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03112010CouncilMinutes-WS CITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2010 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD CITY COUNCIL AGENDA – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2010 – 4:30 P.M. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1.Dist 93 School Traffic Concerns with Princess Drive Open Enrollment (Council)* 2.Utility Rates and Connection Fees (Charlie to have building fee breakdown and Ron tax breakdown between IF and Ammon)* 3.Parks and Rec. City Right-of-Way Proposal (Ken)* 4.Rockwell Road through Woodland Hills Park – How to Proceed (Ken)* 5.Public Works Building (Dana)* 6.Statement Newsletters How and When to Use and with Whose Authority (Sean)* 7.Misc. MINUTES City Officials Present: Mayor Steve Fuhriman Councilmember Lee Bean (left at 6:00 p.m.) Councilmember Rex Thompson Councilmember Dana Kirkham Councilmember Sean Coletti (arrived 4:45 p.m.) Councilmember Russell Slack City Clerk Leslie Folsom City Engineer Lance Bates City Planner Ron Folsom City Treasurer Jennifer Belfield City Officials Absent: Councilmember Brian Powell City Attorney Scott Hall Mayor Steve Fuhriman opened the meeting at 4:35 p.m. at the City Hall building located at 2135 South Ammon Road. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1. Dist 93 School Traffic Concerns with Princess Drive Open Enrollment (Council)*: Ron saidhe has had several calls from concerned constituents after the publication. Their concerns were parents dropping off students, going from 2 to 3 buses to additional traffic, and the City hadn’t required a secondary access. Councilmember Bean stated he has also received several calls. Dr. Chuck Shackett, 7517 South 15 West, Idaho Falls stated that Councilmember Kirkham had called him concerning a possible violation of the Conditional Use Permit (CUP). He also sees the concern with Mountain Valley’s Science School concerning the traffic. He feels that 2-3 buses will be adequate to transport the students, but now with the possibility of open enrollment, he doesn’t know how many will be coming to this school. There is an existing rule for open enrollment, until they are 85% full. He would like to present some potential solutions and he would like Guy to present them. They currently have 50 students applying. Council Minutes 3-11-10Page 1 of 6 Guy Blisner, 2785 Linda Circle, Health and Safety Security Coordinator for the District stated he reviews issues prior to the situation, with part of his job mitigating traffic issues. One solution would be a walking school bus like Falls Valley, which has been extremely successful. It encourages students to walk and creates a sense of community. Another solution would be where car-poolers get preferred drop off and pick up. They have looked into incentivizing carpooling with small trinkets. They have considered a single shuttle bus – one stop pickup and drop off. They have contacted Kmart and Kmart is amicable with their parking lot. Dr. Shackett said they could also look at flip-flopping the driveways of the cars and the buses, since the bus area is much larger. th Brian Arms, 1978 S. 60 E. said the incentives are mainly with the students. He said most of the time the incentives they use are trinket like items such as, water bottles, wrist bands etc. Parents on the walking school bus get a high visibility jacket and walk through the neighborhood with the children. Councilmember Slack said he feels the problem is with the traffic going down the public streets, not the dropping off. Councilmember Slack asked isn’t the problem with the violation of the CUP. Councilmember Thompson stated that the secondary access would connect with Wayne Avenue and asked if this has happened. Guy said the secondary access actually follows the railroad tracks and the canal. Councilmember Bean asked if they had ever discussed preventing access. Ron said this typically is a chain or bollards, but that would be part of the final site inspection. Councilmember Bean is afraid someone in a hurry will try to use it. Roger Hill, 3497 N. Ammon Road said yes they agreed, there would be gates with the City having a key to unlock it. The school feels that they are looking at putting them at both ends, since they don’t want someone stopped at the end and then they have an issue. Councilmember Kirkham asked the Council if any of the solutions solve the problem. Councilmember Bean asked Dr. Shacket how many applicants are within the boundaries of the school. Dr. Shackett said all of them will come from outside the attendance area. He said originally they thought of getting a bus, but their budget just got cut. Councilmember Bean asked what the advantage of the shuttle bus is. Dr. Shackett said it’s much easier than fighting the traffic. Councilmember Bean said based on your comments you feel concerned that there will be traffic issues. Councilmember Coletti asked if this has been confirmed to be the math and science school. Dr. Shackett stated yes. Councilmember Bean said originally this was based on a Boise State grant. Dr. Shackett said he thinks they can still do it without the grant, but it won’t be as extensive as they had hoped. Councilmember Bean asked if they have explored putting it in another school. Dr. Shackett said it has been discussed, but to do that just because of traffic issues doesn’t balance out. Councilmember Bean asked what you will do, if the CUP is pulled. Dr. Shackett stated he doesn’t feel they have violated anything. Councilmember Bean said when the CUP was given it was based on information given and this information has been changed. Councilmember Kirkham said in the future you will see more conditions listed on the CUP’s. Councilmember Bean said this is something the residents do not want. Dr. Shackett asked what you would have us to do. Councilmember Bean said it goes back to what you originally proposed. Dr. Shackett said they have always had open enrollment. Councilmember Kirkham said you don’t advertise it. Dr. Shackett disagrees with the violation. Councilmember Kirkham said in the minutes there would be 3 – 4 buses and the majority would be walking students. Councilmember Bean said one of the comments was from Alan Cunningham who said this school was made for the residents in the area. The City requested sidewalks down both sides of Princess, since there was going to be so much walking traffic. Councilmember Bean said he is concerned with 150 cars in and out. Dr. Shackett said there are probably less students bused, since it’s a neighborhood school. He doesn’t feel they have misrepresented anything. Dr. Shackett said there wasn’t any discussion over the cars. Councilmember Kirkham said there was discussion about the number of cars in the minutes. Dr. Shackett asked about the discussion in the minutes. Councilmember Kirkham asked Leslie to get the transcription of the minutes. Councilmember Slack said there is a big field behind the school building and asked what long term plans are to make that a secondary access. Dr. Shackett said yes, that would be great. Councilmember Bean said having a secondary access will relieve some pressure, but would only relieve that which is coming from south of Sunnyside. Councilmember Coletti asked if the open enrollment had been set. Dr. Shackett said they try to have the schools at 85% capacity when they open. The school fits 500 – 600 and there is a balance there, so they can allow open enrollment students to come in. With the Intermountain Demographic study he feels there will be over 300, but they are going to budget for 300. Councilmember Kirkham said she believes they are at an impasse and asked if there was a compromise. Ron said in his discussion with Scott regarding the conditional use permit, he doesn’t feel they misrepresented themselves, but the issue was the additional traffic going through the Council Minutes 3-11-10Page 2 of 6 neighborhood. Councilmember Bean asked why we have to have more than 350 here at this school and it’s because of the math & science school. Dr. Shackett said it has nothing to do with the math and science center. We try to accommodate for growth. Councilmember Bean asked Dr. Shackett why they chose this school for the math & science project, rather than one of the others. Dr. Shackett said because when you open up a school it is an opportunity to individually hire teachers and it is greatly enhanced when the ability to hire individual teachers is for a specific purpose. Dr. Shackett said this wasn’t the first time they have done this, but he knows the traffic problem does present some issues. Councilmember Kirkham said the concern is the older neighborhood with narrow streets and without walking sidewalks. Councilmember Slack said to look at the shuttle system or a voucher system where only so many can drive. Councilmember Slack likes the school idea, but the City needs a limit on the cars. Councilmember Thompson said the notes say he was concerned with another White Pines traffic issue. Alan said this school is made for the residents in the area, unlike White Pines school, where people come from all over. Alan said they did this placement, per request of the City Council to put schools in neighborhoods. Roger said boundaries will probably be the whole square mile. There are more children on the east, than on the west. Dr. Shackett said this isn’t like White Pines. Councilmember Kirkham said you are splitting hairs. Councilmember Bean would like Mr. Lords to come up and give his comments relative to the issue. Craig Lords, 2440 Bodily Circle, Idaho Falls said the board’s concerns are filling the schools and their problem is finding property to build schools. Six years ago when we built our first school we were buying land at $8000 per acre, but now it is higher. His concern was also mentioned to the school board, if it was time to move 150 students. The boards’ intent is to move it to other schools. His concern is 500-600 students in the school and growth, so that there is room for future students. When it’s cold, parents will drive their students to school. He asked how you regulate who goes to the schools. You asked if it could be put off, yes it could be. They could leave the school empty for another year and put everyone back in the original boundaries. He asked again how you regulate how many cars. The school district cares for the safety as much as the City does. Councilmember Kirkham said they are all comfortable with the 500 students, but the problem lies in the kids coming from outside the boundaries. If they say it’s too congested and only their own children are involved, it’s a neighborhood problem they can solve themselves by having them walk rather than driving them. Mr. Lords said this is the same concern with Rimrock and Woodland Hills. The concern is not the amount of cars, it’s a safety issue. Mr. Lords asked what th would be acceptable. The open enrollment closes Mar 26. Mr. Lords said the math and science program will happen at this school. Councilmember Bean stated he would like to have a public hearing at the first opportunity to discuss the CUP and at that time, see what we can do with this. Councilmember Kirkham said she is not in favor of a public hearing on the CUP and we don’t need one, unless we change it. She would like to see some solution reached for the district. Councilmember Bean said the clock is ticking. Councilmember Thompson said he prefers to finish up the secondary access with one way in and one way out. Councilmember Slack said he was on Planning & Zoning when this was discussed. Traffic concerns were brought up due to the old neighborhood. Councilmember Bean said based on the information given at the time, the risk was acceptable. Councilmember Slack said you never know about the traffic issues. Councilmember Kirkham said it doesn’t make sense to allow only so many cars. Councilmember Slack said it would be done with the voucher system. Councilmember Thompson said it’s not enforceable. Councilmember Coletti said putting in the secondary access is the answer. Ron said the current secondary access is an easement, it is not owned by the District or the City. Councilmember Coletti asked if the enrollment can be limited from outside of the district to see how the traffic ends up. Do we have to go up to the maximum? Councilmember Kirkham said maybe we need to see what happens without the open enrollment traffic. Mayor Fuhriman said you can turn it off when it reaches 85% between 350 and 510, which is where it balances out. Dr. Shackett said they would like this kind of school on both sides of the District. Councilmember Bean asked if they could limit it to 50. Dr. Shackett said they would like the parents to have the opportunity. Councilmember Bean said we will still need to amend the CUP and have a public hearing to withdraw or amend it either way. Ron th said if they are stopping enrollment on the 26, could we wait to make a decision on a public hearing until you know what the enrollment is. The next two weeks won’t make a difference on the public hearing. We would not schedule the public hearing until sometime in May. In the meantime, we can work with Guy and the principal and get some numbers and then we can publish the hearing. Councilmember Bean said let’s assume it comes to 100 and in fairness to the school, it won’t be fair to hold a public hearing then. Ron said we can’t hold a public hearing before Council Minutes 3-11-10Page 3 of 6 st May 1. Councilmember Kirkham asked can we amend the CUP to be more stringent. Councilmember Bean said it would come to a decision to amend or withdraw. He would like public input. Dr. Shackett said they want to work with us. Dr. Shackett said he spoke with legal counsel and he said if they haven’t violated anything in the original CUP, he doesn’t think it’s legal to make a change. Councilmember Bean said let’s mail to the surrounding patrons to have an opportunity to say. Dr. Shackett said you have to also contact the 50 people outside the area. Councilmember Coletti suggested getting the number and talking about in on the first meeting in April and re- address the numbers. Councilmember Kirkham said when you open your doors, we will hear from the patrons. Dr. Shackett said they already have heard from the patrons concerning the trucks. Brian Arms, Principal stated it will be based on criteria. It is very clear that it is a neighborhood school and the open enrollment will be moved when the school fills. They won’t know the total school enrollment until classes actually start in August. Councilmember Slack asked what the Council wants to do. Councilmember Kirkham recommends holding on public comment and to have the district come back the first of April and have everyone get creative with solutions. Roger Hill and Guy Blisner will work with Ron and Lance on possible solutions. 2. Utility Rates and Connection Fees (Charlie to have building fee breakdown and Ron tax breakdown between IF and Ammon)*: Charlie and Ron presented the charts with the pricing breakdowns. Charlie said there was only one City whose building fees were cheaper than ours and this was Idaho Falls. Ours ends up being approx. $400 higher than Idaho Falls for building permit fees on a 1607 sq. ft. house. There is nobody as cheap in the State as Idaho Falls. Greg Hansen, 5699 Veil Drive said a 1429 sq. ft. Evergreen house plan built in Idaho Falls cost $3253 with building fees at $918. The County was $3375 with permit fees $1025. Ammon was $4527.70 with building fees $1452.70. Total costs are water, sewer, etc. Councilmember Thompson stated he pays $1300 less a year in taxes than Idaho Falls. Ron presented the tax breakdowns. Ammon taxes on a house on Devonwood that was appraised at $150,301 totaled $920.54. Idaho Falls’ taxes on a house appraised at $150,536 totaled to $1297.82. He doesn’t feel Ammon’s valuations are off, since these were new homes built in each City at the same time and each one’s value was determined at that time. The average value in Idaho Falls is $139,000 and the average value in Ammon is $146,000. The argument is if it costs less to build in the County, then it should be worth less to own in the County. Charlie said the County does not use our valuations to determine taxes, they have their own formula. Idaho Falls values their homes at $44 per square foot and Ammon uses $88 per square foot. Leland Jensen, 1796 Curtis, Idaho Falls, President of the Eastern Idaho Home Builders Assoc stated he would like to point out that this has been tried. Council asked what has been tried. The association calls it an impact fee and the City calls them hookup fees. The first case was done years ago in Coeur d’Alene. He has some questions towards the legality of what the fees are. Ron interrupted because Leland is presenting information that needs to be given at the public hearing. Leland said he is only proposing some questions and is not expecting an answer. Councilmember Kirkham said they have been going over the fees with a fine tooth comb and wants to have all the figures in place. Leland asked how the City arrived at the amount the increase is paying for. Councilmember Kirkham stated it is for operations and maintenance and based on whether it is for replacement or new infrastructure. Leland asked can there be a fee implemented when there is no connection to the system and is there a capital improvement plan for this type of the fee or is the increase part of that plan. Councilmember Kirkham said they have other legal counsel looking at this. The bottom line is this system is costing what it is costing, which was determined a while ago. Councilmember Kirkham said they are waiting for Husk to get them a breakdown of the value of the treatment facility line item by line item. Councilmember Slack said they would like the answer. Councilmember Kirkham said she has been talking with Husk. Leslie asked the Council if they need anything more from staff. Council said no. Greg said they would like to work with the Council on this. They cannot come up with a plan, until they see the numbers. Councilmember Kirkham said Forsgren holds the cards and they are trying to get the breakdowns and he will get them as soon as the City has them. 3. Parks and Rec. City Right-of-Way Proposal (Ken)*: Ken said he has been getting calls regarding weeds in the right-of-way. He asked the Council if they wanted the parks department to handle it or public works. Council Minutes 3-11-10Page 4 of 6 th Councilmember Slack asked what area Ken was referring to as an eyesore. Ken said 17 St. from Hitt Road to Curlew, and other areas between a major road and a fence. Councilmember Coletti asked who you think should do it. Lance said there are certain items he doesn’t have a licensed applicator for, i.e. chemicals. Ken and Ryan have the license to spray. Ken stated he doesn’t have the budget for it. Councilmember Slack asked how the City currently handles weeds. Ken said Shawna writes up tickets for weeds. Ron said only if they are over 1’ tall, then she notifies the property owner. Council nodded their heads for Ken to move forward. Ray said the serious problems occur where we don’t have curb and gutter and we need heavy equipment to shore up the edges. It will need to be a partnership to accomplish this. Lance said whatever we do, we will have to include all right-of-ways, not just certain stretches. Ken said his proposal is to start with several streets, within a five year plan. Eventually, all issues will be taken care of. Councilmember Slack recommended starting with the trouble spots. Council concurred. Ken just wants the Council to understand there are budget implications. He will work on including it in the budget for next year. 4. Rockwell Road through Woodland Hills Park – How to Proceed (Ken)*: Ken presented the picture where the road is located. Ron said the road is platted and built to the edge of the park. Ken wants to know if the road is going to go through, and if we will need to build a bridge over that canal. If we don’t want to keep that road there, then he will redesign it. Councilmember Thompson said the original intention was for the road to go through to give people access from other neighborhoods. Council decided to leave the road the way it is. 5. Public Works Building (Dana)*: Councilmember Kirkham said we are getting ready to build the water Scada control building. Jeff Freiberg, 356 W. Sunnyside said we have $500,000 from the water project’s SRF loan to build a new facility. The City of Ammon will need to spend approx. $17,000 more. Councilmember Kirkham said the cost is $450,000 to $500,000, but Lance and Ray feel confident that we can do it much cheaper. Lance says $1 million with $500,000 from the grant, and they have budgeted $300,000 this year for capital improvements and another $300,000 in next year’s budget, in order to get the building. Jeff stated they would like to get an architect on board to design the shell and build it. Lance said the City already owns the land. A large amount of the building site is open space. Councilmember Kirkham asked if everyone is ok with starting this. Councilmember Slack said Ken is concerned with this location. Council said he can have the old public works building. Councilmember Thompson asked where Scada is now. Lance said there are portions at Molen and a portion at the Hill Tank. He really wants fiber to run this. Jeff would hire the architect under the Keller Assoc. contract. Willie said the City needs design plans. All the water projects are done, so we have this money. He is looking at Nelson Bodily. It was noted to put th on the March 18 agenda for a vote. Council commended Keller for their exceptional job through the project. 6. Statement Newsletters How and When to Use and with Whose Authority (Sean)*: Councilmember Coletti presented some ideas for the newsletter. He would like a quarterly newsletter including a front page message rotating between the Council and Mayor, City staff information, a community calendar, a column for upcoming events and a column for past events, and fillers (city photos or ads). He would like to have the first one in June. He asked for suggestions as to who would put it together. Mayor Fuhriman volunteered to start the first newsletter. Councilmember Coletti said he would handle asking for stories. Ammon Days needs to be in the first issue. He asked who will do the digital formatting? Councilmember Coletti asked Bruce to come up. Bruce Patterson presented the Council with different papers’ illustrations. He had quotes from IBF on glossy paper of $80.10 per 1000 and another quote from a local printer of $427 for 5000. We are currently sending 4200 statements. In-house production would cost $43 per 1000, plus two hours staff labor. Regular paper is $20 per 1000. Council decided to go with plain paper to keep costs down. Bruce said if we can pay for it ourselves and not include advertising, then we would have fewer problems. Leslie said the staff would like to have information in it, for example the water and snow proclamations. Councilmember Coletti asked Council who they wanted to collect the articles and edit them. Councilmember Kirkham said Bruce would be the obvious choice for the formatting and she asked Bruce if he had the time. Bruce feels he can do it. He feels asking the staff for content would be the best direction. Councilmember Kirkham said we need someone from staff. Leslie recommended that Bruce work with staff for their input for stories and Council Minutes 3-11-10Page 5 of 6 community calendar, since he will be doing the formatting. Councilmember Slack said he would like to limit strd repetitive events from the calendar and basically state Council meetings are on the 1 and 3 Thursdays, etc. Mayor Fuhriman said when evaluating the cost from a marketing point of view, glossy works better and suggested having Biolife to help sponsor it. Councilmember Slack said focusing on one company can be harmful and he feels Biolife has enough focus from Ammon Days. Councilmember Thompson said let’s make it a City of Ammon production and not include advertising. Councilmember Coletti stated he is against having someone sponsor it. Council concurred. Bruce said you are trying to get a lot of information in a small amount of space and advertising would limit the space. Leslie stated advertising also takes staff time to process and keep it going, which limits the amount we would receive. Council decided to start out small and go from there. 7. Misc.: Councilmember Slack asked about the fire department and he has questions concerning the tanks that he needs to discuss with Council. He would like Stacy to have some direction and put it on April’s work session. He reminded everyone that Zion’s Bank has a cash management presentation Friday and asked who will be attending. Leslie stated that Gay’s mother passed away and no one from staff would be there and extended their apologies. Lance has sent the contract for the sand shed to Scott for review and hopes to have it on the next agenda. He has received a copy of the traffic study for the proposed Montessori charter school on Sweetwater Way and Township Road showing it is failing with current traffic. All the legs of the intersection are level A except south bound is an F and it will stay at an F. Offsetting the two school’s start times makes it a 15 min F once a day. It is north of township across from Woodland Hills. Councilmember Thompson said we need two accesses. With White Pines it has been six years and it still has no (publicly available) secondary access. Councilmember Slack asked if the public hearing for the sewer should be pushed back, until the numbers get substantiated. Leslie said it would look like you’re avoiding the public and would not be taken lightly. Councilmember Slack said the reason there aren’t any houses being built is because of the covenant restrictions. Councilmember Kirkham said this will be for the Council to listen to the public. Leslie felt the public hearing would be heated and asked if Council wanted to have an officer available at the public hearing for safety reasons. Council agreed. Mayor Steve asked Leslie to provide a timer that would be set for three minutes for the hearing. Leslie said in Sharepoint she has entered the minutes from the Eastern Idaho Regional showing the steps that have led up to this point. She felt it would come in handy for the Council. Leslie stated Utility Cost Management came back with a $2,000 savings for us on the Utah Power and Light bill. Councilmember Kirkham presented the letter received from Mayor Jared with the CH2MHill study responding to the City of Ammon’s request for information on the sewer. Council discussed how it was mentioned that the City of Idaho Falls felt that Ammon had an opportunity to discuss any issues during their public comment, but Councilmember Kirkham stated she doesn’t feel we had a chance. Leslie reminded the Council of the grand opening for Sheer Necessities by Geraldine’s on Friday. Councilmember Slack motioned to adjourn. Councilmember Thompson seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Slack – Yes, Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Coletti – Yes, and Councilmember Kirkham – Yes. The motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 7:31 p.m. _____________________________________ Steve Fuhriman, Mayor __________________________________ Leslie Folsom, City Clerk Council Minutes 3-11-10Page 6 of 6