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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/01/2000 - Regular Minutes - Wolf Pen Creek Oversight Committee WOLF PEN CREEK OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING NOON, MAY 11 2000 COLLEGE STATION CITY HALL COUNCIL CHAMBERS Members Present: James Massey, Dennis Maloney — City Council; Kay Henryson, Design Review Board; Sharon Colson, Marsha Sanford, Alternate — WPC TIF; George Dresser, Alternate — Parks & Recreation Board; Judith Warren, Alternate — Planning & Zoning; Wayne Rife — Planning &Zoning. Members Absent: Sarah Birkhold — Parks & Recreation Board; Phillip Kelby, Alternate — Design Review Board Staff Present: Steve Beachy, Eric Ploeger, David Wood - Parks & Recreation; Glenn Brown, City Manager's Office; Frank Simoneaux, Mark Smith, Bob Mosley - Public Works; Kelly Cole - Public Relations; Kim Foutz - Economic Development; Jim Callaway, Jane Kee — Development Services; Charles Cryan — Fiscal Services; Pamela Springfield, Committee Secretary Visitors: Charles Ellison, Attorney at Law Regular Meeting Call To Order: James Massey called the meeting to order with a quorum present, at 12:15 p.m. 1. Approval of Minutes: Sharon Colson made a motion to approve the minutes from the April 3, 2000 meeting, and Judith Warren seconded. Hearing no objections, the vote passed unanimously. 2. Approval of Member Requests for Absences: James said that Philip Kelby had submitted a form and would not be present, however there was representation from the Design Review Board. He said Sarah Birkhold was not present but the Parks & Recreation Board was represented as well. 3. Presentation, Discussion, and Possible Action Concerning Current Wolf Pen Creek Development Projects: James stated that there may be some changes on the current project, but there would be months when no major progress would be made. a. WPC Tributary B Site Improvements — Project No. PK 9902: Steve Beachy stated that this project was complete in terms of construction, with the lights, bridge, and walkways installed. Site-work, such as mowing and trimming, will be done to make the overall appearance more park- like. It was asked if the bridge would remain as-is or if it would be painted. Steve stated that the bridge finish was the same as the amphitheater bridge finish which is a core-tin, oxidizing finish that you do not paint. He said that same finish has been used on other bridges in the park system and has held up very well. Steve said this area would be added to the maintenance contract that the City has for Wolf Pen Creek when it is renegotiated later this year. James stated that agenda items 3b through 3e were part of the design effort that McClure Engineering was working on for channel improvements, placement of the trails and bridges, the impact of the extension of George Bush East, and parking for the area from Texas Avenue to Earl Rudder Freeway. He said he was not sure of the target date for completion. b. Parking Improvements - Project No. PK 9903: c. Trails and Bridges— Project WP 9905: d. George Bush East Extension — Project No. ST 9916: e. Channel Improvements, Texas Avenue to Tributary B: WPC Oversight Committee—May,2000 Minutes Page 2 Mark Smith said he had nothing to add to those items, but there would be more to report as progress continued. f. Riparian Restoration — Project No. WP0001: Mark said the work the City crews did — smoothing out the silt and planting grass — was complete. Tree planting would be done in the fall. The lake around the amphitheater had been cleaned out, refilled, and was doing well. He said a hard clay bottom was found when they cleaned it out. Having the hard bottom allowed equipment in without a problem to clean out the lake, even when there was water still standing. The clay bottom will make the lake more manageable. Steve added that the lake configuration now works well in terms of drainage, and benefits the amphitheater. The water from recent rains flowed through the area without a problem, never getting higher than the dance floor. George Dresser asked about the schedule for the George Bush East extension and how it meshed with the schedule for the retail work that's under construction. Mark stated that the City would need to know how the development would affect the drainage situation. The construction plans for the bridge are pending. Floodplain studies will have to be done to reflect the fill that the developer is putting in. Those studies will have to go through various approval processes to give the City a base line to base the bridge studies on. If the bridge studies were to be based on the current conditions, it would not necessarily show what the impact of the retail development would be. George asked if the retaining wall that would run parallel to the road would be built before the road. Mark said yes. Dennis asked if it would be possible to influence the type of material that would be used. Jane Kee stated that the developer was amenable to using materials that were similar to what is being used in the corridor. She said she'd check on that for the next meeting. Kay Henryson stated that some things had come up in Design Review Board (DRB) regarding the trail system and where it will actually lie. She stated that the location of trails/sidewalks affects what DRB tells developers as far as where they will connect into the trail system. She wanted to know if that information could be gotten from McClure Engineering earlier than the rest of the design. Steve said there is a conceptual plan, but until the channel is designed, there is no way of knowing where the trails will actually be. Mark added that the creek channel would also affect where the trails will go. He stated that accurate topographic survey information would be needed so that the location of the trails would not create erosion problems. He explained that site-specific details would affect the design of the trails. Kay asked if it were possible to request that the design of the trails be a priority. Mark said that he could ask McClure to do that. Judy said there had been prior discussion regarding an intermediate version — something between the concrete channel and having all that area laid back - that would allow old growth to remain a little closer to the creek. Mark said the conceptual design had been approved, and as part of that conceptual approval the US Army Corp of Engineers had said there were some specifics that needed to be addressed at design time, and those were the specifics they referred to. He said part of the field survey that McClure Engineering would do, would decide which trees were worth saving. Sharon expressed concerns regarding the steep grade and water run-off from the Wolf Pen Creek Plaza development. Mark said that was being looked at, and James added that Mike McClure was very sensitive to that. Steve stated that item "f"would probably drop off the next report since it had been completed. g. Hotel/Conference Center Project No. GG 9701: James stated that City Council had just approved the hiring of consultants, Price-Waterhouse-Coopers, to help find a viable hotel to go into the corridor. Kim Foutz said that the consultants anticipate that it may take 3-5 months to go through the entire process, which would involve a number of steps. The hospitality division of Price-Waterhouse-Coopers will: 1) Develop a marketing package that they will present to clients; WPC Oversight Committee—May,2000 Minutes Page 3 2) They will identify no more than ten prospects to be interviewed, and evaluate those proposals; and 3) They will work with the City through the negotiation process. Kim stated that the consultants have a lot of experience in this area, and already have a number of contacts. Sharon asked that the old signs please be removed from the hotel/conference center site. Kim said there had been two requests made to the former developer to remove his sign and she would follow up on that again. Kay asked if the City owned the plans for the conference center. Kim said yes, but not for the hotel. Marsha Sanford expressed her doubts about finding a client of this magnitude and negotiating a contract in only 3-5 months. Kim stated that the consultants have already talked to their contacts and they feel that there are qualified groups with a lot of experience that would be interested. She said the City has asked the consultants to be aggressive, but they will have to have time to work out all the financing issues. They have been asked to find prospects that have had many projects financed and who already have a relationship with a financial institution. Marsha asked if that had been the case with the first developer, and Kim said no. Charles Cryan stated that the City did not have this type of review the first time - it was done in-house. Part of the deal with Price-Waterhouse is that they will have to pre-qualify everyone beforehand. Marsha said it sounds as though the City is on the right track. Judy asked if the City's need for a hotel/conference center has changed. James stated that Council has been told that there is a need for this type of development. Sharon asked if the office building added by the first group, was still an option. Dennis said that was not known, and it would depend on what the consultants come up with. James reminded everyone that the remaining projects could proceed without knowing what would be going in at that location. He said the first priority was the drainage issue, but it also meant working with the landowners to develop those areas, including the hotel/convention center. He added that what was being done with the corridor was just as important as the hotel/conference center. Judy agreed that drainage was the first priority, but felt it was important to allow different types of development that would increase the usage of the area in multiple ways, as well as add to the value of all the property along the corridor. 4. Presentation, Discussion, and Possible Action Concerning Financial Report Charles Cryan: Charles distributed handouts (attached)and gave an update on the finances. He said based on the development that has already occurred and what's currently taking place, the numbers are up substantially. He added that the time for the TIF is getting shorter and shorter — it goes away in 2008. Based on the projects identified currently, there are resources available to pay for the project that is now done. There is $1.6 million more than had been projected for projects at this time. He said the committee would need to decide what to spend the $1.6 million on. Charles said another decision that will need to be made within the next year is whether to continue with the policy which has been in place since the TIF formed. That policy only allows funds to be spent as they become available. The alternative would be to issue debt based on the TIF revenues and move ahead faster with some of the projects. The downside of issuing debt is that interest would have to be paid on the debt, therefore, not all of the $1.6 million would be available. Charles said that if 2.8 million was issued for the balance of the eight years, it would cost about $600,000 in interest. He told the members to keep in mind that the same amount of money could be eaten up over the next 6-7 years in increasing costs. He said city contracts are seeing a 6-7% increase annually in the construction industry, so there may actually be more funds available by issuing the debt and doing the project in the next 2 1/2 years, versus stretching it out over the next eight years. He said when the debt is issued it's at a fixed rate. The longer the term, the higher the interest rate. He added that a decision did not need to be made right away because the City was not ready to issue the debt at this time since the projects weren't ready. WPC Oversight Committee—May,2000 Minutes Page 4 He told the members that just prior to bidding the work out, the decision will have to be made as to whether the project would be broken down into separate projects or done as one project. He said there will be mobilization costs and if you can do one project, versus five or six, you will save money. He said there were a lot of ways to save money by doing the project sooner. Charles explained that the money shown in the right hand column was money that would either be in the bank or spent at the end of fiscal year (September) 2001. He said that amount was based on what has been built already. The amounts in the first column were the expenses to come between now and December 2008. James asked how much money the TIF had at present. Charles said at the end of last fiscal year there was $800,00 that was not committed. Mark stated that the estimates given came from engineering and were the best estimates to-date. He said those numbers could change, as could the amount of money estimated for the construction of the trails. He said this only includes the trails to Dartmouth, since they did not want to budget for anything until they could tell Council the money would be there. Wayne asked how much more money would be needed to take the trails from Dartmouth to the bypass. Bob Mosley said $700,000 — $800,000. Steve said it was reasonable to expect that there would be enough money to complete the trails to the bypass. Charles said the City has taken a conservative approach to the TIF. The dollars are coming in now to expand what was originally discussed. The channel improvements to the bypass are already included the $3.1 million. He said that as the area is developed, money would be added to the TIF. However, if someone came in today with a plat, it would be two years before you would see revenue at all. He said he would like the members to consider the fact that the quicker the trails go in, the faster development might occur. Wayne asked what other funds might be available. James stated that department funds had been used to do some of the work. Steve said there were trails grants, however, they were limited to $100,000 per year, maximum. There were also Texas Parks & Wildlife matching grants, but you had to garner points. He said at present Parks was applying for one of those grants for Lick Creek Park. Wayne felt it would be better to do the project sooner adding that the longer it gets put off, the more strain it will put on the developers. Steve added that another option would be Drainage Utility District funds. He said that fund expires in 2002, but if Council renewed that option, money would be freed up to do other things. He added that that's where the money to do the upper channel improvements is coming from. James stated that before any decisions could be made, the members would have to know what the design would look like and the specifics of the project. At that point the projects could be prioritized. He agreed that if the trails were done, it would help. He said it needs to be determined how much the individual elements of the project will cost and then compare it to whatever money is available. Marsha asked when the members could expect to get the design information. Bob stated that McClure Engineering had 33 weeks to complete the design. Steve said the idea was that most of the design process would be done in calendar year 2000, with construction on most of the projects done in 2001. He said that could vary according to issues that need to be resolved. 5. Presentation, Discussion, and Possible Action Concerning a Design Charette for WPC: He reminded everyone that there would be 2 charettes - one in the later part of the summer and one shortly after the start of the fall semester. A workshop would be held to gather ideas for the charette. He asked that everyone forward ideas for the pre-charette workshop to either himself or Pam, so those ideas could be incorporated into the workshop. Steve said he had talked to Scott Shafer with the Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences, who expressed interest in having a group participate with the landscape and architecture students. Steve said Mr. Schafer knows Tom Woodfin and has a senior level course. Steve felt that Mr. Shafer would have good ideas regarding trails and the recreational aspect of the park. Steve said Mark and the consultants should be able to provide the parameters necessary for the workshop. WPCOversiq/it Committee A,May,2000 Minutes Page 5 Wayne stated that some of the committee members would be rotating off the committees that they were on in June. Dennis said the appointments would be made to the committees the second week of May. George suggested trying to get the members to participate in the workshop even though their terms might be expiring. James said that was a good idea. It was decided that Pam would get with everyone for available times the first two weeks in June, for about four hours. 6. Presentation, Discussion, and Possible Action Concerning Future Meeting Dates and Agenda Items: James reminded everyone that the dates for the next meetings were scheduled for June 5th, July 10th, August 7th, and September 11th. 7. Adjourn: The meeting adjourned at 1:25 p.m.