The stormwater subcommittee met with the City on Thursday, November 12, 2015 in Council Chambers with public present to continue discussions concerning the City's request to use park property for stormwater detention.
DISCUSSION
Thursday, November 12, 2015, prior to the meeting, the following email was received from the City Manager.
"..._with the IDNR hurdle that appears to be out there, we think separating the two into individual agreements(referring to York Commons and Golden Measows), much like we did with D205, would hep expedite an agreement and put a shovel in the ground at York Commons. Tonight (at the subcommittee meeting), you will receive a draft agreement on York Commons, with some modified terms of what we have already discussed such as an extension on the maintenance garage lease, tree replacement, etc. We will walk through the agreement and explain why we are proposing it as we are. I expect your group will have some questions. The main idea here is the separate agreements discussion."
This is a very significant departure from the City's month's long insistence that any discussion include all five sites.
Eight residents attended the meeting and five spoke during public comment. The City then presented a separate IGA for York Commons, the legal terms of which they indicted follow those that we have negotiated previously. Following a conceptual discussion held earlier with the City Manager, the City is now proposing that extension of the Maintenance Facility Lease be done proportionately on a park by park basis. As a result, they are proposing to extend the lease by sixteen years in exchange for the use of York Commons (while also still funding the recreational improvements in the park). Theoretically, if the other four park sites were to be agreed upon through negotiations, the lease would be extended by sixteen years for each site, thus totaling eighty years - which would coincide with the length of the term for the Fire Station Lease in York Commons.
Discussion also took place concerning tree replacement and termination clauses.
As we did not receive a copy of the proposed IGA prior to the meeting, your subcommittee did not have the ability to respond during the meeting; however, we indicated that we wold review it and discuss the newly proposed terms with the Park Board, In addition, Andrew Paine, Tressler, is also reviewing the document.
The next subcommittee meeting will be held Wednesday, December 9 at 7:00 p.m.. at City Hall.
