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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApproved Minutes - 2009-10-06 O,l.&kE OS `'`� CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES October 6, 2009 O![GO$ Mayor Jack Hoffman called the regular City Council meeting to order at 6:32 p.m. on October 6, 2009, in the City Council Chambers, 380 A Avenue. Present: Mayor Hoffman, Councilors Jordan, Hennagin, Moncrieff, Olson, Tierney, and Johnson. Staff Present: Alex McIntyre, City Manager; David Powell, City Attorney; Robyn Christie, City Recorder; Joel Komarek, LOIS Project Director; Jane Heisler, LOIS Communications Director; Jeff Selby, LOIS Project Citizen Information Coordinator; Fire Chief Ed Wilson; Jan Wirtz, Recreation Supervisor— Cultural Programs/Luscher Farm; Bill Baars, Library Director; Carole Bryck, Assistant Finance Director; Jordan Wheeler, Management Analyst; Kim Gilmer, Parks & Recreation Director; Brant Williams, Director of Economic and Capital Projects; Guy Graham, Public Works Director; Leslie Hamilton, Associate Planner; Denny Egner, Assistant Planning Director; Sidaro Sin, Senior Planner Youth Council Present: Youth Councilors Cooper, Rathje, and Chandrana 3. PRESENTATIONS 3.1 Clackamas County Commissioner, Ann Lininger Commissioner Lininger stated that she was here to share some of the Board's achievements and focus areas. She indicated that the County was focused on economic recovery, implementing solutions, and providing outstanding customer services. She discussed their work on leveraging as much federal stimulus money as they could into the community. She reported that they have attracted $15 million that would create 200 jobs throughout the county, and that they have requested an additional $50 million for several different categories. She mentioned the $450 million pot of the US Department of Energy, from which Metro, the State, the City of Portland, and other jurisdictions have asked for funds to retrofit public buildings for higher energy efficiency. She spoke of the $50 million redevelopment of a public housing site in Oregon City into a mixed use/mixed income area, which would create 500 construction jobs. She acknowledged that it was a short term project but cited it as an example of how the County was leveraging outside money to help with economic recovery. She discussed their work on implementing solutions to tackle tough problems. She remarked that having a five member Board allowed the Commissioners to attend more public meetings and to hold conversations regarding problems without having to publish a public meeting notice. She mentioned the water quality problems with sewage overflow into the river in Milwaukie, and the need to find a way to improve capacity. She noted that all communities that shared in the benefit would pay their fair share of the cost. She spoke of the Board's work to encourage the legislature to invest in infrastructure, citing the $120 million allocated in the last session to help the County with tough road improvement projects, such as the intersection of 1-205 and Hwy 212/224. She mentioned the Board's work on the urban/rural reserves process. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 1 of 20 October 6, 2009 She discussed their very thorough public participation process. She said that Clackamas County was the only one of the four jurisdictions in the Core 4 with an official resolution backed by public input endorsing the areas that the Board has proposed as urban and rural reserves. She commented that the fact that everyone was mildly dissatisfied with the proposal indicated to her that they have found a workable compromise between conservation lands and employment lands. She discussed their work on their customer service procedures. She mentioned streamlining the County processes to help businesses and County residents. She spoke of their redesigning the County's behavioral health care system to help as many people with substance abuse issues as possible, even in a declining money environment. She noted the 75% community support of the County's move to a 4-day work week, and the $500,000 in savings achieved through the change. She stated that the Board was looking for ways to be efficient, to serve its constituents well, and to support economic recovery. Mayor Hoffman noted that Commissioner Lininger was a Lake Oswego resident. COUNCIL QUESTIONS Councilor Hennagin asked what chance the Commissioner thought the Board had in persuading Metro to adopt the County's recommendations for reserves in the Stafford Triangle, which differed from the Metro staff proposal, and whether to leave it undesignated. Commissioner Lininger pointed out that the Metro Council has not yet taken a position. She noted that the final designation process involved the three Counties and Metro in negotiations to reach an acceptable resolution. She acknowledged that reasonable people could disagree on the designation of the Stafford Triangle, yet they needed to take a regional approach. She noted that the initial endorsement of the Core 4 was to leave Stafford mostly undesignated with part of the southern area designated as urban reserve. She confirmed to Councilor Hennagin that Commissioner Lehan would represent Clackamas County at the CORE 4. She observed that Commissioner Lehan was a strong advocate. Councilor Johnson mentioned Milwaukie's efforts to move its sewage treatment plant away from its waterfront as part of reclaiming its waterfront. She indicated that Lake Oswego was also interested in moving the sewage treatment plant in conjunction with development in Foothills. She noted that the County was involved in Milwaukie's efforts and therefore able to make some progress in getting multiple jurisdictions to the table to discuss more efficient wastewater treatment. Commissioner Lininger indicated that it was a difficult situation, but it had good faith commitment to finding a resolution. She said that the County's position was a preference to downscale the Kellogg plant as the TriCities plant ramped up capacity. Thus the Kellogg plant might eventually go underground and allow Milwaukie to reclaim the waterfront, which was an important goal for the revitalization of Milwaukie. She commented that she thought it remained to be seen whether this would be a good model for how to approach other wastewater conundrums, but the various groups did have common ground in wanting to protect the river and help Milwaukie get the opportunity to redevelop the land. She said that the Board would welcome the chance to discuss with Lake Oswego how to downscale or underground the wastewater treatment plant near Foothills. 3.2 Watershed Hero Award to Palisades Girl Scout Troop 40447 Mayor Hoffman presented the first ever Healthy Watersheds Leadership Recognition Award to Palisades Girl Scout Troop#40447 on behalf of the City and the community of Lake Oswego. He explained that the award was given to individuals or groups who demonstrated leadership, responsibility, or activism in connection with and within their own watershed. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 20 October 6, 2009 The troop leaders accepted the framed award and the Mayor's thanks. Mayor Hoffman presented each troop member with a pin in recognition of the troop's leadership in placing 70 storm drain markers in the Oswego Lake watershed in order to raise awareness of the connection between the storm drains and the receiving waters. 3.3 LOIS Update Mr. Komarek reported on the construction activities. He said that the Lakewood Bay work on rehabbing manholes was complete. He indicated that pile and ground anchor installations were both progressing very well, even in the face of some challenging conditions in the difficult West End geology. He reviewed statistics for the ground anchors and presented a status report. He discussed the buoyancy pipeline. He indicated that all seven of the custom fabricated manholes were completed, with testing to begin on one of them in the next two weeks. He reported that the City started taking delivery today of the 42-inch polyethylene pipe, which would be fused into the buoyant sections of the pipeline. He explained that they used just-in-time deliveries to minimize traffic and to keep the pipe coming into the area as needed, a process that would continue over the next several months. He indicated that the team was doing the contractor prequalifications for the Bryant Road pump station and for the lake down phase. He spoke of awarding the contracts in December, which meant that the City would have three contract projects going on simultaneously over the next 12 months. Ms. Heisler reported on the communications activities. She indicated that the team received very few phone calls or e-mails regarding the resumption of Saturday work in the lake on September 8. She mentioned contacting some lakefront owners regarding pile installations close to homes in the West End. She referenced the article with pictures and captions on the LOIS project published in the Daily Journal of Commerce. She mentioned giving the Oregonian reporter a tour last week. She noted the excellent job Mr. Selby has done in updating the web display for the Lake Grove Village Days. She indicated that the team would meet with the Springbrook and Forest Hills Easements chairs to discuss building a ramp through their easements for contractor lake access and rehabbing the easement afterwards. She explained that Mr. Selby's good work on graphics and customer service were largely responsible for the LOIS project receiving the Good Governance Award for its outreach efforts at the 84th Annual League of Oregon Cities Conference on Saturday. She expressed their appreciation for his work, and thanked the Mayor and Council for their budget support of the project's outreach efforts. She mentioned that they would have the second webisode finalized shortly. She noted the kickoff media event this Friday. Mr. Komarek reviewed the schedule and budget update. He indicated that they were holding firm on the end date, despite some delays with the ground anchor and pile work. He said that they saw nothing on the horizon indicating that they could not meet the critical milestone dates in the schedule. He commented that they were still optimistic that they could do all six phases for the $110 million cost estimate. COUNCIL QUESTIONS Councilor Hennagin asked for an explanation of how the welding of the pipe in the LOIS project differed from the welding of the pipe in the Portland sewer project, which ran into problems, as reported in the newspaper. He pointed out for the benefit of the citizens that even though the City would let the contract for the lake down work in January, the project would not lower the lake level until a year from now. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 20 October 6, 2009 Mr. Komarek clarified that the timing of the lake down work was by negotiated agreement with the Lake Corporation over a year ago, which established a start date shortly after Labor Day 2010 and an out-of-the-lake date of March 21, 2011. He explained that the Portland project welding occurred in the trench under very confined conditions, which made it difficult to control the mating of the prepared edges of the pipe. However, the contractor would do all of the LOIS project fusing entirely on land, and thus would have very good control over making sure that the pipe edges fit together properly. He described the fusing and testing process and the personnel certification requirements that the contractor would use. He indicated that the City would log information on every joint of the pipe in order to create a record for use in fixing joints that did not pass the rigorous tests. He stated that they were confident that the City would end up with a very robust, strong pipe. Councilor Tierney congratulated the LOIS team on their stellar communications, on time schedule, and on budget expenditures. He asked what specific efforts they were taking to get the ground anchor and pile installations back on schedule. He asked whether the depth of the installations posed any financial risk to the City with respect to the contractor bid. Mr. Komarek indicated that the installation depths were not unexpected. He explained that they were making decisions in the field as needed in a timely manner in order to deal with the challenging geological conditions in the West End with the goal of not slowing the project down. He noted that they were not sacrificing quality in making those decisions that allowed the contractor to move forward. He said that they have experienced some cost issues with some of the ground anchor and pile installation, which they were working through using the process established in the contract. He described the process, which he indicated was working well. He mentioned that they currently had a little over 1% in total change orders (c. $300,000) relative to the original contract, in contrast to a more typical 5% to 6% change orders in projects like this. He noted that the most difficult part of the work was behind them, based upon the geology as they knew it today. He pointed out that some of the change orders were owner-directed, and not mandated by differing site conditions. He explained that they were adding on to the scope of work as they went through the lake full project and the lake down design, identifying elements better completed during the lake full phase. He indicated that with only six months to do the lake down work, they were trying to minimize the amount of work that the lake down contractor had to do because his schedule was more critical. 3.4 Fire Safety Week Proclamation Mayor Hoffman read the proclamation declaring October 4 through October 10 as Fire Safety Week in Lake Oswego. Chief Wilson mentioned that Fire Prevention Week began in 1992 as a commemoration of the Chicago Fire of October 1871 that killed 250 people and left 100,000 people homeless. He gave 2008 fire statistics in the United States: 386,500 fires resulting in 2,755 deaths. He indicated that kitchens, bedrooms, and living rooms were the leading origin spots of the fires. While unattended cooking in kitchens started the most fires, more people died in bedroom and living room fires. He said that smokers' carelessness caused one in four fire deaths, and that one in four deaths was not the person who started the fire. He discussed Oregon fire statistics, noting that typically 60% of patients in the Oregon Burn Center were adult males (ages 18-25) burned during improper use of flammable liquids, and 30% were children under the age of five with scalding burns. He recommended turning hot water tanks down to 120 degrees. He reviewed fire safety practices involving candles, electrical cords, smoke detectors, home escape plans, and residential sprinkler systems. He indicated that fire fighters found a disabled or dead smoke detector in over half the fires to which they responded in the U.S. He mentioned that City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 20 October 6, 2009 98% of the time a residential sprinkler system will put the fire out, using far less water than firefighters' attack lines. He discussed the Lake Oswego Fire Department's Fire Prevention Week efforts in working with elementary schools and the library. He mentioned distributing 3,500 Stay Fire Smart bookmarkers to the schools. He described their anticipated calendar contest using the winners of a fire safety poster contest. He confirmed Councilor Moncrieff s comment that the Fire Department was available to make fire safety presentations to neighborhood associations or civic groups. 3.5 Oregon Cultural Day Proclamation Mayor Hoffman read the proclamation declaring October 8 as the Oregon Day of Culture in Lake Oswego in recognition of the anniversary of Oregon's Cultural Tax Credit and as part of the national recognition of October as National Arts and Humanities month. Andrew Edwards, Lakewood Center for the Arts Executive Director, thanked the Council for its strong support of the arts. He spoke of the uniqueness of the Cultural Tax Credit as an integrated cultural funding mechanism for arts, historic preservation, heritage, and the humanities. He noted that the Cultural Trust ranked with the Bottle Bill as one of Oregon's most forward thinking policy measures. He mentioned that over the past seven years more than $8 million from the $17 million contributed to the endowment fund have been distributed in grants throughout Oregon. He noted the quarter million dollars invested in cultural projects in Clackamas County. He held that this proclamation helped reinforce the idea that culture was community, and that culture did not exist in a vacuum. He thanked the Council, the City, and the community for their recognition of this valuable resource. He encouraged people to visit the trust's website, which listed more than 400 cultural attractions throughout the state. He invited the audience to attend the Lakewood Center Theater current production of Oliver. Ms. Wirtz agreed that cultural experiences were an organic part of the Lake Oswego community. She thanked the Council for supporting cultural experiences in the city. She mentioned the many cultural opportunities available through the Parks & Recreation programs. Mr. Baars thanked the Council for its support of culture in the community. He mentioned the library collection (150,000 plus items) and programs available for children (361 programs last year with 13,000 plus attendees) and adults (210 programs last year with 11,000 plus attendees), which reflected a diversity of cultural experiences. He spoke of the Lake Oswego Reads program, which has focused on Japanese-American and Spanish cultures in the past, and would focus on the Pakistani and Afghan cultures next year (Whistling Season by Ivan Doig). 3.6 Army's Community Covenant Program and the Oregon Flag Fund Program Councilor Jordan reported that at the Clackamas County Coordinating Committee retreat last week Senator Martha Schrader spoke about starting a Community Covenant Program in Clackamas County to support the men and women currently serving the Armed Forces and their families. She commented that the program started as a way to avoid repeating the reception given to the soldiers fighting in Vietnam, who were not welcomed back into their communities. She indicated that there would be a ceremony on November 5, at which all the participating cities would sign the covenant. She read Resolution 09-60, pledging Lake Oswego's commitment to military families, to creating a welcoming transition for returning vets and their families and to providing assistance and support. Councilor Olson mentioned the other program that they learned about at the C4 meeting, the Oregon Flag Fund. She explained that people could request that an Oregon State flag be sent to either a unit or to an individual currently serving in the Armed Forces as an expression of their City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 20 October 6, 2009 gratitude to fellow Oregonians for their commitment and sacrifice. She indicated that the funds were limited, as the program was supported entirely by private donations. She directed people to the Oregon Flag Fund page on the Oregon Secretary of State's website. Mayor Hoffman acknowledged the efforts of Portland and Clackamas Community Colleges in creating a transition for the Oregon National Guard unit members returning from Iraq. Councilor Olson moved to adopt Resolution 09-60, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Lake Oswego supporting the Clackamas County Community Covenant Program. Councilor Jordan seconded the motion. A voice vote was taken, and the motion passed with Mayor Hoffman, Councilors Jordan, Hennagin, Moncrieff, Olson, Tierney, and Johnson voting "aye." [7-0] 3.7 Governor's 2009 Fitness Leadership Award, Eric Lider Mayor Hoffman recalled that he met Eric Lider 32 years ago when they were both coaching fourth grade girls. He explained that he received this award for Mr. Lider at the League of Oregon Cities annual meeting on Friday. He read the narrative portion of the nomination form, which recounted Mr. Lider's work with students in school and non-school athletic programs for over 30 years and his promotion of fitness. He noted that Mr. Lider has touched the lives and hearts of thousands of Lake Oswego students, their parents, and other adults. He observed that Mr. Lider has left his mark on the community fabric of Lake Oswego in working with the youth. He presented the award to Mr. Lider and thanked him. 4. CONSENT AGENDA Councilor Jordan moved the Consent Agenda. Councilor Johnson seconded the motion. A voice vote was taken, and the motion passed with Mayor Hoffman, Councilors Jordan, Hennagin, Moncrieff, Olson, Tierney, and Johnson voting "aye." [7-0] 4.1 REPORTS 4.1.1 Resignation of Gregory Frank from the Transportation Advisory Board Action: Accept Resignation: 4.2 APPROVAL OF MINUTES 4.2.1 July 21, 2009, regular meeting 4.2.2 July 28, 2009, special meeting 4.2.3 August 18, 2009, special meeting 4.2.4 September 1, 2009, regular meeting Action: Approve minutes as written END CONSENT AGENDA 5. ITEMS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA 6. CITIZEN COMMENT 7. PUBLIC HEARINGS 7.1 Resolution 09-59, adjusting the budget for fiscal year commencing July 1, 2009, by adopting a supplemental budget, approving resources/requirements and making appropriations Mr. Powell reviewed the hearing procedures and the testimony time limits. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 6 of 20 October 6, 2009 STAFF REPORT Ms. Bryck indicated that these amendments to the budget adopted on June 16, 2009, increased the budget by approximately $1.9 million. She explained that the increase was mostly in beginning fund balances turning out to be different from what staff had originally anticipated in going through the budget process. She mentioned also receiving an energy efficiency and conservation grant of $157,000 from the Department of Energy. She said that the beginning fund balance in the general fund increased by $416,000 over the staff forecast. She mentioned expenses for projects not completed by the end of the last budget year and new items approved since the budget passed. She noted additional expenditures in the water fund, the surface water fund, and the motor pool fund, as well as the $32,000 from the operating contingency set aside for COLA increases to pay for the additional 1% on medical insurance required of employers by the State. QUESTIONS OF STAFF Councilor Tierney mentioned that he submitted his questions to the City Manager earlier in the day. He asked, given the $417,000 difference in the general fund beginning balance from the staff projections, what degree of confidence staff had in the City's financial systems to make accurate projections and to provide information to decision makers. Ms. Bryck explained that the change to rolling many individual funds together into one general fund necessitated many year-end adjustments and closing entries, which staff had not yet completed by the Council presentation two weeks ago. Mr. McIntyre acknowledged the need to look more closely at the City's financial systems. He anticipated the new Finance Director working with staff to determine whether there were systemic problems requiring a system upgrade or a wholesale system replacement. Councilor Tierney asked why the request to replace two vehicles in the Parks Maintenance Department did not come forth during the budget sessions. Ms. Bryck explained that the Parks Department did ask for replacements for these 1980s vehicles during the budget process, but in trying to keep expenses as low as possible, staff thought that they could get one more year out of the vehicles, which turned out not to be the case. Ms. Gilmer explained that the Parks Maintenance fleet was old in comparison to the rest of the City fleet because Parks Maintenance received the hand-me-down cars when Maintenance and Public Works obtained new cars. She described the condition of the 1983 and 1984 vehicles, noting that the Maintenance Motor Pool declared them unsafe to drive and refused to work on them any more. She stated that Parks Maintenance really needed the vehicles in order to do its work in maintaining the parks. Ms. Gilmer indicated to Councilor Tierney that there was always opportunity to find the $36,000 in her current budget but it did mean a tradeoff of service reduction. She explained that, in years past, Parks Maintenance has always had capital money to rotate in to purchase new vehicles each year, but that was cut this year. All Parks capital money was already earmarked for the completion of the Foothills dock, some grant projects, and for playground replacements and roof repairs at two parks. She explained that the materials and services budget was fairly tight also, but she could reduce their summer staffing levels for cleaning bathrooms and picking up trash to find money for the cars in that budget. Another option was the $30,000 set aside in the personnel budget to pay for part- time salaries to do the Cook's Butte park restoration project. Using that money to buy the vehicles meant not doing that project. Councilor Tierney held that Ms. Gilmer could find the money in the current budget. Mr. McIntyre commented that, in creating as tight a budget as possible, staff might have created too tight a budget, in which he cut replacing these two 24-year old vehicles. He pointed out that Parks tended City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 7 of 20 October 6, 2009 to be the department that was last in line, receiving used vehicles as their `new'fleet. He observed that the City has gotten tenfold back on its initial investment in these cars. He recalled asking the Council and the Budget Committee to keep in mind the fiscal discipline they were asking the staff to exercise. He stated that when he came asking for additional funds, such as this new $36,000, staff genuinely did not have any extra money in the department budgets, short of cutting something else. He indicated that staff felt they had brought an honest budget to the process. He reiterated that he would not ask for the funds if he did not think they were needed. Councilor Olson commented that she saw a supplemental budget of this size coming this soon in the year as indicative of a need for better and more frequent reports. She acknowledged that Parks needed new vehicles and that it had a tight budget. She indicated that the issue for her was that if the Budget Committee had known about the need during the budget process, the members might have made different decisions. She indicated that she would have welcomed a staff suggestion to set up a vehicle replacement fund. She said that she would have preferred budgeting the items in the supplemental budget during the normal budget process and having the choice to include those items or to cut other parts of the budget. Councilor Jordan pointed out that there would be wrinkles to work out in making the shift from a two-year budget cycle to a one-year budget cycle. She wondered how the City would handle these types of vehicle replacements in the future. Mr. McIntyre indicated that different departments had different policies regarding rolling stock. He said that they held tight to the standards for police and fire vehicles. However, many cities used a 'hand-me-down' concept for vehicles. He recalled discussing with the City's most recent Finance Director the idea of a dedicated rolling stock capital fund, and the Motor Pool Fleet owning all rolling stock and leasing vehicles out to the various operating departments. He indicated that, while they would maintain the fire and police vehicle replacement cycles, vehicles for other departments, such as Parks & Rec, might have a longer life cycle. Councilor Jordan noted that the citizens of Lake Oswego expected the good civic and public safety services that made Lake Oswego a special community with its attractive quality of life, as well as fiscal responsibility from the City. She indicated that the process this year did not concern her as much as how they would move forward into next year's budget. Councilor Moncrieff concurred that the transition between budget cycle lengths made this year more challenging for the department heads to do their budgets, as well as the consolidation of artificial funds into one general fund. She held that the City staff did an excellent job in getting the budget right. She referenced the asset management plans as an opportunity to plan for new fleet expenditures in the future. She agreed that the community expected top quality service. Councilor Hennagin commented that everyone recognized that there were foreseeable and unforeseeable events while budgeting, but he did not know into which category these vehicles fell. He agreed that the citizens demanded a high performance level from both Parks & Recreation and public safety. He held that they have also created a budget situation where Parks & Recreation has been forced to operate on an almost barebones budget this year. He said that he would not deny the department the opportunity to replace these vehicles, as he knew that staff would get the best deal possible. He commented that he did not want to see deterioration in service from the Parks & Recreation Department. Mayor Hoffman concurred that the Council needed to give staff some room in making the budget cycle length transition, and trust that staff would only bring forward honest and appropriate requests for budget increases. He observed that a $500,000 adjustment in a $50 million budget was an insignificant number. He described this as an appropriate request from the City Manager. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 8 of 20 October 6, 2009 Councilor Olson commented that neither she nor Councilor Tierney were questioning the need for the vehicles or the citizens' expectation for high quality service. She stated that the point was that the City could do a better job with its financial reporting and budget process. Councilor Olson asked a series of specific questions. Ms. Bryck confirmed that staff did accrue invoices for work not finished by June 30 (p. 70). She explained that the accounting issue rose when the work was not completed by June 30. Staff recorded all costs for work done before June 30 to the prior fiscal year. Mr. McIntyre confirmed to Councilor Olson that last year staff did not budget $40,000 to fund the two studies that the City did in partnership with the Chamber, but they found the funds in the City Manager's budget. Mr. Williams noted that the Chamber would reimburse the City one-third of the $40,000. Ms. Gilmer indicated to Councilor Olson that the City's Pathways and Trails Master Plan identified the trail in the request by the Three Rivers Land Conservancy as a connector. She explained that the City did not have enough money left from the 2002 Park and Pathways bond measure to finish its section of the trail designed to run from Hazelia Field down Rosemont and terminate at the Firlane property. She mentioned working closely with the Land Conservancy in negotiating for easements across private properties and obtaining the conditional use permit, which saved the City from spending money on consultants to do that work. She explained that this funding request filled the funding gap left after cobbling together funding to complete the City's portion of the trail from Firlane to the Brock property. Funding sources included the Land Conservancy's fundraising, Metro local share, and the 2002 bond measure. She indicated that this request would help do the environmental permitting part of the trail design process this year. She mentioned that this section would connect the trail to the West Linn trail. Councilor Olson commented that she supported the trail, as she did use it. Councilor Olson asked why the two other stations in the water fund were not installed last summer. Mr. Graham said that he would find out. Ms. Bryck indicated to the Councilor that she could get information on the City's water usage last summer compared to the year before. Mr. McIntyre confirmed to Councilor Olson that staff has not finished the cost allocation study. Councilor Tierney asked a series of specific questions. Ms. Bryck indicated that the report did not list the beginning balance of the water fund because staff did not adjust it. The items listed were not carryovers, but rather new allocations. She clarified that the City Manager could not move any funds from contingency without Council approval. Councilor Tierney concurred with his fellow Councilors' comments on the issue of high citizen expectations for civic and public safety services. He held that the citizens also expected good budgeting and good fiscal management of their money, a goal that they all shared. He commented that the issue was how to get there. He suggested not viewing Council comments on the budget as not supportive of staff but rather as challenging in order to do a good job. He complimented all the staff involved in the process but remarked that there was room for improvement. Mr. Wheeler observed that some of what the Council was seeing with this supplemental budget was the working out of the kinks in making the change from a two-year budget to a one-year budget. He acknowledged that there were some existing deficiencies in the system, but one of the things that the new Finance Director would look at was the system as a whole. He concurred that the idea was to provide good financial planning and budgeting. He expressed staff's appreciation for the Council's feedback as they worked through this new process. Councilor Johnson mentioned the need to look at the financial policy of how closely to budget within the general fund. She raised the question of whether to keep a tight budget or to give some extra room, and where to do that. She spoke of not being surprised that staff came back with adjustments when the Council set a tight budget. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 9 of 20 October 6, 2009 Councilor Olson suggested that staff look to DLCD planning grants for small items, such as the $35,000 for the Second Look Task Force. She referenced Councilor Johnson's comments about priorities and re-looking at budget policies next year in noting that they needed to remember that the PERS item was looming. PUBLIC TESTIMONY Mayor Hoffman opened the hearing to public testimony. Seeing none, he closed the hearing. COUNCIL DISCUSSION Councilor Jordan moved to adopt Resolution 09-59, adjusting the budget for fiscal year commencing July 1, 2009, by adopting a supplemental budget, approving resources/ requirements and making appropriations. Councilor Johnson seconded the motion. Councilor Tierney moved to amend the resolution to delete the purchase of the weather stations in this fiscal year. Councilor Olson seconded the motion. Councilor Tierney spoke to postponing these new expenditures in the water fund for a savings of $15,000. He held that, as new expenditures, they should have come up during the budget process. Mr. McIntyre clarified that there was no quantifiable payback to these weather stations because what they provided was information on when and when not to water. He argued that they would help the City better use its water, which was a water conservation objective. Mr. Graham mentioned their use in providing real-time data on rainfall amounts to help Lake Oswego citizens adjust their watering for water conservation. Mr. Wheeler clarified that these weather stations were technically a carryover from the last budget because staff had expected to complete this project last year, but, due to a delay, staff did not bid it out until this fiscal year. He mentioned that past practice has been to use contingency rather than do increase the beginning fund balance. Ms. Bryck clarified to Councilor Tierney that the beginning fund balance in the water fund was higher than the staff forecast. She said that it was related to these items and some additional uncompleted capital projects that staff did not anticipate completing next year. She explained that they did not include that number in the supplemental budget because there was more than enough in contingency to cover these two items. She confirmed to Councilor Tierney that the beginning fund balance for water fund increased by more than $15,000 over the staff estimate. Councilor Tierney withdrew his motion. Councilor Olson withdrew her second. A voic vote was taken, and the motion passed with Mayor Hoffman, Councilors Jordan, Hennagin, Moncrieff, Olson, Tierney, and Johnson voting "aye." [7-0] Mayor Hoffman recessed the meeting for a break at 8:17 p.m. He reconvened the meeting at 8:22 p.m. 8. REPORTS 8.1 Boones Ferry Road Refinement Concept Ms. Hamilton indicated that she was the planning project coordinator for the Boones Ferry Refinement Study. She introduced Carl Springer of DKS Associates. She described the recommended design for Boones Ferry Road included in the Lake Grove Village Center Plan (adopted in 2008). She mentioned the two phases of the access management plan: a technical analysis of the recommended design and an economic analysis. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 10 of 20 October 6, 2009 She explained that DKS Associates tested the recommended design for Boones Ferry, identified possible bottlenecks, and possible design refinements. She noted the inclusion in the report of what the road would look like in 2035 with the design and without the design. She mentioned that the report found that the recommended design performed well in 2035 but it did have several deficiencies in the system, such as the Bryant-Firwood Roads/Boones Ferry intersection and the Boones Ferry/Madrona Street intersection. She indicated that the Phase 2 report would address these and other deficiencies and possible refinements. She stated that the report did not identify a final design for Boones Ferry Road. Mr. Springer gave a PowerPoint presentation. He noted that the main thrust of their analysis was to look at growth in the corridor and the neighborhoods on either side of Boones Ferry. He emphasized that they looked at all the components of the system, and not simply the big street and large intersections. He noted that the main thrust of the concept plan was to improve safety. He described their task as making sure that mobility was not sacrificed for the benefit of safety and doing an operational analysis to see how well the concept worked. He commented that they identified some refinements and thorny issues that the City would have to think about more before reaching an acceptable solution. He reviewed the corridor plan, noting the continuation of a similar design style from the north to the south. He pointed out the main feature of a raised median between signalized intersections and full provisions for pedestrians and bicyclists. He said that they made an assessment as to how many U-turns the medians would create at intersections and the operational benefits or disbenefits. He mentioned that their major task, as outlined in the concept plan, was truck circulation and access, U-turns, safety driveways, pedestrian crossings, and neighborhood impacts. He indicated that their evaluation of the plan found that it worked, and that it worked well for a higher level of traffic than considered in a previous study. He said that the corridor capacity in the concept plan was 25% to 30% more than currently used today. He presented a graph illustrating the volume growth. He noted that today the traffic volume south of Bryant was around 1,500 but double that up by Kruse Way to the north. He pointed out the long-term volume projection of between 2,200 to 2,300 south of Bryant and over 3,500 up by Kruse Way. He explained that the forecasting tool they used allowed them to forecast traffic volumes for all the local streets on both sides of the corridor. He presented a graph illustrating where the growth would occur between today and 2035. He said that it would primarily occur on Boones Ferry and Kruse Way with lesser growth on the neighborhood roads. He reviewed the travel times in the corridor. While today cars traveled about 21 miles per hour north and south, the higher volumes and traffic signals in the future would cut that speed in half. He reviewed the crash statistics, noting that safety concerns largely drove the concept plan. He reported the significant finding that the crash rates were not at the intersections but rather in- between the intersections. He showed a map illustrating how busy each of the various driveways was. He mentioned the surprising finding that some driveways south of Bryant carried a fair amount of volume during the peak hour. He discussed the three mid-block crossings added to Boones Ferry. He described the special pedestrian traffic signal they recommended using, which Portland and Vancouver have used effectively to increase pedestrian crossing safety. He presented a graph assessing how congested the intersections were. He pointed out the locations wh re the intersection capacity in 2035 would increase over the standard, such as at Bryant Road and at Madrona Street. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 11 of 20 October 6, 2009 He mentioned that most of the turn pocket length allocations in the original design were sufficient but the southbound left turn from Boones Ferry onto Bryant Road needed more storage space. He discussed the access and circulation issues in the corridor. He noted their recommended adjustment of a U-turn at Madrona to allow southbound vehicles on Boones Ferry to access parcels on the east side that were not interconnected by an alternate access. He mentioned that it would be useful to have an access to the other side of Boones Ferry at Oakridge Road that could come in at the new signal for a safer access to McDonald's. He described the intent of the original concept plan to line up the outbound only egress from the elementary school where the buses came out with Lanewood Street, and to provide a traffic signal and pedestrian signal crossings to improve safety. He noted the discussion at the public meetings of their suggestion to make that egress two-way for 200 feet in order to allow trucks to make a left turn to access the businesses without having to go all the way to Mercantile Plaza. He discussed the neighborhood impacts. He noted that the neighborhoods could expect growth in background traffic beyond the forecasted volume increase resulting from the divided arterial concept. He presented a map illustrating the growth on the neighborhood streets due solely to the improvements. He pointed out that all of the volume increases, except at Lanewood, were less than 100 cars per hour. He indicated to Mayor Hoffman that an increase of 50 cars per hour meant an additional one to two cars per minute. He recalled the discussion during the public process that the background growth resulted from regional strategic decisions. The City needed to think about how to handle the regional effects in the broader context of citywide traffic, as opposed to focusing narrowly on the Boones Ferry Road corridor for that issue. He confirmed to Councilor Hennagin that some people would use Quarry in order to avoid the traffic on Boones Ferry slowed by the additional traffic signals. He indicated that the graphs did not show how the growth on Quarry was minimal (50 more cars per hour) compared to the growth on Boones Ferry (500 to 750 more cars per hour). He discussed their recommended refinements. He spoke of moving the proposed mid-block traffic signal serving the Wizer shopping center to Madrona Street, a location where it would serve a larger area, and replacing the mid-block traffic signal with a new pedestrian crossing. He described the backage road that would run from Madrona around the backside of the commercial area and come up to Sunset. He explained that it would provide a local circulation alternative and relieve the Bryant intersection, which was maxed out in the peak hour. He mentioned the legitimate public concerns regarding the proximity of the backage road to residents and the potential for cut through traffic on Sunset. He spoke of allowing a left turn or a U-turn at Madrona that would allow the traffic to double back and access businesses that very limited access otherwise. He indicated to Councilor Tierney that the backage road did not need to be a local street class facility. It could be an alley making the connection. He commented that an alley would be better than a route winding through private parking lots discussed at the public meetings. He explained to Councilor Olson that the purpose of the back road was two-fold: to provide an alternate route to get from a certain part of Bryant down to a certain part of Boones Ferry, as he pointed out on the graphic, and to provide semi-truck access to the businesses there. He mentioned additional concerns regarding the difficulty of making a left turn from Bryant southbound on to Boones Ferry during the peak hour. He emphasized that the back road would not carry a high volume of traffic. Councilor Olson pointed out that there was a natural turnaround farther down the road at Willow and Pilkington in the industrial area, which trucks already used. Mr. Springer agreed that that was another potential truck route. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 12 of 20 October 6, 2009 Mr. Springer indicated to C uncilor Ols n that there were residential lots on the other side of the back road with the houses well away from the road. He acknowledged that the neighbors would have a concern about the noise introduced by this route. Councilor Hennagin recalled that there had been a public easement for a horse trail running along the backside of those residences. Councilor Jordan recalled that the prior Council chose not to recognize the dedicated walkway requested by petitioners to run in that easement because of the challenge that a public walkway would present to parking in the back. The Council agreed that there was still a public easement in the area. Mr. Springer continued to describe the changes proposed by the original concept plan, such as the locations of the pedestrian crossings north of Bryant up to Kruse Way. He presented a graphic illustrating what the Bryant Road intersection would look like with a single left turn pocket, which would not serve the demand. He indicated that an option in the future to serve that traffic demand was two left turn lanes, which meant widening the approach on Boones Ferry at Bryant and providing a lengthy second lane on Bryant before merging back to a single lane. He pointed out that finding a proper solution for the Bryant/Boones Ferry intersection was the number one issue that they needed to deal with in moving forward with the design. Widening the roads (even for only a short distance) had numerous impacts to businesses. He indicated to Councilor Moncrieff that they did consider a traffic circle, or roundabout, early in the process. However, they concluded that the volumes were too high for a single lane roundabout. He described how a two-lane roundabout would work to carry the projected traffic, but pointed out that it created a really wide intersection that was not pedestrian or bike friendly. He commented that the City needed to make those balancing decisions between achieving mobility and providing pedestrian and bicycle safety. He noted that many communities were looking for alternatives to designing streets solely for cars. He indicated that the region as a whole was looking at new performance measures to assess what was acceptable congestion because many communities did not want the bigger intersections needed to accommodate the cars adequately. He emphasized the need to discuss the Bryant Road intersection, as it was the anomaly in the corridor. The rest of the corridor worked well. Councilor Moncrieff summarized the question before the community as whether to prioritize the mobility of the auto through the Bryant intersection or bike and pedestrian safety. Councilor Jordan pointed out that traffic on Bryant would back up in any case because Bryant crossed the railroad tracks and there was no way to widen the crossing. She commented that the medians would encourage pedestrian crossings because they provided safety islands in the middle of the street, where now there were none. Mr. Springer mentioned their suggestion to push one of the corners to make it easier for delivery- type trucks to make a U-turn, since it was difficult to get into the alleyway in the current layout. He discussed the City's probable use of phasing to accomplish the plan in pieces. He suggested implementing the first phase of the concept plan beginning somewhere between Reese and Lanewood, and heading north to Kruse Way. With respect to the other two phases, he pointed out that it made sense to start at the south end of the corridor and move north but the question was where the transition point was on the road between the two phases. He reviewed a summary of their refinement suggestions. He mentioned the need for more thought regarding the Bryant Road intersection and the issues of car mobility and pedestrian/bicycle safety. The Lanewood Street changes also needed more thinking by the City. He indicated that the City's update of its Transportation System Plan would be an appropriate time to discuss the forecasted increase in neighborhood traffic volume. Councilor Jordan suggested including in the next phase a discussion on where to locate public parking in the corridor, including where the impacts might be greater or lesser. Mr. Egner noted that the plan included no net loss in parking policy. Therefore, the City had to have a strategy to City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 13 of 20 October 6, 2009 replace any parking lost to the improvements. He mentioned that the plan identified three general areas in which to locate public parking. Mr. Egner indicated that, before they could move on to the next stage, staff needed to know how wide the stacking lanes needed to be. He said that the Boones Ferry stacking lane at Bryant was critical, and could affect the road width and adjacent properties. Councilor Hennagin pointed out that the refinement plan showed a change in the volume to capacity ratios at the Madrona Street and Bryant Road intersections from the original plan. He asked how the refinement plan changed the volume figures unless they built the alley/bypass that connected over to Sunset. Mr. Springer explained that the suggested refinements increased the intersection capacities, which decreased the ratios, and not the traffic volume. Mr. Springer clarified that the addition of a traffic signal at the Madrona Street intersection increased the intersection capacity for all movements, and not just the side street. He pointed out that adding a second left turn lane decreased the ratio even more, but answering the question of whether the increased width was worth the improved traffic through the intersection times was a separate discussion Councilor Hennagin noted that the projected traffic counts at Kruse Way and Bryant Road showed an increase of approximately the same number of vehicles at those intersections. He commented that he found that counter-intuitive because not all the vehicles coming from Kruse Way would make it down to Bryant Road. Mr. Springer clarified that, while the numbers were similar, they represented the growth all over the network, and not solely the volume through the intersections. Mr. Springer commented that there would be more regional through traffic coming down Boones Ferry because the regional traffic growth would negatively impact 1-5. He spoke of the region as a whole needing to find a better solution for 1-5 because that interstate could not be widened. Councilor Hennagin referenced his personal experience in crossing the tracks at Bryant Road in concurring with Councilor Jordan that that area would be a bottleneck. He asked if the study looked at the possibility of funneling some traffic down Lakeview to Pilkington. Mr. Springer said that the forecasting did not look specifically at the constraint of the railroad crossing. Mr. Springer confirmed to Councilor Moncrieff that the purpose of the medians, the traffic signals, and the pedestrian crossings was to improve safety for all transportation modes. He explained that not having cars stop in a through lane waiting to turn left was the primary operational safety benefit of medians and their left hand turn lanes. Councilor Moncrieff asked if medians improved safety at the intersections. Mr. Springer explained that traffic signals would still control the intersections, and therefore, the medians would not make a significant difference to the intersections. He mentioned that their crash analysis found that the intersection crash statistics in the corridor were below the State average, while the mid- block crash rates were way above the State average. Therefore, they focused the safety benefit on the mid-block. Councilor Olson asked for an explanation of the drawing referencing McDonald's. Mr. Springer clarified that it was not a new street but rather a connection to allow the businesses on that side of Boones Ferry access to come out at the signal. He indicated that a street or a series of parking aisles or a private connection would all work. He noted that currently those businesses did not have those connections. He mentioned that the City already had mechanisms in place to make this happen, and therefore it was not really a refinement. Councilor Olson asked where staff was with the public process. Mr. Egner listed several options for making the key decisions relating to these recommendations, a few of which might require Lake Grove Village Center Plan amendments but most of which dealt with implementation strategy. He mentioned the options of reforming the advisory committee, defining a public process with public meetings, or letting the Planning Commission or City Council make those decisions about those City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 14 of 20 October 6, 2009 key implementation steps. He hoped that they could reach consensus about these questionable items early on, and then make a decision about which process to use. He reported that the Planning Commission had a scheduled work session date in November to discuss the public process for this. Staff would then bring a recommendation to Council. Councilor Olson commented that she would like the Council or the Planning Commission to hear from the public regarding these issues sooner rather than later. Mr. Egner indicated to the Councilor that the Planning Commission did recommend one project to the advisory committee, which the Council recommended breaking into two parts. Councilor Jordan mentioned that most of the members of the original Boones Ferry committee attended the first DKS presentation at the West End Building, and asked questions, which DKS answered. Councilor Olson indicated that she had been getting some feedback that the answers were not always satisfactory and that the public process could be better. Councilor Tierney asked how much of the increased traffic volume came from the redevelopment up the street. Mr. Springer said that he did not have those numbers specifically. He explained that the background growth mentioned in the report referred to the general increase in traffic volume due to increased population and employment growth within the city or the region. He indicated that increases specific to the change in circulation and access along that piece of Boones Ferry were in the range of 0 to 100 additional vehicles at the peak hour. He mentioned that some of the background growth yielded volume increase numbers on neighborhood streets much higher than the range associated with the improvements. Councilor Tierney asked Councilor Jordan whether the transportation improvement plan at the Metro level provided for contributions to the funding of these corridor improvements. Councilor Jordan indicated that Boones Ferry was a corridor project in the Regional Transportation Plan. Councilor Tierney asked Mr. Egner whether the public improvements came before the private investment that made those improvements necessary. Mr. Egner pointed out that the City made public improvements in the downtown before the private redevelopment occurred. He commented that the City committing to making public improvements would hopefully spur redevelopment in the corridor. Councilor Tierney asked whether the City should make street improvements, parking lot improvements or park improvements first. Mr. Egner described the Lake Grove Village Center Plan as a laundry list of ideas without a strategic component to coordinate the improvements. He spoke of developing the next level of implementation strategy to decide which pieces to do first. He observed that the Boones Ferry Road improvements would be the most visible and meaningful, as were the A Avenue improvements in the downtown. Mayor Hoffman noted that the extension of Evergreen Street to the east opened up Millennium Plaza and made Lakeview Village possible. He spoke of having an urban redevelopment discussion to help decide how to phase the needed improvements. Councilor Jordan commented that money in the Regional Transportation Plan would be tight for everyone. A local jurisdiction investing its own money in a project would leverage federal and regional dollars. She cited the example of Washington County obtaining more transportation money because of investing their traffic impact fee into Hwys 217 and 26. Mayor Hoffman spoke of having a follow-up study session to discuss how to do urban development on a general level. He pointed out that this process has been going for eight years already. Mayor Hoffman recessed the meeting for a break at 9:35 a.m. He reconvened the meeting at 9:40 a.m. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 15 of 20 October 6, 2009 8.2 Metro's Making the Greatest Place Program and Urban Reserves in the Stafford Basin Mayor Hoffman explained that he needed to articulate the Council's position regarding Metro's Making the Greatest Places and the urban reserves in the Stafford Triangle at the October 14 Urban Reserves/Rural Reserves Steering Committee meeting. He reviewed the discussion questions in Mr. Egner's memo (p. 102), which were part of the Metro Growth Report. The Council indicated that it supported the concept of continued investment in existing centers, corridors, and employment areas, and the concept of maintaining a tight UGB. Mayor Hoffman reviewed on a map the areas of the Stafford Triangle recommended for urban reserves and/or undesignated areas by Clackamas County. He noted that the Metro recommendation to designate the entire Stafford basin as urban reserve was a staff level recommendation only at this point. He commented that a reason why the Council might want to designate some part of Stafford as urban reserve was to provide attainable housing for young families with school age children. He posed the question: if there was a slow loss of elementary-age school children leading to the closure of school facilities in the next five to ten years, could the Council head this off by having planning mechanisms in place for selected areas in the northern Stafford basin to insure that the market provided housing affordable to young families? He discussed the issues of governance and traffic. He indicated that the area would be part of Lake Oswego. He knew from staff that the City could serve the northern area adequately with sewer and water. He observed that the amount of traffic depended on the housing type that went in, which could be 500 units or one or more houses on a 10,000 square foot lot. Councilor Moncrieff commented that the areas referenced by the Mayor were already privately owned with single-family houses on the lots, such as the developments on Childs Road and Sunny Slope. Mr. Egner clarified which areas were serviceable. He indicated that developing the lots along Bergis Road as 15,000 square foot parcels would yield 284 units. Mayor Hoffman pointed out that the City controlled the zoning, and could use a base zone with a denser overlay, similar to what Vancouver, B.C. did. He acknowledged Councilor Moncrieff's point that the private property owners did not have to sell. He argued that if the City up zoned the area to 2,000 or 5,000 square foot lots, given the way that the market works, the incremental value gained would almost dictate that someone would sell. Councilor Olson asked what the advantage was to designating those areas as urban reserves, as opposed to leaving them undesignated. She asked whether they had as much or more flexibility to change the zoning if it was undesignated. Mayor Hoffman mentioned that many entities around the region were asking that important question. He explained that, under the current system, Metro would first bring in the urban reserves over the next 40 to 50 years. Once Metro brought in all the urban reserves, which could take the entire 50 years, it would then look to the undesignated areas. He said that those who wanted to maintain the current character of the Stafford Basin argued for leaving it undesignated. He said that he has run this idea past several people, including Jay Minor of the Stafford Hamlet. He reported that Mr. Minor expressed concern that designating selected areas of Stafford as urban reserves would lead to the unintended consequence of jurisdictions nibbling at Stafford at the edges. He emphasized that he has publicly maintained Lake Oswego's official position of not designating Stafford as urban reserve land. Councilor Tierney commented that aligning any change with the Lake Oswego School District boundaries would make some sense, given that people moved to Lake Oswego for the schools and the City was trying to attract families with school age children. He asked whether the Mayor was talking about moving the UGB here in the near term to accommodate this effort or whether the Mayor was talking about designating these areas as urban reserve for the 40 year window. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 16 of 20 October 6, 2009 Mayor Hoffman speculated that if the Council told the region that Lake Oswego wanted these areas designated as urban reserve, then it would likely discuss, along with the School District, whether to push to bring the areas inside the UGB in 2010 or 2011 or wait till the next UGB expansion review and do a concept plan for the area in the next five years. He observed that significant concept planning would take significant dollars to pay for the consultants. He confirmed to Councilor Tierney that the first move would be designation of the areas as urban reserves and the second would be moving the UGB. Mr. Egner clarified to the Councilor that the current EFU zoning of this conflicted farmland would not be a factor because Metro would make the decision about the zoning when and if it designated the area as urban reserves. Mayor Hoffman invited Dr. Bill Korach, Lake Oswego School Superintendent, to comment. Dr. Korach indicated that the District did not have a position about needing to expand. He informed the Council that the District had plenty of physical capacity for students, as it was operating at 83% capacity at this time. He said that the District enrollment figures have been trending downward for the last seven years, particularly at the elementary level. He stated that the District could accommodate the number of households mentioned in the discussion. Councilor Hennagin commented that, while the ideal solution would be the State not allowing a school district to build additional schoolrooms if an adjoining district had room for students, he did not see that happening politically because of turf wars. He mentioned his initial reaction that these areas were not the ideal location for denser development. He pointed out that building walkable, bikeable communities meant locating the denser development closer to the neighborhood commercial-type of businesses, such as would occur in Foothills or on the Armory property (within walking distance of the Palisades grocery store). He questioned putting denser development out on Childs Road. Mr. Egner pointed out an area on the map, which was inside the school district boundaries, that had limited development capacity because of the steep slopes and constrained transportation access. He commented that Cornell Road might be the most logical way to provide access but he did not think it was a good place to do so. He indicated that there were many difficulties to getting real density in these areas. He commented that the most logical way to serve the whole district was to begin down at Stafford and 1-205. He observed that these areas were better suited to the larger lot luxury homes, similar to Atherton Heights. Building smaller family housing units would bring out opposition from the surrounding property owners. He noted that the difficult issue was the transportation access. Councilor Olson concurred with Councilor Hennagin about where to locate denser housing. She pointed out that building smaller affordable homes or cluster housing in these areas did not guarantee that younger families with school age children would buy them, as there were many seniors looking to downsize. Mayor Hoffman observed that retirees from communities other than Lake Oswego might also buy these homes. Councilor Olson commented that a retiree from Lake Oswego buying a home here would then free up a house in Lake Oswego, but that house might not be affordable to a young family. She indicated that she would hate to commit to this plan because it might not necessarily bring in that many school age children. Councilor Moncrieff concurred with Councilor Hennagin that attainable housing was a desirable goal and needed to be contingent upon having public transportation in place. Councilor Tierney commented that the first level was that this developable land could come to Lake Oswego and provide additional tax revenue to the City. He indicated that he supported the lofty goal of attainable housing. He observed that if they wanted a walkable and bikeable community, then they needed enough land mass to create it. He suggested building the commercial piece in this location. However, since there did not appear to be sufficient land to do so, he suggested extending the boundary to Rosemont. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 17 of 20 October 6, 2009 Councilor Hennagin asked whether Lake Oswego should promote putting the two outlined areas into urban reserve. He noted that Clackamas County Commissioner Charlotte Lehan was the closest thing Lake Oswego had to representative at the Core 4 table. However, she would lobby for the County's recommendation for urban reserves down along Borland and Wankers Corner. He suggested mentioning to her that Lake Oswego would be willing to put those two areas into urban reserves if the County held firm on the rest of the basin being undesignated. Mayor Hoffman indicated that he discussed that very issue with Commissioner Lehan. Mayor Hoffman asked whether the Council was interested in replicating the same kind of neighborhood there as already existed in the area if Council accepted the concept that denser housing in these two areas did not make sense. He noted that 500 $1 million homes brought $2.5 million in property tax income to the City. He observed that, region wide, residences typically consumed as much social services as they generated in property tax income. He commented that that was not necessarily true in Lake Oswego because of the high home values, and therefore, a development here would be a net benefit to the City. Mr. McIntyre indicated that staff has not done that analysis. Councilor Olson spoke to focusing on Foothills for attainable housing, which was doable and would do more to support the school district. She said that she felt that the City made a commitment to its fellow cities not to urbanize the Stafford area. She referenced the strongly worded letter from Tualatin to the County arguing for maintaining a tight UGB and not expanding into Stafford. She noted that four-fifths of West Linn's City Council felt the same way. She indicated that, in light of all the past agreements and statements, she would personally prefer to leave it alone. Councilor Jordan argued that two questions asked and answered here tonight should be the guiding force. She noted that the school district line would not change at this time, although in the future the various jurisdictions might figure out a way to work together to serve the students better. She indicated that she would rather see the County's plan move forward, leave those two areas outlined on the map undesignated, and figure out how to do something in the southern basin that was truly representational of what the Hamlet residents and the surrounding cities have discussed. She spoke of the necessity of first developing mass transit in that area. Councilor Hennagin expressed his concern about COO Jordan's recommendation to designate the entire basin as urban reserves. He observed that even the County's recommendation undermined the City's stated position of leaving it undesignated. He commented that he did not know how to get Lake Oswego's voice heard at the Core 4 table when the City did not have a seat there. He suggested, in trying to convince the Core 4 not to support Mr. Jordan's recommendation, that the City have a backup position of letting those two areas become urban reserves. Mayor Hoffman commented that that was not a bad position, in that Lake Oswego, as a regional partner, was offering to take some urban reserves in exchange for the rest remaining undesignated. Councilor Olson commented that offering those little tidbits began a slippery slope. She expressed concern that offering Mr. Jordan even that little piece would encourage him to try for the whole pie that he wanted anyway. Councilors Moncrieff and Johnson indicated that they preferred leaving the basin undesignated. Mayor Hoffman stated that the majority of the Council was in support of undesignated, and therefore, the City would not change its position. Councilor Jordan commented that, if the Council was looking to increase its tax base, then it needed to look at the annexation areas already available, developed to a degree, and ready for redevelopment. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 18 of 20 October 6, 2009 Mr. Egner indicated that he would write the letter that Mayor Hoffman would submit to Metro at the hearing restating the Council's position in support of the main points made by Mr. Jordan about the philosophy of Metro. Councilor Olson suggested expressing support for the Tualatin and West Linn positions as well. Councilor Jordan suggested supporting the Hamlet residents also. 9. INFORMATION FROM THE COUNCIL 9.1 Councilor Information 9.1.1 Lake Oswego Meal Network Fundraiser Mr. McIntyre confirmed to Councilor Hennagin that the Lake Oswego Meal Network Advisory Board was a non-profit organization separate from the Adult Community Center, yet probably sharing many Board members. Councilor Hennagin discussed the work of the Lake Oswego Meal Network Advisory Board in raising funds to support Meals on Wheels for elders in Lake Oswego (both home-delivered and at the ACC). He noted that 100% of all proceeds went directly to this work. He encouraged citizens to participate in the Network's October fundraiser(in partnership with Mountain Park New Seasons Market) asking grocery shoppers to buy a lunch for a senior for$4. 9.1.2 Lakewood Center Annual Fashion Show Councilor Johnson invited citizens to attend the Lakewood Center Associates Annual Fashion Show for the benefit of the Lakewood Center on October 14. She read a list of participating stores. She mentioned that she would be a model. 9.2 Reports of Council Committees, Organizational Committees, and Intergovernmental Committees 10. REPORTS OF OFFICERS 10.1 City Manager 10.1.1 Review of Council Schedule Mayor Hoffman indicated to Mr. McIntyre that the Council would hear the PERS information next week. Mr. McIntyre said that he would provide written information in the Thursday Council Digest regarding the Oregonian article on capping increases at 6%. Mayor Hoffman mentioned checking schedules for the goal-setting meeting in the second or third week of January. Mr. McIntyre advised the Council that they cancelled the November 3 meeting to give the Council a night off because the docket was light with nothing critical on it, and both he and Mayor Hoffman would be out of town. 10.2 City Attorney 11. EXECUTIVE SESSION Mayor Hoffman convened an Executive Session at 10:20 p.m. pursuant to ORS 192.660(2) (d) to conduct deliberations with persons designated to carry on labor negotiations. Mr. Powell reviewed the Executive Session parameters. 12. RETURN TO OPEN SESSION Mayor Hoffman returned the meeting to open session at 10:45 p.m. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 19 of 20 October 6, 2009 13. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Hoffman adjourned the meeting at 10:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, joioi:crxi) Robyn Christie City Recorder APPROVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL: Dece ber15 2009 J ck D. Hoffman, or City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page 20 of 20 October 6, 2009