Building Safety Director Suzanne Smith reviewed the background of the Rancho Vistoso Municipal Complex (RVMC) (fka Municipal Operations Center (MOC) master planning process. She explained that as part of the effort to reduce costs, maintain critical program adjacencies and enhance customer service, the initial phase of development for the RVMC is planned to be complemented with an expansion to the Development Services Building at the current Town Hall site.
Ms. Jaimie Curry from Deutsch and Associates presented a PowerPoint presentation and highlighted the following:
~ Purpose of Master Plan: Fulfill immediate needs of the Town - spaces and sizes are based on approved Space Needs Study for 10 years growth and to provide better service to citizens.
~ Changes since the Space Needs Study:
- Public Works Engineering Staff to move to Town Hall per Management Study.
- Addition at Town Hall will meet Development Services needs with less cost and less disruption.
- Minor modifications to Phase I building sizes: buy-in of departmental directors, building for true needs.
~ Town Hall Site: Provide continuity with campus, clear main entry, integrate additional parking and work within the existing grading and drainage.
~ Rancho Vistoso Municipal Complex: Establish campus feel and sense of place, develop welcoming main entry, design for clear way-finding and orientation, blend into Innovation Park neighborhood, create site accent and landscape palette.
~ Review of the landscape palette and site design representations.
~ Phase I of the RVMC-
- Police Facility and Water Administration: 28,339 sq. ft.
- Water Utility and Public Works Operations: 24,969 sq. ft.
- Public Works/Water Operations Offices: 9,319 sq. ft.
~ Review of LEED Rating compliance path for the RVMC campus.
~ Estimated Construction Costs:
- RVMC
- 28,340 sq.ft. Police Facilities and Water Administration: $9 million
- 24,969 sq.ft. Public Works & Water Operations: $6.68 million
- 13.2 acres site work: $6.36 million
- Town Hall
- 10,269 sq. ft. addition to Development Services: $2.75 million
- 4,000 sq. ft. renovation to Development Services: $620,000
- 1,300 sq.ft. renovation to Police Headquarters: $221,000
Total Estimated Construction Cost: $25.63 million
Total Estimated Project Cost: $36.4 million (Includes soft costs such as furniture, equipment, design fees, etc.)
Finance Director Stacey Lemos reviewed the following:
~ Funds in the amount of $5.7 million dollars were set aside in this year’s budget (FY07/08) to help pay for a portion of the project cost and the first year of debt service on the proposed bonds.
~ If funding is available, staff is recommending that additional funds be set aside in the upcoming 2008/09 budget to further buy down the amount of debt needed to fund the construction costs.
~ Total estimated project cost of $36.4 million - staff has estimated the debt service related to issuing $30 million in bonds with a 20-year amortization.
- The annual principal and interest payments on these bonds would be approximately $2.4 million with the following allocations per square footage:
- Water Fund - 23% ($552,000)
- Highway Fund (Public Works) - 32% ($768,000)
- General Fund (Police & Town Hall) - 45% ($1,080,000)
- Staff is looking at other alternatives to improve the debt service.
Ms. Smith reviewed the project schedule as follows:
- Rancho Vistoso Phase 1 and Town Hall addition:
- Adopt Master Plan - March 2008
- Design: April 2008 - March 2009
- Construction: April 2009 - September 2010
- Occupancy: September 2010
Discussion followed regarding:
~ Landscaping will be xeroscaping.
~ 13.2 acres site work: $6.36 million incorporates paving, storage bins, fueling etc. (Items outside the buildings).
~ Solar - not currently included in the cost but can be considered.
~ If State Highway funding is reduced, is there any other funding without taking from Contingency Funds? - Will look at what is available in the Highway Fund. Options: reduce other areas of spending in the Highway Fund, General Fund subsidy if necessary, stretch out term of the bonds in order to reduce the requirement on the debt service.
~ Phasing of I and II - How long will modular buildings be used? -Current plan is to keep them in place until Phase I is ready to be occupied (Sept. 2010).
~ Public Works Utility Building - Does it have to be built before we can utilize the Public Works operations yard? - Equipment and people need to be together in same place in order to function properly.
~ Coyote Run Transit is now operating out of one of the modular buildings. Vans are stationed up at Rancho Vistoso. They will eventually be stationed at Calle Concordia but they will remain in modular buildings until another facility is built.
~ Police and Water Administration buildings - one-story buildings and a basement.
~ Police Department Training Facility - Types of training: tactical fire arms, fire qualification, classrooms, advance basics, area for proficiency skills for defensive tactics, driving simulator, judgmental shooting, and interpersonal skills training area. Firearms training would be in basement and classrooms on the 1st floor.
~ Site Security - Will be addressed in the design phase.
~ Opportunities for storage using shell space? Must design to take additional load of storage use. Address mechanical, lighting, ventilation needs to support the space.
~ Washes on east and west side - Open space and trails are considered in plan and conditions of the plat will be met.
~ Continue to explore the possibility of two exercise rooms to provide other Town employees the ability to exercise (one currently planned for Police Department at the RVMC).
~ Continue to study options and costs of building the new addition at the current Town Hall as a two-story building.
~ Possibly build a central garage so we could maximize the space: Phase II has possibility to build "decked" parking. Substantial cost increase to do a structured parking facility ($20,000-$25,000 per parking stall at ground level, $40,000-$45,000 per parking stall below grade).
~ Basements verses two-story buildings - cost impacts will be studied. This is an industrial area, maximize the use of the site.
~ Plan as presented meets 10 year space requirements.
~ LEED certification - continue to look at costs and needs.
~ Coyote Run Transit vehicles - Continue to look at appropriate final location due to noise, fueling needs, etc.
Mayor Loomis recessed the meeting at 6:40 p.m. The meeting resumed at 6:48 p.m.
| a. |
Year in Review b. 2007 -2009 P&Z Department Work Plan i. Public Art Maintenance ii. Color Palette Review and Approval iii. Notification Procedures Level of Service Needs c. Levels of Service and Resource Requirements |
Planning and Zoning Director Sarah More highlighted the Planning and Zoning Department’s accomplishments, the redesigned two-year Work Plan and level of service needs.
Accomplishments for 2006/07 include:
~ Historic preservation and archaeological projects such as the Honey Bee Village Archeological Preserve Implementation Plan and initiation of the Steam Pump Ranch Master Plan process.
~ Zoning regulations were brought forward to address Federal and State mandates.
~ Financial Sustainability/Economic Development Projects including the Rancho Vistoso Neighborhood 3 General Plan Amendment to help development of a medical/bio-tech corridor.
~ Citizen Outreach/Participation/Education including Citizens Planning Institute, and household hazardous waste and neighborhood cleanup.
~ Enhanced Public Notification efforts.
~ National, State and regional leadership participation.
Ms More further reviewed the Department’s Goals and Objectives in the following areas:
~ Financial sustainability: Census, annexation, secure outside funding sources.
~ Quality of Life: Preserve open space and control development.
~ Protection of Environment/Cultural assets: Sustain/expand environmentally sensitive lands, coordinate and sustain historic, cultural assets to promote community’s quality of life standard.
~ Economic Development: Foster strong attraction/expansion/retention of business climate and diverse employment opportunities.
~ Leadership and Communication: Build trust through effective public outreach and communication.
Ms. More then reviewed the Planning and Zoning Work Plan Cycle:
~ Ongoing Projects and Programs -95% of Staff time spent on the following:
1. Department Administration
2. Zoning Enforcement
3. Case review
4. Special projects
5. Training
6. Citizen Planning Institute
7. Neighborhood cleanups and hazardous materials collection
8. Annexations
~Other Projects by Priority:
1. Environmentally Sensitive Lands Ordinance (ESLO) (Phase I)
2. Enhancing the Public Participation and Outreach programs
3. Arroyo Grande - multi-jurisdictional planning effort for State Trust land north of Town boundaries to Pinal County.
4. Steam Pump Ranch Master Plan
5. Development Review Process revisions
6. Historic Preservation Plan
7. Zoning Code update, submittal requirements cleanup, and development of standardized review checklist.
~New Projects:
8. Sustainability Program to include incentives for private sector Green Building and Town practices.
9. Public Art
10. Landscape Code Amendment
11. Master Planned Community Ordinance
12. Recreation areas in residential subdivisions
13. Environmentally Sensitive Lands Ordinance (Phase II)
Ms. More then reviewed:
~ Public Art Maintenance: Move forward on this issue or integrate into Work Plan?
~ Color Palette Review
~ Notification Procedures -Advertise in Arizona Daily Star? Expand noticing area to 600 feet (verses current 300 feet)? Have larger signs? Continue with Homeowners Association (HOA) forums?
~ Increased level of services (staffing needs) - Work Plan identifies priorities, timing but affects staffing and consulting resources.
~ Continue to meet Council and community goals for service.
Discussion followed regarding:
~ Color Palette changes. HOAs have control once the main color palette is approved by the Development Review Board (DRB). Concerned about policing individual houses not located in a HOA. If house is outside of an HOA, it should be up to individual neighbors. If they constitute Zoning Code violations, Council can set tone on how violations should be addressed. Town has a set standard, so there has to be some oversight when it comes to color palettes.
~ Maintenance of public art: Ordinance is not clear about the retention and maintenance: create an ordinance that addresses artwork maintenance.
~ We are an aging community. The Zoning Code is geared towards a young community so it would be good to take a look at to see how we address the aging community.
~ Would like to see signs enlarged and notification area expanded.
~ See that we have staff necessary to keep up with needs and demands.
-Further refine project priorities (maintain current levels of projects and services. Will take more staff as move forward on Arroyo Grande project. Currently at or over capacity for current staffing levels. Need an Assistant Director).
Further discussion followed regarding the upcoming budget, the Work Plan’s priorities and resources, increasing notification of rezonings (increase sign size and also place in a daily newspaper), Arroyo Grande and how the ESLO relates to the annexation of this State Trust land, staffing hours (bring back information as we go through the budget process), setting priorities/creating ordinances for Land Use, Council must be clear and reasonable on expectations, return to Council on February 20th with a document that clearly outlines the Work Plan priorities and offers alternatives as we move forward, consider outsourcing actual development work where it makes sense then we can off-load the work to staff later, provide a simple timeline depicting a sequence of events regarding the ESLO and how it relates to General Plan amendment, staff will do more research on what the State will actually fund so specifics may be further addressed.