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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcclc.min.0719171 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF JULY 19TH, 2017 Chairperson Bill Guth called the meeting to order 8:35 am. Commissioners in attendance: Bill Guth, Bill Dinsmoor, Terry Butler, Steve Fante, Charles Cunniffe, Kiki Raj, Amanda Tanaka and Erik Klanderud. Staff in attendance: Nicole Henning, Deputy City Clerk Mitch Osur, Parking Services Director MOTION: Mr. Guth motioned to approve the draft minutes from July 5th, Mr. Fante seconded. All in favor, motion carried. COMMISSION COMMENTS: Mr. Guth said he went to market and saw Ms. Gottlieb’s carpet setup, but said he barely noticed. Mr. Dinsmoor noted that it’s not going to change her business, but also said the Mayor and city council want to truncate the market in some way to help the other businesses in town. Mr. Dinsmoor recapped the issue with Jayne for Ms. Butler who had been absent previously. Mr. Guth said that everyone believes the market is here to stay and if people keep pushing against it, we can say we will move the market to the park and it still won’t affect anyone differently. Mr. Dinsmoor brought up closing the market early next year and said he doesn’t feel we should shorten it, but Mr. Cunniffe said he doesn’t feel that shortening the market will affect anything. Mr. Osur said it really has to do more with the parking and not about the market. If everyone is gone by 3:00 pm, there is still the afternoon to do things and shop, but when the vendors aren’t gone until 4:00, people don’t come up for the afternoon. He also mentioned they will run a survey again in early August and let the vendors suggest when they want to close. Mr. Osur noted that he loved the sign that Kathy made and wants three or four more signs to be up at every corner. Mr. Fante said the garbage can in his alley is extremely disgusting, is a health hazard and something needs to be done. Waste management needs to do something or the city needs to do something about it since it’s on city property. Mr. Osur said he doesn’t know who manages this either and no one seems to know. Mr. Dinsmoor said someone needs to consider this and find out who is managing and that all of these business owners are so unhappy about the amount they are paying and the quality of what they are getting. Mr. Osur said he understood that all of the trash companies are bad and hard to deal with, but said he would keep working on the issue regarding the dumpsters. Ms. Butler said the city has changed the brand of the doggy bags and that people can’t open them and they are cheap. She said she doesn’t want to lick her fingers. She also mentioned that in front of Mr. Guth’s store, there is half fake grass and half real and it’s working very nicely. She said in front of Rag and Bone, it’s not good and it doesn’t look good. She also asked about the painting on the side of the Brand building and asked if the city can’t get someone to repaint it. The owner of the building doesn’t like it and wants it to fade away according to Ms. Raj. Mr. Klanderud said the Brand building might be 2 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF JULY 19TH, 2017 under the purview of the Historic Preservation Commission. Mr. Osur said he will look into it. Ms. Butler concluded her commentary by adding that the city needs more doggy bag dispensaries. Mr. Fante said that on the east side of Mill St., there are two stores that are putting sandwich boards out that are not complying with the rules. Mr. Osur reminded everyone that the zoning department is currently in charge of the sandwich boards and they are one hundred percent complaint based so Mr. Fante would have to fill out the complaint form for Mr. Pomeroy to go check it out. Mr. Osur also mentioned that city council is going to approve sandwich boards for only second-tiered locations. Ms. Tanaka thinks that is fair as she’s second tier in the Mill St. Plaza. It was also mentioned that Zadig and Voltaire may be the store putting out a sandwich board unlawfully. Mr. Klanderud mentioned that he saw a trunk show at a house on Sixth St. and Main. He said there was a poster board in the yard that said “trunk show”. Mr. Osur said that houses are not allowed to have trunk shows either and that anyone who sees something like that again should take a picture and he will follow up on it. MALL UPDATE: They are in the final stages of deciding on the best option and they are currently coming up with different designs based on population input. By mid-September, we will have three options to look at. They will be eliminating 20 trees, and Mr. Osur said he will provide a picture of those to be removed. The eliminated trees are either sick or affecting other trees nearby. In the first option, water would be in the mall, everything else would be in the alleyways, they are currently still in the process of locating all of the lines. Mr. Cunniffee said he wouldn’t be in favor of this option because his entire business would be torn up to relocate lines to the alleyways. Currently, all of his electric and water lines are all on Hyman St. Mr. Osur said there are a couple of options regarding the walkways. He said that everyone loves the bricks and there is an idea to replicate the bricks or come back with other brick options. One option will be to have concrete to go across all buildings. Ms. Butler said there are beautiful brick tiles that have the same look, but they wouldn’t eat your shoes and Mr. Osur said they are looking into options like that as well to keep the look, but more updated. Mr. Osur said they are also looking into solar snowmelt as an option. He said that pre-design will be done by this Friday. By December, they hope to have the chosen option, then pricing will come after that point. This is projected to cost anywhere between 80 and 100 million dollars. They are looking at various ways to complete this while having the least amount of impact on surrounding businesses. It will probably not happen until 2019-2020 and they have hired a company out of New York City that has done this all over the country and they know how to best phase it so it doesn’t affect businesses, etc. CODE OF EXCELLENCE: Mr. Osur suggested that CCLC spend some time at the next meeting talking about what expectations everyone has for the retailers and restaurants. The only acceptable restaurant on Hyman is Hops in Ms. Raj’s opinion. Mr. Osur asked everyone how they think Escobar can look better and what standards can the other businesses in town be held to. Mr. Dinsmoor commented that this is basically what they’ve already been doing with the mall leases peer to peer. 3 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF JULY 19TH, 2017 Mr. Osur said that if they have codes put in place and have every business owner sign it, they can go in and speak to the other businesses peer to peer. Mr. Guth doesn’t think jumping into this is going to get Mr. Osur where he wants to be. He feels that something should be added into the mall lease that list the expectations of outdoor seating and furniture and then enforce it from there. Mr. Dinsmoor agreed. Mr. Fante feels there must be consequences or it won’t be on anyone’s radar. The troublemakers will continue doing whatever they’re doing. Mr. Dinsmoor said this was part of the application process always. There’s got to be consequences. Mr. Osur said that he has an upcoming meeting with Mr. Barwick about what the consequences should be. Mr. Osur asked if anyone involved with CCLC wants to be involved in the mobility lab process and mentioned that they are currently in the process of hiring a project manager in order to come up with alternative forms of transportation. Mr. Cunniffe asked if this means that parking will be taken away and people will be forced into participating and Mr. Osur said no. Ms. Tanaka asked if the mayor has children and the answer was unanimously no. Mr. Osur said the goal is to get Bloomberg or someone similar to sponsor the mobility project and to spend two million on this for alternative ideas. Mr. Cunniffe said that they need to make parking easier and the entrance to town fixed and that is the bottom line. These are things they should be focused on fixing and suggested that everyone on council and the mayor should all have to live down valley for a while and see how they feel about it after. 20 percent of the commuters ride the bus here. If you make the driving easier, you won’t have as many bus riders, said Mr. Osur. Mr. Guth suggested that if anyone wants to join the mobility issue, join the group and discuss and that CCLC isn’t the right venue. Mr. Dinsmoor suggested a rotating schedule of CCLC members in the mobility meetings, but it may not be consistent and wise to do that. Mr. Guth motioned to adjourn at 9:57 am. _________________________________________ Nicole Henning, Deputy City Clerk 4