you're glad that you have taken time to join us this evening on the very first day of february in the middle of it's little bit of a snow storm but it's it is winter and in holland can we start with a roll call please and will proceed with what we have done for decades and opening prayer which will be led tonight by our council member brian land and then we'll have the pledge of allegiance please stand with us if you are  lord tonight we ask for wisdom we ask for the leadership that's needed from this group we ask for patience we asked as we get into important topics that we approach  them with the respect and with the level of seriousness that they deserve we thank you that we're able to gather here and engage in this local government process and what that means for all of liberty and justice for all thank you brian we will move on to the consented genda which is a series of items that we have already we would want to approve in one unit with one vote but maybe you came because you wanted to talk about one of those specific items if that's the case after anna reads that whole list of the consented gender i will open it up again and you can come forward to the podium give us your name and address and tell us which item you would like pulled from the consent to gender and then we will handle it in its place in the sequence of the agenda as it was printed from the back of the room so am i could you please take us through the consent agenda item for him to excuse the absence of council member peters for b to approve the minutes of the generally four it's an eleventh close session meeting the january eighteenth regular meeting and the january twenty fifth two thousand and seventeen study session i don't force you to accept and file executed oaths of office from various boards and commissions item twelve the one to refer claims filed against the city to the city's insurance carrier and city attorney for consideration item twelve two to accept and adopt a resolution for the two thousand and board of public works a general manager utility services director technology director wastewater superintendent a lot to train a bit transmission and distribution supervisor and broadband services manager to apply for necessary permits to the michigan department of transportation for their work within the state highway right away on behalf of the city item twelve one point two to approve agreements with waste management inc and republic services for disposal of streets we use in the amount of twenty three dollars and seventy six per tonne and twelve dollars and thirty six per tonne respectively and to authorize the mayor in deputy clerk to execute the agreements pending approval as to form by the city attorney item twelve a new one point three two approves a declaration of regent boulevard to be a public street and right away and to authorize the mayor in deputy court to sign documents item twelve you one point four to adopt a resolution adding regent boulevard to the city's active fifty one st system as required by the michigan department of transportation i did two of the two point one and seventeen a to play sign except for first reading a proposed ordinance amendment to section twenty seven dash eighteen of the city code regarding residential solid waste services with final approval to be scheduled for february fifteenth city council meeting i am twelve easy to point to and item seventeen b to accept in place on first reading a proposed ordinance amendments to section fourteen four point one and fourteen dash four point four zero regarding continuous payment for solid waste services with final approval to be scheduled for february fifteenth city council meeting i am twelve b two point three to approve and adopt a resolution for the continued services contract by conducting school inspections on behalf of the state of michigan for the home public schools affected february one two thousand and seventeen through january thirty one two thousand and twenty two item twelve easy four point one two accept as presented by the finance permit the fiscal year two thousand and sixteen cash and investment portfolio performance and status report i am twelve you four point two two accept as presented the quarterly october through december of two thousand and sixteen investment report as presented i am twelve the six point two to approve the wellness employer group agreement with priority health which will include on line wellness programs item twelve easy six point three to approve a corporate membership agreement with m v p sports club for employee wellness participation and no extra cost to the city one point one to approve a bid submitted by traveling group in the amount of forty seven thousand three hundred fourteen dollars and sixty three cents for the purchase of a storage area network also known as c n n for the technology services and that this amount be funded from the tech knowledge each service as budget item twelve essential point two to approve an agreement with civic plus for the purchase an implementation of civic h r employee applicant tracking and boarding in the amount of twelve thousand seven hundred seventy two dollars subject to approval last a form by the city attorney and they're said amount be funded through the technology services budget and twelve  point three to declare various items as presented by the technology services as surplus and authorize staff to dispose accordingly thank you anna after that comprehensive list perhaps there was something that you wanted us to handle in it sequence if that's the case please come to the podium and give us your name and address and the item number that you would like pulled from the consented genda seeing no one will you didn't know if you wanted to do something about the master plan but that's already going to be coming up right bright are you thinking about something else brian or there was two point one  discussion in several study sessions in october and maybe even september it is the product of a multi year effort by the marketo area coordinating council service delivery team which consists of appointed officials like myself as well as the chief elected officials of townships where there is not a compliment your plan in the holiday area the general concept is that by pooling resources in a regional way resources could be leveraged such that major outcomes could occur and there would be equity in terms of funding and equity in terms of benefit because the hall hollin area region is interconnected and benefits from many different public facilities so in your package are details and i'll just summarize to say i think there's a leaven facilities noted where this community unhandsome and program could be of the pool funds could benefit and it's important that island gardens was one of the highest priorities there and there are some other directly city of holland related areas however it's also important to note that there's two that were discussed and are not on that list that are also important regional facilities and one is the airport and the other is i have to check my notes to see in the museum thank you so those are missing there is some discussion and that's because holland charter township has not approved that at the ballot box given several opportunities so the thinking is among the group that i referenced that when that changes at the level of pancetta township then you would be in position they would be in position if this is approved in your part of this going forward to include those facilities to benefit from these funds as well so i want to just cover it briefly here as i said it's to enhance regional assets it's to leverage the monies involved so that we can get more from it fifty thousand a year is what's suggested for starters the area policy committee has allocated twenty five thousand for your one the holland chair would be twelve thousand three hundred ninety eight the there is a formula i think it's it was the formulas discussed and that's outlined in the attachments no contributions are now budgeted so any if you were to move forward we have to say that subject to budget july one and that would be the case every year that's pretty much long and short of it the recommendation of the communities have  approved wanted to wait until other communities had acted so like town hall encounter township park county and city fillmore township in ceylon township are the entities that have been part of this from the initial conversations and they have all  proved it on the dates listed in your packet in conclusion it's recommended that the community answer program be removed from the table and be approved as recommended by the macintosh area cordoning council policy board thank you ryan  including myself appealing for this and i've spent a lot of time thinking about this and talking to people in my neighborhood and a lot of people are confused to why why we doing this when there is so much need in the city and the regional flavor for regionalism has not always gone in the favor that the city would have liked to have seen in the past in particular with the max the airport in the holland historic trust of note i don't disagree that some of these assets would benefit from a huge boon in potential grand  making contributions museums that are barely on a shoestring the decker heights the new grown again things like that would definitely benefit while there are others  that barely even exist in particular the i would be to pump house museum which if you read the sentinel is nothing more than maybe a set of bathrooms frankly i don't see myself in favor of this at all think regionalism is vital i think we should be talking about real regional issues housing affordable housing in particular transportation in particular those are the needs and the regional needs that we should be discussing this to me is not these are not issues at the moment cultural assets in my opinion and i've said this time and again should be going after private dollars they should be figuring out who they need to be speaking to build an audience and a family of donors and keep leveraging that family of donors i looked directly to when the island gardens which we've set up to do just that area arts council is designed to do just that and corral are designed to do just that mansion in particular is a is a place where you can rent they have an amazing rental facility there you are doing quite well big red light houses on this list  barely open to the public which is a very controversial move that was this council took great issue with so this list i have an issue with this process i have an issue with saying we had awful lot of discussion on this a little while back one of the directors to steve was let's see what happens when everybody else votes on this i may not agree with the list that they have put together and i'm hoping human spirit of collaboration and cooperation throughout the region here that this list can expand and we can give him some more meat i think this is a stepping stone that i'm willing to take so i was on the fence when we first talked about it but seeing that the other groups have come together and willing to put but a good faith forward to take to see were it goes for a trial period if nothing else but i'm going to support this  of cooperation thank you mike and the other candidates yes tad yeah i would but i can't get into it like brian as far as the you know the whether i like the list or whether i don't like the less truth be told we're about one hundred hours removed from discussing our own list and it's one that for years we have talked about our city manager is reminded us that there's just almost immeasurable amounts of deferred maintenance our own list of assets and so for me it really boils down to you know whether i'm willing to carve off twelve thousand four hundred dollars and send it that way truth be told i know how hard steve's worked on this and i commend him for that effort but with that list bearing down on us and knowing that our staff is also shown a great ability to take amounts like twelve thousand four hundred dollars and leverage it in that same way and get matches through our own processes i feel more compelled to keep these dollars close and address the list that we were just discussing you know about an hour ago that likely will grow it'll be a growing list and so  disrespect to the regional effort i know it's something that we've tried to prioritize and many people that came before me or at that for a long time but this just doesn't seem to move the needle in a way for collaborating or attempting to collaborate when it comes to fire protection of it comes to need when there's a storm through the police departments and sheriff's departments it's ce rtainly that's an important part but i see many of the things on this list that have done a really awesome job self supporting themselves by doing fundraisers selling things selling their products etc some of these townships have a responsibility to provide income to help promote them just as we have worked to promote things within the city of holland as todd says we have a lot of needs a lot of things need repair it's going to cost us a lot of money thing is we start going in this particular direction it will it will be difficult to do it in the future it's like a rolling stone collects no moss what a rolling stone will be collecting tax dollars for this for many years in the future and i think that  we've as a city council have attempted to encourage local organizations to fund themselves and now to spend our tax dollars in other judicial areas this doesn't seem to make a lot well as i think about this i certainly can agree with probably anyone who's made points here on this matter one of our recurring values as a council and as really represent this community has been regional cooperation i can't really count how many times it's come up on the lists and shown up on priority list and we've said that's what we want and we've  made attempts at it and it would seem as though the return on that investment in time and effort hasn't always been as we would have expected or liked it to be  within a much bigger scope than just our city limits we'll admit that you know not necessarily crazy about the list of activities that are showing up here to take a stab at but i think the point we've been down that road a few times and sometimes it is you know to be in a position of leadership to do that gets tiring because sometimes it seems like we do that all the time but that's that's what we're about in this community to show leadership in things that matter and twelve thousand bucks is no drop in the bucket but i think it's a worthwhile investment in making this step toward maybe realizing something better the in the future they say goes around comes around who knows if this works out well and we develop a culture regionally of cooperation when we're in a jam and we need  yeah i think we've probably all gone through some emotional ups and downs in thinking about this and initially was very disappointing because it didn't include things that we really value in holland  the airport and the store trust but one of the things that gives me pause about rethinking this though as is that it was so strongly advocated by bill vanderbilt and those of you who don't live here don't really know who he is but he has been an amazing example in the community for cooperation and he began the community foundation developed that whole concept of people coming together in order to give to make the world better and it was a real statesman without office who encouraged us all to be the better part of ourselves and to realize that we have a responsibility beyond our own jurisdiction and into a regional type of thinking and he was one of the very strong advocates for this regional effort and so he brought people together and he counseled steve bould hi son how to do this and what type of expectations to have and all of that and you know he said you have to start somewhere not everybody's going to like it you have to be specific even though the list will not make friends with everyone but you are you are working toward a concept of regionally cooperated and that amount of money brings people's involvement and heart into the issue and they may not all have what they want today but in the long run we will be a better stronger region because we've all accepted that value and we've put money with it whatever the amount it makes us care more about that value of regionalism so i have gone through that same journey as everybody up here i have felt all of those same things and i guess you know i have landed as mike  dave under the trust of bill vanderbilt and his vision for this region his amount of sacrifice in giving to it and challenging us all to be better  no in three yes thank you ana ok we're moving on to public comment would anyone have something that you came here tonight that you would like to share with council you would have five minutes to talk to us it can be about anything that you would like to talk about it should not be about anything we're going to handle later in the agenda that would be open at that time so it's the same as commenting on the public or the consent to gender just come up to the podium give us your name and address and you're free to speak a green light means go yellow light means one minute left and a red light means your five minutes are done i see extra credit points there all from professor six to nine class on tuesdays and so we had to come down and we just want to see the beautiful city and we really enjoyed our time we spent here which is like ten minutes  really excited to get ice cream afterward yeah and i'm going to peter i'm ok i'm nicole red and i'm awesome fry thank you guys thank you thanks for being here thanks for learning about government this whole city was nice you know moderates and very scary well thank you thank you for coming to holland we're glad you're here that everyone who comes to visit comes to a council meeting but we know you didn't have a hundred percent of that right now we're glad you're here any other comments from the  audience thank you will close the public comment then and go on to the adoption of an ordinance for the proposed rezoning of thirty seven west forty eight st mark god help us with that from the planning department thank you mark better so the property that we're looking at is the aerial going here his this three point two acre parcel located within the orange kind of boundary here currently zoned ag district and the applicant would like to rezone two and a half acres of it kind of the l shaped area here to the i one industrial district there is a house located on the property right in this area here and they would like to keep that zoned ag district so they can remain conforming in use and they can either retain the property or a saw it as a residential property  so the rezoning request went to the planning commission back in january and they held the required or actually went i'm sorry here i'm missing my thing here and went to a planning commission on january tenth they held the required public hearing for there were no comments at all from the general public planning commissioners reviewed the master plan and i'll back that up here and you can see the subject property is located right in this area here in this is all being the master planned for future industrial area so the planning commission found that the resulting request was in compliance with the master plan and it certainly is kind of in conformance with all the industrial activities that are occurring on the south side of forty eighth street there is a residential kind of multifamily property that's located right at the the northwest corner of central avenue in forty eighth street right here in that bones the property to the east subsequent to the public hearing the plan commission recommended to city council that you approve the re request and city council accepted this for first read during your january eighteenth meeting in the design your agenda tonight for a second reading in potential approval thank you ma any questions or comments from counsel is i think mike and i were having a sidebar because it was a question of like is this is a strange to be doing really moving toward that i industrial light industrial or commercial district and this is kind of a a natural path for this part of of that of of the city and i think this is probably the right direction to be going in long term and i would for see the rest of this that's going up against us thirty one dimensionally go either commercial or  industrial anyway rather than ag absolutely i mean the the agricultural zoning that we have on the on the north side of fortieth street there is really kind of a remnant zoning from when this was all farmland  know up to pry twenty thirty forty years ago we shall probably active farms in here before a herman miller one end which is challenge manufacturing now so it's just kind of a remnant zoning that is waiting for somebody to buy it will kind of mitigate that concern but i mentioned up stairs and occasionally not being the best of neighbors they have a pretty big swath of right away through there with us thirty one one of my growing concerns over the years is and has been to some degree thinning out some of those natural vegetative barriers and i know that we've talked a lot about that corridor as it transitions from freeway and a feeling more like the gate like the south gate way along thirty one i don't  know how this would be impacted but for instance if something was to be i know it's just specific for this parcel now but i think bigger in this bigger gray area is that develops do you get kind of administrative look at that stuff and i will be able to maintain those because there are some sizable plane rows along there that really mitigate a lot yes so that is an additional item here when the commercial vehicles that they want to park here and then at some point in the future too they want to come in build a commercial building in there so all of that will be subject to a site plan review in fact because in the immediate vicinity of the airport it will need to go through a site plan review with the planning commission so they will be able to look at you know the vegetation that there is in the area  there and speak to what you're saying there additionally i mean we do have some residential immediately to the east here and there's a tree row right along this area here in certainly we would want to maintain what is there and even enhance if need be to to help from a noise and of light and and in that point of view so there will be additional eyes in the disk additional discretionary decision through that site pla pave some areas right about in here where i have got the arrow there currently is a current business right now and it's located i believe in holland township you know the the applicant is in the audience here and so their immediate thing is they want to get off from that site in bring their commercial vehicles over here and be able to park them that dad in the in of of of itself will precipitate a site plan review with this storm drain age requirements and so forth they've also indicated that that subsequent to that they do want to build a commercial building here and probably will be probably a pole construction type you know and have an office and be able to have internal storage areas and so forth so they also will have some outside cold storage for landscaping materials be it bark and other types of there and i believe there are looks like there's probably six parcels here and i believe that those are either duplexes or maybe a fourplex buildings i don't know off the top of my head but that is it is a current conforming little multifamily apartment district right there and then of course we have all the existing industrial uses we have a johnson controls the you know their battery plant is down here kind of off the screen challenge manufacturing that is way down off the screen to the south to see it going to get into some of the big industrial players and big industrial sites just to the south and off then off to the north here there's some  zone in and this is all kind of mini storage business up here and then to the north of that i believe there's some kind of an industrial building and that's right on thirty one so it is an area that's really kind of in transformation there's some smaller lots of forty eight street hero to back it up in this whole area right in here this is all kind of zoned agricultural district now and they stay before really kind of a lot of this there are some old farmstead homes in here in really kind of remnants of when this whole area was actively farmed you know up to thirty forty years ago in the land uses are changing now  so we anticipate you know is more small business owners want to find a location and so forth and as some properties become available and here though we'll probably see more requests for these land use changes question the i one district is a little different from the i two district in that it does allow for onsite retail sales so it allows for a commercial component  eye to district does not allow for that i too is just strictly manufacturing in kind of r and d stuff so this particular property owner well i believe there are just intending to use this as a count kind of a contractor yard story and there are trucks in aggregate and so forth you know that they may see the opportunity at some time to to be able to do some selling of stuff from the site so they wanted to be able to have that opportunity i would commercial with after that same thing what you have just of these even though it's not part of the master plan which i understand right you've got not a whole lot left you're going to be able to do with that accommodate what the applicant wants to do here but you're entirely correct the i one district would also in the i one district is in conformance with the master plan so we always try to go with the master the other comments or question birch yes yes whiteman yes extra yes calm parents yes bird yes yes mere divorce yes motion passes unanimously thank you how are moving then to the planning commission with changes to the city of holland a master plan in markets here thank you sir you're very welcome i don't want to walk far so all the planning commission has for you this evening and i understand it's probably going to be table but we do have a proposed master plan for you this is been almost two years in the making now and we're very very pleased to bring this to city council as a staff person i've had the privilege of being able to talk with you i mean quite a bit council members we've had some study sessions to  go over the master plan in depth and really kind of get into the nuts and crannies of it and i understand while we're or maybe the one yard line right now we just have a little bit more work to do to get it over the goal line and staff will certainly try to get all of the loose ends and so forth up to snuff so you can maybe vote on this next time so that having been said i can give you just a real brief  have time for that too so just real quickly here the city of holland master plan is the official policy guide for how and future growth and development the master plan summarizes the community's vision the city highlights its goals and objectives based on analysis of strengths and weaknesses and provides a framework and basis for sound community development in land use decision making overall the city of home master plan establishes clear direction and expectations for the city and meets the state of michigan requirements for a master planning document established by the state of michigan city council first received this draft back in november of last year then we had i believe tuesday maybe one study session in december where we rolled up our sleeves and there may have been another meeting in there too where we talked with council members about that into it's here for you tonight also along the way the planning commission has had the formal public hearing state law really kind of establishes that the planning commission is to hold kind of the technical in the required public hearing that was done back in october of last year and it was a little disappointed we didn't have any public comment at that formal public hearing but that being said we've shared with council members before do a very exhaustive public participation process that we had in the last count we were well over forty meetings that we had you know including all the stakeholder group meetings that we've had and just a couple weeks ago i think at the last one i gave a presentation  to the hope academy of senior professionals kind of to a packed room and that was kind of fun and they were all very supportive of it also so and we're well over a thousand people who have also been involved in the process along the way so i just need to spell out to as far as this staff planners concerned for you this is coming now suck the bar as to how we want to do master planning activities in the city were as at one point in the past we was probably sufficient for the planning commission and maybe a consultant and in staff to come in i want to say do it in the back room but i mean do it in public meetings but there really wasn't a whole lot of public participation i want to say those days are done and we really want to be intentional in reaching out to all  all sections of our community and all demographic groups and and really get to know their hopes and aspirations for the community in an more intentional manner so i think i may be keep it at that in the next meeting when we can t this up again i can probably give a little bit more thorough background if council so desires thank you mark you know this was a great effort and you went to the people rather than waiting for the people to come to hear right yeah that's great so we have someone in the audience who has come to talk about this master plan please help talk to the podium give us your name address and you have five minutes there my name is chris meyer i'm with warner norcross and judd we represent chemical bank regarding the property that's behind the mcdonald's on m forty and i one day and six called the cable property or the cobble property however you want to talk to about tuck about or however you want pronounce it my client as well as a developer dan him and his son neck you've been talking with the madam mayor with the planning commission with mr vander pollute for about a year about rezoning this property and so i'm here to talk about it in the context of the master plan because that's an important factor to be considered in in the ultimate request to rezone the property so this property has been fully developed that is vacant and available for purchase with roads and you took a road and utilities put in since one nine hundred ninety seven and the only lot that sold there is is the gas station and mcdonald it's i do currently is zoned c two highly commercial which allows a number of various different uses and there's been no takers it's been through a number of different brokers through a number of different owners and now it's landed in chemical banks a know portfolio the property is well suited for development as multifamily apartments which is what this developer would like to do are potential purchaser here there's a demonstrated need in the holland area for market rate affordable partment housing a recent target market target market analysis study co founded by the city concluded that the city of holland over the next five years needs an additional two hundred eighty nine apartment units contained in multifamily apartment complexes so the study shows that the total demand for housing is close to seven hundred and two hundred eighty nine of those are apartment complex units this will cation is ideal for multifamily use it's compatible with land use patterns nearby it's suitable it's got adequate utilities and the traffic is the traffic can handle it there the roads can handle it there is easy access to major roads i one ninety six m forty sixty four st it's immediately adjacent to a large number of large industrial  employers some of whom we've talked to and have been very encouraging about this application it's close to the max transit bus route just needs to be extended a little bit down forty there from forty eighth street and it's immediately adjacent to the extensive green areas that are going along there with the macintosh discovery center in the recent hayworth donation that's going to create a nice public access there in short it's an ideal location and we need more housing in this community i know through our conversations with the planning commission and  do like to live by the highway for the convenience it provides and in fact the property immediately on the other side of the interchange is master plan for new york traditional housing so we have already master planned this area and this interchange for is just happens to be on the other side of the interchange which is also on the other side you know change from the bus route and from the the new greenway that's going in there and dish and if you look at the master plan there's no other place for apartment complexes to go we have a demonstrated need for two hundred eighty nine new apartment complex units but there's no other place in the city for an apartment complex to be master under the current master plan there's places for high end expensive condos and apartments but nothing for affordable market rent apartments number two they say that they would like to have it zoned industrial well we've had it on the market for quite some time with a thing that says this is available for highway commercial restaurants retail banks offices light industrial no takers this is been c two is a very nice zoning district that allows many uses but there's been no takers for any of those uses  number three there are a lot of industrial properties for sale in this area here's a list of what's for sale right now it goes on for quite a few pages and you've got twenty five vacant industrial parcels for sale in the greater holland area so there's no need for more industrial in fact there's need for residential and in fact to developers we're looking at this property for residential purposes so clearly the market has identified this property as property that should be residential and in fact should be apartments and has been master planned for c two and maybe next for industrial neither of which the market needs more of nor does the market need it in this particular location so we ask that you look at this and look into  master planning this for additional use of multifamily and i'd be happy to take any questions that you  have i know you're probably going table tonight probably ok so i am not going to plan a comeback next two weeks you know but you're welcome to contact me you have my letter from the summer twelve my contact information is on there anybody has any questions please let me know thank you very much but i think he has an explanation as to why its master plan the way it is i'm sure you is there at the planning commission discussion and involved in this setting of the master plan i was there yes they're ok so just to orient council members again and hopefully you can see this we're we're looking at this particular property right in this area here ok so here we got him forty coming down and here is i one ninety six coming through here so in this is the future land use plan manner or the draft future land use plan map that  is in front of council right now so in this in this is the plan that the planning commission is proposing for you so they have it planned as a highway commercial you can see across the street the other side of the intersection that's being planned for high with commercial also as well as the south side of the interchange the pilot travel center is located right in here  in this area across the street you remember with a little road trip last wednesday bryan white indicated how we have plans with the state to relocate sixty four st i believe so it's going to come in and a line better with cable drive so that particular area there is probably going to be well suited for c too high with commercial  too so that's really kind of some of the context to that so to the site itself i forget right now that the total acreage of the site but it's probably about ten acres or so  city then in its platted state very shortly after that time we did we did have the first application come in for the mcdonald in kind of gas station type of use in that that was built there very shortly thereafter that same site came in asked for an expansion for kind of a truck fueling kind of operation in that was granted and shortly after that we actually got a an application and went to the planning commission in fact i believe it was approved for i want to say about one hundred fifty unit motel that was going to be located at the very back and of cable drive and that did not materialize though so so the planning commission so that's just kind of some some quick history with that was a developer out of the kalamazoo area they came inquired with me and fact we brought up the planning commission at the time and as as your professional planning i had a series of rationale for maintaining the existing zoning and maintaining what was at that time also a draft plan to have this a planned highway commercial there the planning commission kind of wholeheartedly agreed with that assessment that we wanted to keep it commercial there so i mean what you know this site is very much  a it's dominated by large industrial uses it's dominated by highways crisscrossing the area it's dominated by a transportation network and the logistics of the trucks and the high in the high traffic that does go through this area there really are no connections other than vehicle connections via that road network to anything so there is no trail system there's no sidewalks system as somebody who lived at this site they virtually would have to drive every place and i mean you were up to the site when we saw this site last week just riding through the area it would be at least in my assessment i think if you had a family it would be very unpleasant to say the least to walk along in forty to try to get to anywhere especially if there is no sidewalk there is no existing parks in the area i know that mr meyer did allude to the  hayworth wetland banking area which is across the street over in this area here that may and me yeah i don't know if that's open to the public right now but i believe that they are going to allow that to be open to the public and have people just walk on trails and so forth but there are no there's no neighborhood park here there's no place for a family to go to and  play on the field or swing on some swings or or do whatever you know we want to do there really are no amenities that you could walk to easily get to by foot bike as far as a retailing you're again you would have to drive to everywhere so i mean there's a number of factors that went into staff and planning commission a year ago seen now that's really not it wouldn't be a good location in their estimation to to have a multifamily in then when landed company came in basically inquiring the same thing and we just we basically haven't changed our thought we'd been staff and we've not gone back to the planning commission to ask them their opinion on this request if they've changed their mind at all we could certainly do  turning real close to debating one particular parcel in seven hundred square miles and i understand that there's some concern with this i mean you know one of the things that we've discussed relative to this mark and correct me if i'm wrong but you a it's a it's a plan it's meant to be a guy post for certain things and occasionally will deviate from it sometimes we want it cetera et cetera now understand there's a specific parcel here but it just seems a bit out of order to be this deep in this parcel and even getting close to whether we want to go back or not go back to plan commission and i may be out of order for asking that but i feel like we're a bit far from shore with the item that we were discussing ok i'm not i'm not blaming you i just want to make sure that we're staying in our lane so to speak but i'm not prepared to to have this debate tonight i guess is what i'm saying and i don't know that any of us to i don't think we need to have a debate we're just presenting it and in deference to the gentleman that's here this evening with his request repeated request we thought it reasonable for mark to give us an explanation of what has happened to this point that time he's responding to vera did you have anything to add ron i just keep going back to you yeah what what mr rezoning of the property even if it would be contrary to the master plan close consideration needs to be given to that if it's contrary to the plan but but that's an option the property owner has separate and apart from the master plan process  for their discussion is it in and indefinite tabling if we talk about that postponing ok thank you that's all my all right that's right and that's your second all right thank you ok we're now going to talk about the appraisal for public parking in last seven c and seven streets that has come back madam mayor our city attorney vanderveen has done work on this following your approval of the letter of intent that letter intent is in your package essentially the first step was to get an appraisal appraisal was the cost of which was covered by the developer and there is a reduction in that amount that has been deposited so there will be reimbursement and then there is many other back in the fall about september or october the development group of rockford development group and burton katzman came to you and and had this idea to purchase the walk the parking lot and seven street twenty seven west seventh street and then develop it to their proposal is to more or less put in place sort of a standstill a minute where you wouldn't market the property for a period of time that runs until march thirty one of this year  then there could be a negotiating period for thirty days after that so through april thirtieth of this year it wouldn't foreclose the option of pursuing other sales of the lot or just disengaging and not selling the parking  lot the idea was to allow the developers to do their due diligence with respect to this property and for the city to do its due diligence with respect to the property because the city obviously cannot give away its property needs to get a equivalent value back for it and the question is what is that value so an appraisal was was ordered for the property we receive their praise a reporter short time ago it was done by getting zinc appraisal company you may recall their name they they did the phrase a line in the parking lot on eighth street about a year ago or a year and a half ago here it just running through the summary of the report they course give the location of the property on twenty seven west seventh  fee simple as is basically the full bundle of rights of ownership of the property has been appraised and purpose of the appraisal is to determine the fair market value for the property next page here out of the appraisal in by the way we pulled out about five pages from the appraisal that are the most important pages but it is in a report that's about sixty three pages long infinite detail in their report to the appraiser went through so i don't want to give the impression that this is just a  simple summary report that the appraiser didn't do his job but this page here it's important in this pages is that and by the way i think this is page two of the praiser report is that the i praise indicates that the highest and best use for the property is commercial or mixed use development and he's appraising it as of december thirteen of two thousand and sixteen so it's done it at the relevant time frame a commercial and  development being the highest and best use meaning the most valuable use for the for the property doesn't mean that it's a by any means a compelled use of the property in doing an appraisal the appraiser generally will look at three different options or three different methods of appraising the property a cost approach and an income approach are used and some properties but this is not develop so those two proteins don't become relevant here but then the appraiser will look at a sales comparison  approach to the property and what's on this page this comes from way back in the appendix to the report but this page shows the area you know this doesn't have the oh yeah it does have  the location of the comps around here in the blue shaded bars in the map in the downtown area fortunately we've had a lot of activity of property in our downtown area so that he's been able to have close comparisons it's really difficult for an appraiser if they have to pick comparisons from a community outside of the location next page don't go through all the detail on this page but this is the appraisers summary and this is really sort of the guts of the appraisal on a sales comparison where you list each property compares it to the seven street parking that property and that goes through at the bottom and makes adjustments on a square foot basis in terms of trying to compare the property to make apples and apples compare rather at than apples and oranges we go to the next two pages here in the report he goes through and explains all the different adjustments and comparing the properties but the important part really comes in the middle of the page on the on the right where he gives a summary of of his adjustments and is valuation of the property indicating that his analysis of the comparisons would show a high value of a million four and some change in a low value of a million one in some change and then the next page he gives his record reconciliation where he comes up with a million two hundred fifty thousand dollars as his opinion on the value of the property and so doubt going forward the developer i think has do still has to come back to the city and indicate the results of their due diligence approach and then there would need to be some discussion in terms of of how that would go forward if it does go  forward there's always the option of other parties coming to the table as well and making proposals for the property or there is always the option you have a san times not right to dispose of the property you will hang on to the property and use it as parking lot glad to answer any questions yes anyone have a question or comment for ron i think that's wrong and yeah i meant to mention the action tonight is all me too except for information there's no other action recommended right thank you madam mayor and council on jobs only from burton katzman and bingham farms in michigan it's an honor and a pleasure to be here this evening and like the students that were here earlier i'm very excited to be here not to get ice cream but to check out the snow melt intent of the master plan and addresses the concerns that were collected from the city's residents and stakeholders that attended a few of the meetings that took place early on to date rockford construction has recently completed a construction cost estimate for the design concept that we came up with and now that we have this missing data point of the appraised value the property conducted by the city's selected appraiser were prepared now to formulate a formal proposal and share that with the city council probably in the next couple months it's going to take me a little bit to work on that but that proposal will include specifics that city can react to  and obviously it's subject to negotiation and and going into this process early and we you know sort of lay the groundwork by saying that you know the city was obviously under no obligation to negotiate or move forward and they have the ability to approve or deny or concept for hopefully we're going to bring you something they are going to be excited about and is going to fit well within the context of the city so that's all i really have the night but i'm  the other candidates for this project that's seeing anything right so do we need emotion just accept it as information so yes we do i'll make that motion moved by white men supported by byrd all those in favor say aye oh same sign that passes thank you ok we're moving on to the item we took off the community neighborhood services the proposed ordinance amendment for section twenty c twenty seven one who should speak to that right the what it's here but i think there is some consensus upstairs of this matter would not move forward it is postponed thank you ok though we are going down to gifts and could you tell us about the gifts the city manager  a donation received in the amount of one hundred dollars from john and no well read in public service safety services received a donation in the amount of five thousand dollars from gentex corporation for the it is recommended that these donations be accepted was appreciation in an expression of gratitude before he just said don't thank you and a motion to accept with sign thank you that definitely passes with a wonderful wonderful great generosity on the part of the community who once again thank you ok we have communicate oh we have a six point five here of city council you know a lot about this subject because this is the beginning of the budget process and you spent saturday morning several weeks ago with coffee with council as well as probably thirty or forty residents and you lot of information together and whiteboards and this represents some of what was concluded however as we discussed upstairs earlier this evening there is some amendment to this that's needed to clarify and to make sure there is no misunderstandings and what priorities we have going forward as a city leadership team and city council for fiscal year eighteen so it is recommended that rather than amendment that tonight there be a tabling matter  motion and that it might include signification as to what subcommittee might work on this a bit further to bring forward before next on great thank you right yes a lot of good hard work went into this and it's it is going to be dependent on the adoption formation of the committee to come back to us with a recommendation obviously because budget we're getting into budget the sooner the this good grief ok so that's how you are right now writing that we can all right ok all those in a favor of that tabling motion with these two fine men volunteer ing don't oppose same side that carries thank you now we're on to communication from the city manager mr ryan cotton professor cotton all different hats tonight i  really can't believe they said that i'm just mr cotton to them or you know and works but thank you i just want to make sure there's a couple things that everyone knows about that master plan that we just discussed that's available on the website and with the time between now and its adoption there is still the opportunity for people to read and suggest amendments and as mark said those are read and appreciated and reviewed and communicated with council so either get hold of council members or first then to staff one way or another your points of view are welcomed important second there's been a lot of conversation about downtown parking including a stakeholder meeting this morning for a lot of reasons to look at all the parking budgets and there must have been eighty people at up and came very good presentations by our leadership there in me and kara and also a lot of good question i just do want to point out that  the the main part about the parking suggestions are it's the least expensive most flexible and most easily reviewed way of proceeding to improve perking conditions downtown and i have with me a map two maps that was presented if any council member wants to study them it for the first time shows the location of twenty eight fifteen minute parking spaces which is the core of the recommendation  as a one year trial period so amy's here as well if you have changes that you'd like to see eventually the budget will come forward with any you know costs involved there are is already monies in the budget for what council strategy go no no no community wide goal but rather of a bunch of interested people in this concept so for the sake of supporting our community i have been the de facto chair of a study group they meet again tomorrow at eight am and eight fifteen a m there the survey was done at no charge by hope college i think you know the background so tomorrow is really i you know does this stop or does this continue forward and if it continues forward obviously it should be some kind of support of council support of funders in the community to be determined and some sort of trial period so tomorrow some what ifs will be talked about this is in your plan they've got table tonight as one of the items under the transportation section so it seems to have some support to be talked about but i just want to let you know that it's likely you will read something about in the paper and i'll try to keep you posted i mean time and i do not anticipate that it's not trying to make sure this happens but rather do an analysis of how it might possibly happen so with that being said you can talk to me later if you think it should and that will help me for my meeting tomorrow if you think it should then eventually you might get a report of some kind of white paper third future study sessions right around the corner for the public the city owned personals lots of n c being one but there's i think  number dozens and dozens will be the subject of a discussion next week in the study session as to how to review those so we have more knowledge should we get a request like we just heard about lot and more on process rather than determination council planning commissions asked for that council will take the time next week to decide how to proceed on process and the last thing is next week also in stud forward so that will be part of the study session before next week thank you ryan communications from the mayor the canadians are really getting into our snow melt they called again and so i'll be on the radio tomorrow morning with the montral people and they are really want to celebrate their three hundred seventy fifth anniversary by putting in some snow melt on their main street and they're trying to figure out how to do it and whether they can do it and so they keep coming back and must be really drumming up support for it but it isn't really cool sport in holland to just sit by a sidewalk and watch the snow melt i mean who can do that very c e also girlfriends weekend is coming up in just a little over a month of march for it is six downtown highland you can look at up girl friends weekend slash downtown highland and find out all the neat activities that are so enjoy being downtown with their friends relatives to remember and tell people from everywhere else to come on down as well maybe sometime the have a guy's weekend too i don't know but anyway the girls get one so that's about it for me and  ok thank you and it was a wonderful weekend this weekend i guess we spent a lot of hard working hours together in thinking about the future of the city and figuring out how to prioritize and strategize and set high goals for casting a vision that should last a good amount of time and so i very grateful for the dedication of all the people up here the senior staff the meetings we had to hear each of their all the senior staff people's well thought out presentations on the future for their department and the two or a bus tour of the community was great and time to get to know each other and work through this is ryan said sixteen hours out of thirty six where were spent together and in pretty intense conversations and we're not done yet so very very thankful to have this opportunity to do the best we can for the city that we really care about so right now we're in for a motion though mr lynn you know i would move that we adjourn to close session for a legal opinion moved by parents yes yes yes yes yes yes yes thank you ma'am and we will be