We have to approve the amendment and the action plan, do we not? Baird: Madam Mayor, I will hand that back over to Mrs. Kane and I want to also, while have got the microphone, I want to thank Emily for all the work that she's done on this. It's the first year we have done this. It's hyper technical. She has really helped us get to where we are and I will let her tell you what the next step is. De Weerd: Well, I'd like to echo that. The learning curve has been huge and that you have filled in the gaps very will and appreciate all your work. Next step. Kane: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the public comment period is -- it's now open and it will go through January 4th and this will be brought before you on I believe your January 8th agenda to have you sign off on it and I'm hoping to submit it to HUD on January 9th. With any luck, they will approve it that week. They have asked me to submit four copies of what they have seen so far, so that's a sign that they are ready to get the preliminary stuff out of the way, so they can just give it their stamp of approval hopefully that week. De Weerd.: So, right now this was for a verbal public testimony, now we will seek the written public testimony and ask for Council action, then, in January. Kane: Madam Mayor, that's correct. De Weerd: Okay. Meridian City Council December 4, 2007 Page 19 of 77 Baird.: Excuse me, Madam Mayor and Members of the Council. I'm getting a hand signal from Anna Canning that we probably need to reopen the hearing to get that on the record what those next steps are. Canning: Actually, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I thought the last time we did this we kept the Public Hearing open until you had your next discussion on that item, that the hearing record was kept open for that written testimony. I have stumped Mrs. Kane. Kane: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it was actually on its own night last summer. It was on a Wednesday night and I believe that Mr. Berg closed the Public Hearing at that time -- it's a little hazy. I think that was six months ago. I believe that either way it would be procedurally appropriate. Rountree: It's not going to hurt anything. De Weerd: Mr. Berg. Berg: Madam Mayor, not to get all mixed up with this, but when we did the grants with the senior center and LP, we had to keep the Public Hearing open for -- was it seven days, after we had the public for the written comments and, then, we closed it. This is a little different. I don't think this is the same format that we did then. So, we might be getting those two things mixed up. I remember closing the acceptance of anymore information last time. De Weerd: Well -- Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Gorton: I think we have to reopen it. I don't know how we can -- how we can continue if there is a public comment period and someone provides comment between now and the 4th and we would want to hear that and that might influence our decision on what we do with the substantial amendment. I don't know how we go forward otherwise and keeping the Public Hearing open. I guess our next meeting date after the 4th would be January 8th, is a Tuesday, I don't know if that's too late, if we can continue it, leave it open until January 8th, come back, find out what the public comment was, and take action at that time. Hopefully that doesn't screw up the schedule. De Weerd: Mrs. Kane, does that work? Meridian City Council December 4, 2007 Page 20 of 77 Kane: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Borton, I am looking up the citizen participation plan, which is what governs this. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it just says that written testimony will be accepted during the 30 day public comment period and that a Public Hearing will be held to kick off that 30 day public comment period and last time I personally accepted the public comments. There was only one. De Weerd: Well, we appreciate that one person who commented.. I guess we can't error by keeping this open, just for the public record.. So, if it doesn't matter either way, just error on the side of caution and ask Council to open the Public Hearing, if you so choose. Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: I move that we reopen the Public Hearing on Item 12 and continue that hearing until January 8th, 2008. Borton: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and asecond -- Zaremba: Madam Mayor, discussion.. Madam Mayor, this may just be semantics, but in order. to have the intervening testimony part of it, I would suggest that we -- rather than use the word reopen, that we cancel our closing of it or something to the effect that makes it retroactive to -- so that we didn't ever close it. De Weerd: I -- Zaremba: I don't know if that's important or not. De Weerd: -- don't think it matters. Rountree: I think, Dave, you're being Dave. Zaremba: Okay. De Weerd: All those in favor of the motion say aye. All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: Okay. Meridian City council December 4, 2007 Page 21 of 77 Kane: Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you, Emily. I guess I should have asked you what the next steps were before we entertained the motion to close the Public Hearing. So, we will hear this again, then, on January 8th. Item 13: Continued Public Hearing from November 20, 2007: RZ 07-016 Request for Rezone of 3.66 acres from R-15 zone to TN-R zone for Gramercy Townhome Subdivision by Tuscany Development, Inc. - south of E. Overland Road and west of S. Eagle Road: Item 14; Continued Public Hearing from November 20, 2007: PP 07-016 Request for Preliminary Plat approval of 38 single-family attached residential lots on 2.81 acres for Gramercy Townhome Subdivision by Tuscany Development, Inc. -south of E. Overland Road and west of S. Eagle Road: Item 15: Continued Public Hearing from November 20, 2007: CUP 07-018 ' Request for Conditional Use Permit for 32 multi-family dwelling units on 4 lots in an existing R-15 zone on 2.93 acres for Gramercy Townhome Subdivision by Tuscany Development, Inc. -south of E. Overland Road and west of S. Eagle Road: Item 16: Public Hearing: MI 07-015 Request for a Miscellaneous application to modify the existing Development Agreement listing the permitted and prohibited home occupational uses within the Brownstones (Live /Work Units) and ensure the Brownstones and future condominiums are constructed as shown with the submitted elevations for Gramercy Townhomes by Tuscany Development, Inc -south of E. Overland Road and approximately'/ mile west of S. Eagle Road: De Weerd: Item No. 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 are all related. I will open up these public hearings -- Baird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Baird: It's my understanding that Item 17 needs to stand alone, so it would be my suggestion at this time to open 13 through 16.