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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03.17.21 1 REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY MEETING MINUTES March 17, 2021 PRESENT: Lori Palmeri, Steve Hintz, Susan Panek, Thomas Belter, Archie Stam, Jack Bermingham EXCUSED: Jason Lasky STAFF: Allen Davis, Executive Director/Community Development Director; Darlene Brandt, Grants Coordinator; Anna Maier, Administrative Assistant Chairperson Palmeri called the meeting to order at 4:00pm. Roll call was taken and a quorum declared present. The minutes and closed session minutes of January 20, 2021 were approved as distributed. (Stam, Hintz) 21-03 Public Hearing: Approve Spot Blight Designation; Approve Acquisition of Property at 548 Otter Avenue ($50,000) No one appeared for the public hearing. Motion by Hintz to move Res. 21-03. Seconded by Belter. Mr. Stam asked if the owner wanted to sell the property for $50,000 and then buy it back. Mr. Davis replied that the adjoining property owner would be interested in buying it, not the selling owner. Ms. Palmeri stated that the fair market value is $106,000, the Assessor’s website shows that the land is valued at $11,000 and the building is around $83,000. She asked with the RDA would buy it for $50,000 if the building is so deteriorated that it has to be razed. Mr. Davis replied that the assessed value would add up to around $94,000. They adjust the fair market value because their assessments are not at 100% due to changes in the market. The $50,000 is close to the $94,000 assessed value and certainly less than 50% for the property’s fair market value. The land itself would remain and they would sell it for the fair market value to comply with CDBG requirements. Ms. Palmeri asked if the $94,000 includes the building as if the building were still in good condition. 2 Mr. Davis replied affirmatively. Ms. Palmeri asked if it would be re-assessed once it was razed to a lower dollar amount. Mr. Davis replied that it would become tax exempt if the RDA were to purchase. They would need to sell it for fair market value and they have that data to support the acquisition price. Ms. Panek asked if it would be sold for the $50,000. Mr. Davis replied that if they’re only selling the lot, they’re selling for the lot’s fair market value because the building would be removed at that point. Ms. Panek asked if that was $11,000. Mr. Davis replied affirmatively. Ms. Palmeri asked if purchasing it for more than it is worth would present a problem if using CDBG dollars. Mr. Davis replied that the $50,000 includes the lot improvements. When they tear the improvements down, the value would decrease to around $11,000 and that’s what they would sell it for. Ms. Panek asked if it is in one of the blighted areas that they want to improve. Mr. Davis replied affirmatively. Ms. Palmeri stated that it is not in one of the redevelopment areas, but it is in one of the neighborhoods targeted for revitalization. Mr. Davis stated that a spot blight designation approval means that it is not in a redevelopment area. If they’re in a redevelopment area, they’re already determined to be blighted. The item was called. Motion carried 5-0. 21-04 Approve Continuing Urban Green Space Use; Northeast Corner of Central Street and West Parkway Avenue Motion by Belter to move Res. 21-04. Seconded by Bermingham. Ms. Panek asked how the pictures are related to this item. Ms. Brandt replied that the pictures relate to a conditional use permit that was approved in 2014 for these urban green spaces. 3 Ms. Panek asked if it is a community garden where people plant produce or if it is something else. Ms. Brandt replied that there are raised beds at the green space used for educational purposes and the neighborhood uses the green space for various activities. Ms. Palmeri stated that both green spaces are neighborhood gathering spaces. Last year they enhanced the butterfly garden and planted vegetables where the raised beds are. There has been some informal education, but not a formal program. Ms. Panek replied that she loves the way it looks. She thought that the pictures were incorrect because she was expecting to see rows of plantings. Ms. Brandt replied that they have not permitted in-ground planting, which is why raised beds are being used. The neighborhood maintains the lots and takes care of grass cutting and snow removal. She asked Ms. Palmeri if anyone outside of the neighborhood could use the green space. Ms. Palmeri replied that is only for use by the neighborhood. She noticed that those were the original pictures. She also noticed that the contact person for Middle Village needed to be updated since she is no longer the coordinator. She asked if the neighborhood needed to a new application including the new coordinator’s name. Mr. Davis stated that the conditional use permit would continue, they just need the new coordinator’s contact information. Ms. Palmeri replied that she would get that updated. The item was called. Motion carried 5-0. 21-05 Approve Continuing Urban Green Space Use; Southeast Corner of Ida Avenue and Franklin Street Motion by Belter to move Res. 21-05. Seconded by Panek. Ms. Palmeri stated that this green space is a couple of blocks away from the other one. It is more of an open space that is more passively used, although there have been quite a few picnics and drum circles over the years. Nothing happened last year other than maintenance. Mr. Belter asked if this green space has the large structure on it. Ms. Palmeri replied that it has a stone pavement circle and bench area. It is much more impressive in the picture, but it does get a lot of use. The item was called. Motion carried 5-0. 4 21-06 Approve Professional Service Agreement with AECOM for Design, Engineering, Permitting, and Construction Documentation for Pioneer Drive Riverwalk, South Main Street to Railroad Tracks ($260,000) Motion by Stam to move Res. 21-06. Seconded by Belter. Mr. Belter asked if it seemed expensive to anyone else. He is curious what AECOM charged per foot for other properties because it looks like it is around $1,000 per foot when all they are doing is watching over construction. He asked Mr. Davis if they received any other bids. Mr. Davis replied that AECOM has been their consultant on all of the Riverwalk projects. The last time they bid it out was for the Oshkosh Corp. project and AECOM was still below bid even on that project. They are most knowledgeable about the property and they have used them for the remediation of the land adjoining the property. The overall cost is still in line with what they’d expect for engineering, design, and construction. It will be somewhere in the 15% to 20% range for overall costs which has been typical for these projects. Mr. Belter replied that AECOM is a nationwide firm with a couple billion dollars in sales, so they know how to bill and make money, but that also means they’re good at what they do. Mr. Davis replied that they have been fortunate in that they haven able to successfully complete the Riverwalk projects. AECOM knows what they’re doing with these projects. Mr. Stam asked if it was grant money. Mr. Davis replied that they did not get a grant last year. They City Manager and Finance Director have come up with a finance strategy for this project which they will be presenting to Council. The $260,000 is in the City’s 2021 CIP budget. They think they need to start the project in 2021 based on the responses to the RFP. He would like to get this out of the way to remove an obstacle to development for the whole redevelopment site. The item was called. Motion carried 5-0. Community Gardens Update Ms. Davis stated that they received a proposal for the South Oregon property and they’ve been meeting with that community garden group. They have also been meeting with other communities which have community garden programs. The last meeting was with Madison. He was unable to attend, but Ms. Nieforth and Ms. Brandt were in attendance. Ms. Nieforth stated that the group that is proposing to have the community garden on Oregon were involved in the meeting with Madison. Madison has been partnering with a group called Rooted since 1996. Rooted has long term leases so that people putting the work in do not have to 5 worry about the site being sold. A lot of Madison’s community gardens are on City property, school district property, or county property that is not going to be sold and will remain owned by the entity long term. Rooted and the other groups do not own the parcels, whereas RDA would like the groups to own the parcels eventually. They get their own insurance and meet the requirements of the City. They help pay for the insurance and the City covers part of a Rooted staff position. Rooted has over 20 staff members funded by various grants. Madison advised partnering with a 501c3 to help with coordination. They also mentioned that larger parcels with more amenities like access to water and parking are good for community gardens. Madison provided great information and they are excited to hear what Green Bay and Milwaukee are doing. Ms. Palmeri stated that she had a great discussion with a gentleman up on North Main Street who has acquired a building recently and may pursue a partnership with Merrill. There may also be some interest from Jericho Gardens. They noticed the RFP and had been talking a little bit with their board. There is also a potential 501c3 group in the City that may have an interest putting a proposal forth for multiple parcels. It is a little disappointing that some of the folks who had really wanted this maybe lost some of their enthusiasm. She thanked staff for having the meeting and following up. Value of Untaxed Taxable Land from Assessor Mr. Davis stated that the City Assessor put this together. Right now the RDA does not have assessments or values on their properties, so the Assessor worked backward to come up with a value for the land that the RDA owns by looking at what the land was assessed for before the RDA owned it. In some cases they had good documentation and in some cases they did not. It should provide some idea of what kind of value the RDA is holding currently. Downtown is higher per square foot and residential is still going to come in around $10,000 per lot. Parcels that were already acquired by the City were transferred to the RDA when it was created. Ms. Panek thanked staff for putting the report together. She thinks it is something that can be used over the years as a baseline. Ms. Palmeri asked if the City-owned parcels still had for sale signs. Mr. Davis replied that they place signs up on the lots, but it is a challenge to keep the signs on the property in good condition. Ms. Palmeri asked if putting the signs up has generated inquiries. Ms. Brandt replied that they have generated several calls over the years. Some of them are productive and others are more of an inquiry or the use that they’re proposing is not an allowed use. Ms. Palmeri asked if there was a place online someone could go look at all of the listings or if there was a way to use the Connect Oshkosh app to view listings. 6 Mr. Davis replied that they are listed on the Develop Oshkosh website. He does not know how Connect Oshkosh works with the website. Ms. Nieforth replied that Develop Oshkosh has redevelopment, residential, Business Park, and Industrial Park listings. There is also a map showing where the sites are. Ms. Brandt that some of the sites are not for sale at this time because they are doing land assemblage for redevelopment of an entire block or block frontage. Ms. Palmeri asked if this was the case for the Jefferson Street lots. Mr. Davis replied that those are for sale. Ms. Brandt stated that she is referring to sites on the south side and south shore redevelopment area and scattered sites in redevelopment areas. Ms. Palmeri asked for confirmation that the amount that is not taxed is continuing to increase. Mr. Davis replied that the Marion Road parcels aren’t on this list anymore and they had in excess of one million dollars of land value. They’ve probably reduced it most recently with the Merge redevelopment because they sold those parcels. There are a lot of parcels that could be sold in the next year depending on how things turn out for financing. RDA Sold Properties Mr. Davis stated that this was a little more difficult to put together than he was expecting. It goes back only a few years because it would require a lot more staff time to identify the parcels sold prior to 2018. Executive Director’s Report Mr. Davis provided updates to the RDA. There was no further discussion. The meeting adjourned at approximately 4:56pm. (Belter, Panek) Respectfully Submitted, Allen Davis Executive Director