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