Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-26-15 BPC Minutes BOZEMAN PARKING COMMISSION August 26, 2015, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. Commission Room, City Hall Minutes Commitee Member - Pamela Bryan: Present Commitee Member - Kelly Wiseman : Absent Commitee Member - Ryan Olson: Present Commitee Member - Dennis Bechtold: Present Commitee Member - Ben Lloyd: Present Commitee Member - Chris Naumann: Present Staff - Thomas Thorpe : Present Staff - Chuck Winn: Present Staff - Kristen Pitcher: Present Staff- Laurae Clark: Present 07:31:52 AM I. Call to order, 7:30 a.m. Ryan called meeting to order 07:32:12 AM II. Disclosures of Ex Parte Communication Dennis informed the commission that he will abstain from voting due to the fact that his employer has been approached by Andy Halloran to purchase one of their lots. 07:32:53 AM III. Changes to the Agenda No changes to the Agenda. 07:33:00 AM III. Approval of July 2015 minutes Pam made a motioned to approve the July 2015 minutes which was seconded by Ben. The minutes were unanimously approved. 07:33:21 AM V. Public Comment –Members of the audience or their agent may be invited to present testimony or evidence. To be recognized, each person desiring to give testimony or evidence shall step forward and, after being recognized, give their name and address for the record. The presiding officer may establish a time frame for each public comment but in no case shall such timeframe be less than three (3) minutes per speaker. The presiding officer may lengthen or shorten the time allotted for public testimony. Cory Lawrence updated the commission on the license agreement. The agreement is in the final form. He expects it to be executed as soon as the city attorney’s review is complete. He expressed his concern by the public of the deficit of parking downtown. He asked the Commission to share the plan as soon as it is complete. Jerry Pape expressed his concern of the importance of parking and the dramatic and far reaching impact on the businesses in the area. We need to fully understand what the commission is doing. I believe that the people working on the armory have been working really hard to help with more parking and ease the burden of the lot closure. 07:40:32 AM IV. 5West Construction Staging in North Wilson with presentation from developer—ACTION (RESOLUTION PC2015-02 authorizing Parking Manager to sign for Commission) Andy- 20N. Tracy. 5West would like to close the North Willson and Mendenhall lot for staging. The 5West development will be about 128,000 square feet. There will be a below grade parking level that will include 47 parking spaces. The First floor will be retail space. The second floor will be office space. The top three floors will be residential. They are looking at closing the lot the week of September 8th, as soon as we have permits in hand. The construction time frame is about 16-18 months. Parking lanes will be closed, but they do not anticipate lane closures. The alley will be open to businesses and residents in the area. We plan to park our construction workers on the top floor of the parking garage to cut back on the spots being taken on the streets. He has already obtained 112 parking permits for the garage. Block G-north will handle over flow parking, this will not be used for staging. Ben Lloyd asked to see a copy of his construction calendar. Public comment on this topic was taken: Tana Koelzer from 33 W Main asked if the closure of the S Willson lot could be put on hold. She is concerned about both lots being closed at the same time. And, asked if a portion of the lots can be open whenever possible. Andrea Johnstone from 38 N Tracy stated that having residents living and shopping downtown is very well worth it in the end though the short term pain of construction is hard. Kathy Stark 38 N Tracy stated the parking garage is never full. There is never anyone on the roof. There is room for everyone. She is in full support of the projects. Kilony Coles 131 W Main expressed her concern about where all the users of 5West were going to park once construction was complete. David Loseff from the Baxter asked how will the commission mitigate the short term pain. He restated the construction does hurt the small businesses and suggested penalties if they go over the 18 month construction term. What alternative parking resources are there? He overall supports both projects, but again emphasized incentives and penalties. . Corey Lawson of 24 W. Mendenhall expressed that he does understand that all this contraction will be painful. The City Commission wanted us to go out and get to know our neighbors. It was very positive and it helped everyone. I also want to speak about the license setting and waiting. It is specific to term. It doesn’t allow extension without the approval of the City Commission. It has a completion bond with it. He will be proving spaces to adjacent businesses during the construction period. Jerry Pape from 15 N.25th stated that Bozeman has run into this problem before. We don’t have a lot of resources. Some people have been in the queue for a long time. We spent the time to find someone great to take the Amory on. The hotel should be first 1st in line no matter what. Most of the delay had been due to the BPC. End of public comment. Ryan asked for a motion and read Resolution PC2015-02 authorizing the Parking Manager to sign the agreement for the 5West construction staging in the N Willson lot subject to City Attorney approval. Chris Nauman motioned to adopt PC2015-02. Ben Bennett seconded the motion. Ben L. commented that he would like to talk more about freeing up more parking. With this closure we need to try and find some way to get more parking. Pam asked Tom Thorpe if he had looked into private parking lots that we could use during this time. Tom stated that he had not located any additional parking that would help. He believes that if we have the contractors park their employees in the garage it will leave more street parking open for customers. Chris stated that he has talked to the Ogles about using a portion of their lot. He has a phone call with them this afternoon. Pam asked if one lane of parking could be kept open in the lot for parking instead of closing the entire lot. Tom replied that it was a safety issue. The closer that people are to the sight: the high the chance of someone getting hurt. Chris discussed the license agreement. It is very complicated. They include monthly license fees. They have bonding mechanisms. There is bonding for the restoration of the lot. They do constrain the schedule, not only on the tail end but also on the front end. There are provisions about construction employee parking. Tom explained that the cost is $89/space to rent the parking lots as well as restoration fees. Ben B encourages these businesses to plan ahead and be proactive. Look for alternatives for the business owners as well. He is in support of this motion. Pam stated she was also in support. She commends all the extra steps that have been taken by the developers to be good neighbors. Staff will continue to work on alternatives. Ben L is in favor of all the activities downtown. Perception is important. We need to let the community know what has been done. Dennis stated we need to start looking beyond this 18 month period for when these businesses are up and running. A parking study is being conducted at this time to evaluate the existing parking issues and bring ideas and suggestions for the future. Ryan reminded of the motion on table. Dennis abstained from the vote. Ben L, Ben B, Chris, Ryan and Pam voted in support. 08:38:10 AM V. Unified Development Code Update (Heather Davis City Planner) 3 to 10 min. Heather Davis- Heather Davis updated the commission on the Unified Development Code (zone code). They have two goals, to make it more user friendly and reflect the recommendations of the community plan and parking plans. The first phase is looking at the North 7th area (mid-town area). The first meeting for this will be on September 10th, 2015 for the public. I do encourage the BPC to go. The second phase will start in the spring of 2016. That is the more broader scope of the City. She provided the scope of services for anyone to review. Tom Rogers will be the Planner who will be overseeing this project. Chris asked about the timeline for completion. Heather stated she expects drafts by fall of 2016 , and to have it to the City Commission by the end of 2016 for approval that winter. 08:43:23 AM VI. New business Tom informed the commission he is trying to set a date for Rick Williams to come out. They should be here the first couple of weeks of September. He asked if just the executive committee should meet with them or all commissioners. Should there be an additional meeting? Also, he is working on getting bids for snow removal on the roof of the garage and trying to determine the snow load. Chris suggested that all the BPC should meet with Rick Williams. If they cannot meet on the next regular meeting date, they could move the meeting to a different day. Chris stated that an update on the parking lot designs will be presented at the meeting on September 9th. Tom shared that he has hired one new PEO. Daniel will be leaving in the near future. Tom McCardle will be moving to the PEOII spot. They have been working with the BPD. He feels that they need to get a higher fine for trailers parked on the street. The $20 fine for 48 hour violations isn’t really making people want to move. I feel that we need to talk more about this at a later date. Chuck reminded them to please make sure that the BPC is getting this information out in time so everyone knows what’s going on. And, stated that the commission room is not available on the 2nd Wednesday of the month. He recommends they continue to use the commission room, but they need to consider changing their meeting date. After discussion it was agreed to move the meetings to the 2nd Thursday of every month. The next meeting will be on the September 10th at 7:30 a.m. in the Commission room. 09:01:52 AM VII. Adjournment Ryan called the meet to close at 9:01am. The next Bozeman Parking Commission meeting will be held September 10th, 2015 at 7:30am at City Hall in the Commission Room. Bozeman Parking Commission meetings are open to all members of the public. If you have a disability that requires assistance, please contact our ADA Coordinator, James Goehrung, at 582-3232 (TDD 582-2301).