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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSPAC.2022.0727.MinutesTOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION JULY 27, 2022 1. CALL TO ORDER— Chairman Garman Chairman Garman called to order the meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission at 4:00 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL — Chairman Garman Present: Chairman Patrick Garman; Vice Chairman Bernie Hoenle; Commissioner John W. Craft, Jr.; Commissioner Mary Edman; Commissioner Cynthia Magazine; Commissioner Kevin Beck (telephonically); Commissioner Geoffrey Yazzetta Staff Deputy Town Manager David Trimble; Economic Development Director Present. Amanda Jacobs; Executive Assistant Angela Padgett -Espiritu 3. CALL TO THE PUBLIC Pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.01(H), public comment is permitted (not required) on matters NOT listed on the agenda. Any such comment (I) must be within the jurisdiction of the Commission, and (ii) is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. The Commission will not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during Call to the Public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action. At the conclusion of the Call to the Public, individual commissioners may (i) respond to criticism, (b) ask staff to review a matter, or (iii) ask that the matter be placed on a future Commission agenda. No one from the public spoke. 4. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the minutes of the Regular Meeting of June 22, 2022. MOVED BY Vice Chairman Bernie Hoenle, SECONDED BY Commissioner Geoffrey Yazzetta to APPROVE the meeting minutes of the June 22, 2022, Strategic Planning Advisory Commission. Commissioner Craft abstain from voting due to not attending this meeting. Vote: 6 - 0 - Unanimously 5. REPORTS BY COMMISSIONERS AND TOWN MANAGER Chairman Garman reported that this is a time for Commissioners to bring up items of interest, make a motion, and have a discussion about possible agenda items for the future. Commissioner Yazzetta reported that after the last meeting, he started putting together some thoughts down on paper about what he had observed in Fountain Hills as it relates to the business community. He said that he had brought up at the last meeting about a young professional association and he believed that Grady had said something like that existed at some point. He said that he would like to see if that is something they can revive and how he can get involved. Chairman Garman asked Commissioner Yazzetta if that might be something that he might want to make a motion on, so that they could put it on the agenda and discuss it at future meetings and, possibly have somebody come in and discuss that topic or the Commission could come prepared to have a more in-depth discussion? Chairman Garman reported that Commissioner Yazzetta moves that a future agenda item would be a discussion on the Young Professionals Organization. Director Jacobs mentioned that Betsy could actually answer that or have that as part of her presentation. Because it's currently operated by the Chamber of Commerce. So it is still in existence. Chairman Garman stated that the ayes have it and that we're going to put it on a future agenda. Commissioner Magazine reported that she had two things. Her first topic was to remind everyone that there's a critical election on Tuesday and that if you haven't voted, be sure you do that. She said that It's your right as a citizen and it's important to this town that everybody votes. Second, She will go back to the question she had of Vice Chairman Hoenle about the Biophilic Project Certification. Vice Chairman Hoenle reported that they had a meeting yesterday. He said that Jeny led the meeting with the Town Manager, the Assistant Town Manager, and representatives from recreation. He said that John Wesley is going to be the person tasked with putting together a plan for the town and between the Biophilic network and the town. He said that there's not going to be any certification or any certificate that they get, its just part of a network sharing ideas for a Biophilic Community, and what that means is a healthy community for people to go out and participate outside, which means including resting places, trees, canopy coverage, xeriscaping, and water conservation. He said that there are 26 different cities right now that are part of the network, but there are others in the wings that are working on their plan. The first meeting was basically to see if there was support and everybody around the table said, yes. He said that they are going to iron out any responsibilities between the network, which is basically a group of citizens, and the town to see what's official. He said that he will provide everybody here with two sheets of measurement ideas of things to look at to see them progressing on the different goals, and then get an agreement that those are things that can be measured. He said that ideas came out at the table of things that are in progress that they didn't know about that will be part of what we do over the next two years. He mentioned that there is a fee to join the network and after you pay the fee, you have to monitor your progress Commissioner Craft asked if there was any discussion with John Wesley about somehow chronicling this endeavor with the environmental plan. Vice Chairman Hoenle responded that he failed to mention that and that John Wesley says it ties in perfectly with what he's working on. Commissioner Beck said that he would like a website or e-mail or any listing of the current cities that are in the Biophilic Community. Vice Chairman Hoenle responded that he would get that and pass it out to the members. Chairman Garman mentioned that Jeny Davis will be addressing the Commission in September and will have a Biophilic discussion. Commissioner Magazine reported that she is happy to hear about the progress Commissioner Edman reported that the commission would be discussing two of the subjects that she was most interested in which are economic development and the water situation. Vice Chairman Hoenle reported that he is also a member of the Arizona Alliance for Livable Communities. He said that they have a letter proposed to the governor about funding for safe streets, a safe environment for pedestrians and for bicyclists, and anybody else using the roads. He said that there is some federal money and grant money that's been made available to each of the states. He said it is similar to Biophilic, except for broader talk about a healthy environment to get people out in their communities and that these are some of the ways to do it. He said that he would pass out what they have in the proposed letter just for information purposes. He suggested having someone from the Alliance come and talk about what's going on across the state and in the valley. Chairman Garman asked the commission, does anybody agree to put that on a future agenda? He said that he didn't hear any nays and that Vice Chairman Hoenle and he would work to try to put that on a future agenda. Commissioner Craft reported that he was looking forward to today's discussions. 6. UPDATE on the Strategic Plan from Amanda Jacobs, Economic Development Director for the Town of Fountain Hills. Chairman Garman reported that the first presentation for today is going to be an update on the Strategic Plan from Amanda Jacobs, the Economic Development Director for the Town of Fountain Hills. Director Jacobs said thanks for having me and that she will be discussing projects that have been specifically assigned to her and will do her best to answer their questions. She said that she is excited that they are making a lot of progress in only a short few months. She said that one thing that they are working on and that is identified in the plan, is a community brand image. She said that she asked the staff and some of the community members what our brand is. She said that she is seeing five to seven different logos and our goal is to have a community -focused brand. She reported that they are going through a formal RFP process and have received six and are in the process of evaluating those. She said that when a top one is selected, they will start moving forward with kickoff meetings and getting the community involved by having focus groups, highlighting and putting Fountain Hills on the map for our residents, our visitors, and then, of course, our businesses. She said that the goal is to try to complete that by the end of the calendar year. She said that the town has partnered with the Chamber of Commerce and last month kicked off a formal business retention process. The goal is to try to meet with businesses two times a week, introduce ourselves and have a rotating elected official come with us. She said that she found that it helps for our elected officials to hear firsthand the struggles of our businesses. She mentioned that they can make it easier for businesses, as they're coming in to have a joint packet from the Town and the Chamber of those dos or don'ts. She said that the town has some businesses that are true mom and pop that have never done this before. She said that when she first arrived in town, she and the Economic Development Specialist did what she called, the downtown walk and some of that was just introducing themselves to the businesses. She said that some of the questions from the businesses were: how can we liven up what we call the downtown or some called the Town Center? Can we do murals? Can we look at doing more concert series? Can we have a specific day once a week where it's again that call to action to get people playing, dining and shopping right here in Fountain Hills? She mentioned that they did an 8-week series in the Fountain Hills Times highlighting the different industries and telling them to shop. She said that we don't have a local property tax, so we rely very heavily on the sales tax and bed tax. She mentioned that this summer highlighted a staycation, and trying to get people to stay here in Fountain Hills. Stay longer at our hotels, play golf, and just play and enjoy our community. She said that they saw Honor Health open their doors and then Mathnasium just down the street opening and helping our kids work with math. She said they updated the Economic Development Website on the town page. She said that the Council approved getting customer relationship management software. She mentioned that they met with Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community's tourism department, called Discover, and that she meets monthly with Betsy LaVoie of the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce. She reported that they are in the process of developing a scope for a Business Advisory Group. She said one more focus is to continue to improve the public health well-being and safety of our town. She said that they were very excited that Fountain Hills Medical Center and the 24/7 emergency room celebrated their one year anniversary. Chairman Garman thanked Director Jacobs and then asked the commissioners if they had any questions. Commissioner Yazzetta asked if there is any focus on developing an online web presence Director Jacobs responded that the Chamber had just had lunch and learn about marketing and social media. She said that is something that they are focusing on and that the Arizona Office of Tourism has several grant opportunities and one is the initiative to visit Arizona. Commissioner Magazine said thank you to Director Jacobs and commented that everyone has wanted to know what's going on with economic development and that she appreciates it very much. She thanked Director Jacobs for her entire presentation, her enthusiasm, and all the different roads that she is taking to make a difference. Commissioner Edman asked if there were any plans to utilize the amphitheater at the Fountain for anything. Director Jacobs responded that at the moment she did not know but would get back with an answer. Vice Chairman Hoenle commented that because everything changes so fast on social media, and there is a lot out there, it would be nice as Director Jacobs is making collaboration efforts to mention the importance of having updated and correct information. Commissioner Craft commented that there is so much potential synergy there in terms of moving forward and that he thinks it can be augmented by how you organize the advisory group and that you select a diverse group. Chairman Garman commented that he hopes Director Jacobs is a regular at their meetings going forward, and that he would really appreciate it, because they took the time to put the Strategic Plan together and that he really appreciates her paying attention to the Strategic Plan and going through it piece by piece because they put a lot of blood sweat and tears into that and we're glad that the town approved. So thank you very much for hitting all the highlights. 7. PRESENTATION from Doug Dunham, Water Resources Manager with EPCOR on Water Conservation. Chairman Garman said that they have Doug Dunham who's a Water Resource Manager with EPCOR and that he is going to give us a presentation on water conservation. He mentioned that it is a very important topic and that they are glad that he is here today. Mr. Dunham said that he appreciates the invitation here to share some background on water resources in Arizona. He said that he is a native Phoenician and is a resident of Fountain Hills for over 26 years. He said that his wife and he moved out here right after they first got married, and raised their kids here. He said that EPCOR is one of the largest private utilities in the Southwest. He said that they have systems across Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. He said that their parent company is out of Alberta, Canada. He reported that they have multiple systems up there and have quite a broad range of experience with water and wastewater. He said that they have natural gas power, electricity, as well as some flood control, and drainage management in Canada. He mentioned that they have over 300 employees here in the state of Arizona and serve multiple communities across the southwest. He said their main sources of water are groundwater and surface water, so that would be in state streams, lakes, etc. He said that they then have the Colorado River water and it is divided up into two main types. The main stem is the water used by the communities on the river and the farmers on the river to take it directly off of Colorado and then, in Central Arizona Project water, which moves Colorado River water into the central part of the state, and then our only growing source of new supply at the moment is reclaimed water. So the Colorado River is a Colorado River basin and covers seven states, including Arizona. He said that the water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell are dismal at the moment. He said that we are in a Tier 1 shortage right now and that we have already been operating under a tear to be shorted. He said that in Arizona we have worked with local water providers including local Indian tribes, irrigation districts, and private utilities like us in cities and we have voluntarily conserved water, and so, our actual consumption of water is already at the Tier 2B level and we have already been dealing with the operational impacts. He mentioned that for the last five years we've been operating under a Tier 1 shortage voluntarily for the last two years, and then the Tier 2b shortage for the last year. He said that the actual cuts that would have been artificially imposed upon us are that have voluntarily already been doing that and that the states of Nevada and California have been operating with similar conservation efforts to try to keep as much water in as long as possible to forestall the mandatory cuts that reclamation would otherwise impose on us. He mentioned that in 1980, the state legislature created the Groundwater Management Act and that has put in place the broader management framework that they have been operating under. The primary goals of the Act itself were to control the severe groundwater depletion that was going on at the time and provide a means to more equitably allocate Arizona's groundwater resources and find ways to augment our water supplies, with the ultimate goal to preserve groundwater as a backup supply in times of severe drought. He commented that our water use today is actually less than in 1957. He said the regulatory framework we have here in Arizona is divided into three major areas depending on geographically where you live. He mentioned that heavily regulated areas are the areas of our population centers called Active Management Areas and we happen to be in the Phoenix AMA. He said that there are key programs that we have to follow, and one of those is the assured water supply program and what that does before a subdivision can be approved, the developer has to show to the Department of Water Resources that it has a 100-year renewable water supply. If they cannot demonstrate that, the subdivision does not even see the light of day before one spade of dirt is turned. He said that under that program there in Fountain Hills. We are designated as having a 100-year assured water supply, so we meet that requirement and we don't have to go through individual approvals for each subdivision. The water provider, the water company itself. We have taken that responsibility on and maintained that designation. He said that the other key program that is in the active management areas is the recharge and recovery program. He said they take our excess water supplies and they recharge them underground and store them for later recovery, and that it is a very efficient way to move water around, whether it's seasonally or over a multiple -year timeline. He said that the Arizona Water Banking Authority saves water underground as well for use by water providers in times of drought. The underground storage and recovery program that has been in place since 1986 has stored over 3 trillion gallons of water in the state as a backup supply. He said to put that in perspective, that's enough to serve the city of Phoenix their entire demand for over 30 years. He said that they are rolling out an enhanced billing system, where customers can log in to their website and their customer portal, and it will give very detailed information on water usage. He mentioned that they are upgrading their well infrastructure to be prepared and to continue to keep up with the growth curve. 8. COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIRMAN Chairman Garman stated that he asked Executive Assistant Espiritu to include a PDF called "13 Ways to Kill Your Community". He said that he wanted to make sure that each one of them had a copy. He said that it was written in a way that was informative but also amusing. He said that there are many of the same topics that they had been talking about and that went in making the Strategic Plan last year. He said that he wanted to make sure they had a copy of that going forward, to know that they were on the right track, and to see if it could inform them going forward. Also, he mentioned two more things about the way the commission runs. He said that he would like to get to a point where all commissioners are selecting the topics for the agenda so that he is just facilitating the directions that they want to take the commission and the topics that they think are important. 9. ADJOURNMENT MOVED BY Commissioner Cynthia Magazine, SECONDED BY Commissioner Mary Edman to ADJOURN the meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting at 5:29 p.m. Vote: 7 - 0 - Unanimously ATTEST AND PREPARED BY: ngela 6k:riiritu, Executive Assistant STRATEGIC PLAN}JING ADVISORY COMMISSION �. T Patrick Garman, Chairman CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular Meeting hold by the Fountain Hills Strategic Planning Advisory Commission in the Town Hall Council Chamber: on the 27 day of July, 2022. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum ‘,.. present. DATED this 24 day of August, 2022. Angela F spiritu, Executive Assistant