Council of the Village of Yellow Springs

*Special Meeting Minutes*
IN Meeting Rooms A and B March 31, 2008

CALL TO ORDER

Council President Hempfling called the joint meeting of Council and the Planning Commission to order at 6:07 p.m.

ROLL CALL

Council members Judith Hempfling, Karen Wintrow, John Booth, Kathryn Van der Heiden, and Lori Askeland were present. Planning Commission members John Struewing, Bill Bebko, Matt Reed , and Tim Tobey were present. Also present were the Village Manager Eric Swansen, Finance Director Sharon Potter, and Assistant Planner Ed Amrhein , and Consulting Engineer John Eastman.

AGENDA ITEM

Discussion: Amended 2007 Comprehensive Plan. Planning Commission John Struewing began by thanking former Commission and Council member Bruce Rickenbach, the Council Clerk, his fellow Planning Commission members and the all the villagers for the assistance for making this project possible. He then read the definition of the Comprehensive Plan, found in part, in the Introduction section of the Plan. Struewing explained that the Commission's policy was to review the Plan every five years, in which Census figures could be updated as well as any changes in land use. He further explained that the Commission presentations from Ted Donnell on the "New Urbanism" and Len Kramer on "Smart Growth" added more ideas that should be incorporated into the Plan.

Review of the Comprehensive Plan. Council members and Planning Commission agreed to go page by page in their review of the Plan.

Page 3. Historical Overview. Wintrow suggested adding comments from each decade to the present in its historical overview.

Also in the 6 th paragraph on page 3, "the base" was changed to Wright Patterson Air Force Base. In the last sentence of the paragraph there was a change in connection with the location of the Fair Acres development. The sentence would now read, "Such developments as West Wood which is west of Kings Street and Fair Acres, north of Fairfield Pike.

Page 4. Past Plan Overview. Final reports that exist which have been presented to Council should be included in this section by reference. Other studies could be added but some forums had discussion that may not have a specific report for submission.

Page 5-9. 2000 Census Data. The graphs should be enlarged. The graphs should be recreated in order to make the fonts larger.

Page 10. 2.2 Physical Features. Paragraph 3, Additional language which should be incorporated into this paragraph are the change in traffic patterns since the opening of I-675, the impact of BRAC and that the was restricted truck traffic on Dayton Street through the passing of the Ordinance 2000-13 "Load Limits".

Page 11. Paragraph 1, Add the percentage of park area, also add the percentages of commercial, industrial, retail and residential in a graph. In the last paragraph on this page the word "Improve" should be changed to "Improving".

Page 12. Paragraph 1, Delete everything after the first sentence. Also delete all of paragraph 2.

Hempfling suggested that more of a statement on energy should be included in the principles. Reed explained that sustainability could be an issue in promoting the principles.

Page 13. 4.0 Land Use Principles and Objectives. Paragraph 1, Delete the first two words. The sentence would begin "Consistent principle..." remove the word "that" after the word nature in the second line. Delete paragraph 2 and replace it with the following amended version suggested by Askeland. "Despite this consistency, conflicts have arisen but have rarely been addressed adequately largely as a result of these principles being implied rather than articulated."

Ellen Hoover stated that Principle 8, is not listed anywhere else in the Plan and it does not seemed to be attached to anything. It does not seem to be explained. She added that in this section, the first word in Principle 9 is "Promote" in other sections of the Plan the first word in this principle is "Direct". Council agreed it should be direct. She also suggested that definitions should be given for the words historic and sustainable .

Hempfling suggested that the reference to the Urban Service Area in Principle 9 be removed. Struewing explained that as a planning tool it should stay remain. Hempfling stated that this was a policy question for a later discussion by Council. Van der Heiden questions that if a company that was compatible with the Village's beliefs wished to locate in that adjacent area, wouldn't that be okay for the Village. Struewing explained that if that were the case the Council would still have the power to approve or not any annexation request. He added that this Council's position may or may not be the same position of the next Council and that the pendulum swings both ways.

Eastman suggested that there should be a list of policy questions and action plans that Council should address regarding this Plan. Eastman further suggested an example would be an actually inventory of historic buildings add list to the appendices in the next version of the Plan. Hoover suggested that any historic survey should be done by professionals.

Page 14. Wintrow questioned the use of the word "caveats". Reed explained that these principles are not without tradeoff and that each principle is not in black and white because there are conflicts between the principles. Wintrow cautioned that the language seemed politically charged. She also suggested that the outline form of this entire section should be rewritten into paragraphs. Planning Commission members felt that the outline form was more direct and minimized wordiness. Council agreed to have the headings printed in bold type with bullets and narratives for the text.

Section B, #2a, Change the word tourism to the phrase "Travel and Tourism". Also change the order of the list.

Section C, #5, Add the words "power generation and" electric distribution. End the sentence at distribution and eliminate the remaining words in #5. Add "Fire and EMT' and "Government Supported Services" after #6 and/or #7.

Page 15, Section E, John Eastman suggested that the word "small" should be very clearly defined. Questions that should be considered include: What are the implications of going to city status? Should we remain a village? How do we preserve our village values? What happens when we pass the 5000 population threshold? How does the change in designation happen?

Page 16, Section G, Wintrow asked why a section on tourism is placed in this part of the Plan and added it should be "travel and tourism".

Van der Heiden suggested that the language in the old plan was better written. She suggested deleting pages 14 through 17 up to Section 4.1 Housing. She added further suggested that the pages be deleted, keep the nine principles and add a short narrative paragraph. Struewing suggested that Council revisit the old plan and use it to rewrite an amended section 4.0.

Hempfling asked if Council would like to come back in a month with concrete suggestions for moving forward.

Council agreed to keep the amended versions of the Introduction, Sections 1, 2, and 3; add the nine principles and use the old section 4.0 until a new Section 4.0 could be written along with a development code. The work would be done by a consultant Council also agreed to revisit this discussion on May 19 th .

This part of the agenda ended at 8:16 p.m. Council took a short break and reconvened at 8:26 p.m. Planning Commission members excused themselves from the table.

LEGISLATION/PUBLIC HEARINGS

2 nd Reading and public hearing of the 2008 Annual Appropriation Ordinance. Wintrow MOVED and Van der Heiden SECONDED a MOTION for APPROVAL. Swansen reviewed previous questions submitted by Council. Regarding ending balances, Swansen explained that the ending balance included money not spent during 2007and one-time monies from various sources. Council Clerk Benning explained that the Green Space Fund is still being reviewed. It appears that the previous councils did not make a motion or pass legislation stopping the revenues from the farm leases and cell tower lease to be transferred to the Green Space Fund. They did pass a resolution ending the Estate Tax transfers to the Green Space Fund.

Swansen explained that the Village Solicitor would be sending an opinion to Council regarding the Green Space Fund.

Van der Heiden suggested that if Council decides to put the $137,000 into the Greens Space Fund to bring the contributions up to date, then she would suggested that the $50,000 that Council had earmarked for the Fund in March be placed in the Economic Development Revolving Loan Fund in order to enhance the loan program. Ellen Hoover suggested a micro loan program. Benning cautioned that the EDRL Fund application forms, process and requirements be reviewed by the Committee before any additional loans are considered. She further explained that the Committee under a suggestion of Swansen had briefly discussed micro loans at their last meeting.

Hempfling expressed concern regarding Tasers and suggested that this topic should have a policy discussion along with any new equipment being purchased with one-time monies. She suggested that when deciding expenditures Council's goals should be considered.

Booth explained that a public discussion to find out why Grote had now supported Tasers should happen in order for the public to understand and to have a sense of transparency.

Regarding the streetscape project, Swansen explained that this would be a joint effort with members of the Chamber, residents and urban designers working together to move the project forward.

Hempfling opened the public hearing. Krista Magaw from the Tecumseh Land Trust explained that they were in a unique position to receive funding for the Federal Farm bill and that she will keep Council updated.

Having no further public comments, Hempfling closed the public hearing. The roll was called. The MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

ADJOURNMENT

Having no further business, Wintrow MOVED and Van der Heiden SECONDED a MOTION to ADJOURN at 9:20 pm.