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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005.1108.TCWSM.Minutes TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE WORK STUDY SESSION OF THE Lise FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL NOVEMBER 8,2005 AGENDA ITEM#1—CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Mayor Nichols called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. Present for roll call were the following members of the Fountain Hills Town Council: Councilman Archambault, Mayor Nichols, Councilman Kavanagh, and Councilman Kehe. Town Manager Tim Pickering, Town Clerk Bev Bender, Town Attorney Andrew McGuire, and Strategic Planning Process Project Manager Philip Blackerby were also present. Vice Mayor Schlum and Councilman McMahan were excused from the meeting. AGENDA ITEM #2 — PRESENTATION OF THE DRAFT STRAGEGIC PLAN BY BLACKERBY ASSOCIATES FOLLOWED BY THE COUNCIL'S REVIEW AND DISCUSSION OF THE PLAN. Town Manager Tim Pickering stated that Philip Blackerby, from Blackerby Associates,the Project Manager for the Strategic Planning Process since January, would provide the Council with an update on the Plan. (Copy of Draft Plan is available in the Office of the Town Clerk.) He noted that much activity had occurred and added that staff wanted to give the Council an opportunity to review what has been done to date before the issue came before them at the first meeting in January. Mr. Blackerby addressed the Council and stated that it had been his great pleasure to work with the members of the Technical Advisory Committee on the Plan and recognized those members. He highlighted a power point presentation on the Strategic Plan and noted that they began by the process by going back to the original document that was adopted in December 2004, the Public Involvement Plan. He commented on the Council's determination to solicit as much citizen input as possible and discussed the appointment of the Technical Advisory Committee, primarily composed of citizen volunteers. He added that the Committee developed the Public Involvement Plan and the Council adopted it and issued an RFP to hire a Project Manager. Mr. Blackerby briefly reviewed the entire process that had been followed to date as well as the Mission of the Strategic Planning Process. He outlined the key concepts of the process, namely inclusiveness, simplicity, financial responsibility, and realistic implementation, and discussed the creation and implementation of the Citizens' Action Network (CAN). He further commented on vision issues, including downtown development, arts and culture and the Vision Elements/Value Statements—Tier 1. Mr. Pickering noted that the report contained only a summary of the priorities and referred the Council to the previous August 8, 2005 Strategic Choices,The Framework Report for more detailed information. Mr. Blackerby noted the ten focus areas of the Strategic Plan as follows: Governmental Financial Responsibility Commercial Vitality and Business Development Arts &Culture Small-Town Atmosphere&Town Identity Housing&Affordability Preservation of the Environment cre Parks&Recreation Municipal Government Services Z:\Council Packets\2005\R12-1-05\Minutes 11-08-05 Work Study Session.doc Page 1 of 5 Education: Higher&Continuing Education&Support of Educational Excellence Physical Planning: Zoning&Architecture The presentation continued and Mr. Blackerby provided an overview of the Action Plan, immediate priorities to be accomplished within one to two years and associated costs, longer-term priorities to be accomplished with three to five years and associated costs, projects that were not community priorities at this time, the responsibilities of CAN, staff's responsibilities, and Town Council's responsibilities. Mr. Blackerby, in closing,provided a brief summary of the proposed Strategic Plan as outlined. Councilman Kavanagh commented that a letter was recently received from the Chamber of Commerce regarding the place that long-term business planning and growth had and asked whether this document should be attached as part of the Plan. Mr. Blackerby responded that the issue of commercial vitality was one of the ten focus areas and was considered quite extensively. He emphasized that the key focus was "vision" regarding the type of downtown the citizens wanted to have. He stated the opinion that the citizens had told them what they wanted to see in the future(Vision Issues). Councilman Kavanagh asked whether in conducting Strategic Plans for government bodies, Mr. Blackerby had found that they do not actually have any kind of steps or path for commercial viability and whether that was something that was dealt with outside of the plan or should be included. Mr. Blackerby responded that in the Strategic Choices Report (Page 14, Scenario A) there were a series of activities that supported the notion of promoting a downtown for local residents rather than a downtown for tourism/development. Mr. Frank Ferrara, representing the Chamber of Commerce, addressed the Council and said that in their memo, the Chamber was basically stating that they believed that the Plan did not contain an economic development track. He said that they were going to participate in a Strategic Planning Session later on this year for the business community to include Council, staff, and members of the community. He added that it would be professionally done and they had already gone out for bids on the facilitation of that particular effort. He said that what they were asking for was that the results of the Strategic Plan that the business community developed be incorporated into the total Town Strategic Plan so that there was one Plan rather than segmentation. He added that they just wanted the opportunity, when the Plan was completed,to include it as part of the total Plan. He noted that the current Plan was citizen driven without much input from the business community per se (rather than as residents). He stated that their plan would look at the business community, the tourism aspect, and the residential aspect from the point of what the residents wanted in this particular area. He explained that there were two types of tourism — uncontrolled and controlled — and said that they were not looking for uncontrolled tourism; they did not want to have a lot of t-shirt shops, they were talking about controlled, economic destination facilities and/or facilitation of what they had that they could build upon (the environment, the outdoors, arts and culture, etc.). He reiterated that once they had the opportunity to look at the whole economic development picture, (i.e. the business community, not just tourism, the total business community to include tourism aspects),the Chamber would like the final results to be incorporated into the final Town Plan. Mayor Nichols commented that he believed they had the vehicles with which to accomplish that and stated the opinion that word "tourism" sometimes "gets in the way." He said he preferred the word "visitor". Mayor Nichols added that they were poised to bring this aspect into the Strategic Planning process and agreed that the Chamber's future Plan should be included as an element of the total Plan. Mayor Nichols announced that he received an e-mail from a member of the Technical Advisory Committee concerning the two-month "lag" between adoption of the Plan on December 1st and the appointment of the Advisory Commission and asked for input regarding this issue. Mr. Pickering explained that the two-month period provided the required time for legal advertisements,to notify the citizens, and explained that this was the process that was in place to solicit citizen participation prior to the „004)selection process. He added that this ensured inclusion of everyone in the community. He expressed the opinion that the Council would be well served to look at the individuals who have expertise in the Strategic Z:\Council Packets\2005\R12-1-05\Minutes 11-08-05 Work Study Session.doc Page 2 of 5 Planning area. He discussed the formation of TAC and said that he sought out individuals in the community who had been involved in strategic planning. He added that TAC was one of the best boards he had ever worked with because the members were able to provide valuable knowledge and input. He stated that the Town had greatly benefited from their expertise. Mayor Nichols asked whether there was a negative impact associated with a two-month delay and Mr. Blackerby replied that he did not believe so. He added that they had asked Town Attorney Andrew McGuire to prepare the resolution to create the Citizens' Action Network (CAN) and they anticipate including that resolution in the final report so that it could be adopted at the Council's December 1st meeting. Councilman Kehe commented that that did not mean that other elements of the Plan could not move forward and Mr. Blackerby concurred. Councilman Kavanagh said that he was a little concerned about the term "Citizens' Action Network", and suggested that the name be changed to the"Strategic Planning Advisory Commission". Mayor Nichols agreed with Councilman Kavanagh's suggestion that the name be changed to more accurately reflect the responsibilities of the group. Mr. Blackerby said that he did not have a problem with that change but added that one of the thoughts that went into the original name was the fact that planning was one part of the group's responsibility and one of the crucial aspects of their duties was the actual implementation. He said that they were trying to emphasize that aspect. Mayor Nichols clarified that this would be an advisory commission and implementation was the responsibility of staff, who were overseen by the Council. He commented on the large number of meetings that were planned and said he was hoping that the Commission would not have to meet frequently; that there would be "brain power" to provide good advice as they moved forward. He pointed out that the more meetings they had, the more staff time it takes to get everything accomplished and added that as they moved forward, he would like effort to be expended to minimize the amount of meetings held. He said that the meetings should be held for important issues to be addressed at appropriate times. He commented on difficulties associated with getting volunteers and a significant time commitment might hamper some citizens from participating. Councilman Kehe said that there was a danger that the document, once written, would be shelved unless there was some catalyst or action taking place. He stated that it was his understanding from previous discussions that it was very important to have a body that would be the catalyst for action and said he would not like to lose this element. Mayor Nichols commented that the group would be the catalyst and would move the process forward. In response to a question from Councilman Kavanagh, Mr. Blackerby stated that the Council would vote on the final wording of the Plan on December 1st. Councilman Kavanagh asked whether that would be the same meeting where they voted on the development fees. Mr. Pickering replied that a public hearing for the development fees would take place on December 1361 Town Clerk Bev Bender advised that the final vote on the development fees would occur at the Council's January 5, 2006, meeting. Councilman Kavanagh asked whether the development fees would be reworked, taking into consideration the input they had received from the Town Hall attendees and survey results. Mr. Pickering responded that staff could certainly do so. Mayor Nichols agreed that it made sense to do that and said that it would make for a"smoother"process. Councilman Kehe commented that as far as development fees, they had to look at what might happen over the "long term" and noted that the fees were one-shot deals when building permits were taken out, they were not Z:\Council Packets\2005\R12-1-05\Minutes 11-08-05 Work Study Session.doc Page 3 of 5 • collected every year. He added that discarding things because they looked like the might not happen immediately would be the wrong way to go and emphasized the importance of having growth pay for itself. Mayor Nichols asked how often development fees would be reviewed and Mr. Pickering said every five years. He added that he would prepare an alternate view of the development fees without the items in the Strategic Plan so that the Council could compare and review them. He said that this discussion should occur on December 13th. Councilman Kehe commented on the fact that the process itself takes 18 months so it would actually be six years and six months before the reviews actually occurred. Councilman Kavanagh asked if there should there be a dramatic shift in the public's opinion on something whether they could order a study to be conducted on a particular fee in less than five years. Mr. Pickering said that they could do that and reminded that the Council that this was not an agendized item and should not be discussed at this time. He added that this impacted so many different decisions (CIP, development fees,etc.) and said that this keeps them focused on the things that they should be doing. Councilman Archambault said that one of the things that he heard from his end of the business community was more or less construction related and asked how easy the Strategic Plan document would be for the business community to identify particular points that the citizens wanted without having to delve through extensive paperwork. He said that he wanted. the business community to be able to easily identify what the citizens wanted. Mr. Blackerby responded that the Plan would be as user friendly as possible and would identify various items and associated action plans for implementation. Mr. Pickering noted that Supervisor Stapley had distributed a summary put out by Maricopa County and said that it was their intention to do something along those same lines so that the citizens could easily review and understand the information provided. Mayor Nichols commented on the fact that 30% of the people had no opinion on the issue of whether a sales tax or property tax should be implemented to fund the gap and asked whether they had the ability to go through an identify the demographics of that 30% (age, gender, income level, etc.) so that in the future, when they moved forward with an information campaign, they knew who should be targeted. Mr. Blackerby said that they did have that capability. Mr. Pickering discussed education on that specific topic and stated that one of the things that the survey company had suggested was to get a few successes under their belt out of the first list of five items. He said that then they could start to educate the citizens and gain their confidence and trust. AGENDA ITEM#3-ADJOURNMENT COUNCILMAN KAVANAGH MOVED that the Council adjourn and COUNCILMAN ARCHAMBAULT SECONDED the motion,which CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY(4-0). The meeting adjourned at 5:55 p.m. Z:\Council Packets\2005\R12-1-05\Minutes 11-08-05 Work Study Session.doc Page 4 of 5 MIL TOWN OF FOUN MN HILLS Low By Wal y Nich ls, ayor ATTEST AND PREP RED BY: ,ote( Bevelyn J. der, wn Clerk CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Work Study Session held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills on the 8th day of November 2005. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. Dated this lst day of December 2005. Bevelyn J. Bend ,T n Clerk L L Z:\Council Packets\2005\R12-1-05\Minutes 11-08-05 Work Study Session.doc Page 5 of 5 J .1 .�