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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998.0814.TCRM.Minutes Low TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE RETREAT SESSION OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL AUGUST 14, 1998 A public meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened and called to order by Mayor Morgan at 12:00 P.M. at Southwest Inn, located at 9800 E. Summer Hill Boulevard,Fountain Hills,Arizona. ROLL CALL-Present for roll call were the following members of the Fountain Hills Town Council: Mayor Sharon Morgan, and Councilmembers John Wyman, Sharon Hutcheson, Marianne Wiggishoff, and Penfield Mower. Councilman Sid Apps and Vice Mayor Poma were absent. Also present were Town Manager Paul Nordin, Town Attorney Bill Farrell, Town Clerk Cassie Hansen, Town Engineer Randy Harrel and Interim Community Development Director Andrew McGuire. 1. Status Report on the State Trust Land—Jack Fraser,Paul Nordin Mr. Fraser referred to the application submitted by the Town Council, Fort McDowell Indian Community and the McDowell Park Association for an Arizona preserve initiative for conservation status for 1300 acres of state trust lands lying to the northeast boundary of Fountain Hills. He said the application had been in the state's hands for over a year and one half and stated he thought the application would soon be approved if there were no complicating factors. He said the application of the school district for a 40-acre site within the state lands delayed the consideration of the application. He said a possible interest by the Fountain Hills Sanitary District for a site for effluent disposal could also delay the approval of the application. He said the McDowell Mountain Park Association would oppose the District's application if it were made, as the storage of effluent would be contrary to the open space objectives, which the Park Association had planned. Mr. Nordin stated that Sanitary District Board Member Walt Franklin had investigated the state lands for usage for effluent disposal but no application had been made. He said he understood that the Sanitary District was continuing to look at different options and would discuss this matter at the September 15` joint meeting. Mayor Morgan stated she had been informed that the Sanitary District had new developments in their search for solutions to effluent disposal problems. Mr. Fraser explained that once the application was approved, a three to five year period was allowed to organize the financing to either buy or lease the land and to organize a proposed management plan. 2. Report from Town Attorney Bill Farrell on the Crestview(Summit Estates)Annexation a. MCO/County position b. Projected revenues c. Annexation time frame Town Attorney Bill Farrell updated the Council regarding the 300 total acres under consideration for annexation. He said the legal description of the 100-lot subdivision known as Summit Estates and the adjoining 56 acre parcel at the northwest corner of Shea and Palisades would be completed soon to accompany the other documents to start the process of annexation. He stated he would supply copies of documents to the Council for their consideration at the August 17`h meeting in order to set a public hearing on this matter for September 3, 1998. The approval of the pre- annexation development agreement and annexation petitions would appear on the Council agenda either October 151 or October 15`h. He stated the annexation would have two contingencies. The first contingency would be that MCO receive multi-family designation from Maricopa County and the second was that all development on annexed lands would be permitted under Town standards and all revenues would be received by the Town of Fountain Hills. He stated the Town's position was that only M-1 zoning would be accepted on the 56-acre parcel under the Town's subdivision standards, not Maricopa County. He said sales tax revenues from construction along with fees from Town Council Retreat Session 8/14/98 Page 1 of 4 building permits would be one-time fees but worth the efforts of annexation and allowed for construction control under existing Town standards. 3. Discussion of Town/Zoning Ordinances a. Possible amendments to make more or less restrictive b. Possible amendment to the setbacks in multi-family housing Councilwoman Wiggishoff stated a separate vision for areas along Shea Boulevard and the Town Center was needed to assist in communication of what was expected for the commercial possibilities on Shea Boulevard versus the development of the downtown area. A possible review of allowed uses in C-1 zoning for the Town Center could allow an overlay zoning which could provide new, allowable uses in the downtown such as artist/sculpture workshops. Councilwoman Hutcheson said an overlay zone could allow more desirable uses and restrict other uses. Mr. McGuire suggested a separate zoning district be created for the downtown area to allow for specific uses rather than an overlay district or to allow certain uses under a special use permit. Mr. Farrell stated other communities had created a "lifestyle" zoning district to combine commercial and industrial uses with residential uses. Councilwoman Hutcheson suggested staff perform a commercial absorption study to determine how much commercial square footage was in existence and how much commercial development a population of 30,000 people could support. Mr. Farrell stated the nature of commercial zoning would change as the buildout of the community occurred. Mr. Nordin suggested the Saguaro commercial corridor also be included in a study of the commercial areas in town. He suggested special study sessions regarding neighborhood problems be scheduled in mid to late September to resolve issues such as a four-acre park,development of the Eagles Nest subdivision, and dam problems in areas such as the North Heights subdivision. Councilwoman Wiggishoff stated fencing requirements should be modified for the preservation of desert lands. Mr. McGuire stated revegetation requirements had not been established and would be presented to the Council for their consideration at the September 3`d meeting. Councilwoman Wiggishoff stated there had been eeneems—fer lax architectural reviews for buildings in the Town Center III area and that any development agreement should contain unif-effn-and renew provisions. Mr. Farrell suggested commercial design review legislation would be presented to the Council for consideration. Mr. McGuire stated that Councilman Poma had been concerned about the new ordinance that changed multi-family setback requirements, increasing the front and side yard setbacks. He said multi-family lots had been affected reducing the number of buildable units by up to one-half but the duplex lots had not been included in setback changes. He said Councilman Poma wanted to review the setback restrictions during the first meeting in October. 4. Purchasing Procedure—Amendments to the Town Code a. Increase the$1,000 minimum requiring three bids b. Increase the manager's spending limitation Town Engineer Randy Harrel asked the Council to consider a revision to the purchasing procedures since the original purchasing procedures had been established in the first years after incorporation using a model from a smaller municipality. He said the price of contracts and services had grown and purchasing requirements had resulted in more detailed plans and specs and higher staff, advertising, and bond costs along with time delays. He asked the Council to allow a single quote up to $2,000, three verbal quotes up to $5000, and allow three written quotes up to $20,000. Also sealed bids with Council approval be required for projects over$20,000 and allow the Town Manager to approve change orders up to $20,000. Another recommendation was to raise or remove the $10,000 maximum contract limitation for the 5% local bidder preference. Councilwoman Wiggishoff suggested change orders up to $10,000 be permitted with the Town Manager's signature and raise the local bidder contract limitation to a fixed maximum dollar differential, such as$3500. Councilman Mower suggested change orders up to $15,000 be permitted and that the local bidder preference should be raised to a $20,000 maximum with the 5% Town Council Retreat Session 8/14/98 Page 2 of 4 preference. Town Attorney Farrell stated the local bidder preference had been cited as an anti-trust violation in recent court cases and that under $10,000 maximum was a legally defensible position. Mr. Nordin offered to have Mr. Farrell prepare an ordinance to amend Section 3-3-1 of the Town Code for comparison with procedures from other cities and towns. 5. Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan/Projections Town Manager Nordin stated that even though the Town was presently experiencing an excellent financial status, concerns about the decrease in building permit revenues in fiscal years 2001-2002 or 2002-2003 were rational. He suggested additional revenues be raised through impact fees and user fees for parks and predicted state shared revenues would increase due to increased census population. He anticipated the local sales tax receipts would remain constant throughout the five-year plan and that the wholesale/retail sales taxes would increase each year due to population, increased volume, increase in the number of businesses, and 4% inflation rates. Accounting Supervisor Julie Ghetti said the sales tax projections were based on past performance factors. Councilman Wyman said he was concerned about the spending of surplus funds over the next five years. Mr. Nordin stated the bid price for the new community center would impact the reserve funds and the annual debt service. He asked for Council assistance in choosing amenities for Fountain Park soon. He explained that when the Community Center used sales tax revenues, other departments such as streets, parks and police would require reductions in their expenditures. He recommended all departments needed to exercise additional control of spending in the next fiscal years. 6. Budget Process a. Future format/meeting schedule Councilwoman Wiggishoff suggested the Council discuss issues prior to when the budget was presented for work- study sessions with respect to policy decisions, adding street projects and any staffing expansion. She thought the Council should be more actively involved with budget preparation issues. She said the program budgeting format could be used to reorganize the existing budget line items to coordinate associated costs under specific headlines. Councilman Wyman said reviewing each budget item separately did not reflect on the overall financial picture of the Town. Mr. Nordin stated newly elected Council members did not get opportunities to be involved with budget preparation because they assumed their office at or about the same time as the budget was being considered. Town Clerk Cassie Hansen suggested a budget retreat be held before the budget was compiled. The Council felt a budget retreat in January or February would be helpful in setting policy and budget goals. Mayor Morgan closed the Retreat Session at 3:20 p.m. TOWN OF FO AIN HILLS By: /t/ Sharon Morgan,Mayor A ITEST: CA!)-4/11-A- LLA41,-/ Cassie B.Hansen,Town Clerk Town Council Retreat Session 8/14/98 Page 3 of 4 PREPARED BY: (. Linda D. Lemmen,Executive Assistant CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular Session Meeting held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills on the 14th day of August, 1998. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this 3rd day of September, 1998. \-46 )1/14.A. Cassie B.Hansen,Town Clerk Town Council Retreat Session 8/14/98 Page 4 of 4