Laserfiche WebLink
Commissioner Posson stated that he views this as providing staff and the City Council <br />more latitude in weighing those priorities. He indicated that he does not see this as being <br />conflicting priorities because the City is not saying that it does not want parking and does <br />not want to fund parking, but, rather, it provides greater latitude to where the City can <br />balance those different priorities. <br />Commissioner Ritter stated that, in response to Commissioner Allen's question and as a <br />former Parks and Recreation Commissioner, what the City would like is to have more <br />businesses because business - generated funds go to the parks. He noted that taxes from <br />housing do not necessarily go for the parks; therefore, creating a vibrant Downtown would <br />generate more business, and the money these businesses generate actually helps fund <br />parks. He added that keeping business rolling also funds parks. <br />Commissioner Allen stated that she would like to bring up a concern that she has talked to <br />staff about and that she would appreciate some discussion on. She indicated that she <br />believes the amendments, as written, need a little tidying with some additional criteria as <br />there might be some unintended consequences. She stated that she can see developers <br />submitting a lot of ideas to the City, and it could be on side streets, or it could be a <br />150 - square -foot area that might come close to meeting the criteria with a table or two and a <br />little landscaping, and she is not sure the City wants those. She added that she thinks what <br />the City wants strategically are a handful of plaza areas on Main Street. <br />Commissioner Allen stated that she thinks the City may end up creating expectations <br />because the criteria are not quite tight enough: people will submit proposals that will create <br />work for staff, the Planning Commission, and the City Council to review them; it may create <br />hard feelings because the criteria are vague and people will ask why one proposal was <br />approved and the other was not. She proposed that staff think about and add tighter <br />criteria before this goes to the City Council, for example, (1) the plaza should be on Main <br />Street; and (2) the plaza should be a certain size minimum, maybe about 350 square feet <br />or 30 percent or 40 percent of the size of the Tully's plaza, rather than an area where there <br />would be a couple of tables and a bench, maybe have a tree or two and a fountain where <br />people can really sit, have coffee, chat, and then leave. She stated that the City should not <br />want to fund tiny areas with a tree and a bench which are already built by developer. <br />Commissioner Allen stated that another point she would also add, for internal and City <br />Council discussion, is how much money worth of funding might be expected or budgeted <br />for this amenity in a year: if it is half a million dollars for one, is the City looking at half a <br />million dollars of fee waivers? She noted that judging from some of the letters, it appears <br />that developers and business people are getting pretty excited about this, and she wants to <br />make sure that the City does not get them overly excited and create more work and missed <br />expectations. <br />Chair Olson noted that there is a pretty tightly- defined area that this amendment applies to. <br />He added that a developer who comes forward with a proposal would first sit with staff for <br />review, staff has to be warm about it, and it ultimately has to go to and be approved by the <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, January 8, 2014 Page 10 of 13 <br />