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02092012CouncilMinutes CITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD CITY COUNCIL AGENDA – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012 – 4:30 P.M. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1. Mayor’s Advisory Council (Mayor) 2. Comprehensive Plan and Map EXECUTIVE SESSION: 1.Personnel Evaluations - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-b) 2.Real Property Acquisitions - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-c) 3.Pending Litigation - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-f) MINUTES City Officials Present: Mayor Steve Fuhriman Councilmember Dana Kirkham Councilmember Rex Thompson Councilmember Brian Powell Councilmember Russell Slack (arrived at 4:37 p.m.) Councilmember Brad Christensen City Administrator/Planning Director/Clerk Ron Folsom Deputy City Clerk Rachael Brown City Engineer Lance Bates I.T. Director Bruce Patterson Public Works Supervisor Ray Ellis Building Official Charlie Allen City Officials Absent: Councilmember Sean Coletti DISCUSSION ITEMS: Mayor Fuhriman opened the meeting at 4:35 p.m. at the City building located at 2135 South Ammon Road. 1. Mayor’s Advisory Council (Mayor): Mayor Fuhriman gave the Councilmembers a copy of his City of Ammon Mayor’s Advisory Procedural Guide. Mayor Fuhriman said this is designed strictly as a fact finding vehicle to bring items from the public to the Council. Mayor Fuhriman said his goal is to have each Councilmember recommend two people to be on the board and participate and be active. Mayor Fuhriman is asking for approval and direction from the Council. Councilmember Kirkham said she supports this and said Councilmember Thompson probably remembers the Council trying something like this before. Councilmember Kirkham said her only concerns are that she wants to make sure that relevant ideas are being discussed, and that the Council would get a report quarterly. Councilmember Kirkham’s second concern is that the board is being called a council, but she would rather it be called a committee. Mayor Fuhriman said his purpose is to get the pulse of the community, and get the citizens involved in what the City is doing. Councilmember Slack is against the idea as it is proposed, but not because he is against having a Council. Councilmember Slack said he thinks it would be great if two things happen. Councilmember Slack said he feels the committee needs to have a specific purpose with a specific end in mind, but to have it be a general gauge of the community and their heartbeat; he doesn’t feel it will be effective. Councilmember Christensen said maybe they could make a better effort as a Council and Mayor to involve more citizens and extend invitations to citizens to provide their input which achieves the same end. Councilmember Thompson doesn’t feel the committee would get the pulse of the community, but instead their own strong opinions and personal agendas. Councilmember Kirkham said this is very similar to Mayor Jared Fuhriman and his youth committee in the City of Idaho Falls. Councilmember Powell asked the Mayor to elaborate on what the committee would do. Mayor said an example would be the original town site to discuss whether or not to improve it. Councilmember Kirkham said she feels opening it up that way, you are going to get all the personal agendas, but she thinks water meters would be a viable idea for a committee to tackle. Councilmember 13 Council Minutes 2-9-2012 Page of Christensen said he loved that idea. Councilmember Powell said whatever is discussed needs to be measurable. Councilmember Kirkham said the Council needs to each consider and recommend two names from a cross section of the City and the Mayor needs to think about what the objective would be. Councilmember Powell would like to have them come to at least a couple Council meetings and report on their progress. Ron said when he did the comprehensive plan committee; all of the people involved wanted to know how long they would be obligated for. Mayor Fuhriman said his entire purpose in having the committee is to have community involvement. 2. Comprehensive Plan and Map: Councilmember Kirkham said the comprehensive plan was an interesting read, and felt if she was moving into Ammon she would want to read the comprehensive plan. Ron displayed the map and explained the red boundary is the impact area, pink means commercial designation, yellow means multi family, white is low density residential, and if it’s blue it means it’s industrial. Ron said the current comprehensive plan map has been in use since 1999. Councilmember Kirkham responded to Ron’s comment and said she was thinking about this with regard to Hitt Road and if the MOU is ever completed and signed, the City has said it would never jump Hitt Road and even though our area of impact doesn’t go all the way to Shelley, she felt future Councils would need to know that. Ron said this is the existing comprehensive plan and showed the Council the new electronic comprehensive plan map. Ron explained the seven requested changes to the comprehensive plan map. Discussion ensued regarding the proposed changes. Ron said the (Bonneville Metropolitan Planning Organization) BMPO had a projection done for growth in the County and each City and projected 2% growth each year. Councilmember Kirkham asked how he projected the growth. Discussion ensued regarding projected growth of the surrounding areas. Councilmember Kirkham said she thought it was interesting that the land use inventory pointed out that 40% of the City of Ammon land is undeveloped, and the point is made later on that the City has more than enough land for residential and commercial use. Councilmember Powell asked what the City will do when a developer comes and wants to annex further east or further north. Ron said the Planning and Zoning Commission addressed that and the recommendation was, yes you can come to our community, but you pay for the entire offsite infrastructure needed to tie the development into the main City systems. Councilmember Kirkham said the City will not pay for any needed upgrades. Discussion ensued regarding new development. Councilmember Thompson asked if the developer would still need to have a sewer hookup fee. Ron said yes. Councilmember Kirkham asked about the flood plain not being on the comprehensive plan. Lance said on the comp plan planning phase it probably wasn’t appropriate. Ron said the City doesn’t have an adopted plan. Discussion ensued regarding the flood plain. Councilmember Kirkham said in the recreation standards it states the National Parks and Recreation Association no longer endorses using per capita calculation for park needs, but later states for community parks it uses a standard of four acres per 1,000 people and asked if the City was still using the per capita requirement. Ron said yes, the City of Ammon is doing that. Councilmember Thompson thought the City was below that. Ron said the City has 55 acres in the City. Ron said the City keeps saying that the Quail Ridge retention area is not a park, but if it’s not going to be a park, then is it going to be in the Parks system, or will it be a Public Works requirement. Ron said developers are not going to maintain a retention area the way the City would want the retention area maintained. Councilmember Kirkham said she thought we would design it, create it, mow it, but anything beyond that would be the homeowners association’s responsibility and that means trees, playground equipment, and so on. Ron asked if the City would accept it into the Parks system. Councilmember Kirkham said no, because it’s a retention area. Councilmember Powell asked if a homeowner purchases playground equipment and if a child is injured, who is responsible. Ron said that the Parks Department has informed him that if any playground equipment is placed in the area, it must meet the standards set by the federal government. Discussion ensued regarding Quail Ridge & Woodland Hills retention ponds. Councilmember Kirkham asked how the City is encouraging the use of vegetation in new subdivision design. Councilmember Kirkham said this would include low water demand trees, shrubs and grasses, native vegetation that would help in water demand. Councilmember Kirkham asked how the City is actually doing that. Ron said the City required Hawks Landing to use low water design. Councilmember Kirkham said when they come with a development agreement, is the City going to tell the developer they have to adopt this policy. Ron said the City informs the developer of the policy, and Ron tells them they have to work with the Parks Director. Ron said that would be in the standard policy. Councilmember Kirkham asked Councilmember Christensen to speak with Ken Knoch regarding energy and community design. Councilmember Kirkham felt the transportation section was very well done, and said it was a great overview of what the City is supposed to do with regards to the roadways. Councilmember Kirkham said she liked the section about the bicycle paths and pedestrians, but felt the City had not done much with this. Discussion ensued regarding bike paths. Councilmember Christensen said under the economic section, he would like to see a statement that says we as a City might be willing to forego some revenue on specific items if it is in the interest of attracting developments with a strong economic impact. Councilmember Kirkham said she feels this is a legitimate concern, and the City does need to do things to motivate growth. Councilmember Christensen said he would also like to see a statement that says “Ammon is fiscally conservative, and its objectives are accomplished through budgeting as well as the use of volunteers”. Councilmember Christensen informed Ron of a few items he felt should be re-worded. Discussion ensued regarding wording issues. Councilmember Powell asked Bruce to inform the Council of how close he is to completing the City’s first broadband link. Bruce said in June he will have every well except for one connected. 23 Council Minutes 2-9-2012 Page of Bruce said he had mentioned to Council he has a piece of software the City pays an annual hosting fee for, and said as we came into winter his goal was to try to get some things into that system, but that has not happened. Bruce said he has found himself behind and he is beginning to feel a little anxious about keeping records for the fiber he already has in the ground. Bruce said he first spoke with Ron about possibly getting some contract help, and Ron informed him he would need to come up with a cost and then he could bring it to the Council. Bruce said he then went to a professor that teaches (Geographic Information System) GIS at ISU here in Idaho Falls. Bruce said he received a couple of responses back and one appears to be a pretty skilled person, and has a degree in GIS. Bruce said as he looks at this it is really more of a long term position as it grows, but his budget can’t support a full time position. Councilmember Kirkham asked if there was enough money in the budget. Bruce said he can only speak to his budget, and said at this rate he would require this person he does have enough. Councilmember Slack asked why Bruce would need someone with a GIS degree and could he just hire someone to do data entry. Bruce said the process is pretty technical and at the end of the day you need someone that knows how to put the information in and get the information out. Lance said it is not strictly data entry. Discussion ensued regarding the detail required for this position. Councilmember Powell said this is Bruce’s budget and the Council has approved the budget and how he sees fit to spend the funds in that budget. The Council was in agreement. Lance said he has money in his budget for GIS. EXECUTIVE SESSION: 1. Personnel Evaluations - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-b) 2. Real Property Acquisitions - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-c) 3. Pending Litigation - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-f) The meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m. ___________________________________________ Steve Fuhriman, Mayor _____________________________________________ Ron Folsom, City Clerk 33 Council Minutes 2-9-2012 Page of