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HomeMy Public PortalAbout04-27-2009 Workshop MeetingMINUTES Board of Commissioners Monthly Workshop Monday, April 27, 2009 7:00 p.m. Town Barn April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8, 2009 Page I of 15 PRESENT: Mayor Tom Stevens, Commissioners Mike Gering, Brian Lowen, Frances Dancy, and Evelyn Lloyd. ABSENT: Commissioner L. Eric Hallman, absence excused. STAFF PRESENT: Town Manager Eric Peterson, Assistant Town Manager /Public Works Director Nicole Ard, Town Clerk/Director of Administration and Human Resources Donna Armbrister, Planning Director Margaret Hauth, Finance Director Greg Siler, Police Chief Clarence Birkhead, Senior Planner Tom King, Police Lieutenant Brad Whitted, and Town Attorney Bob Hornik. 1. Open the Workshop Mayor Tom Stevens opened the workshop at 7:03 p.m. 2. Agenda Changes Agenda Approval 7:03:46 PM Town Manager Eric Peterson said he and Town Attorney Bob Hornik had been discussing cost containment, and if there were meetings where his presence was not needed or if there were multiple items where he was needed that they should be grouped at the beginning of the meetings so that the Attorney could leave earlier. He said they had attempted to do that tonight, noting that Mr. Hornik was likely needed for Items 4 and 5 but could then leave. Mr. Peterson said if there were no objections from the Board to do that from now on, then the Town could save quite a bit of money. The Board agreed by consensus to follow that procedure beginning tonight. Mayor Stevens said the Board would excuse Mr. Hornik after Item 5 was concluded and noted the Board appreciated his valued service and his willingness to help the Town save money. 7:05:06 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Lowen, seconded by Commissioner Dancy, the Board moved to approve the Agenda by a vote of 4 -0. The motion was declared passed. 3. Committee Updates and Reports 7:05:19 PM Commissioner Gering said the Wayfinding Signage Committee would be holding an open meeting tomorrow night at 7:00 at the Town Barn, noting a presentation on the design April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8, 2009 Page 2 of 15 alternatives from the consultants would be provided. He said the audience would have the opportunity to state their preferences, and urged everyone that could to attend. 7:06:06 PM Commissioner Dancy reported that there were a lot of "bad" bills being proposed in the Legislature, and suggested the Board members read through the COG and LGC newsletters and keep on eye on what was happening. She said some of the bills had to do with Powell Bill funds, cable, and other issues that would be of concern for Hillsborough. Mayor Stevens stated the COG had a new Executive Director, Kirby Bowers. Commissioner Dancy said that was correct and she would be extending him an invitation to come to a future meeting to meet the Board. 7:07:09 PM Mayor Stevens offered thanks to Commissioner Gering and the Tourism Board for the meeting on special events, noting they would discuss that later in the meeting. He said the Upper Neuse River Basin group had distributed its newsletter, and there was a lot happening especially with the Falls Lake Nutrient Management strategy which paralleled the Jordan Lake strategy, and that potentially had some implications for development standards. Mayor Stevens said that currently there were health concerns regarding Swine Flu, and wanted the public to know that the Town had pandemic procedures in place. He said the World Health Organization had raised the alert level from 3 to 4, which meant there had been human transmission of the flu, and the Town Manager was in the process of reviewing the procedures to make sure that the Town was ready to go if a pandemic were to occur. Mr. Peterson stated that Fire Marshal /Emergency Management Coordinator Jerry Wagner had already begun email alerts, and Town Clerk /Director of Administration and Human Resources Donna Armbrister was updating the Town's call list. He said if things got worse, they could drop other work and put all of their focus on that. 7:09:50 PM Commissioner Lowen said he did not know about others, but since the grand opening he had visited the park every day. He said the park was being well used and people loved it. Commissioner Lowen said there were some that were misusing the park, such as skateboarders using the picnic tables to jump off of, but he had asked that they not do that in future. Commissioner Lloyd asked should they put up signs prohibiting skateboarding in the park if the problem grew worse, since they had had problems with skateboarders in the past at other locations such as the downtown. Commissioner Lowen said he believed that should be considered if the problem became worse, noting skateboarders were jumping from table to table on their skateboards. He said when he had asked them desist, they had asked could there be ramps provided on the trails and had said they wanted to come before the Town Board to request that some place be provided for skateboarding. Commissioner Lowen said he believed the problem would be ongoing. April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June R, 2009 Page 3 of 15 7:11:56 PM Mayor Stevens asked if they had an update on the pedestrian access and the safety issues regarding the bridge under the trestle. Planning Director Margaret Hauth said that access should be open within a month or so, noting the State had requested the Town do some additional work to stabilize the riverbank. She said they could not get the CO for the bridge until that work was completed. Ms. Hauth said they were also waiting for the last bit of paperwork form the railroad in order to construct the access up to Calvin Street, but the funding for that was in the contract and the contractor would be completing that work. She said she was hopeful that all of the work would be completed before the end of the summer. Mayor Stevens said he would like to do whatever possible to expedite the work. Ms. Hauth said the moment both facilities were opened she would put out press releases so the public would know it was now safe. 4. Public Hearing on Proposed Refinancing of General Obligation Bonds and Installment Purchase Financing Used to Pay for the Reservoir (Finance Director Greg Siler) 7:13:30 PM Finance Director Greg Siler said that a couple of changes had been made in the memo contained in the packet sent out on Thursday. He said after talking with the LGC this afternoon, he had learned that the LGC was requiring that the Town make a $110,000 contribution at closing on the refinance, and that the $110,000 was the interest expense that would have accumulated since they made their last payment. Mr. Siler provided the Board with a replacement page to replace page 2 in the packet. Mr. Siler said the good news was that in the first year of payments the Town would essentially save all that had been paid out and still realize a savings of $19,874 the first year. He said that had taken a lot of convincing to get the LGC to accept that, but ultimately they had accepted it. Commissioner Gering asked what the reluctance was from the LGC. Mr. Siler said apparently for the Town to get the savings back in the first year was outside of their norm and they did not particularly arrange packages that way. So, he said, the paying of the interest that had accumulated was standard but what was not standard was that in the first year they had allowed BB &T to offset that payment. Mr. Peterson clarified that the interest savings was on the current instruments they were paying on. Mr. Siler said that was correct. He said that part of the issue the Town had with the LGC was that they had already expended their budget for this year and made the loan payments, and were not prepared to spend another $110,000 in interest expense. But, he said, since they would receive that back in savings in 2010 it was just an offset. Mayor Stevens said it still saved the Town a good bit of money. Mr. Siler said it saved a little over $200,000. Mayor Stevens said then it was doable in terms of cash flow. Mr. Siler replied that was correct. Mayor Stevens determined that there were no members of the public present who wished to speak on this issue. April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8. 2009 Page 4 of 15 7:18:14 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Dancy, seconded by Commissioner Lowen, the Board moved to close the Public Hearing by a vote of 4 -0. The motion was declared passed. Town Attorney Bob Hornik stated the public hearing was a part of the application process, and this would soon be coming back to the Board. Mr. Siler said for the next Board meeting he should have a contract from the bank ready for review. 7:18:54 PM Mayor Stevens asked would that be on the Consent Agenda. Mr. Peterson said either the Consent Agenda or the Regular Agenda, whichever the Board chose. Mr. Hornik said unless the bank came back with something really unusual which he did not expect he believed it could be a Consent Agenda item. He said they had done business with BB &T in the past so he did not expect to see anything unusual that would require the Board's attention. Commissioner Gering said he would prefer that it be on the Consent Agenda unless there was some issue that needed their review. Commissioner Lowen agreed, noting a copy of the contract would be in the packet for the Board's review so they would have the opportunity to read through it prior to the meeting. Mayor Stevens said he was happy to see the Town save some money, and thanked staff for their work. 5. Discuss and Consider Formally Requesting Stratford Development to Deed the 3.5 Acre Civic Parcel (Pod #20) in the Waterstone Development to the Town for Use as a Future Fire Station, as is Provided for in the Approved Master Plan (Town Manager Eric Peterson) 7:20:05 PM Mr. Peterson said when the Board had approved the Waterstone Master Plan that there was acreage labeled as a Civic Parcel, Pod #20, for a fire station. He said there would be a grant opportunity this summer for firefighter protection funded through stimulus money with an emphasis on constructing fire stations. Mr. Peterson said Hillsborough might be a good candidate for that funding and believed they could put together a strong application. He said he thought that they should get the land deeded in order to have a stronger grant application. Mr. Peterson said he had met with Alois Callemyn who had a background as a surveyor, and he had some concerns about that parcel. He said there were two creeks running through it and stream buffers would have to be observed, which were 50 feet from the banks and which would cut down on the usability of the lot. Mr. Peterson said Alois Callemyn had said if that land was the only land available a fire station could be built there, but as far as suitability there were some concerns. He said Mr. Dennison with Waterstone had said he would be willing to work with the April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8, 2009 Page 501'15 Town on that, so he wanted to have the Board formally authorize him to work with Mr. Dennison about swapping parcel #20 for some other parcel that was more suitable for a fire station, and he would also get back with Jeff Cabe, Mr. Wagner and others to identify what parcel might be more suitable given the topography and other elements. 7:23:39 PM Commissioner Lloyd said she believed the Fire Department had just been happy to have any land designated, but after the concerns about the streams was brought up they had wanted to bring the issue to the Town Manager to see how best to proceed. She asked had there been another town that had received a grant for a fire station. Mr. Peterson responded that there was a used ladder truck that had been purchased by Knightdale with grant funds. Commissioner Lloyd said she believed there was grant money available and now was the time to ask for it. Commissioner Lowen wondered when talking about different parcels, could the Fire Department potentially tell them what parcels should be considered, or would Town staff do that in terms of topography, streams, and the like. Mr. Peterson said they knew a fire station needed to be placed in Waterstone, and they just needed to figure out which of the parcels would be the most appropriate to either swap out or take a portion of which might require that the Waterstone Master Plan be amended. He said that Stratford had been very good to work with, and the points about the creeks were helpful information. 7:26:19 PM Mayor Stevens commented that parcel #20 might be more appropriate for residential or some other use. Mr. Peterson said in talking with Chief Cabe and Mr. Wagner it was pointed out that if they were able to get a location that was adjacent to the rear part of the Community College, then if the Community College was interested in bolstering its public safety types of training then there may be an opportunity for some sort of symbiotic relationship as far as building a station and using the area as a training opportunity for public safety training. Commissioner Gering said it sounded like the Town was not really asking Stratford for any favors, and it seemed that when they did enter into discussions before too long about negotiating Master Plan changes for the UNC Hospitals it would be good to keep them separate. Mr. Hornik said the Town would only be asking Stratford to live up to a commitment made to the Town five years ago, and the precise location of the parcel had never been agreed on. Commissioner Gering said he was only saying to keep the two discussions separate. 6. Discuss Next Steps Regarding Rail Station Planning and Development of a Possible Small Area Plan for the Town -Owned Collins Property (Planning Director Margaret Hauth and Senior Planner Tom King) 7:28:34 PM Ms. Hauth said at the April 13 meeting the Board had discussed the next steps in moving forward with rail station development and as reported it would be helpful to have some level of plan for the property as far as where the station would be located. She said she had suggested the option of moving forward with a Rail Station Task Force or a consultant, and the Board had suggested a third option of some sort of competition. Ms. Hauth said after some research she had found that there were two types of competitions that could be considered, and had provided in the packet a description of the now four options for consideration, as follows: April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8, 2009 Page 6 of 15 Open Design Competition where you would advertise and then wait to see what came in. You might get nothing or something wonderful. One thing to consider was that those proposals usually carne with an expectation of a lot of work to follow with fees attached. Selective Competition where they would put out a RFP or recruit a limited number of firms and offer them a small stipend to offset the time spent to develop a proposal, then the Town could look at what was brought back and select one as the winner. Task Force option would be the creation of a group of interested persons to develop a plan for the site, with results to be reinforced with technical evaluations as needed. Consultant option would require the Board to develop a scope of work and select a single design firm or team to develop a plan. Ms. Hauth said that the second page of the memorandum provided in the packet contained a table that set out some of the pros and cons of each option along with estimated costs and estimated timeframes. She said she was reasonably comfortable with the timeframes as well as the estimated costs. Ms. Hauth added that from this point forward the project would be assigned to Senior Planner Tom King but she would be available as back -up if necessary. 7:32:10 PM Commissioner Dancy said she believed they should rule out the option of a consultant based on the estimated cost of $80,000. Commissioner Gering asked were they facing any time pressures. Ms. Hauth said the only time pressure she perceived was if there happened to be a grant announcement through stimulus funding for this type of project and noting having a plan in place, but she did not believe that the construction of rail stations was a very high priority in terms of stimulus funding. Assistant Town Manager /Public Works Director Nicole Ard said that the Town of Lexington had already created a plan through working with consultants, although it was not a detailed plan. She said the Town had received information this past week that the House Transportation Committee was looking at how they were going to be redistributing what was T21 Surface Transportation Funds. She said that was not the stimulus funding Ms. Hauth was referring to, but they would be accepting proposals from districts until May 8. Ms. Ard said she would be putting in a request for that funding. 7:34:02 PM Commissioner Gering said one of the first three options, particularly the Task Force option, could accomplish their goals. He said if they were under no time pressure then he would view the Task Force as having the best chance to develop the best set of requirements and the starting place where a consultant could then begin the plan, for much less than the estimated $80,000. Ms. Hauth said she agreed, noting the Task Force could work to set out the scope and frame the vision for the project, and then have very specific and technical questions for the consultants to answer. She said one of the reasons for the $80,000 fee for consultants was for them essentially overseeing that task force effort, but if the Town did that on the front end then at the back end it may only be something like hiring a transportation firm. April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8, 2009 Page 7 of 15 Ms. Hauth said one of the things she wanted to get from the project was a really good understanding of what Orange Grove Extension looked like, and could they really get under the rail line, could they really make the connection to Churton Street, and could they do the traffic circle as discussed in the Churton Street plan. She said when DOT was ready to fund that project they would do some of that work, but if the Town had it advanced now and either the rail station was developed or the remainder of the Collins property was developed and that happened faster than DOT could construct Orange Grove Road, then they wanted to know exactly what the piece of infrastructure would be. Ms. Hauth said she would want to make sure they had enough right of -way to know they could really accomplish what they needed to accomplish with that road early on. 7:36:44 PM Commissioner Gering said he was partially motivated by the course they had taken with the Wayfinding project, where they had worked on the requirements and had hired very capable consultants, and they had reaped the benefits of not having to pay someone to do all of that work. Commissioner Lowen said they had had some very good work come out of the work by task forces in the past in various areas, noting there were some talented people in Town who were willing to work on task forces. He asked if perhaps the fee for a consultant could be cut in half if a task force did the up -front work. Ms. Hauth said it could likely be significantly less than half, noting that the task force could work on various elements that would then not have to be covered by a consultant. She said her guess would be they could get the consultant fee down to about $20,000. Commissioner Gering said then the combined cost of $30,000 for a task force and a consultant would be the same as for a selective competition option. Ms. Hauth agreed. 7:38:56 PM Mayor Stevens said the driver for that should be how could they come up with the best plan for the Town, and that required looking at a whole range of ideas just as they had looked at seven different locations for the rail station. He said he would like to make sure they had a process that captured a lot of ideas and looked at alternatives. Mayor Stevens said he believed a Task Force was a way to cast a wide net and take advantage of local talent, and would be willing to rule out the consultant option. Ms. Hauth said the Board could do some very careful recruiting for Task Force members to make sure that they got a very diverse group that might have different interests, as well as would have different points of view such of what the Collins property would look like. She said it would be important to have all of those people sitting at the same table and working together and to have some good facilitated meetings to make sure the best possible plans came out of the process. Mayor Stevens said that would help them to make sure they did not get a hodgepodge of ideas but perhaps several really good alternative visions that could then be taken to the next level. Ms. Hauth said if they got started and worked within a reasonable timeframe they might be able to have some good ideas ready with some good citizen feedback supplied during one of the Last Friday events or some other event. April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8, 2009 Page 8 of 15 7:41:28 PM Commissioner Lloyd said in the past it had been said that it was possible to have someone look at the road situation ahead of time so that they would know what to ask for. Ms. Hauth said she believed that discussion was tied in to the Brady Road options rather than the train station, but she would still want to make sure that people more competent that her had looked at that intersection and said it was possible to go under where previously everyone was saying you had to go over, which had its own set of issues. Ms. Hauth said once they had designed what they thought could go on the 20 -acre Collins site and what level of activity would be there, then they could estimate what the traffic generation would be and put it on the road that did not exist yet and let that tell them what that road needed to be, whether it was two lanes or four lanes, and how did it fit. 7:43:56 PM Mayor Stevens said he believed the Board was in agreement that a Task Force was the best option. He asked would they endeavor to tap some of the talent they already had on the Rail Committee, Tom Campanella in particular. Ms. Hauth said absolutely. Mayor Stevens said the Task Force could conduct a competition as part of its process if they so decided. Ms. Hauth said if the Task Force were at least nine people they could divide them into three groups and let each group pursue three different options. She said if the Board agreed she would begin working up a proposal of how the Task Force members would be recruited. Mayor Stevens said he believed that be the appropriate next step. Ms. Hauth said she believed she could have a roster of names ready for the June meeting. 7. Discuss Proposed Special Events Permitting and Funding Process (Commissioner Gering, Mayor Stevens, and Assistant Town Manager /Public Works Director Nicole Ard) 7:45:31 PM Commissioner Gering thanked Town staff for attending the Town Hall meeting, noting it had been very informative and some of his ideas about priorities had been changed by that meeting. He said he appreciated Mr. Peterson's outline of possible directions to take. Commissioner Gering said the idea that appealed to him the most was to calm fears by not trying to impose any sort of fees at least for a year, and secondly to pursue a local legislation for an occupancy tax that they could earmark for events support and possibly other things. He said he also wanted to keep separate if possible the mission of the Tourism Board for making non profit grant applications for events from any other revenue source that they might have with an occupancy tax. Mayor Stevens added one issue was obviously a financial issue, and believed there had been community support for a longer -tern occupancy tax which was a surprise. He said the other issue was the management issue related to the number of events and making sure there were safety measures in place. Mayor Stevens said he believed they could get the management issues in place more quickly, that is, how they guided and aligned various events. He said in many ways taking care of the management issues would help them take care of some of the cost issues. Mayor Stevens said he believed they had sent the message that they were bumping up against April 27. 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8, 2009 Page 9of15 some capacity issues, and if they were taking care of the safety issues and applying their resources, then they could come back to the revenue part later, perhaps with an occupancy tax. Mayor Stevens said he believed they needed to continue going forward with refining the permitting process and the rules. 7:49:06 PM Commissioner Lloyd asked had any fees been charged for Hog Day or for events at the race track, and asking had the Town been responsible for emptying trash cans. Mr. Peterson said he did not believe anything had been charged for Hog Day, but there had been fees charged for an event at the race track. He said they had prepared an invoice and sent it to them, but no response or payment had been received. Ms. Ard said they had provided roll -out carts for the race track. Mr. Peterson said the race track people had performed all the labor, and the Town had only loaned them the carts. Commissioner Lloyd asked had the Town cleaned the carts. Ms. Ard responded she did not know. 7:50:28 PM Mayor Stevens said a part of the permitting process was answering those kinds of questions. He said each event was different and they needed to determine the most efficient way to maximize community resources, such as whether a street needed to be closed and whether Police Officers should be involved. Mayor Stevens said the permitting process should answer those questions up front. Commissioner Dancy said she believed some event sponsors would want to do some things themselves in order to avoid paying fees. She said event sponsors could even hire off -duty Police Officers to work during events, and that would take some of the pressure off of the Town. Commissioner Dancy said she believed the Tourism Board was very willing to approach those necessary to get the occupancy tax to help offset costs. Commissioner Gering wondered if part of what they needed to do to prepare for the time when they would be offsetting with occupancy tax as a revenue source would be to prepare by budgeting for such events even though they were not charging for them. He said that would give them an idea of how much the Town was spending, and if there was an excess amount of occupancy tax, they should have some idea of what it might be used for. Commissioner Dancy agreed adding it to the budget was a good idea. 7:54:02 PM Commissioner Gering said if they carne to a point where something put them over their budgeted amount, that might be the time that they considered if they really wanted it or if they could afford it. Mayor Stevens said that determining what was being spent on events was a part of the management issue, noting that would tell them just what they could do or even if too many events were planned. April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8, 2009 Page 10 of 15 Mr. Peterson said that ultimately if they got the occupancy tax and they were going to try to pay for some of the cost of services, they would need to do something like Commissioner Gering had suggested. He said with the budget coming up he did not know that he wanted to change any part of the process at this late date, but they may reach a point where they would want to integrate that into a budget or some other accounting document. 7:55:51 PM Commissioner Lloyd said the events they had had in the past were not so bad, but it seemed that more and more events were being added that required additional staff, street closings, and the like. She said she would want to try to keep the events to a certain level and not allow them to increase over a certain point. Mayor Stevens said he believed that was exactly what the management policy would address, that is, how many and how much and what was needed. He said the question was how to continue the success they had had and not undermine that success. Mayor Stevens said they needed to figure out the best use of their resources while keeping those issues in mind. Commissioner Gering asked if it would be the responsibility of the Events Committee to decide whether or not staff had the capacity to support an event. Police Chief Clarence Birkhead responded not particularly. He said they had not yet denied any event, and the Committee had had only one meeting. Chief Birkhead said the Committee had posed some interesting questions about the information that was submitted, including infrastructure and other needs, which were all very good questions. He said on a grand scale that may be unrealistic as events grew, so he was not sure that it was a component of the Committee to determine that an event could not be held because a certain number of events were already taking place in a given period of time, which might send the wrong message. He said it appeared something was happening every weekend, and whether it was a formal event or an informal one they still had to manage them. 7:59:56 PM Commissioner Dancy suggested placing an event calendar on the Web site and perhaps limit what they allowed to happen during a given period of time so that resource were not stretched too thin. She said people needed to begin monitoring that calendar so that they did not interfere with planned events or have large events at the same time. Commissioner Dancy said perhaps that would allow the Town more control of events and when they took place. Commissioner Gering asked assuming they did that and everything worked well, how they would know when there were too many events. Mayor Stevens said he was not sure they wanted to get in the business of trying to limit or decide what events would be allowed, but he did want to get the information out so that people would know what was planned in Town. He said when the information was put out there, then that would create some self limiting by the public. Mayor Stevens said the thing that would be different in their future was that they would likely see more and more events outside of the downtown, which could affect the businesses in the downtown area. 8:02:10 PM Commissioner Lloyd said she was not concerned about that, but was worried about how much it would cost the Town. She said she did not want employees to have to work April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June R, 2009 Page I I of IS overtime just to carp enough to live on, noting that they should be paid a living wage without having to do extra work. Commissioner Lloyd said that employees deserved salary increases and cost of living increases but that might be affected if other costs continued to rise, such as the cost of special events. Chief Birkhead said that this past Friday during the Last Friday event there were four events taking place at the same time, two permitted and two obviously not permitted. He said people wanted to take advantage of the crowd that other events pulled in, noting they did not want to have their event when it was the only one taking place. Chief Birkhead said a clear example of why they needed to get a handle on that and how they allowed such events to occur was on Friday when they had an xylophone band on the West end of Margaret Lane and they had someone with a cooker and a tent selling food for a fundraiser, both outside the footprint of the Last Friday event. He said those things impacted traffic, pedestrian flow, and personnel and at the present time they had no clear direction on how to approach those. Chief Birkhead said if traffic were impeded or there was a fire issue, then of course those could be addressed, but when you had reached "the edge of the envelope" they did not have a clear path to follow. 8:04:29 PM Commissioner Gering asked the Chief how the Board could help with that. Commissioner Lowen said the reality was that Chief Birkhead was correct in that people did not want to hold their event alone but wanted to band together to draw the most people. He said they could set policy but how would they prevent other events, no matter how small. Or, he said, did they want to encourage people to get the permit and comply with some standard. Commissioner Lowen said even when a Police Officer was called to escort a funeral procession, which was still an event, then that took that Office away from other duties. He asked how they addressed that. Commissioner Lowen said they may need to consider putting together some type of task force to determine how to control planned and impromptu events, aside from how to get the funding to supplement events without the occupancy tax or some other method. He said a similar issue was with the new park opening people were beginning to call to reserve space for events, and those may become large enough to need police or other Town resources. 8:06:27 PM Commissioner Gering asked would one of the first things to do be to move to a more strict requirement for people to go through the application process so that the Police could justifiably approach those without a permit and require that they end their event. Chief Birkhead said that would be an excellent first step, because it would force people to use the process if they wanted to have an event. He commented that they would have to be careful that event holders were not allowed to become part of some other event when they should in fact be kept separate. Commissioner Dancy said she had thought all of the events taking place were a part of the Last Friday event. Mayor Stevens said he did not believe there was a "one size fits all" policy, noting that events taking place at the speedway would be very different than something taking place someplace else. He said with Last Fridays the events were somewhat contiguous, and last year the Arts April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8, 2009 Page 12 of 15 Council had expanded the event footprint in an attempt to address that issue, but had then closed the footprint back up as a management issue. Chief Birkhead said they had closed the footprint back up because it was too overwhelming to manage, and had experienced some negative feedback when they had tried to control what merchants or vendors were trying to do that was a distance away from the central event. 8:08:44 PM Mayor Stevens said as they went forward they should be careful that they were helping people to figure out how to hold their event rather than trying to limit them. He said they should set up rules so that people would understand the process and then communicate how to make it work under the established rules. Mayor Stevens said first would be to communicate that the event could not be held without a permit. Commissioner Gering said that was the message they wanted to send, but if someone showed up without having gone through the process did they say to them "sorry and try again next time." Mayor Stevens said they would want to get the information out in advance so they would not have to stop events on the day they took place. 8:10:33 PM Commissioner Lloyd asked how would others know an event was permitted, wondering if some sign or placard had to be mounted in view of an event. Chief Birkhead said since he was in charge of the permitting process he knew who had been permitted and who had not. He said for Last Friday events vendors were given something that designated them as an approved participant. Commissioner Lowen agreed that the information should be put out in advance, but asked how they did that beyond using their Public Information Officer. He said just doing a press release would not reach everyone who needed the information. Mayor Stevens said it would not be a one -time message and would likely have to be continuously reinforced so that people would know that a permit was required. He said if they knew of people setting up events then they could be approached and provided the information at that time. Mayor Stevens said one group to approach was merchants in or around the area of an event so that they would know the boundaries of what was allowed, as well as such groups as the Merchants Association. Mr. Peterson said having an on -line application form would also be of help, and they could even have a separate form for downtown merchants who had a storefront that would be affected during Last Fridays so that they could alert the Town of their plans during that event in a relatively easy manner. He said that would help the process to run more smoothly. 8:13:33 PM Mayor Stevens said that would help make the process simpler, in that merchants could apply just once if they planned to participate in every Last Friday event. He said that would give the Town what they needed as well as not cause a lot of bureaucratic paperwork for the merchants. April 27. 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8. 2009 Page 13 of 15 Commissioner Lloyd said she knew of one business owner who had approached her to protest the idea of having to get a permit, but knew that they had gone forward with their plans without getting a permit. She asked what the outcome of that had been. Chief Birkhead said they had held their event but had received a copy of the letter that explained the process. He said they had called and he had held a conversation with them, and they had gone ahead and set up a tent that was in the roadway that had a cooker and held their event without a permit. Mr. Peterson said because of the cooker they were supposed to have received permission from the Health Department, but that was out of the Town's scope. Chief Birkhead said what he was hearing was that perhaps they needed to take their draft policy, revise it, and really focus on the permitting process and rules with no mention of fees. Mayor Stevens said that was correct, that they needed people to understand that they had to work with the Town to let them know exactly what was planned, and that the permitting process was an information sharing process. Chief Birkhead stated that had really been their intent, but it had put people on guard and made them apprehensive and somewhat irritated. 8:16:08 PM Mayor Stevens said it was an evolving process, and they should keep it as simple as possible but still make it work. He said one remaining question was where the threshold was, and at what point they would say it was too much to control. He said the application for merchants to hold something in front of their store during Last Fridays might be different from an application for an event elsewhere. Commissioner Lloyd if a permit was required by the Health Department to cook food outside, then that should be monitored. She said as far as leading a funeral procession, she believed that citizens were due that service. Chief Birkhead said he did not disagree, but it still required the use of Town resources and needed to be in the mix when other events were taking place at the same time. Commissioner Lowen agreed, noting such an event would require a Police Officer to not be covering other events or performing general duties. 8:17:53 PM Mayor Stevens said he believed the permitting message would have to be said over and over again so that people would understanding the Town was not trying to prevent them from doing something but was in fact trying to manage Town resources. He said that the Leadership Triangle Group had visited last week and it had been commented that Hillsborough's downtown was a success story and the members had wanted to know what the Town was doing. Chief Birkhead said their goal was to keep that going but to make it safe at the same time. 8. Update on Potential Special Assessment District for the Waterstone Development (Town Manager Eric Peterson) 8:19:44 PM Mr. Peterson said that Dave Dennison had called last week and said that Brent Jeffco, a Bond Attorney from Charlotte who was present during the Board's discussion regarding a Special Assessment District, had said at that time that there needed to be at least two changes to the legislation before they could proceed. He said one was regarding the LGC's requirement that the bonds be rateable bonds which meant they needed to be able to pull a line of credit, but if they could pull a line of credit they would not need the district. Mr. Peterson said the other issue was regarding the infrastructure, and if they were going to get the bond funds then apparently the Town was responsible for getting the infrastructure in the ground, which would cost time and money. He said the Town had spent a lot of time on the Waterstone Master Plan to avoid having to do that, and it had worked well and the infrastructure had been put in. Mr. Peterson said with those two issues, and perhaps one other, Mr. Jeffco had been in dialogue with a State Senator and was trying to get legislation introduced in the General Assembly this year and passed because those issues was rendering the Special Assessment District ineffective or useless. He said it was Stratford's opinion that until that legislation was passed then there was nothing to be done, so if that happened Stratford may come back to the Town and say they wanted to proceed, or, they would search for some other alternative. 8:22:07 PM Commissioner Lowen said he was happy to hear that they did not have to grapple with that issue right now, but at the same time not seeing Waterstone moving forward was disappointing. He asked would they be exploring other options to get things done. Mr. Peterson said that Mr. Dennison had not indicated what they might do, but he could contact him again and have that discussion. He said one question he wanted to ask was if they received $17.4 million from the hospital for the land purchase, how did that help them, such as would it allow them to receive a line of credit and secure financing. Commissioner Dancy remarked that the turnaround date was May 16 in the General Assembly, so they had time to get a bill in. Mayor Stevens said the potential for a hospital would make it a whole new game. Mr. Peterson agreed. April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8. 2009 Page 14 of 15 Ms. Hauth said to add to Mr. Peterson's list of questions for Mr. Dennison, construction on the residential part of the development was suppose to begin on July 1, and construction was suppose to begin on April 1 on Cates Creek Parkway. She said if nothing else the developers should come to the Town and ask for an extension. 9. Consider Adopting a Resolution Opposing Legislation Changing Transportation Corridor Mapping (H881 and S1001) (Town Manager Eric Peterson) 8:25:30 PM Mr. Peterson said this was legislation that would adversely affect municipalities, and a resolution had been provided by the MPO which they had tailored for Hillsborough for the Board's consideration. He said he did not believe it was in the Town's best interests to take over State streets, and if they were going to have to do it then they wanted to make sure that the Town received adequate funding at least on par with what they received through the Powell Bill. Mr. Peterson said from the language in the bill it did not appear that that was clear or that that was the intent. He said taking up responsibility of six more lane miles with no more money was forcing the burden down on local governments, and that was why the resolution was being brought to the Board for consideration. Mayor Stevens said those six lane miles were some of the most widely used in Town. The Board agreed. 8:26:47 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Gering, seconded by Commissioner Lowen, the Board moved to approve the resolution by a vote of 4 -0. The motion was declared passed. 10. Other 8:27:11 PM Mayor Stevens determined that there was no other business before the Board. 11. Adjourn Upon a notion by Commissioner Dancy, seconded by Commissioner Lowen, the Board moved to adjourn the workshop at 8:27 p.m. by a vote of 4 -0. The motion was declared passed. Respectfully submitted, Donna F. Armbrister, MMC Town Clerk April 27, 2009 Monthly Workshop Approved: June 8, 2009 Page 15of15