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SUMMARIZING PLANS FOR DOWNTOWN REDEVELOPMENT
MORE PARKING SPACE WILL ALWAYS BE NEEDED
At a special 5 p.m. workshop on Thursday, February 13th, councilmembers reviewed data and procedures in prepara-tion for the public hearing on downtown redevelopment that would be held about an hour later that evening.
Jack Griffin, city engineer with TKDA, reminded councilmembers that last fall the bids to reconstruct Rose Street and Stieger Lake Lane in conjunction with the Stieger Lake Lane Bridge project came in too high for a variety of reasons, including timing, a wet spring, and heavy contractor loads. He also reminded them that they approved the feasibility report on the downtown public improvements in January, 2003.
He reported that "about 100%" of assessable downtown property owners attended the two open houses held for the purpose of giving information and an-swering questions on February 4 and 6th.
He clarified that the purpose of the public hearing this evening of February 13th was to present scope of work, costs and impact to individual properties. "We'll be presenting the final plans and specs later tonight for approval to solicit contractor bids on April 3," he said. "We hope to present the bids to council on April 10th, award the bid, and begin construction at the first sign of spring."
Jack reminded councilmembers that the City of Victoria received close to $900,000 to build the Stieger Lake Bridge, and that it was built "at more of a skew" in order to ease traffic toward the only traffic signal in downtown Victoria.
He stated that "the stormwater system is a critical part of the downtown plan. Pipes must be in place under the streets. A portion of the stormwater is assessed. A portion goes to new developers as they come forward."
He spoke of the "centralized parking lot" that is being created near the Victoria House restaurant, and that current parking is being retained as much as possible. "We've learned that we need much more parking than we had originally provided for, so there will be more pinching-in on some of the properties."
In particular, the Creamery property will be getting pinched on at least three sides.
Stated Mayor Jerry Bohn, "Each time we do another development downtown, we'll have to do more parking. In gener-al, I think comments [at the open house] were very favorable. A few people are going to be mad -- like the people in the Creamery, but they've got a large parcel and we need some of it for parking. We are not taking their house. We've always had a policy of not condemning people out of their houses, and we're not going to do that this time either."
Explained City Planner Mark Kaltsas, if the Creamery owners are not willing to cooperate with the city in acquiring small strips on their perimeter, "We condemn it and pay them a negotiated price. We'd like to negotiate the assessment on their property."
The assessment on the one-acre Creamery property is $105,922.
The three small property strips, along three sides of the Creamery property, are needed by the city to create adequate fparking for downtown properties in gen-eral and will not affect the use of the Creamery property, said the city planner.
Mark added, "In 1994 they received a Conditional Use Permit to operate an art-ist's studio. They have not met any of the conditions."
Stated Mayor Bohn, "They are not located in a residential district [yet they live there]. We feel we need to provide retail for our citizens and we can't afford to leave it residential. They are not going to be hurt financially. Actually, we're giving them something. We're giving them parking spaces."
The mayor reported that the industry standard is providing 4 to 6 parking spaces for every 1,000 square feet of retail/office space.
Engineer Jack Griffin pointed out there will be sidewalks on both sides of Stieger Lake Lane and also Victoria Drive. There will also be a sidewalk along Highway 5, street lights and boule-vard trees.
He said that, in general, assessments to the various residential properties in the downtown district are similar (in the $11,000 to $14,000 range) to assessments in residential neighborhoods undergoing similar utility improvements.
The mayor reminded councilmembers that property owners would have a 15-year time period to pay off their assess-ments. "It shouldn't be chasing people out of their homes," he said. "But this is a critical juncture now ... if we want to start this year."
Planner Mark Kaltas emphasized, "We're bringing the downtown transpor-tation system up to current standards. We'll try to balance as many concessions as we can ... If we get the downtown de-veloped with only one condemnation, that's not too bad."
Councilmember Terry Bishop agreed that there may have to be some "sacrifice" in order to build a downtown for the "other 4,000-odd residents."
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