Council President Mr. D’Ambrosio opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m.

 

ATTENDEES

Members of Council in attendance were Mr. Licht, Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Mr. Evers, Ms. DePledge,

Mr. Hoefle, Ms. Vaughn and Council President Mr. D’Ambrosio. Also attending was Council Clerk Mrs. Cendroski.

Those attending from the Administration were Mayor Morley, Law Director Klammer, Finance Director Slocum, Assistant Service Director Rubertino, CBO McReynolds, City Engineer Gwydir, Police Chief Reik and Fire Chief Whittington.

LEGISLATION PROPOSED:

03-11-(01): Lease Agreement: City of Eastlake & Willoughby-Eastlake SCHOOL DISTRICT: JFK Senior Center (Taft School)

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Ms. Vaughn.

Ms. Vaughn: The Finance Committee met on March 4^th in which this was discussed. I, nor any other member of Council, saw any significant changes. Mr. Slocum?

Mr. Slocum: As an update to last week’s meeting, as we did not present any changes from what was proposed last week, the School Board voted to accept the contract last night and they are waiting for our approval of the contract. It is the Administration’s recommendation that we adopt this legislation.

Ms. Vaughn: The Committee recommends passage of this issue.

There were no questions or comments.

03-11-(02): Amended Agreement: Tax Incentive Grant: Presrite Corporation

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Ms. Vaughn?

Ms. Vaughn: Mr. Slocum?

Mr. Slocum: We had given Presrite a grant 1 ½ years ago and they missed the first bogie for the wages – they had $1.7 million and were supposed to have $3 million. They will exceed it for this year based on their first two months reporting. As we discussed we have the ability to just say the agreement is null and void but I think that does not accomplish what we are trying to accomplish – to attract good businesses which I believe Presrite is an excellent business and is here in the City for the long term. As a result we would do a rebate this year of 30% of what they collected last year and if they meet their bogie for this year of $3.5 million we would refund the additional 20% plus 50% for this year. They have brought a good business into the City. I think it is a reputation the City needs to have in attracting businesses – that we are willing to work with the corporations and we strongly recommend approval.                

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio: I agree. I think it is a win-win for the business and a win-win for the City.

Mr. Slocum: We have reviewed this with Presrite and they are extremely pleased with the proposal as it stands right now.

There were no questions or comments.

LEGISLATION PENDING:

There was no Legislation Pending.

 

MISCELLANEOUS:

March: 2014: Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month

Mr. D’Ambrosio: The City recognizes that there is increased public awareness on developmental disabilities and we will proclaim March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.

Mayor Morley: We have Buckeye Industries in our City which is very involved with assisting the disabled with New Avenues being part of it. This awareness is a good thing.

There were no questions or comments.

Amendment: Chapter 1155 “Off-Street Parking and Loading

Mr. D’Ambrosio: This has been going on for a little while. Mr. Gwydir rewrote a section of this – 1155.03. It mainly affects our industrial businesses and in my opinion this makes us appear to be more business friendly. Mr. Gwydir?

Mr. Gwydir: During our Planning Commission meetings over the last several years when new developments come in we occasionally bumped into our parking regulations – where the parking regulations prescribe too many spaces for the particular usage at the time. These large facilities are typically huge square footage buildings with companies expanding into the huge buildings but they do not have a lot of employees or a need for parking. This has resulted in a lot of wrangling over parking – going to the BZA to try to get waivers which are limited through the BZA. This popped up recently in Planning Commission and there was a suggestion that we consider land banking parking spaces. Land banking of parking spaces is that we recognize the use of the building as it is being proposed for a particular use but that building sometime in the future may be used for another use that would require more parking. Maybe an 80,000 square feet building will only have 10 employees because it is used as a warehouse – maybe they would turn it into a fun center or sporting center which would require more spaces for which the ordinance makes a provision. Land banking reserves a number of spaces within the development that do not have to be developed in accordance with the ordinance – it can be kept as a grass area – a lawn area – a landscaped area. It is defined on the plans as land banked parking and it cannot be used for building expansion or anything else. If sometimes the use changes it gives the City the option of saying that the land banked area should be paved in accordance with the parking provision and make it into parking. The perceived benefit is that it makes development less onerous in the City. In other words if you are coming in with 10 employees you do not need to pave 100 spaces. It makes it flexible for people to come in and change the use of facility where they do not need all the parking. It invites that and it ties in with the City’s storm water ordinances where we try to control and limit the development of impervious areas which means faster run-offs. So, if we don’t need 100 parking spaces they do not have to pave it and it is better that it lands on the grass. It is better for our drainage. It is seen as a win on all fronts and will possibly stop some of the ongoing and unnecessary wrangling about parking spaces. That was the genesis and the reason for the amendment.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: I think you did great and applying flexibility like this is also a win-win for the City. We are becoming more business friendly and that is a good thing.

Mr. Morley: We talked about this in Committee and the company we had that wanted to expand was Enpress. The way our ordinance read a company with 40 employees – working three shifts with 15 employees per shift – would be required to have 240 parking spaces. As Mr. Gwydir said this has been ongoing for years and we just decided it was time to amend this ordinance. For a business that has 40 employees to have to have 240 spaces – this was something we needed to move on.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Well done.

There were no questions or comments.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:09 p.m.

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