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Approved Minutes - 2010-03-25 LAKE OSWEGO DRAFT MINUTES CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO Centennial 1910-2010 50+ADVISORY BOARD 505 G Avenue PO Box 369 Lake Oswego,OR 97034 Thursday, March 25, 2010 8:30 a.m. 503-635-3758 West End Building — Oswego Room www.ci.oswego.or.us/acc 4101 Kruse Way Contact: Ann Adrian, ACC Manager Also published on the internet at: Email: aadrian@ci.oswego.or.us www.ci.oswego.or.us/acc/S0PIus.htm Phone: 503-635-3758 The meeting location is accessible to persons with disabilities. To request accommodations, please contact Public Affairs at 503-635-0236, 48 hours before the meeting. 1. Roll Call Janine Dunphy, Robert Eidson, Nanci Cummings, Gail Zimmerman, Edwin Blossom, Tom Brennan, Terry Harty, Councilor Jordan, Ann Adrian, Teresa O'Halloran. Guests: Mayor Hoffman. 2. Approve February 18, 2010 Meeting Minutes 3. Open Public Communication The purpose of citizen comment is to allow citizens to present information or raise an issue regarding items not on the agenda.A time limit of five minutes per citizen shall apply. 4. Presentations 4.1 Visit and discussion with Mayor Jack Hoffman The Mayor is in the process of addressing all City Boards and Commissions during the month of March. He wants to establish a closer relationship between the Boards and City Council. The Mayor explained the role of the Council liaison and further summarized the current goals of the City Council. Mayor Hoffman wants to continue to meet with the Boards to foster continuous communication. One of his purposes is to share the various Board goals amongst all the Boards. Mayor Hoffman shared that finance is the focus currently. Revenues are not keeping up with expenditures as property tax revenues are not keeping up with expenses, due to stagnant rates. The Budget Committee is currently working on options for this short fall. The Mayor continued that infrastructure costs run high for most cities. The City of Lake Oswego is aging, and we do not have Federal dollars dedicated to fix these issues. One of these projects is the Lake Oswego Interceptor Sewer project (LOIS); next is the water system and the partnership with Tigard which will be finished in 2016. Water is at a premium in the Pacific Northwest and water conservation will become a big part our future. Street maintenance is the next large expense to our infrastructure. The roads have not been kept up at the rate necessary to get them back into shape. Another proposal is the Portland to Lake Oswego Transit Project. There are three options: no build, Janine Dunphy, Chair • Edwin Blossom • Thomas Brennan • Nanci Cummings Robert Eidson • Terry Harty • Gail Zimmerman • Donna Jordan, Council Liaison Page 2 enhanced bus transportation on Route 43, and the Street Car. This street car would run on the rail tracks next to existing Union Pacific tracks. If approved, it would be completed by 2016, with Federal and local money to support this project which Tri-Met will manage. The street car will serve two purposes: one as transit and the other to impact the economic development efforts for downtown and the Foothills area. Lake Oswego is part owner of the project, but owns the right of way for the rail. Robert Eidson asked: How much of the right of way does LO own? The Mayor said that Foothills will have new housing, hopefully affordable housing. Development agreements are in the works for the businesses and housing in the Foothills area. Nanci Cummings asked: How much is flood plane? The mayor responded that all of the area is in the flood plane, which creates a significant challenge on many levels. Janine Dunphy wondered about a parking garage. Would Albertsons go away?The Mayor explained that this has yet to be determined. Tri-Met and Metro are planning on some type of parking, but Lake Oswego has not had the discussion on what it would look like and how Albertson's would play a part. The Mayor would prefer no park and ride area unless it resembled Lake View Village, then it could work for housing and economic development. Terry Harty express concern for the expense of this venture. The Mayor added that Tri-Met will run the operations and costs: The cost of construction, bridges, tunnels, cars, and then operations. The consultants are looking at these costs currently. Nanci Cummings questioned high cost associated with this project. The Mayor emphasized the figure is based upon future costs based on today's dollar. The Mayor continued explaining the other part of this vision is to bring the river to Downtown or to bring Downtown to the river. Challenges include the Pacific Rail and Highway 43. There will be a lot of engineering involved. Economic Development is also on the City's plate. The City hired a new Economic Development Director, Jane Blackstone. She is focusing on retail and helping businesses work with the City and assists them in succeeding. Other updates include: • Downtown — Millennium Plaza is being updated to include an ADA ramp. The US Bank area will start construction in the fall...with an estimated completion date of spring of 2011. • Expanding the library to 15t and B (where Lacey's is currently located). The corner is owned by Barry King, who is open to a civic building in that space. In Downtown, the concept is to have a downtown street and a retail street. The Southern anchor is Millennium Park and the North anchor would be the library with retail and community rooms. The idea is to create a vibrant two block area—creating a sense of place, thus creating a dynamic community. Page 3 • The Lake Grove/Boones Ferry Road project is on the capital improvement project list. Funding needs to be secured. The idea is similar to downtown Lake Oswego. The experts say private investment follows public dollars. • Nanci Cummings inquired about the money for this project...wasn't it already budgeted for? How do we implement the plan?The Mayor said that the City needs to hire a consultant to map out how the plan will actually work with businesses and home owners on Boones Ferry. The Mayor continued to explain how knowing the design of the road could spawn economic development if done correctly. Public and private partnerships are the key. • West End Building—WEB—cannot sell it without a loss. Property purchased during 2005-07 is typically now worth less than paid for. There is a push to start developing the WEB property. Start in the back with tennis courts. A 911 emergency communication system needs to be in an earthquake proof building; neither the WEB nor City Hall is seismologically sound. A wise city should invest in such structure. Some recreation like a pool is still desired, but not on the table right now. • Public Facilities— Maintenance needs a new home or repair. The Mayor introduced the topic of the Comprehensive Plan. This plan drives the vision of the City and it is currently being updated. It is the goals and roadmap for the future of the City. By State law, it must be reviewed every 5 years. All ordinances must follow the Comp Plan. This is in the process of gearing up over the next three years to be reviewed and updated. The Mayor also shared that the City is hiring a consultant to tell us what we are going to look like in 20 years. We are getting older as a community. The age cohort has inched up. Average age is 58. Getting older and staying in place. Consequently we have an aging population. Once this is done, we need to decide what that means for City services and how we offer what we offer to the community. Affordable housing is a large issue. What will the community look like in 20 years? Gail Zimmerman asked: How does the aging of the community affect economic development?The Mayor replied that he didn't know what the retail habits are of the 50+ population. Ann Adrian added the Elder Friendly Business Certification as a possible avenue. Donna Jordan added that population diversity is needed in every community. The City needs to make sure that the community doesn't die by continually infusing new life into the community. Robert Eidson wondered if there is any momentum to study the rollover of homes. Mayor Hoffman suggested a study exists, but he doesn't know what that percentage is. Housing Choices—single family detached. The demand is diminishing for this type of lot. Multiple use and family housing are coming. What would we want to change in LO to allow others to move into LO that is not a large 4000 sq. ft home? If as a community, you wanted to encourage young people to move into the community, then you have to change the product type, which requires zone changes at the City level, i.e.: cluster housing. The City Council is mostly on Board, but just has not had time to really look at cluster housing. Oregon City has some good examples of this type of Page 4 housing. Will this type of housing help this neighborhood? Diversity in a community is important. Centennial Celebration —this year is the city's 100th birthday. July 17th is the largest event. Stay tuned for more events in the coming months. Mayor wanted to thank the Board members for their engagement with the community and for volunteering your time. The Mayor gave out a re-usable grocery bags as a thank you along with the Centennial video. Terry Harty suggested a hypothetical question. What would happen if there were a disagreement between the liaison and the Board? How would we communicate that to you, the Mayor?The Mayor replied, the Council liaison should be able to report what the Board issues are, but you can always come to City Council meetings or email the Mayor. Councilor Jordan will report back on what the Boards and Commissions are working on. Thomas Brennan suggested it might make sense if one of the 50+ Board tagged along for the May 2 Council tour of affordable housing. The Mayor thought it would be appropriate if some of the 50+ went along for the ride too. Councilor Jordan added that in moving forward, it wouldn't be a bad idea to take a few members from all of the Boards and put them on the same type of tour. Nanci Cummings shared her concern over the hiring of consultants to shed light on demographics. She cautioned the Mayor about the City continuing to spend money on consultants and hiring new employees, etc.... Mayor Hoffman responded that the cost of living in Lake Oswego is a concern for people on fixed incomes, but it is a fact of life based on analysis that is no different than the rest of the metro area. Nanci Cummings further reminded the Mayor that this Board has been in existence for 5 years. This Board initiated and helped to create a program called Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN) yet those efforts have never been acknowledged by the Mayor. 50+ started that program. The City has acknowledged other citizens, but not us. Janine Dunphy continued, explaining to the Mayor how the project all came about. Bringing it to the forefront was the 50+ Board who brought other citizens and civic groups into the fold and created this now City wide event. The rest of the agenda was pushed out to next month due to time. Janine, Nanci and Terry want to review the meeting minutes tape from February. 5. Old Business 5.1 Discuss and decide upon a recommendation to City Council for co-sponsoring the Lake Oswego Adult Center Foundation's Brain Health event in Fall 2010. This was tabled until next month's meeting. 5.2 Update on Partnership with Marylhurst University- Report from Chair This was tabled until next month's meeting. 5.3 ACC Project Updates This was tabled until next month's meeting. Page 5 6. New Business 6.1 Set Next Meeting Date—April 22 at 8:30 a.m. 6.2 Adjourn Meeting References: February 18, 2010 Minutes