[MissoulaGov] committee update 7-29-09

[Marilyn Marler]

Bob, Don't get so discouraged. Process always takes time. m
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bob Jaffe 
  To: missoulagov at cmslists.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 11:07 PM
  Subject: [MissoulaGov] committee update 7-29-09


  Greetings,

  We put in a full shift today from 8-5 with four full hours of PAZ. Even at that I had to cut off the discussion so we could go home. We started out with a report from the police department regarding a new grant that they were awarded. It will allow us to hire a few new officers to fill some of the vacancies that have been held open do to the short budget.  The positions will be paid for the first three years and then we will have to carry them from the general fund after that. The hope is that we will be sitting in a better financial position in FY2013.

  We also learned about plans to build a police station annex at the city shops facility on Scott street.  We approved a $60,000 contract to do some remodeling to the building that was going to house the parks maintenance people. Parks is not quite ready to move yet so the police are going to take the spot and use it for the beginning and end of shift changeover. This will move about twenty five police vehicles out of the city hall lot. Presumably this will free up some of the other parking downtown as officers personal cars will now be out at the shops facility.  Chief Muir assured us that they were not moving the police out of downtown and that all other functions besides the shift start and end would still take place at city hall.  Someday when a more permanent solution is found for the shortage of space they will move out of that space and parks maintenance can move in. The remodel will be mostly compatible with the long term needs of parks.

   

  In conservation we also discussed Scott street. We approved the contract to install the sod and irrigation for the new White Pine park there. At this point it will just be a flat grass field but there are plans for trees, a trail, and playground equipment. 

   

  Then we started our morning session of PAZ. The intent was to get through the issues with the sign ordinance today. I figured in the morning we could knock out the issues unrelated to dynamic electronic signs and then take up the electronic stuff in the afternoon session.  Instead we blew the first 45 minutes talking about whether outdoor signs could stay lit after business hours. Besides being fraught with technical difficulties like defining the hours of operation for a business with a pop machine outside, it was clear that there was not majority support for the proposal. Still, motions to call for the question failed and folks kept on wanting to talk for quite a while beyond where we could have dispensed with the matter.  There were also about twenty five people in the audience, many of whom wanted to participate. I like to give everyone a chance to say their piece considering that they took the time to come down. 

  Next we moved on to a discussion regarding mountain line benches and bus stop enclosures.  The proposed language from planning board allows them to put signs on benches and bus stops. Dave S. made a motion to not allow them to have signs. After debate and comment covering issues of Mountain Line's need for funds and the aesthetics of the community we ran out of time and recessed until the 2:00 PAZ session.

   

  Next we had our quarterly meeting with the county commissioners to hear all about OPG. We got the summarized breakdown of the various departments and what all they do. Permit activity is down something like 20%. This means the turnaround time on projects is also down about 20% and they are getting caught up on a backlog of clerical tasks. We also got an update on the Urban Fringe Development Area (UFDA) plan.  Next to the original projections we now have actual 2008 data. I made a little chart showing the projected number of units that will go in to the various areas compared to what was approved in 08 and permitted in 08.

   

  I'm not sure how well this will come through on people's mail programs but it looks OK in outlook.

   

        area
       Projected
       ratio
       approved
       ratio
       permitted
       ratio
       
        wye
       2281
       12.99%
       0
       0.00%
       0
       0.00%
       
        w mullan
       773
       4.40%
       0
       0.00%
       48
       14.33%
       
        E mullan
       2500
       14.23%
       0
       0.00%
       104
       31.04%
       
        grant
       0
       0.00%
       0
       0.00%
       0
       0.00%
       
        reserve
       2400
       13.66%
       16
       14.29%
       72
       21.49%
       
        target
       1000
       5.69%
       57
       50.89%
       14
       4.18%
       
        miller
       1366
       7.78%
       0
       0.00%
       4
       1.19%
       
        central
       2595
       14.77%
       0
       0.00%
       22
       6.57%
       
        brooks
       2154
       12.26%
       0
       0.00%
       24
       7.16%
       
        U
       400
       2.28%
       0
       0.00%
       1
       0.30%
       
        south
       800
       4.55%
       0
       0.00%
       11
       3.28%
       
        rattle
       315
       1.79%
       0
       0.00%
       11
       3.28%
       
        e missoula
       678
       3.86%
       39
       34.82%
       23
       6.87%
       
        bonner
       302
       1.72%
       0
       0.00%
       1
       0.30%
       
       17564
        112
        335
        

     

  Brief explanation: For example East Mullan area is projected to see 2500 more units during the planning period. I think that is twenty years. This represents 14.23% of the growth we expect to see. In 2008 there were building permits for 104 units representing 31.04% of all units built in 2008. But no additional units were approved by council in that area. This is of course only one year's data so it doesn't mean a whole lot but it will be interesting to watch the trends over time.

   

  After lunch in Administration and Finance we assessed a handful of people for not cutting their weeds. The way this works is someone complains about someone else's weeds. Someone from Public works then goes out and checks it out and takes pictures. A letter is then sent to the property owner telling them to cut their weeds. After some time public works goes back out and checks. If they are not cut they get warned again and then finally they contract with someone to go out and cut the weeds. Then they send the person a bill. If the bill does not get paid it comes to us to approve assessing it on their taxes. There were about half a dozen this year. The average cost to cut the weeds is about $150. Then they tack on a $233 administrative fee.  This represents the approximately ten hours of staff time it takes to run it through the whole process.  So if you ever get one of these letters please just cut your weeds. It will save you a lot of money.

   

  We also levied the annual assessments for street lighting districts. These cost about $300,000 each year. The general fund pays about $30,000 and we assess the rest to property owners in the districts. This always brings up the discussion of why don't we just buy the lights from NorthWest and take care of them ourselves. Most of the cost is to rent the light and pole, not the electricity.  It's like the old Ma Bell phones you used to have to rent. We have paid for our light poles many times over by now.  I understand the Mayor's energy task force is looking into the issue of street lighting so hopefully they will bring back some kind of proposal on the subject.

   

  In Public Works we made a change to our sewer service agreement to account for a problem going on up at the Wye. Back up the hill behind Jim and Mary's RV park there is a small subdivision that has a community septic system. It is all working just fine. But down the hill there are wells that are starting to be contaminated. Since we are pushing the sewer out there anyway it is relatively inexpensive to connect this community system since there is only one pipe we have to hook up. The cost of sewer will be pretty much the same as what they pay for the management of the community septic system. The problem is that our sewer service agreement says that if you want to get contract sewer you have to waive your protest right to annexation. It would be pretty much impossible to get everyone in the subdivision to sign on to something like this. This sort of thing has happened in the past and we anticipate it will happen more in the future. So we revised the language to allow for emergency connections to be exempt from the annexation waiver condition on a case by case basis as approved by council.  

   

  Then it was back to PAZ. We were reminded that Mountain Line is a public entity and is therefore exempt from zoning regulations. If they want to do something that is out of compliance with zoning they simply have to have a hearing at the Board of Adjustment. No vote is taken, it is just a hearing. This took some of the wind out of the sails on that one and the motion for greater regulation failed.

   

  Next was a section that attempted to clarify the criteria on which the Board of Adjustment can base their decisions. The proposal on the floor was to further tighten up the language and make it more restrictive. Nugent pointed out that state law specifies the criteria for BOA and we were not permitted to make it more restrictive. So instead of making it more restrictive we pretty much struck the whole section.

   

  Next was window signs. There was much discussion but no changes from the planning board draft. Window signs can cover one third of any given window. We did agree that a window means an entire sill and not just an individual pane.

   

  Then we were finally on to electronic signs with just two hours left.  If we could move efficiently we may just be able to finish it. No such luck.  We had some presentations to get us all up to speed on the issues and the definitions. Dave made a motion that would have restricted electronic signs to one frame per eight seconds essentially making them static signs that could change to another static image every eight seconds.  Pretty much like the sign at Tremper's shopping center. I was in support of this motion but it met much opposition from folks on council and all the industry reps in the audience.  Between lengthy discussion and much public comment we worked through our remaining time talking this lost cause to death. At one point Dick and I got in a spat over the appropriate level of participation in the discussion I could have. I have a somewhat more liberal interpretation of the rules than he does. Considering it was the only real fight in an eight hour day that was pretty good. After the meeting Ed was able to broker a peace between us and we shook hands.

  At one point towards the end Renee, being oh so clever, took the stand during public comment claiming that it's the only way she could get to speak since I won't call on her.  Since she plays the victim so well and I already had one standoff that hour I let her go ahead and speak out of order. It was a wonderful afternoon. In the end nothing was accomplished regarding electronic signs. We will take another go at it next week.

   

  Thanks for your interest, 

   

   

  Bob Jaffe

  Missoula City Council, Ward 3

  1225 South 2nd West

  Missoula, MT 59801

  (406) 728-1052

   



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