Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012.1009.TCWSM.Minutesz:\council packets\2012\r11-1-12\121009m.docx Page 1 of 10 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE WORK STUDY SESSION OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL OCTOBER 9, 2012 * CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Mayor Kavanagh called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. in the Town Hall Council Chambers. Present for roll call were the following members of the Fountain Hills Town Council: Mayor Kavanagh, Councilmember Yates, Vice Mayor Leger, Councilmember Brown, Councilmember Hansen, Councilmember Dickey and Councilmember Elkie. Town Manager Ken Buchanan, Town Attorney Andrew McGuire, Dr. Daniel Brooks and Town Clerk Bev Bender were also present. AGENDA ITEM #1 - PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION RELATING TO A REPORT ENTITLED, "AN OVERVIEW OF POTENTIAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS FOR FOUNTAIN HILLS," PREPARED BY ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY'S NEW VENTURE GROUP AT THE REQUEST OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION. Mayor Kavanagh thanked Dr. Daniel Brooks for coming back a second time and said that she was present in the audience when he did his presentation to the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (SPAC). She also expressed appreciation to Nick DePorter, Chairman of the SPAC, for making this all happen. Town Manager Ken Buchanan addressed the Council and requested that Chairman DePorter come forward at this time and introduce Dr. Daniel Brooks to the Council. Chairman DePorter advised that he has been working with Dr. Brooks for the past ten years and explained that Dr. Brooks runs a student organization called New Venture Group, where students have the opportunity to learn about becoming consultants and work in that particular field. He provided brief background information on Dr. Brooks and noted that every year the group does pro bono projects in communities and that they are willing to tackle anything. He stated that they contacted Dr. Brooks and asked him to look at economic development and health care prospects. He said that the information they were provided by the Doctor was very interesting and he believes that it will be worthwhile for the Council to be provided this information. Dr. Brooks addressed the Council and thanked the Council for the opportunity to appear before them. He commented on the participants in the New Venture Group and said they have a vast wealth of experience and bac kgrounds. He added that he hopes that the information being presented will be of some benefit to the Town of Fountain Hills. Dr. Brooks highlighted the presentation (a copy is available in the office of the Town Clerk and on-line) and provided an overview of the thinking process that went into the project which they collaborated on with the SPAC and said the goal was to try and convey the logic that drove their work. He advised that if there are particular areas of interest to the Council, he would be happy to provide more specific information on them. Dr. Brooks reviewed the following areas contained in the presentation: * Definitions: Economic Development and entrepreneurship * Context (Arizona/Metro-Phoenix/Fountain Hills) * Prioritizing: Defining and quantifying "overall attractiveness" of a new venture * Ranking new venture options * Fostering economic development Dr. Brooks noted that economic development is not really about economic activity or economic growth -- it is about quality of life and the quality of life that results from appropriately conducted and engaged economic activities. He added that in order to have economic development there has to be infrastructure, the ability to communicate and transport, move monies around and allocate resources in an effective way. He added that it presumes the human capital that can collaborate with these economic activities so there is an opportunity for people to engage and employ their capabilities in ways that generate economic benefits. He further stated that there also needs to be the ability to create z:\council packets\2012\r11-1-12\121009m.docx Page 2 of 10 things that are valued by the marketplace (innovation and competitiveness). He explained that the group tried to identify ways in which economic activity would create greater value, greater quality of life, and do so using the infrastructure, human capital and innovation that is part of Fountain Hills. He said that one distinction they made at the first part of their research was the difference between economic activit ies that is conventional small businesses and economic activities that are characterized as "start-ups." He explained that these are very different in terms of growth potential, in size and financial needs and their impact on the community. Dr. Brooks advised that conventional small businesses are designed to serve the community within which they reside (grocery store, garage, etc.) and they primarily move money around the community. He added that "start-ups" are business activities that tend to go beyond the domain of the community and bring revenues in from outside (Example: Google). He stated that both are needed and are huge contributors to quality of life but economically they contribute in a very different way. He added that they have this similarity -- for conventional businesses the initial stage of funding is owner/family/friends (80%) and that "start-ups" are essentially the same -- they are at 90% financing by owner/family/friends. He noted that where they are different is small businesses conventional businesses tend to stop after the first round of funding while "start-ups" require a large infusion of outside money, usually venture capital or more formal attachment to the financial institutions (banks or other sources of revenue). He added that this is where "start-ups" have the biggest challenge -- how to make the leap in the second round of funding and their great drop-out rate. He pointed out that the second phase allows those that are successful to be real sources of revenue coming into the community as opposed to circulating revenues within the community. Councilmember Dickey asked Dr. Brooks to define venture capital and he said he was referring to when a person comes in outside of the domain of friends and regular institutions -- these are people who give the company capital to get it going in exchange typically for an equity share of that company. He added that they usually are in for just the second stage of growth for the company so the company makes the next stage of growth so that they get financing from traditional financial institutions like banks. He stated that venture capitalists come in when a company needs money but doesn't have the track record, the credit history or the asset base that would qualify it for loans from a bank. He noted that these people take on a much greater risk and they ask for much greater returns for taking that risk. He added that they are usually in for three to seven years and then they "flip" the company (get their equity share out). He pointed out that this is the risky stage for "start-ups" and the reason why a lot of them fail but when they succeed they do so in a dynamic way that goes beyond what the impact of small businesses do. Dr. Brooks discussed failure points and said that the following are three reasons why the failures occur: 1) Lack of mentorship or a good business plan at the beginning (the most common reason for failure for conventional businesses). 2) Financing and inadequate cash flow. 3) Improper business structure that won't allow them to expand. Dr. Brooks stated that often these are things that communities can do instead of providing actual funding -- they can provide an infrastructure of advice, mentorship, and networking -- things that can materially modify the degree to which the small businesses experience a failure rate. Dr. Brooks referred to an article that ranked the 50 states in terms of the number of entrepreneurs per 100,000 adults and reported that Arizona ranked first in the nation in terms of entrepreneurial activity. He referred to a ranking bar chart in the presentation and noted that Arizona is almost 50% higher on the high end than number two. Mayor Kavanagh asked if Dr. Brooks had any idea what the rate of success was for them in Arizona and Dr. Brooks replied that the report states that the rate of success is as high or higher than the other states. Dr. Brooks further explained that a higher degree of entrepreneurialism means that there is money available -- money that is moving towards these types of ventures and helping them get started. He reported that among the 15 l argest metro areas in the United States, Arizona ranked 2nd behind only Los Angeles and tied with Atlanta. He said that the west is consistently a leader in entrepreneurial activity. Dr. Brooks discussed regional challenges, regional advantages, office prices, Fountain Hills' demographics, neighboring communities' and older neighborhoods' demographics, the demographic future of Fountain Hills and other communities; z:\council packets\2012\r11-1-12\121009m.docx Page 3 of 10 the Town's economics (wholesale trade, supermarket/grocery stores, retailers, administrative support and healthcare and social assistance) as well as economics in Paradise Valley (healthcare and ambulatory care, physicians' offices, accommodations, hotels, food services and professional services). He said after talking with four other municipal ities, it appears that Fountain Hills is perceived as not being part of the valley metro area and likes less activity, is "an interesting bystander, an attractive place to be but right now not that aggressive in looking at alternatives for economic activity in Fountain Hills." He said that he knows the Town has had discussions as well and what they heard may be different but this is the type of conversational flow that they heard and as a result the Town's existing economic portfolio is very heavily oriented towards conventional businesses, local community services -- the things that make the quality of life in Town high but tend to circulate local dollars rather than bring dollars in from other areas in terms of economic growth. He indicated the perception, if not wanted, is a hurdle to overcome. Vice Mayor Leger commented that he believes the description of Fountain Hills is somewhat accurate and said that he thinks their last survey in 2006, which gave birth to the SPAC, pretty much validates that in te rms of why people move and stay in Town. He said that he is not sure about "less aggressive, more aggressive" in terms of trying to bring businesses to Town, but he can see how that perception would be there. He added that if , in fact, they are that different couldn't that be twisted into a competitive advantage? Dr. Brooks responded absolutely and stated that he tried to convey it in a way that was wholly neutral and noted that no one viewed it as resistance. He further stated that the dialogues were not negative at all. The Vice Mayor said that he did not interpret it as negative and added that what Dr. Brooks is telegraphing to him is what he believes to be the Town's uniqueness and he believes that is a competitive advantage. Dr. Brooks replied that it can be and he thinks the one thing that is not a competitive advantage is there tends to be a view, even among municipalities or people that work in them, that Fountain Hills is "distant." He stated that if they just figure out time to the airport, time to a major hospital, all the community measures of integration, they will see that the Town is much more integrated. He advised that the group spent one afternoon just mapping the Town to all of the major things used to measure integration and Fountain Hills is closer than everything on the west side so the Town is far more integrated and the thinking is purely perceptual, it is not real. Councilmember Dickey commented that some of the priorities identified when they were doing the Strategic Plan had costs attached to them that people had to weight but there was a specific question about whether they would want to do things that would be more beneficial to the people who live in the community or go beyond the boundaries ; she thinks literally that question came back that they wanted to serve our community. Dr. Brooks stated that the next step is prioritizing -- if they looked at things that might be attractive, how would they prioritize them. He said that to do this more precisely they (the group) would do a set of interviews this fall with the SPAC members and members of the community. He referred to a value model that they constructed and noted that they took as the overall objective "Maximize the overall attractiveness of a new economic venture." He added that they defined attractiveness as the amount of start-up capital, maximize the attractiveness of the type of customers, maximize the availability and compatibility of employees working for the Town, maximize the breadth, margins and longevity of the market and maximize the quality and objectives of the business model. He said that they constructed a value metric under each of the headings and stated that they are scored from worst to best and then given a score to quantify the attractiveness. He further stated that they also weighted them b y how they thought their relative importance was for the people at the SPAC that they had talked with. He advised that minimizing the need for start -up capital is almost twice as important as maximizing the breadth, margins and longevity of the market (because of the scarcity in the budget right now of capital). He informed the Council that they can change these and have them reflect their actual values. Dr. Brooks said that according to their conversations with the SPAC, a new venture is more attractive if it: * Has a relatively short start-up cycle * Requires little capital investment on the part of the Town to start * Brings revenues from outside the community (a start-up) * Attracts a broad demographic to live in Fountain Hills * Support for schools, businesses, civic activities, social development z:\council packets\2012\r11-1-12\121009m.docx Page 4 of 10 Dr. Brooks discussed employee type and said that all else equal, it would be in the Town's best interest for the new venture to bring employees to the Town who can be part of the continued revitalization of the life of the community in terms of education, skill set, family status, desire to locate, interest in civic and community affairs and a willingness to invest in their own and the Town's development. He ad ded that the group was asked to consider the following values: Healthcare, Wellness, Medical, Bio-Medical/Bio-Tech and Tourism. He pointed out that they scored those areas on the value model (the scores go from 0 to 1,000) and said that he wouldn't put any great stock in the numbers, because the group scored them, not the Town. He noted that Lifestyle Disability Solutions scored the highest and a Processing Lab the lowest. Councilmember Yates commented that they basically used a 10% scale per category so 90% or above is ideal and 80% is good. Dr. Brooks clarified that actually the meaning of the score would be validated by the Town and if they looked at the full description of the Lifestyle Disabilities Center and said, "This is exactly what we want," then they would recalibrate the score and make it much higher. He added that the group used these scores but the Town would ultimately validate them themselves. He reiterated that the group hopes to do that this fall with the SPAC and some community members. Dr. Brooks informed the Council that what is being provided is the group's opinion and so much more can be done with additional data. He added that he thinks Fountain Hills can do very well but that he thinks there is a communication issue as well. Dr. Brooks briefly discussed the scores for Lifestyle Disability Solutions, Computer Software, a Rehab Facility, a Destination Resort, and referred to a chart that depicted the overall attractiveness of new business ventures as previously discussed. Dr. Brooks discussed the "Old Model" -- top down by policy and said that the community government drives economic development through policy and incentive and the "New" Model -- clusters/portfolios of ventures, consisting of: * Collaboration between government, companies, institutions, education and skill development * People at all levels participate (not just institutional support) * More of a "bottom up" model of growth that is broadly inclusive * Focus on "clusters" of activity, network of collaborators. Dr. Brooks added that the opportunities include: * Strengthening the economy: funding/credit * Increased entrepreneurial interest and activity * Arizona entrepreneurism/growing population * Challenges in neighboring states (NV, CA) In addition to: * Increasing consensus and energy in Fountain Hills * Growing interest * More creative thinking on partnerships Dr. Brooks advised that the incubator that started in May in Peoria only had one company and then they attracted a second one this summer and then this fall attracted two companies out of the blue from California who were start -ups, quite small and really organically linked to anything (the head of one of them is from a family that is from here). He said that they now have four people in the incubator and he thinks it reflects the type of opportunism that can be seen in places like California and Nevada, where people are looking around for an alternative. He added that the Fountain Hills model is that it is a great place to live and a great place t o work as opposed to "I have a big building downtown with jobs." He noted that based on the consensus that they saw in terms of interest with the SPAC, the growing interest in z:\council packets\2012\r11-1-12\121009m.docx Page 5 of 10 looking at creative ways to address this, he thinks there are lots of positives and communication is something that can very easily be addressed and becoming part of the broad activity of entrepreneurism in the Valley would be something that could be easily achieved. Dr. Brooks informed the Council that the group noted that the most precious resource in facilitating economic development in the municipalities they talked to (and perhaps in Fountain Hills but the Town would know better) is time -- the time of relevant personnel, the time of planning, etc. so if they think of the trend from 2000 to 2010 and then project that 2010 out to 2020, they are a third through that decade already. He pointed out that the typical cycle from start-up to fully productive is in the range of five to seven years. He stressed that being concise, clear and prioritizing is a way to address that. Dr. Brooks acknowledged that the group ended up feeling pretty positive about their findings. Mayor Kavanagh said that Dr. Brooks had spoken about incubators and there is a small incubator that started in Town partnering with one of the Town's banks. She added that she noticed that a lot of incubators concentrate on just one industry and asked if Dr. Brooks thought that was the best way to go (decide what they want to draw to the Town and then have that incubator focus on that industry?). Dr. Brooks responded that if you just have one incubator then typically that is the safest way because each of the start - ups is like a lottery ticket -- and if they have identified this as an economic area of activity that is very attractive to the community and believe that they have relative advantages in fostering and that the long-term economic contribution is very attractive for the community, then instead of having a single lottery ticket that will get them that economic industry, they get four or five and in that way they would have a much higher probability of seeing that industry thrive as opposed to just having one. Mayor Kavanagh commented that Alan Magazine, who serves on the SPAC Commission, did an excellent presentation to the Chamber of Commerce on "Health Clusters." She stated that he did a study on the incredible amount of health and wellness the Town actually has and she saw that as a major cluster in Fountain Hills. Dr. Brooks noted that a book came out a couple of years ago called "Start-up Nation," and it is about Israel and how many start-ups they have. He reported that they attract eight times more dollars of venture capital per cap ita than the United States, thirty times more than Europe and eighty percent more than Southeast Asia. He said they have had more start-ups that are publicly traded in the last ten years than India and China combined. He advised that a person went and made essentially a big Google map of Israel and located every start-up in that country and showed it to Israel (the government) and to the start-ups and the start-ups were shocked that there were so many and it made them start to talk to each other because start-ups, by necessity, tend to focus on their own needs, customers, market and financing and are not aware that two doors down there is another start-up (unless they are a competitor). He said that this came to be something of real value to the community at large and also to the activity. He stated that one of the things the group worked on with Town Manager Ken Buchanan on this fall was a business map of Fountain Hills -- what is in the Downtown area, what it is in the corridor, what is along Shea and are there patterns, maps of synergies, of what is there and active. He informed the Council that they found this to be a source of encouragement and a source of information that allowed them to collaborate on maybe getting more effective financing by comb ining or maybe sharing leads and other kinds of information. Councilmember Yates asked what other sectors Dr. Brooks feels would be better suited or rank more in the 90% that they talked about and Dr. Brooks replied that the group proposed refining the value model so that they would have a better idea of what it is the Town is looking for -- what are high value characteristics, medium value characteristics, etc. and what the metrics are for those. He said that once they know that information they would ha ve a much better idea of what business sectors are most aligned with and what the Town is looking for in terms of economic development. He added that they don't actually have a list; they have a bigger list and not a prioritized list and the next stage is to refine that and come up with a prioritization list that would come before the Council. He stated that once the Council says they agree with the top third, then more detailed research would be undertaken. Councilmember Yates noted that when the market dropped it did create opportunities both in the business and residential sectors. He said that he has noticed that the people renting the places he owns are in that younger, family (mother with children) demographic. He asked if they should bring in the fun, the upbeat type of retail to attract the younger families or, because the market has dropped and the younger families have come, will the business sector now come? z:\council packets\2012\r11-1-12\121009m.docx Page 6 of 10 Dr. Brooks responded that among the communities the group talked to there seems to be an organic growth. He said that one of the communities they looked at was Austin and he knows they are not exactly like Fountain Hills but they had similar issues and they leveraged conventional businesses to start bringing people from the extended community in -- not on purpose, they just started coming in and that started growth and also some people to relocate because there was sort of an organic growth of both the constituency to provide a market for t hese activities and then the activities responded to that market. Councilmember Dickey discussed the "old" versus the "new" stating it was getting away from big control and perhaps it wasn’t as important to have the ability to “write the check” as Dr. Brooks discussed regarding Peoria. She referred to Page 27 of the report, which talks about Paradise Valley and says that Fountain Hills could be at a turning point as was stated earlier going towards a Gold Canyon or to take on the profile of Paradise Valley. She added that one of the sentences said that Fountain Hills does not have the economic structure to sustain a demographic profile like Paradise Valley. She asked if that is an economic development point of view, taxation, or is there a government role in that aspect. Dr. Brooks advised that they analyzed all of the communities to determine which one Fountain Hills looks like and were surprised to see how similar the Town is to Paradise Valley. He noted that Paradise Valley has sustaine d that demographic over a long period of time whereas the Town's demographic is changing every year. He stated that they then tried to look for the reason why this is the case and they believe it has to do with the type of businesses that are in Paradise Valley. He reported that they have a much higher proportion of active professionals as part o f the community of which not all tend to retire there. He added that there is a re -supply of the demographic as new physicians, attorneys and upscale skills move there to sustain the Town of Paradise Valley. He said he thinks it is a function of the economic engine that is already there and not a function of any particular government regulatory structure. He added that he thinks it is partly a function of the location as well. Council member Dickey asked if Dr. Brooks was saying that there wasn’t anything that they would have to do along those lines and if it was basically what could happen within the city itself. She asked if Paradise Valley has retail. Dr. Brooks responded that Paradise Valley does have a fair amount of high-end retail but that is not the main source of their revenue stream (that is high-end tourism and professional services). Vice Mayor Leger expressed his appreciation to the group for their hard work and his opinion that they have just "scratched the surface with respect to this whole solution of economic development". The Vice Mayor questioned as to what Dr. Brooks and his group views were as to what was the Town's greatest hurdle. Dr. Brooks responded that in any community there is never just one and that it was the group's opinion that there are a couple of challenges to the trend that is currently in place. He stated the opinion that if they continue on the same path as it has been over the last twelve years, by 2020 the Town will be much more similar to Gold Canyon than to Peoria. He stated that one of the challenges is this "demographic hump", where companies see they haven’t hired anyone for a long time so now there was a big gap between new hires and the people who have worked there as you have the people who get hired who were twenty-three and next closest person in age is the age of their parents (fifty-two). This gap does not make it attractive to young people as far as investing their lives (no friends or social network, an age gap exists). He stated that the demographic gap keeps widening so they should start filling that from the lower end so that there are not larger gaps. He noted that when the demographic shift continues the economic investments change as the things that they want change (i.e. they don’t need schools as much, don’t need new investments, appliances, or cars, or those things locally, and they don’t need a job that is as local). They have options because they have skills or they already have an asset base so those things tend to grow together. He stated that it looked like the trend with demographics and economics that go with that create a community group that is perhaps not as motivated to have lots of new economic activity and they were not as bothered that the grade schools are not growing. He indicated that was what reminded him of Albuquerque where they had various advocacy groups who had very different objectives. He noted the importance of identifying common objectives and leveraging them to obtain broader consensus around community support or the venture that is ultimately taken as was done in Albuquerque. Vice Mayor Leger agreed that there are lots of things going on that need to be considered but said that what has stood out for him is the notion of perception. He said as they start identifyin g specific issues and solutions would a solution pertaining to that be helpful as a starting point? He added that communication to him translated into the notion of perception so the next logical step for him (and the Council has talked about this) is the notion of branding and z:\council packets\2012\r11-1-12\121009m.docx Page 7 of 10 marketing because he believes they are different than what the perception out there is, i.e. too far away, and asked if this is part of the solution. Councilmember Yates interjected and asked whether it was just advertising. He as ked if their brand was not the right brand or is it that they have a brand but they keep it a secret. Dr. Brooks said his comments referenced the comments of people who are parts of other municipalities or parts of economic activities that are significant within those municipalities and they are referring to the degree of interest that the Town has in new economic activity in Fountain Hills as opposed to being an overall "great place to live," He added that they were commenting about the Town's interest in bringing in new economic activity. He stated that there is a saying, "If you are small, you need to create a big shadow" and the ways in which the Town can do that are pretty diverse. He advised that there is an entrepreneurial convention once every year for Arizona and the west and encouraged the Town to host it -- it sends a signal out all over the place that you have a great spot here, are very close Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, have a great golf course, are close to the mountains -- and this is a way to get people to try something a little bit different (instead of going to Scottsdale). He noted that just by doing that they would be creating events that take on their own publicity so the Town doesn't have to hire an agency or write the copy -- they will do most of that themselves. He added that they should host other types of events that send a signal and to write "white papers," start a column in the paper, send people to conferences and just be visible -- just let them know you are there, active and interested. He said they should go to some local meetings and then have the community development guy from Phoenix come and speak. He explained that it's not that they need to learn things that they couldn't get from a telephone call, it is a show of force - - all the bodies are here and there is this give and take and perhaps collaboration can take place. He stated the opinion that those types of things are more effective at the start than just an ad campaign because he thinks ad campaigns sometimes look like just maintenance. He added that this type of active integration with other activities here can be quite effective. He encouraged the Town to hold conferences and bring groups together and become part of the conversation and that doesn't cost very much. He also suggested they invite President Michael Crowe to come and give a talk on economic development and how ASU is partnering with the Mayo Clinic. He said that he might not come but at least he knows you are interested and will remember you the next time. He reiterated the importance of pooling and leveraging all of their connections. Vice Mayor Leger thanked Dr. Brooks for his input. Mayor Kavanagh commented that she tries to take up 80% of the space when she goes out and represents the Town as Mayor. She referred to the page relative to strengths and weaknesses and said that she likes the fact that they have provided some concrete weaknesses to look at. She added that some of them are actually being worked on right now like the fact that the Town has few restaurants with outside seating. She noted that they are working on allowing restaurants to have that capability without going through a special permitting process. She said that they are trying to establish a center in Town and are working on their medians to make them more of a gathering place and entertainment options as well -- they are trying to bring in more events and have more entertainment just for their own community, which is drawing people from other communities. She stated that it seems as though in some ways they are on the right track and Dr. Brown and his group have provided lots of suggestions and direction, which they very much appreciate. Dr. Brooks said that people go to a specific location or event when they go to Scottsdale for example and going to Fountain Hills seems to be more particular. He noted that Fountain Hills has such a great setting and it could be very European. He added that it is very compressed and one of the things that work for community centers is compression, where they can walk from one thing to another. He stated that what doesn't work for Phoenix is the fact that it is very spread out and reiterated that one of the things the group noted was that the Town could be very European with the lake, the green belt, the space, etc. and if they had outdoor seating, people might talk about going to Fountain Hills for the evening and decide when they get here what they are going to do. He reiterated that the group believes that there are lots of real positives. Mayor Kavanagh thanked Dr. Brooks and his students for the amazing job they have done. AGENDA ITEM #2 - DISCUSSION REGARDING ESTABLISHING A POSSIBLE POLITICAL SIGN FREE ZONE WITHIN THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, PURSUANT TO ARIZ. REV. STAT. §16-1019. Town Manager Ken Buchanan stated that in response to Council's direction, a proposed map of a political sign -free zone within the Town of Fountain Hills has been developed. He said that following Mr. Rodgers presentation, he, the Town Attorney and staff will be happy to respond to any questions. z:\council packets\2012\r11-1-12\121009m.docx Page 8 of 10 Senior Planner Bob Rodgers addressed the Council relative to this agenda item and reviewed the staff report (a copy is available in the office of the Town Clerk). He advised that the Town Council requested that staff look into the creation of a political sign-free zone as permitted by a recently adopted Arizona Revised Statute (A.R.S. §16-1019F). He informed the Council that the Statute provides that the Town can designate by Resolution specific Commercial Tourism, Commercial Resort and Hotel political sign-free zones. He noted that the Town must determine that placing political signs within the rights-of-ways in the sign-free zones will detract from the scenic and aesthetic appeal of the area and deter its appeal to tourists. He added that up to two zones may be identified in Town with a maximum combined total of three square miles in size. Mr. Rodgers referred to a map displayed in the Council Chambers and advised that staff generated the map showing one potential location for such a sign-free zone. He said that the map has been generated for discussion purposes only at this time. He noted the following information: * The area of Shea Boulevard only, which could potentially be a stand-alone sign-free zone, is 0.2 square miles; * If they designate every current street right-of-way in Town as a sign-free zone, they would be at 2.3 square miles and, if they include all the rights-of-ways in Elman's property, they would still be under three square miles; * The draft map displays a sign-free zone of .7 square miles Mayor Kavanagh commented that they could do all of the areas (contiguous) depicted on the map as well as all the rights-of-way and still be in accordance with the law and Mr. Rodgers concurred. Councilmember Elkie stressed the importance of ensuring that the Council's intent as far as taking action on this item be part of the minutes. He added that the statute reads, "Based on a predominance of commercial tourism, resort and hotel uses within the zone" and said he doesn't know if it would be problematic to zone all of the rights-of-ways. Town Attorney Andrew McGuire agreed that in determining the Council's intent, the public will go back and review the meeting minutes. He added that there isn't a lot on this statute as far as legislative history for them to look back on and see what the legislature's focus was other than to say that in those areas where they realized that it would be detrimental to these specific industries it would be appropriate to prohibit the signs. He noted that staff has looked at two municipalities that have established sign-free zones, Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, which took very different approaches, mainly because of their size (Scottsdale's is more concentrated and Paradise Valley has two areas that pretty much cover every arterial and collector street in the town). He said that the slight difference between Paradi se Valley and the Town is the fact that they (PV) have resorts scattered throughout the community and very clearly their Lincoln Boulevard area is going to fit into this no matter what. He stated that he thinks they were fairly aggressive in the way they established their zones and staff has not heard any feedback from anyone who is negatively viewing what Paradise Valley has done (although they have only been through one election since that time). He noted that when you get to Paradise Valley it is very clear when you get to the edge of the zone because there is nothing on the next corner (no signs at all). He said that he thinks the statute is capable of being interpreted as broadly as Paradise Valley did and added that the same type of demographics do not exist in Fountain Hills as far as where the hotels and resorts are located but they certainly are spread about to the point where many of the Town's arterial streets are used to access the ones that are in Town. He stated that what has been presented by staff in this case gets them to just about all the resorts and activity/tourism areas in the Town (like the Fountain and those areas but they also have Copperwynd, which is considerably farther up there and golf is a major tourism draw). He expressed the opinion that the option being proposed is defensible but added that they haven't seen the limits to which people are going to push the law. Mayor Kavanagh commented that it is pretty broad too when it says that it applies to signs detracting from the s cenic and aesthetic appeal of the area. She added that that is what Fountain Hills is all about. Mr. Buchanan asked if the Council wanted staff to proceed with the map for a business item for consideration for the Council. Mayor Kavanagh said that she doesn't want to speak on behalf of everyone but she would be interested in pursuing this and not going any further. She added that she did not want to push the limits of what they can do and stated that she thinks the proposal seems reasonable at this point in time. z:\council packets\2012\r11-1-12\121009m.docx Page 9 of 10 Vice Mayor Leger agreed with the Mayor's comments and stated that looking at what is being proposed and looking at the statute he believes what staff is proposing is defensible. He further stated that his goal would be to maximize the political sign-free zones in as much of Fountain Hills as they possibly can within the definition of the law. He added that if they can stretch it beyond this then he would like to see staff do that but as a starting point he is very pleased with what has been presented (but he would like to see them maximize it within the confines of the law). Mr. Rodgers noted that one option would be to add Kingstree Boulevard as it goes right alongside Desert Canyon Golf Course, a minor arterial. He stated that they have plenty of room to play with and plenty of room to expand. Mayor Kavanagh requested clarification from the Vice Mayor and asked if he is saying that he want s to start with what is being proposed and expand later on or does he want to expand it right now. Vice Mayor Leger responded that he thinks that what staff is proposing is a good starting point but he would like staff to go back to the drawing board and maximize sign-free zoning that is legally defensible and within the confines of the statute (other areas like Kingstree Boulevard that could become part of the mapping). Mayor Kavanagh advised that she could go along with that as long as long as they do not stretch it out into neighborhoods where there really are not any golf courses. Councilmember Hansen asked about Copperwynd. Mr. Buchanan stated the Council that staff will take another look at this to determine if there are any other roads that fit that criteria and bring their findings back to the Council as a business item for the Council's consid eration. Councilmember Elkie said that when they talk about three square miles he is looking along Shea Boulevard and the .7 miles -- and that is a little "thicker" along Shea. Mr. Rodgers clarified that everything shown in red on the map adds up to less than one square mile (.7 square miles). Councilmember Yates commented that the way the statute is written it is everything "contiguous, aggregate, square foot." Mr. Rodgers noted that they cannot regulate private properties. Councilmember Elkie said that as long as the proposal fits within the statute he is fine with it. Councilmember Dickey pointed out that everyone had received e-mails from some constituents about this and noted that a desire to reverse the law could also be in the works. In response to a question from the Mayor, Mr. Buchanan stated that staff has received the direction they needed. AGENDA ITEM #3 – ADJOURNMENT. Councilmember Yates MOVED to adjourn the meeting and Vice Mayor Leger SECONDED the motion. The Work Study Session adjourned at 7:05 p.m. z:\council packets\2012\r11-1-12\121009m.docx Page 10 of 10 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS By __________________________ Linda M. Kavanagh, Mayor ATTEST AND PREPARED BY: __________________________ Bevelyn J. Bender, Town 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 in the Town Hall Council Chambers on the 9th day of October, 2012. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this 1ST day of November 2012. _____________________________ Bevelyn J. Bender, Town Clerk