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HomeMy WebLinkAbout7.15.20RDA Minutes July 15, 2020 Page 1 REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY MINUTES July 15, 2020 PRESENT: Thomas Belter, Jack Bermingham, Jason Lasky, Archie Stam, Lori Palmeri (5:00pm departure), Steve Hintz (4:02pm arrival), Susan Panek (4:38pm arrival) STAFF: Allen Davis, Executive Director/Community Development Director; Darlene Brandt, Grants Coordinator; Anna Maier, Recording Secretary Chairperson Palmeri called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm. Roll call was taken and a quorum declared present. The minutes of May 20, 2020 were approved as distributed. (Belter/Stam). Public Hearing Pioneer Drive Land Disposition James Condor of 2873 Danby Rd. appeared for the public hearing on behalf of the Brooklyn Association of Condominium Owners. Mr. Condor stated that they have been landlocked at their location for years and moving into the railroad right-of-way and Pioneer Drive right-of-way. Once Pioneer Drive right-of-way is shut off, they will be 10-15 parking spots short and need to use every available public parking spot near the building. This is not their wish and so they have requested to purchase the land. Mr. Stam asked if the number of parking spaces had been calculated. Mr. Condor replied that the spaces had been calculated by Jim Larson and that they would be adding and replacing spaces for an estimated total of 35-40 spaces, so there will be ample parking. Having recently replaced a lot of windows, their future plan is to replace their back entrance so that it looks as nice as the interior of the building. They will be squared away once the back entrance is replaced and the parking is finalized. They are currently landlocked and have no options for additional parking. Mr. Stam asked if they will need to redo the parking lot. Mr. Condor replied that the existing parking lot was blacktopped without their knowledge and that there are currently a couple of tree roots between properties. Their immediate plan is to clean up the roots, black seal the whole parking lot, and put in new stripping. After the Riverwalk work is complete, they will clean up the upper part of the parking lot, potentially adding a few shrubs or fencing so that you see a well-orchestrated looking building when you come over the bridge. RDA Minutes July 15, 2020 Page 2 Mr. Davis replied that if they seal coat the existing black top then they do not have to bring it up to current code for parking lots, but when they do an addition of a new parking lot, it will need to be built as up to current code. Mr. Condor asked what bringing it up to code would entail. Mr. Davis responded that it would depend on the size, landscaping, dimensions of the parking stalls and aisles, and potentially storm water run-off. Under current code, once they disturb more than 20,000 square feet of that parking lot, then they have to bring it up to code. Mr. Condor stated that they would not be adding a huge area to the parking lot and they would not be using that many square feet. He think it’s a win-win. As he stated in a letter to city staff, they have owners who thought that the city should just give it to them outright, but have moved past that now and arrived at what the city thought was the minimum bid. They want to do it, but their appetite is not endless. They think it is a fair price for what they would be doing to beautify the area and to help to make sure that the people who buy around the area are satisfied. 20-15 Authorize Land Disposition; Portion of Property along Pioneer Drive at Easterly Termini of East 7TH Avenue to Brooklyn Associates, LLC for $3.00/sq. ft. based on CSM to be created with an estimated sq. ft. of 13,500 ($40,500 estimate) Motion by Belter to move Res. 20-15 Seconded by Lasky. Mr. Hintz asked if this would create any problems with the development of the rest of the area. Mr. Allen replied that it would not create any problems. There will be enough room for the Riverwalk and the Linear Park as well as enough developable land for the balance of the RDA. Mr. Lasky asked what the RDA can do with the money. Mr. Davis replied that the RDA would be holding the money and planning to use it as some of the matching funds for the grant application RDA submits for the Riverwalk. The RDA is hoping to use the estimated $40,000 as part of the match for the DNR grant the RDA put in this spring and replace some city funds with these funds. Mr. Lasky asked if it makes sense for the city to have any option on this for right-of-way in the future. Mr. Davis replied that he couldn’t identify anything for right-of-way. Currently Seventh Avenue is right-of-way. They will retain Pioneer Drive and retain Seventh Avenue, so we do not need anything for this and that includes some of the concerns around Pioneer Drive in general. The Riverwalk and Pioneer Drive will be contained within the Pioneer Drive right-of-way, which still RDA Minutes July 15, 2020 Page 3 leaves an extra 10-20 feet south of the sidewalk. Mr. Davis has not seen any plans that include this area. Mrs. Palmeri asked if this cleans up the lot lines. Mr. Davis replied that it does clean up the lot lines because right now the condo has a jagged line for their property line and this would follow where we think the maximum limits of the park would ever be. The item was called. Motion carried 7-0. Community Gardens Discussion Mr. Davis stated that as a follow up to the previous RDA meeting, staff assembled a list of RDA owned properties that could serve as potential community garden locations because they are not the best residential lots. The locations have little to no interest from potential buyers, no neighbors or community partners have expressed interest in buying them, and the actual size or shape of the parcel make it difficult to redevelop without combining. Another thing the RDA is looking for is something long term due to the work required to establish and maintain a community garden. It should be as semi-permanent as possible. The RDA can set a future agenda item for reaching out to community garden groups to see what their interest would be in the locations. Mrs. Palmeri stated that she was aware of one group that might have an interest in an urban orchard or edible forest type of community garden. Mr. Hintz asked if neighbor permission would be required. Mr. Davis replied that neighbor permission would not be required because the RDA owns the property. They can have a garden on RDA property if they obtain a conditional use permit. Neighbors could attend the Plan Commission and Common Council meetings to speak against a proposed garden, but ultimately only RDA and Council approval are required. Mr. Hintz asked how the RDA would go about identifying interested parties, noting that the Middle Village community garden was successful due to the initiative and interest of local neighbors. Mrs. Palmeri replied that she had been contacted by a couple of neighborhood associations and some residents as early as last year. When discussing what to do with the lakeshore, she was contacted by a University student who had an idea to turn the entire lakeshore into an urban agricultural entity. Since that time, there have been some phone calls and e-mails about why we don’t have a community garden program and then Midtown had expressed interest in permanency. Since some of the supply chain with grocery items has been thin at times, there has been a kind of resurgence of interest in anticipation of potential fresh food shortages this fall. Mr. Hintz replied that it is good news that there are interested groups because that is the absolute key. RDA Minutes July 15, 2020 Page 4 Mrs. Palmeri stated that LaCrosse did a victory garden initiative this year. They expedited the initiative and put it on a fast track. They had a twenty garden decentralized plan, but ended up starting with four based on the availability and the desire of volunteers to steward those gardens. Mrs. Panek asked what the next step to take would be after approving the sites, noting that the worst that we could do is have the garden go into disrepair after planting because nobody is maintaining it. Mr. Davis replied that Middle Village has basically a year to year lease that is renewed and the conditional use permit is reviewed on an annual basis with the RDA. As long as it continues operating and the RDA doesn’t have another use for the property, then that continues. That was one scenario, but if someone expressed interest in a long-term arrangement opposed to a year to year arrangement, that would be the policy in question in front of the RDA at some point. There’s going to be somebody who requests to have something for 10-20 years and would the RDA be willing to put that kind of commitment in writing. Mrs. Palmeri stated that one of the more recent requests was because of the ending of the conditional use permit for Menominee South on Grove St. She is unsure if these locations would be of interest to them since they’re being displaced, noting that this will be the second successful group in the city who has in multiple years stewarded community gardens and been asked to move on. It’s a good thing that we’re gaining some habitat housing, but she is unsure if they would have an interest in any of these locations as an alternative to where they are because the locations do not appear to be in their neighborhood. Mr. Lasky stated that he does not have a problem with any of the properties and he thinks it’s a great idea and that there’s little risk to the RDA to make all of these properties available. It is great that these were brought to the attention of RDA to go to RFP to see if there’s an interested organization that would like to put something together. He would have no problem because there’s little risk and he doesn’t think all five of them are going to go in the next six months or anything, so if there’s time and we can be thoughtful about it, he has no problem with it. Mrs. Palmeri stated that in the LaCrosse version, they coupled things with city lots, some private church yards, and some school areas. It doesn’t specifically have to only be city-owned lots. That could be an offering if a group expresses interest. It does not necessarily need to be formalized like a RFP. Mr. Lasky replied that regardless of the process, there has to be a plan, so it would have to start someplace with someone submitting a plan, which would be the responsibility of the organization expressing interest. The RDA would give the go ahead and would be happy to consider anything in any number of these properties. Mr. Birmingham asked if there needed to be a policy for the time frame. Mr. Davis replied that it is completely up to the RDA. RDA Minutes July 15, 2020 Page 5 Mrs. Palmeri stated that when she was working in Milwaukee with some of the vacant lots there, they had a program in which after x number of years of successful stewardship, the group could apply for the permanent piece, which seemed to have worked there. There have been successful and unsuccessful years with Middle Village. It’s doing phenomenal this year. There are a number of ways to do this and if there was a community garden plan at the city level when someone inquires at least we could have that as an offering. For those who already have requested it, we can go back to them and see if they are interested. Mr. Davis stated that the RDA has complete flexibility. Sometimes they’ve taken offers from one group and RDA assigns it to that group. If we want to open it up to anybody, we could issue a RFP. In theory multiple parties could apply for the same lot and then RDA would have to decide which one is approved based on the proposals. The RFP sounds like the fairest way to give everybody a fair shot to acquire the rights to a community garden. If the RDA would want to convey it, we would have to convey it to some entity and most neighborhood associations aren’t setup to be that entity. The neighborhood associations would have to figure a way to make that happen. Mr. Lasky asked if that could be any non-profit. Mr. Davis replied that any non-profit could be created to hold title to that. We could bring the RFP idea and next steps for a plan to the next meeting. Mr. Stam asked if the RFP would include terms then like a five year term or something similar. Mr. Lasky replied that it would be up to the applicant to make that request and then for that to be discussed and negotiated if necessary. Mrs. Palmeri stated that there are years where who is doing what changes. They’ve had some families move in and out so it rotates as to who does what. Some of the other cities that have done this have actually put this out with a RFP. In Milwaukee the non-profit administered it and acted almost similar to a GO-HNI kind of middle entity. Mr. Davis stated that based on the general consensus of the room, staff will continue working on it and bring the next steps to the next regular meeting. Executive Director’s Report Mr. Davis provided updates to the RDA. Mr. Lasky asked about opportunity zones and if the program was going to be expanding or if there was any more information available. Mr. Davis replied that there has been talk about expansion at the federal level. WEDC has been very good at adding more incentives into opportunity zones which has attracted even more interest because you can do multiple CDI grants in opportunity zones. If the federal government extends, we will be in a good position to help take advantage of that. RDA Minutes July 15, 2020 Page 6 Mr. Lasky asked if the city would have more properties to add if the program expanded. Mr. Davis replied absolutely. We proposed everything in the downtown area and they only took two of our census tracts. We still had another one that we thought was just as worthy along the south side of the river. We would love to see that one included because there are a lot of properties that would benefit from opportunity zone designation. Mr. Belter made a motion for the Redevelopment Authority to convene into Closed Session pursuant to Section 19.85(1)(G) of the Wisconsin State Statutes to discuss the purchase of 668 North Main Street and 518 Merritt Street in the City of Oshkosh. There was no further discussion. The meeting adjourned at approximately 5:07 PM. (Belter/Panek) Respectfully submitted, Allen Davis Executive Director