[MissoulaGov] Committee Update 5/20/09

[Bob Jaffe]

Greetings,

We started the day late with PAZ at ten. Our first item was to look at a
few modifications to the Mill Site project. There were a couple of minor
plat amendments and a phasing plan. The new phasing plan calls for the
bulk of the project to be built in 2012 with the northwest portion being
built in 2015. We also learned that the stadium parking lot will be
built this summer as well as the trail connection to California street.
The MRA board is considering putting the whole park development out to
bid for construction this summer. Bonding and Bidding environments may
be good enough right now to support getting the whole thing done up
front. We are going to get a more detailed update on all that in
Conservation.

 

One of the sticking points in the project has been the road under the
tracks connecting to Cregg lane.  Way back when, the bridge was built to
go over a log pond. Not a road. So now that they want to put a big road
with lots of traffic under it, MRL is saying no deal.  They want the
developer to build them a new bridge to the tune of a million bucks.  We
learned that negotiations had progressed to where the developer was on
board with this idea and just needed to figure out how to pay for it.
Otherwise the holdup is just deciding when it is the right time to pull
the trigger.  Once they start they will need to make millions of dollars
of additional investment in infrastructure before they can sell the
first lot.  They need to be confident that the market is ready before
they start the process rolling. It turns out that they are lucky DEQ
stalled the project for an extra year because otherwise there is a good
chance they would have poured all that money in right before the market
cooled down and the whole thing could have gone bust.

 

Next was setting the public hearing to consider RLD 4 zoning for the
Gables subdivision in Orchard Homes. We approved this subdivision a
couple of years ago. There was a successful zoning protest and a
supermajority was not there to support the zoning. So it was annexed and
subdivided with no zoning in place.  Then the developer never built the
thing and the plat is scheduled to expire next week. He has indicated
that he would like to do mini-storage units on the site. Last week his
attorney, Alan McCormick, sent us a letter indicating we had no right to
try to regulate what he did with the property since it is not zoned. So
we decided to go ahead and zone it.

For now the proposal is for interim zoning of RLD 4 which is what the
original proposal called for. Then we will send it through the formal
process with planning board to establish permanent zoning.

The developer's representative, Nick Kaufman of WGM group, was there to
explain that they were indeed looking at a mini-storage project for the
site. They intend to work with the neighbors to develop a proposal and
come in with a PUD request.  Dave had some choice words as to his
feelings on mini-storage facilities. I can't find the quote but it was
something to the effect of 'vile scourge on the landscape.' Regardless
of the varying opinions on these places the committee members voted to
set the public hearing to establish interim zoning.

 

Our next item was an update from Mike Barton and Roger Millar on the
work plan and work load at OPG. Urban initiatives has pretty much the
same stuff going on next year except they budgeted a bunch of time to
develop an Agriculture lands policy. Roger did a presentation on the OPG
workload through the first three quarters of FY09. The gist is that
things are slower than last year but this last quarter has picked up
substantially. Overall fee revenue is down something like 7%. Not really
that bad considering what is going on in other places around the
country. The powerpoint will be attached to the PAZ minutes and is worth
looking at if you are into that stuff.

 

In A&F we took up the maintenance district discussion. We discussed this
on the list a couple of weeks ago. The basic idea is that we have the
authority to set up maintenance districts to tax people for certain
stuff like maintaining the roads or the parks or the trees and a few
other things. These districts can be for very small areas or for the
whole city.  The appeal of maintenance districts is that they are
outside of our mill levy cap. The legislature, in its infinite wisdom,
has prohibited us from raising our general fund mill levy by more than
half the rate of inflation. This of course means that we eventually go
broke. Maintenance districts give us the ability to cost shift a bunch
of stuff outside of this limitation. We are the only major city in
Montana that has not structured its taxes this way. There is definitely
some controversy here but according to my crystal ball there will be
maintenance districts on our tax bills this November.

 

There were two good items in Public Works. We set the public hearing for
an SID to finally do some traffic calming on Philips street.  There will
be a few of these things that make you curve right and then left when
you go through the intersection. They seem to work and the fire trucks
can get through them OK. There will also be a bunch of bulb outs near
the school as part of the safe routes to school program.

We also directed staff to come up with some proposals for reducing the
speed limit on Reserve street near the CS Porter school. DOT did a
traffic study and determined that we can set it as low as 30 MPH and
they offered to pay for the various signing facilities. There are a
number of options on how exactly we want to implement this so staff is
going to work on it and bring back a package for us to take through the
process. School representatives were there to encourage us to make the
reductions full time instead of just during specific hours since they
have events going on all day every day. They also offered special thanks
to Jim Hausauer and Reggie Bardgett for pushing this effort forward.

 

In Budget Committee of the Whole (BCOW) the Mayor presented the
administrative budget for FY2010.  Lots of other press on this so I'm
not going to dwell on it too much. Bottom line is that they are
proposing to keep taxes static. It all works because we had a reduction
of $450,000 in our General Obligation bond payments and they are
proposing to cut the contribution to the employee health plan by
$500,000. Magic! We pick up $950,000 to keep the general fund solvent
without raising taxes. The administration argues that the health fund is
in plenty good shape without the money but it sounds like the police
union may be feeling a bit more protective about the employer
contribution. It is currently about $680 per month per employee. It
would go down $100 per month with the administration's proposal. More to
come on this in the next few weeks. Budget details can be found here:

ftp://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/documents/Council_Review_FY10_Operating_Budg
et/Operating%20Budget/

 

 

Thanks for your interest, 

 

Bob Jaffe

Missoula City Council, Ward 3

bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us <mailto:bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us> 

406-728-1052



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