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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.19880620Mayor Stirling called the continued meeting to order at 6:45 p.m. with Councilmembers Gassman, Isaac, Tuite, and Fallin present. BALLOT ISSUES City Attorney Taddune presented Ordinance #24 proposing an additional one-quarter penny sales tax. Taddune told Council this ordinance has been sent to the city's bond counsel. This ordinance is a mirror of the 7-1/2 penny sales tax ordinance. The purposes of this ordinance are in connection with a parking facility, including capital improvements, capital expenditures, land acquisition, general operation. Taddune said if Council agrees with the one-quarter penny sales tax, they should adopt this on first reading and staff will work on it between now and the second reading. Councilman Isaac asked why the Rio Grande is not mentioned. Councilman Isaac said the city has a specific plan, and he does not want the voters to think that the question is not specific. Taddune said he could add the Rio Grande to the title. City Manager Bob Anderson said there is the issue of this being an on-going tax, and there is an on-going problem. Councilman Isaac said if the city wants to continue the funding and build another parking structure, the city ought to take that issue to the voters. Councilman Isaac said this question should be specific and for a specific parking plan. Councilmembers Fallin and Tuite agreed. Councilman Gassman said one reason questions have lost in the past is because the voters see the city coming up with a lot of money and no plan. Councilman Tuite said the wording which discusses what the city can use the one-quarter cent sales tax states, "providing that the City Council may amend or change said ordinance except as to the percentage of tax". Councilman Tuite said he feels this language will hurt the question with the voters. Councilman Tuite said the ordinance also states the Council "may" repeal said tax. Councilman Tuite said he would like this changed to "shall repeal". Council requested that this ordinance be changed to make it more restrictive. Mayor Stirling suggested the ordinance state for the construction of a parking facility on the Rio Grande property, and that the ordinance is more precise about any adjunct things that have to be done with a parking garage. Taddune said Council can adopt this on first reading at their regular meeting on June 27th. Mayor Stirling said he has concerns about the enormous contin- gency fund that is being built up. Anderson said if there is a ballot issue set forth where the city can only spent the money for certain things, that may take care of this concern. Assis- tant City Manager Mitchell said the city is going to want to have an endowment fund to continue maintenance on the parking garage. Mitchell said the staff worked out some different scenarios. The 1 Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council____ June 20, 1988 one going out 20 years would give the city a fund balance of $1.6 million in the year 2000. There is a scenario of charging $1.00 for parking for 20 years, and one charging a $1.00 f or a 12 year debt period. Councilman Tuite said he does not like the idea of an indefinite sales tax. Mitchell said he feels the city should not charge for the parking garage or people will park elsewhere and not use the structure. Anderson suggested adding in the ordinance that the sales tax will only be charged for a certain amount of time. Mitchell said if the bond issuance is including in the question, the 20 or 15 years will be in the question. Anderson said if there is no charge for the parking garage, there will be maintenance on the structure. Councilman Tuite said his initial reaction is not to have a charge; however, when he sees the figure, he may change this view. Taddune said Resolution #17 is a draft and will be brought back to Council at their next meeting. Taddune said he had the question drafted for the authorization on the 1/4 penny and the issuance of bonds in one question. Council had suggested two questions. Council agreed it should be one question. Taddune said Council should focus on the parameters of $6,200,000, 10 percent, 20 years in the question. Taddune told Council in the Cap's question, he asked for clarifi- cation on how many square feet. The question talks about an exchange of 2200 square feet of city property for 600 or 700 square feet of Cap's property. This is not an equal exchange but there may be compensation. Stoney Davis, Cap's, said the proposed exchange works from the city's point of view. If they bring the street close to Cap's front door, Cap's needs more space to the east. Davis said this excess square feet will not give them additional building capability. Councilman Isaac said Cap's could sell this land. If the city gave them a 99 year lease, it would not be saleable. Taddune told Council if this question passes, Council will have to approve an ordinance with the terms of exchange. Davis said by the city changing the format of the Rio Grande, Cap's is giving up a great deal. Their business and customer base will change. Davis said he has no intention of paying for the additional square f ootage. Taddune said he will change the question to say, "sale, disposition or exchange of property". Taddune pointed out he did not specify in the question the amount of square footage the city will get in return. Davis said until the city gets working drawings on the parking structure, they do not know how much of the east end of Cap's is needed. Taddune told Council the next two questions are on the Marolt and Koch lumber property. Taddune told Council he needs to flush out the issue of sale, exchange or disposition. Taddune said there are a number of concepts that employee housing can be financed. 2 Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council June 20, 1988 Taddune told Council if the question limits the property to just use rather than giving an entity the ability to own the land, the city may be closing some doors. Councilman Isaac said he favors the questions but they are very vague right now. Mayor Stirling agreed these should be more precise. Councilman Tuite said he would like the question to state not to exceed 10 acres in the southern portion of the Marolt property. Councilman Tuite said the city had a presentation showing two potential locations for employee housing on the Marolt property; one on the southeast and the other a little bit north of that. Councilman Isaac said these questions are vague until the city has a real proposal to take to the voters. Councilman Isaac said there should be a proposal to show many employees and when it will be built by. Mayor Stirling said this question will avoid the housing office working on this for 6 or 12 months, going to a vote, and then having it turned down. Councilman Tuite said he would like to stick with the 10 acre portion that was a donation. There is some historical background in the community for a housing site on this, and it could be specific f or the voters. Councilman Isaac said he would like to know number of units, who is going to build it, how much it will cost. Councilwoman Fallin said she would like it to be more specific, also. Councilwoman Fallin said the housing authority has not come up with something specific; the M.A.A has not addressed this. Councilwoman Fallin said this question can be put off until the May election. Mitchell said the housing authority has not provided any information on this issue because they have not gotten a direction from Council. The Council has said they want to find out if the voters are willing to allow dormitory units on these properties. Councilman Gassman said having a specific plan is not going to be any more convincing to the voters than the question as written. Councilman Gassman said at some point the question has to be asked, do the voters want the city to build on open space. Mayor Stirling said there was a Council vote agreeing to go to the voters and ask for permission to use Marolt or Koch lumber for a housing project. Mitchell said Council puts a generic question to the voters or tells the staff to come back with a specific proposal. Mitchell said he could get parameters for the ques- tion, like not more than the 10 acres in the southeast corner of th e Marolt property for dormitory housing not to exceed X many units at a certain square footage. Councilwoman Fallin said she would like the question to state who it is going to be used by. Mayor Stirling requested staff to come back with that type of language at the June 27th meeting and to do the same for the Koch lumber parcel. Si Coleman pointed out the question refers to the Koch lumber property. Coleman said it sounds like this is asking for a 3 Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council June 20, 1988 commercial facility for employee housing, rather than asking f or housing on open space. Coleman said this is misleading. Council asked that staff be more specific in this question also. Anderson asked if Council wants to say "dormitory style" housing in the questions. Councilman Tuite said Council has said that dormitory style housing is their first priority and he would rather stay with that. Three Councilmembers favored inclusion of the question including location, dormitory-style housing, number of employees and square footage. Taddune reminded Council they have a package on the Red Roof Inns and Zoline parcel for golf course. Taddune told Council a woman from Colorado Springs has put the city on notice that she is expecting a commission on the Red Roof deal. Anderson said he does not feel her claim is related. Taddune told Council the 2 questions were prepared by Andy Hecht. Mitchell said he f eels the use of the Zoline, use of the Red Roof and expansion of the Red Roof ought to be separate questions. Bil Dunaway said the golf course question should include that there will be no buildings. Mayor Stirling agreed the assumption is that this will be purely open and not buildings. Mitchell suggested the Zoline question should state recently acquired for open space and recreation. Mitchell said the question should also state that the rent proceeds shall revert to the open space fund. Mayor Stirling said he would like the question to clarify that the recreational trails will be available to the general public in the summer and winter, and that the golf course will be available f or public use. Taddune said this will be a 99 year lease; the staff is not done negotiating this lease. Councilman Tuite said the city should be treated as that they have the right to earn a fair return for the open space fund. There should be some escalation clause in the lease. Taddune said the lease will have to go through an ordinance approval process. Taddune said there are no parameters f or the Red Roof question. Expansion of the Red Roof should be included. Mayor Stirling suggested that the size of the expansion be included. Mitchell said if the Koch and Marolt questions are not approved, the Red Roof is not enough to solve the employee housing problem. If the city wants to do an expansion of the Red Roof, they have to get authorization from the voters. Mayor Stirling suggested use and expansion of no more than 100 units and no more than 65,000 square f eet of the Red Roof Inn for employee housing. Anderson recommended this be two separate questions; use of and expansion. Council agreed with this. Taddune said limitations were put in the original ballot question. Council said this should also say dormitory-style housing. Councilman Tuite brought up the water plant site for employee housing. Anderson said there is land available at the lower 4 Continued Meeting Aspen Cites Council June 20, 1988 portion of this site which the hospital is interested in. Councilwoman Fallin said she would prefer to wait on this question. Mayor Stirling said Council will consider first reading of the sales tax ordinance and the ballot questions at the next Council meeting. Mayor Stirling said there is a request regarding the 51,800,000 that Hadid has in escrow for Hadid to take out 5800,000 of it. Councilwoman Fallin said she does not favor this. Taddune said the current PUD agreement would allow this; the Code states the guarantee shall be in the form of a cash escrow or a bank or savings and loan association, site draft or letter of commitment. Taddune said the applicants are trying to take the money for the site improvements and use a letter of credit versus cash escrow. Taddune said he asked if the applicants were going to leave 5800,000 in cash, and the applicants told him there were going to leave 51,000,000 in cash and substitute the rest with a letter of credit. Councilwoman Fallin said she is for keeping the 51,800,000 in cash as letters of credit may not be worth the paper their written on. Mayor Stirling said he wants to know the assets of the bank that is issuing the letter of credit. Mayor Stirling moved to keep the 51 , 800 , 000 in escrow unless there is a requirement of the code that the city has to release some of this; seconded by Councilman Gassman. All in favor, motion carried. Mayor Stirling asked why the applicant is asking f or the cash. Taddune told Council he wants to leverage it. Council requested staff report back on this. Council adjourned at 8:15 p.m. ,~ Kathryn Koch, City Clerk 5