good evening everyone welcome to tonight's regularly scheduled meeting of the holland city council we're glad that you're either in chambers watching television this evening or at some future date watching by way of an electronic device of some sort let's begin our meeting this evening with a roll call to make chambers tonight would happily join and rise and join us in both of these items place father in heaven bless us as we gather today for this meeting our minds and hearts so that we will work for the good of our community and help all your people teach us to be generous in our outlook and wise in our decisions father thank you there are paper copies of this evening's agenda located in the rack in the rear of chambers additionally if you are in chambers and have an i pad or laptop we do have a wireless signal in chambers and for most people that works out of our home central reporters  having difficulty connecting tonight but it usually works just fine and you can not only find the copy of the agenda but also of all the background material council has reviewed in preparation for this evening's meeting and you can do that by going to the city's web page city of dot com and then you can click onto the agenda page and you'll find all that information about this evening's meeting if you look at the agenda you'll note that there are a variety of items on the agenda with an asterisk next to them these are what we call the consent agenda items we think that by and large these are relatively routine matters or things that council has talked about previously so what we intend to do is handle all of these motions or all of these items regardless of where they show up on the agenda with one motion and one vote  we recognize that perhaps what we consider to be routine may not necessarily be routine to others in the community so what we will do as a matter of procedure is our deputy clerk will read for us all of the items that are presently on the consent agenda after that i'll give the opportunity for anyone in the audience to remove an item from that agenda or members of council can remove items as well and then we will handle the remaining items with one motion and one vote so and if you would kindly read for us at the moment what is on the consent agenda item a tax abatement application submitted by j m s somehow at ten ten productions court for study and report item fourteen a one to approve and accept the bill of sale for the water waste water utilities easement located to approve the offer of just compensation with leo and mary burnett for the property at one fifty six fairbanks avenue and that the mayor and deputy clerk execute said documents approved as to form by the city attorney i don't fourteen eighty five to approve up professional services contracts with c t c technology and energy in the amount not to exceed fifty nine thousand nine hundred ten dollars for strategy and per crewman services and ten thousand dollars for supplemental implementation support services for the advance metering plan item fourteen eighty six to approve a professional services contract with parkway electric and communications in the amount not to exceed one hundred forty one thousand four hundred sixty one dollars for the installation services of an audio video system for the how important public works board room with a budget transfer of one hundred fifty six thousand three hundred dollars for services an owner furnished equipment pending approval asked by the city attorney item fourteen c one to approve an agreement with public safety police division for the use of police reserves at various venues for the group walk event scheduled this saturday october nineteenth two thousand and thirteen i important to to declare various election items as surplus and to dispose of accordingly item fourteen one point one two approve the can to new it in limit did consultation with mr bradford for the establishment of the pick authorize the clerk to provide appropriate notice for the scheduling of hearing for three point one to declare a surplus recovered bicycles for donation to seventy times seventy and to list property room back com for sale item fourteen eat three point two two approve the bid submitted by parkway electric in the amount of forty one thousand six hundred thirty three dollars for the audio and lighting improvements to the council chambers and this cost be funded through the c a a t v fund item fourteen point three two except the grant in the amount thirty three hundred seventy five thousand dollars from the michigan economic development corporation and to authorize the mayor in deputy city clerk to execute said grant to get the windmill turning again subject approval to form by the city attorney and i had imported a five point four to schedule a public hearing for the november sixth council meeting on the request of tax abatement for j m s of holland at ten ten productions court and that the deputy clerk publishes and mails the required notices yes all right thank you takes us the item seven seven a this evening we have some special presentations and recognitions and tonight first of all we're going to talk a bit and recognize the holland bloom america in bloom award recipient for the city of holland and more particularly we also want to specifically recognize those many many persons in our community who are very active in putting together our application again this year for the american bloom competition american boom competition again this year for the third year in a row and we were victorious again for the third year in a row we brought some of our some of our hardware back over here on the table we won the overall population category for our size which was i'd just like to come in and give you a comment from the judges in their in their evaluation form and one thing that they did say is towns with a five bloom rating are an elite group and worthy of considering international competition and that we should consider that seriously and we have been invited actually after our first when we were invited to join that competition so that's something that we want to speak to you about probably later and look forward to the other thing that just going to read here from this was actually read while the award was being presented for the population it's a general description for the city it's saying on the website for the city of how in the following a state of the parks division will continue to pursue excellence in all areas intrusted to its care the division seeks to enhance a community providing outstanding same services and safe functional sylvie's as efficiently as possible and the continuing development of parks for the preservation of the natural beauty of the city and enjoyment of all age groups this kind of statement and the actions that follow it up what makes holland so impressed of and we did achieve a thousand points we got eight hundred sixty four points over the six criteria they had to preservation of something that we were proud of in the city of holland obviously this is what the judges were looking for when they came here historic natural agricultural and cultural heritage preservation and restoration of buildings homes churches cemeteries heritage sites and our monuments heritage parks historical gardens and heritage trees facts historical society heritage committee museums archives history books and interest interpretive programs and orders and policies resource available farmers markets festivals and parades that was kind of interesting to me that they consider that even part of the heritage and made many comments about our farmers market and just the parks department but all these other people involved and karen patmos came and joined the judges on their days off actually to show us you know certain things for the judges and jurors part is this special or this program it was called the home repair program that he spoke to her about at back a step of this get this program focuses on home repairs for properties throughout the city how it is income based and is just a single family low income households and make repairs the city pays a half the cost of needed repairs up to for forty four thousand dollars obviously they're very impressed with that and gave us a special award for that as  well i would like to thank our committee for helping to bring the city of harlem this wonderful recognition their hard work and dedication was outstanding we as a committee would like to thank the following businesses and individuals for their support as well the convention and visitors bureau of holland hope college  w hayworth hauen garden club but works restaurant peretti use landscape design bill in charlotte johnson all of the individuals and businesses that hosted a visit by the judge's own city council for allowing us to participate in the program again and the citizens of holland for their support in keeping the city a wonderful place to live work and play we're looking forward to meeting with council at a study session later this winter to explore additional opportunities within the american bloom competition and to seek approval and support for future competition thank you very much thank you andy and everyone if you're in chambers tonight and we're all a part of the holiday in bloom america and blue project would you stand so we can express our appreciation to all of you come down that's not be shy all right bill they were all right thank you everyone tha really a tremendous tremendous club that we're in when you think of winning all these years in a row and getting this kind of recognition in some ways it comes naturally to who we are but it certainly takes a lot of effort above and beyond what typically occurs in our community for that kind of recognition to happen all i can say is we were at age sixty four out of a thousand so shelly you better step it up a bit that's a joke all right thank you the second special order a special presentation today is for the pick up trash the put club initiative and i hear it almost right for they are right in front of us looking around the room good evening and welcome thank you thank you very much for these few minutes i have come to holland three years ago i married a woman and my youngest daughter went to college so has a special place and i know i was coming to the prettiest place  noticing number of trash along the road and i'm thinking this is the the cleanest city and the country and what is all of this trash doing here now you may be aware if you're a runner of the runner's high you maybe that's something we ought to pursue and we ought to think about basically this idea is very simple to be a member of the club that you never throw anything down you always pick it up never throw it down always pick it up now and dish into that now we know because of original sand there will always be trash that will be trashing and so we need to bring that down to a practical level so just as people different individuals have taken a mile to clean up the trash and one woman that was featured in the newspaper she took mile and it was cleaned up and our highways have been pretty clean but we want to bring this down to the many level every street and holland that will be covered that there will be somebody responsible to see that there will not be trash in those areas so they adopted blocks and now many residential areas are pretty clear pretty clean and yet yet the vacant areas the school areas number of things there is trash and somehow this is a little anecdotal thing but in the fourth grade i had a principal who was kind of a creepy guy and he's always peeking around corners but one time he put a quarter and a little piece of paper trash and put it down on the hall and he watched to see if anybody picked it up well students walked by and walked by and finally one picked it up and he got a quarter now and that day quarter was more than it means today well i've been picking up trash ever since and haven't found any quarters but that seemed to stick in my psyche that trash is see we don't trash our cars we throw it out the window we don't trash our homes and we have a i mean this is pure michigan and we want pure holon as many of you know the thing that many people remember is not the rides not the special shows it's the cleanest place they've ever seen and every person from the top c e o down to the bottom is responsible to pick up trash that means an island that the mayor and everything is responsible to pick up trash and never throw it down and so this is our idea now i  appreciate that the council we've talked about this and the smaller council and they're behind us and we have different ideas that we'll begin with churches that they will adopt a blocker blocks go through school our students need to learn and many times their parents teach them about trash they need to learn that they don't throw it down and they always pick it up and so this is our goal this is our idea that holland will not only be clean it will be the cleanest city and the country and i appreciate your cooperation now that the question was raised about what will this cost any money now the city council has made some of these little response for children that they will pledge to pick up trash and cooperate  i think in most cases people will use their own trash bags and situations you don't need a large bag usually a small bag as they walk their dog as they move through the neighborhood they will cover their all right well thank you very much i appreciate these few minutes and i trust that we will be able to employ the churches we will take have and we will designate suspect that though the wristbands are predominately for children if you found someone in the audience who would like to have a jelly colored wristband you could probably get one tonight if you'd like so all right thank you very much for that moving then to  improvements are in many ways funded directly by those property owners and merchants and these are the kinds of assessments that allow the downtown area to do what it has done for now going on twenty plus years so the first of these is the parking operations and maintenance things sharing a little bit of additional information on what exactly is covered with those the revenue that is generated i wanted to share that the revenue generated as applied to lease costs maintenance of public parking lots and decks including snow plowing resurfacing striping repair and replacement lighting capital improvements repairs and administrative costs for managing the proper operation maintenance and improvements of the parking lots within the downtown  wanted to also share the boundaries of the district to the parking assessment district includes properties within four hundred feet of a public parking lot and generally within the area bounded by fist street on the north columbia avenue on the east eleventh street on the south and pine avenue on the west you can see there's a map on the screens that just outlines exactly what i just share and the amount assessed during fiscal year two thousand and thirteen was one hundred eighty one thousand two hundred  forty eight dollars and fifty one cents with a base first floor square footage rate of point three to two cents a three percent increase over the previous year and the assessment as proposed for fiscal year two thousand and fourteen begins with a bas base excuse me first floor square footage rate of point three three zero cents and the total assessment is one hundred eighty eight thousand one hundred eighty two dollars and seventy nine cents and that assessment is applied to one hundred forty six properties the increased total increase it is recommended that city council adopt a resolution approving the downtown parking operations and maintenance all right thank you any questions for staff on this right time the place is now for this public hearing if you would like to comment on this particular item i ask that you step forward the microphone so everyone in chambers and watching either at home or on a computer can hear what you have to say the rules of counsel are pretty simple all you need to do is state your name and residential address for the record and you will have up to five minutes to address council you'll note that if you begin talking there is a little green light that will start the diasporic me at the one minute mark with one minute remaining goes to yellow and then when it turns red that means the five minutes or so at this point i will declare the public hearing open and if anyone would care to address counsel on this item here is your opportunity to do so parking is always free except that it's not on this night because we were reminded that we don't have meters in this replaces the meters still costly to maintain parking but we don't have to feed meters and many of us have been to places even recent where you feed the meters and  comparing yes yes yes yes all right thank you and the second of the three downtown items is eight c which deals with the downtown principal shopping district and where to go you might want to stay close it's the first time around the bend for of for you in this whole process so that if you fall doing great things again mayor dykstra and members of hound city council thanks again for having me up here so that i can share some information about the principal shopping district assessment role that is before you the resolution or excuse me it as a resolution approving the principal shopping district final assessment role the principal shopping district assessment was established in one thousand ninety eight to compliment the physical and operational duties of the downtown development authority by focusing on conducting market research and public relations campaigns developing cordoning and conducting retail an institutional promotions and sponsoring special events and related activities since it has been established the p s t has been dedicated to enhancing downtown how and by actively promoting and marketing downtown events and activities and the general business district specific p s t efforts include the down town hall and dining guide downtown maps group coupon book but street performer series sidewalk sales live manikin knight holiday open house the parade of lights this weekend's group walk business advocacy business seminars and workshops de coffee's for p t s d members of the downtown how on website business services and much more the p s t assessment policy as approved by city council is based on building square footage and the assessments sasnett rates excuse me for fiscal year two thousand and fourteen are proposed to be the same as fiscal year two thousand and thirteen the fiscal year two thousand and thirteen assessment generated revenue in the amount of a one hundred eighty one me so it has been reduced to one hundred seventy nine thousand seven hundred thirty three dollars and twenty cents and this assessment covers one hundred seventy eight properties it is recommended that city council adopt a resolution approving the principal shopping district final assessment and it questions first that alright this too requires a public hearing this is the time to do so if you care to address this item please step forward to the microphone same rules apply saying no one will close the public hearing and we have the report and request from staff what is the pleasure of counsel so moved by truth to support and supported by de boer in the discussion seeing none please call that role whiteman yes operating capital assessments some of the several different colors it's because there are several different assessment formulas one is for those properties of snow melt in the street and sidewalk another is for those just adjacent to sidewalks that have snow melt and then there's another one the brown colors where there's a an assessment of spread on a square footage basis there are one hundred thirty five properties in this district the total assessment this year one hundred nine thousand five hundred twenty five dollars and seventy nine cents we're proposing at this this amount be approved it is a five percent increase over the amount for last year and mr mayor just playing  some of the comments you made during the first hearing on the downtown parking adding up the parking assessment of p t s d assessment and this assessment the downtown property owners businesses organizations are paying over four hundred seventy five thousand dollars for those three things that all of us are many of us in the community enjoy on a regular basis as you mentioned that's a significant amount and i'm not sure if we're going to have anybody here in opposition on the snow melt but we haven't had anybody with the first two hearings so you know i think it's just a great opportunity for us to provide those services and for them to pay for them to these degree and that of course is on top of the regular property taxes they pay above and beyond and questions for staff and that i'm all right public hearing on this particular item you know the drill if you want to address council on this item please step over to the podium at this time there was not a council i don't think any of us were when the big debate about this the first snow melt passed on a five to four vote the mayor tennis casting the deciding vote on that one and it was controversial and nobody knew whether it would work or not  the time table to decide was quite compressed and what a success it has been and it's been expanded many times since with little or no opposition in fact the biggest question has been among competing places in town wondering can we be the next one to get snow melt in front of us and part of the benefit the additional benefit of what the b p w is doing with the new power plant is that we will have upwards of five times the snow melt capacity with the new plants just based on the type of excess waste heat that will be generated one ninety eight abatement that's a fifty percent tax abatement on this investment significant investment or principal as you mentioned they're located at six seventy one crust if they produce highly customized diecast equipment and i industries benefit from the work that this company does they're looking to invest over five million dollars four hundred forty eight thousand approximately is in land and building improvements four point seven million is in machinery equipment so again it's over five million dollars in investment they're hoping to create three new jobs at the site within two years and staff recommendation is that you adopt a resolution approving this exemption certificate for twelve years from the state tax commission approval all right thanks greg and it complies with the established policy that council has had in place regarding all rights questions for staff all right i believe we have a representative of the company here same location what we're replacing with this investment is some of the original equipment installed in one thousand nine hundred sixty five so it's it's overdue and we're really excited about putting this and we're part of a global organization now and we have investments in europe china and around the u s as well and the business continues to grow and thrive in holland primarily because of the great work environment that we have here this state certainly has become much more favorable for us to work in and the these not available higher than just now and we should also note that the positions that you're looking at hiring have a very fine wage scale of around twenty twenty four an hour and there's another position that's around sixty eight thousand or so that you advertising so these are highly skilled well compensated positions with thirteen people right now in the federally certified apprenticeship program and also we like to bring people in that don't necessarily have the skills forward of the podium and you may say your piece all right i will close the public hearing on this item and we have the request from staff to offer the abatement one ninety eight abatement is there a motion by whiteman the board supported by hoekstra any discussion element scuse me of these considerations and i'm also appreciative of the fact that you have an apprenticeship program we talk a lot about further education for young people and  a lot of times we forget about the fact that somebody's got to make stuff and somebody has to know how to make that stuff so these kinds of opportunities are very very valuable so thank you for doing thank you david other comments i'll just echo a lot of what david said and also note that i've had the good pleasure of being in your facility a few years back i'll take an invitation a time to come back and see it in its future and present state as well but it's a  wonderful facility you know clean as clean can be highly technical highly skilled workforce and i also echo dave's comments about you know the fact that you're investing in new employees and providing the training that perhaps they don't otherwise have so that is great news for really the whole community and we're pleased to be a partner in this small way with the ongoing daily work that you do so thank you please call the roll parents magna mirrors of america at four fourteen east fortieth street lease staff is reviewed this request as well again a p a one ninety eight which is a fifty percent tax abatement on the investment of jackson's noted by staff  this company magna mirrors i think you're familiar with the company but they design and manufacture automotive mirrors mirror glass rear vision components and related assemblies they are hoping to invest almost six million dollars in machinery and equipment through that project there are intending to maintain our retain ninety four existing jobs and create twenty four new jobs and staff is recommending that you approve a resolution for this exemption and i'm here with john roberts we represent meg mears of america and the information that was already presented about our location and the investment there we're excited and so excited to have the opportunity may we've been in business for a long time we've been known as different and donnelly in the past magnan donnelly and now magna and we are excited about the opportunity to invest and grow our business as well as at some jobs the community great thank you  feel secure to invest at a level like that and to continue to invest like that that is really exciting thank you for being here other questions for applicants ok fantastic he wants a bracelet to his bottom line with this all right public hearing on this item if you'd like to address council on it please step forward the microphone and the public hearing is now open energy efficiency and they have done a project this year at that's going to be over a million kilowatt hours in savings and they're just the second company that has surpassed that million kilowatt hour savings mark in energy efficiency so i think it's terrific and people should know that thank you and the microphone in public hearing is still open  close the public hearing and we have a report from staff is there a motion please for a committee moved by truth that we support supported by de boer all right discussion and a discussion well i will just also say to you gentlemen and please convey it to the rest of the company that we are very appreciative of the continued investment is one of those excellent long time employers in our community really it's remarkable when you think about all of the products that immaterial that get shipped globally that you know are manufactured here in holland and the kind of technology that you're in both investing in and also the kind of technology are putting in to especially the automotive space is really really impressive so congratulations to you and we wish you  you then we have a public act one ninety eight tax abatement for the paramount to a company located at one thirty six to one thirty six west sixty fourth street and gregg sure and more time please god this is a company that's new to the city but not new to west michigan they've been in business since one nine hundred sixty seven designing and building machinery especially quitman and work tool holding fixtures they serve a variety of industries as well including automotive food processing marine medical high caste office furniture fuel injection and heavy trucks and i think others as well they're looking to vest almost a million dollars sixty five thousand of that is in land and building improvements remainder in machinery and equipment are looking to retain thirty current jobs and create fifteen new jobs at this location so staff has reviewed the application no objections recommending that you approve it for twelve years from the state tax commission approval thank you greg any questions for staff first of all seeing none representative of the applicant please or representatives as the case may be good evening gentlemen welcome the problem thank you very much questions for our applicant right thanks for being here tonight and welcome to town it's great to have you mean obviously you were in the area before but certainly welcome directly to town we wish you much success all right this is the time and place for the public hearing on this item anyone care to address council on this one please come forward to the microphone the public hearing is open right close the public hearing and we have the report from staff what is the pleasure of counsel supported by white men discussion like counsel is one thing and i want to say this to all three applicants that  i'm glad that we had representatives here tonight because we take this very seriously and i'm glad that you take it seriously also some people think that we have this rubber stamp going just to get things done but we don't your interest in the community your investment in the community means an awful lot to us and ahead of you here representing yourselves makes it even that much stronger so thank you very much and definitely welcome to the community and your sustaining in the community thank you mike other comments from coun also echo those sentiments but also note that if you collectively look at our three applicants tonight quite a few jobs good paying jobs and all somehow related to the manufacturing sector and those who think that manufacturing in america is no more just pay attention to what's happening in this community and you'll realize that's not the case at all in fact for a period i think last year we were leading the country not just the state of the region but the country in manufacturing growth i think now we're you know we're still a top twenty market nationwide but remarkable things happening in the manufacturing sector in this community and it has to do with a whole bunch of factors great entrepreneurial spirit you know people willing to take risks banks willing to lend money partnerships with the community good work force all those things all working together not one magic thing that causes this sort of economy to happen but we've got it happening here and we're pleased to hear the seven or nine of us depending upon the secular  meeting we're pleased to play you know the role that we play in it which in the whole scheme of things is fairly modest compared with what the employers do but please know that you know we understand that you know you're taking a risk and you're investing in this community and we want to reward that and thank you for it and this is one way  yes motion thank you and again thank you to all of our applicants tonight we appreciate that we move them to unfinished business we have the first item of unfinished business is the calendar year twenty fourteen rental housing program fee adjustments we have had some significant discussion about this it was tabled at our last meeting we had a study session meeting on it last week i fully expect though who knows what will happen but i fully expect that it will be tabled again this evening given the  vacancy of a couple of our council members this evening but we will not go through a full discussion unless it's someone asked questions about the the program as suggested earlier however based on some of the comments we've heard from many of the people who have spoken either last week or two weeks ago we had staff take a look at an alternative approach to both accomplishing the goals of having a better inspection program while at the same time assessing more of the costs to those particular landlords who require more of the attention in essence what we heard loud and clear from many of our landlords was the question of you know if there are additional costs to be assessed it ought to be assessed to those who require additional attention from city staff so we have to take a look at an approach that would follow more along those lines based on what we heard and phil is going to give us a brief update on that alternative approach that may be considered but before you do that phil i believe council member hoekstra would like to chime in here yes your honor similar to the last discussion we had on this given the fact that i am a landlord in the city and believe it would constitute a conflict of interest for me to participate in this discussion and any consequent actions so i would request my counsel mates to allow me to be recused from this we further request of our colleagues council member hoekstra to be recused from this matter can we have a motion to that effect approach that is new this week i will thank you mayor the chart that's before you on the screen gives you a little bit of background in terms of where we've been and where we're heading with our building inspections our rental housing inspection program back in two thousand and three we were at a point where we were about ninety to ninety three percent compliant properties were compliant in the rental housing system we were expecting them on a regular basis on schedule and we had a staff of about three point seven full time equivalent you can see on this chart how that has changed over time we are presently at about two point t o full time equivalents and we are at a much lower rate of getting properties into compliance and the effort that we're trying to emphasize here that the need is to try to get our inspection program back up to where we're getting to all the properties we need to get to and we're making sure that that housing for tenants rental housing is safe and comfortable and is a contribution to the neighborhoods a nd working with the landlords and other neighbors to try to accomplish that so where we are today is at the two point two full time employees what we're shooting for is getting  to getting to actually this for the first four point one is actually three point eight at the last meeting last public hearing meeting we presented to council a proposal that would get us to a three point eight equivalent would raise three hundred thirty six thousand plus in revenues and expenditures are estimated at this point at about three hundred nine thousand after hearing comments from council and comments from the  audience last week including a number of landlords we went back and took a look again at all of the numbers and began to think about an alternative way to try to approach getting the dollars in hand that we need to be able to staff  appropriately to get our inspection back in order so this alternate number here is is are the numbers that are generated by an alternative and i'll show you that in just a second that would generate three hundred fifty six thousand it would expenses would be three hundred twenty four thousand estimated at this point and it would take four point one full time equivalent staffing to accomplish  this our current rates are we have a comprehensive annual fee that currently includes and then you'll permit an initial inspection and one reinspection that is currently seventy five dollars our proposal at the last meeting to us for one hundred fifteen dollars initial inspection but pulls the first reinspection out and has a separate fee of fifty dollars for that first three inspection this would allow us to really encourage we have two different  programs we have a six year certificate and a three year certificate and you can get a six year certificate if you come in and you have your property is fully compliant on that first inspection that we and this is really partially an effort to to reward folks that wouldn't need that second inspection and try to encourage more property owners to get into that mode where the properties up to code and fully compliant when we first inspection so the proposal is is not to change the seventy five dollars but to add the fifty and then reinspection is one of the challenges we have are are getting properties into compliance when we've done we've identified some problems with some of those properties so what this proposes is each reinspection there's an additional fifty dollars charge added to it so for the first three inspection fifty dollars second reinspection would be one hundred dollars third reinspection one fifty and so on we are also proposing and in turn what we've called here is an attorney letter that was in the our initial proposal to you it's a cost for our city attorney to do the work they need to do to do some additional clerical work that we would need to do to provide them with some of the background information on a project around a property and then we would be delivering a letter from the city attorney properties where we're having trouble getting compliance on that and that would be an extra step and there's an additional cost to that so the idea of all of this is to try to keep the costs at a at a modest  property what that means in terms of this this is sort of the example for a two unit building and this just to give you a sense of the sort of dollars that might mean under the proposal that we provided you previously and under the in terms of the total dollars i mentioned the proposal we provided to you raise three hundred thirty six thousand this alternate races three hundred fifty six thousand and you can see where all those different fees come from on this chart then the projected costs we've got administrative staff cost clerical costs in this case because of the additional inspection and the additional charging of inspections that there would be additional clerical cost and then we anticipate additional clerical costs with the attorney level attorney letter process that we so inspectors we would get our full time equivalent inspectors up to two point five which is the number question share one question for you phil you based your estimates on the alternate both costs and revenue primarily revenue looking back over the past twelve years how many properties did we have to go back to a second time which under they all turned it would now or alternative would now be a charged event as opposed to currently what's covered in the fee of course one would expect that and hope frankly that fewer properties would need that second spare that the first reinspection second visit so it's entirely possible that the revenues could actually be last in what is projected because we all of course react to pricing  situations so that that's how you came up with the the estimated revenues was looking back over the past twelve months well past twelve months as we looked in detail at those at those figures and those vary from year to year so it's a bit of a guessing game on who's going to comply and how many times you need to go back so this is our best estimate we do anticipate in a year revisiting this and making sure that the numbers are tracking the way we think they're going to be tracking this will give us we hope give us the opportunity to get to fifteen hundred properties a year which is the process that is what got us to where we need to be compliant in two thousand and three ok other questions for staff i  apologize i didn't think of this earlier we talked about a six year certificate if there were a clean inspection basically have you guys thought about what would constitute a three year certificate with mean clean but one inspection or would that not necessarily mean a three year or is or a two year one year there's there's going to certificates a six year and a three of the six year you get primarily you get it if if if it's a clean inspection now there are some some other language in the ordinance that says if you've had issues in the previous inspection period you won't be able to get a six year at that point you may in the next three year cycle if you if you remain clear during that but essentially there's a three year or a six year there's there's nothing in between or from follow up if i can if there was an a tory this person who just seems like they were really out of compliance would we want three years to go by not double checking on that kind of thing at all or as you think you know well i think the reality of those that are not in compliance is where the much more frequently and that kind of time span doesn't go by we're aware of which properties we won we receive complaints regularly from from neighbors of properties or from tenants of properties but if there a series of violations and they're not coming into compliance we're back visiting them regular b you will be doing any offenders we will it depends on how compliant they are if if we've got someone who has been a bit you'll offender and and we get in there and the inspection is clear then the expectation is not to have to go back  but if we get a complaint about the property or if we see something wrong with the property we will we will do an inspection it's just not automatically they're going to get three years if if there's a problem if they're going to be on top of it you know if they're compliant they're going to get the chance to wa some of these fees and some of the inspections i want to so they wouldn't if if they're compliant we wouldn't need to be doing the inspection so we should also note that this was brought up earlier but if it turns out that essentially let's say a tenant is making what might be deemed unsupported or frivolous kinds of complaints that does not then count as a violation specter goes out there and says there's there is no violation here and the complaint this is essentially frivolous that does not count against the landlord that's correct nancy i believe your next complement aboard well it seems like you either have a rental inspection program or you don't and to go back to ten years ago staffing level in order to have a program that is functioning at a percentage that's reasonable and efficient makes a lot of sense to me and i think this whole evolution of how to do the fees does take into account that those who are responsible in their business of renting property and approach it that way and follow the rules and do everything like they're supposed to they will not be penalized but if you aren't then you do have to have repeated supervision and repeated charges and all of that is alternately for the health safety and welfare of people that are living in the city and it is wonderful and that has happened and i think we've really improved the rental property in the city with this initiative so it's something we don't want to slack off it's something we want to stay with and i think the way that it's remodeled here is a way that really takes everybody's concerns into account and ultimately the renters and the city as a whole  best served in the long run so it makes a lot of sense thank you for all your work and chasing all these numbers and all this alternative idea and we'll see how it goes this year and hopefully we can as you said look back over the past year and see whether  numbers have come through like we need them to being that benchmark year but you know my question when i asked this originally was you know what kind of financial position have we been in with the program since two thousand and three moving forward and in this to some degree confirms it and i think we've turned a corner in twelve in terms of the actual costs associated being covered by the revenues that we're taking in on fees but everything prior to twelve it appears to some part of me eleven backwards to some degree was taking some sort of general fund subsidy to to make this work and obviously it's just not the revenues and the expenditures but when you get to that far column on the as nancy suggests we we had to massage the f t count to make that math a little bit more palatable for budget purposes and so i think this is a really important thing for us because you know mike had a good question upstairs as far as what you know what and if in fact we get to that compliance level you know then our paradigm is going to change a little bit in terms of re inspections and the fifty dollar with so but compliance is a good thing and so we'll celebrate it and we'll figure it out when it comes this gets me a little bit more closer to support on this i wasn't ready to in till i saw these alternative numbers it seems to make more sense because i want to make sure that the good landlords that we do have in this city and we do have a lot of them we do unfortunately we find ourselves in these discussions not saying that enough because it seems to zero on the bad actors but i had a great deal of concern for our neighbors and friends that are good landlords want to sell they're in the lobby and so i had concern about that this gets me closer to support so you know we're not taking action tonight but nonetheless these are good numbers questions at the moment for staff all right then what we do need to do is this is currently tabled so public hearing on this item saying that at this point we will open up the matter for a public hearing i do expect that we will not actually take action this evening they'll be opportunity next next week we probably will schedule this for a special meeting at next week's study session time so you can speak then you can speak now you can speak both if you'd like but we'll open up the public hearing at this point again rules of counsel come to the microphone please name a residential address and you have up to five minutes to address counsel right for tonight will close the public hearing on this item and we have a request from our two vacant council members this evening that we again retail this to a special meeting scheduled next week wednesday at approximately six p here proximately six p m in city hall in council chambers right all right we have a motion motion to table and so six p m on october twenty third moved to table supported by white men  table in motion can have no further discussion so all in favor of tabling as indicated please say i i pose the same all right that matter is tabled until next week wednesday the twenty third at six p m approximately here in council chambers at city hall but for this it won't happen before six o'clock we could be a little bit after six but certainly not before six all right that then brings us both to welcome back our coll this is going to be an interesting procedural move one that i don't remember in my nearly seven or so years on council ever having to employ but i have not participated in any way in any of the discussions either at the planning commission or here at council because my law firm represents maggot's how a bank which currently owns this property so i have a conflict much like council brook street did in the previous matter so i'm going to ask to be recused in this particular matter in just a moment but the kind of interesting procedural anomaly is that ordinarily when stuff that happens immediately after my refusal so i would ask at this time that i be recused from this vote so much for three supported by a white man all in favor of my recusal please say i post the same  acting mayor pro tem who shall have the same rights and privileges as other members of the council do we have any nominations on the floor anything you want to say first and even though i think that we can proceed to the staff report the way the agenda is laid out it might be noted again  think that the possible direction of council is the same tonight that because of the two members of council that are absent that there may be a table in motion what i have recommended to the council at the study session is that typically if you're not going to make a decision today we hold a public hearing and then we close the public hearing and then if you table you do not need to have additional public imply that is only a matter i think the preference of counsel has been that because two members are not present here and if the matter is tabled that there be an opportunity for that those members to have an interface with the public so that if you do conduct a public hearing you would at the conclusion of it journey at subject to a motion to table so that there would be  the lead on looks like community neighborhood services mark danner played already that evening council members  twenty five acres that's located at fifty one and sixty one country club road the property is currently zoned the are one one family residential district  and as you can see area that's aligned in red on the map in front of you that is the subject property of the planning commission has reviewed in is held the required public hearing on this back on september tenth there was quite a bit of a public comment at that time and the planning commission ended up tabling any action and they had until their meeting on september twenty fourth at that meeting the planning commission continued the public hearing because there were some additional information supplied by the applicant at that time and ultimately passed a recommendation to city council  you're just going to be asked to look at the rezoning aspect of this the details of the development is is probably of obvious interest to you also proposed development and i'm going to hope that there is a yes that we have on the screens here is a copy of the development plan and this development plan was approved by the planning commission at their september twenty fourth meeting obviously there's a condition on that approval and that is that council alternately rezone the property and if you do not rezone it then the development plan is is null and void some of the  a few particularly in regards to the development plan i don't want to speak too much because i know the applicant is here and is going to want to give a presentation but just kind of as a general overview there is  proposed sixty eight single family attached dwelling units these are going to be condo units and there's going to be proposed a total of twenty buildings in the property  fifteen of those buildings will be comprised of four unit condos so each yesso fifteen of those buildings will have four units each to four of the buildings will  two units each and then there is proposed to be a clubhouse area with an exterior pool and patio area as you can also see on the screen there is a street network throughout the entire development that street network has proposed to be private in nature so these are not going to be public streets so they would need to be completely maintained snowplow and forever you know  the pavement taken care of by the the condominium association it's going to be fully serviced with the required utilities public water public sewer all the streets will be  part of the part of the private storm water system that will be making its way down to a detention area at the very north east corner of the site and then the storm water will here is north and here we've got east and south and west ok country club road is right in this area here the proposed entrance to the development would line up with legion park road and a country club and then there's kind of the short stub area country club road that goes about one hundred fifty feet or so north of legion park drive as a part of the development this intersection would become a four way stop or at least that will ultimately be proposed i believe by the traffic committee to the city council that you make that change in the future also included in this the developer has agreed to build it while you can be providing all new sidewalks along country club road there will be a sidewalk network in the development itself albeit that will be a private sidewalk system but they're looking to provide a sidewalk slash trail and i believe it's going to be constructed six foot wide cement so it'll be able to meet our city standards but right along the west property line here and down near the detention area and this is going to be dedicated in the form of an easement and i believe we're standing right now is that they'd easement would come to the city the city would would hold that like we do other sidewalks and that would allow access for whomever all the neighborhood people here in holland heights if they want to get legal access down to the mactel a green space which is in here they can do it via that trail system so also include in the development like i said at the beginning there's twenty five acres total about seven of those acres are located right in existing golf club house out there and this is quite a deep ravine in the developer is not proposing to the develop that in any way shape or form and that would remain kind of a problem nature preserve for the condominium association so just provide that is a brief overview i believe the applicant does want to give a full presentation tonight and let's use any other questions any questions for mark good evening everyone my name is peter angles with covenant developments and i'm here this evening with our engineer were to go jason vander cody with fish back as well as dave called in our council and we are absolutely thrilled to be here this evening let me know when you're all set up over there jason ok thumbs up from the engineer we're good to go we will keep our remarks brief but very detailed as the staff report recommending approval and the planning commission is unanimous recommendation for approval or both very thorough the zoning and flight plan application process is owning and site plan application process has fully analyzed all the incredibly important benefits of this project including providing public access storm water detention and and and scuse me storm water detention and clarity reduced density reduced traffic preservation of green space neighborhood buffering landscaping our single level for sale residence demographics and much more as a result of this incredibly detailed and rigorous review i'm fully confident that the zoning and site plan application process has worked and it's worked fully as we are presenting a very refined plan that is the result of the combined input and direction of the planning commission planning director neighbors municipal plainer city engineer zoning administrator city manager fire captain board of public works auto county parks director and project clarity this year long collaborative effort which included numerous meetings with city staff visits to our current projects by both staff and planning commission members for planning commission meetings and to public hearings has resulted in a site plan and zoning request that has received three unanimous approvals from the planning commission in other words everyone has done their job incredibly well and i'm very thankful for everyone's efforts to accomplish our shared goal of a well designed and planned community for this specific  site a fact that should also be emphasized that city council is aware no other form of residential zoning other than a p r t gives the city and holland heights residents such certainty as to the type size style and layout of the community and eliminates any substantive changes without city approval of course every city's most important resource is its residents and i know firsthand the positive effect that the village of holland would as you can see the development is focused on building a product that allows its residents to escape to a new lifestyle by giving them a home and a community with zero step freedom to enjoy life without concerning themselves with the normal responsibilities and  limitations of a single family home or conventional condominium or ward one zero step communities offer condominium homes and amenities that you can navigate without going up a single stair the serial step approach not only offers a community that complements the surrounding neighborhood with quality built single level for sale ranch condominiums but truly improves the quality of life for those who live there i'm humbled to share that our zero step communities have received such awards as best exterior design best interior design best kitchen design best floor plan and best site harmony from the home builders association of greater grand rapids the villas of holland would also have a clubhouse for the enjoyment of its residents and features a fitness center pool outdoor excuse me outdoor heated pool fireplace and what we call most importantly the community living room where lasting friendships are formed are top two demographics are what we call active adults which we define as fifty plus pre and post retirees and single again meaning divorced or widowed all predominately with no school age children at home as seen in the video testimonials are residents typically come from the nearby home they raise their families in and no longer have school age children at home aka the empty nester as a result their current single family home no longer meets their needs in short or typical buyer has their current sink has lived in their current single family home for fifteen or more years is looking to downsize but not downgrade and to eliminate stairs for either immediate or future needs we refer to this as aging in place they do to however want to stay in the same neighborhood so that they can keep their same friends doctors and churches they are in fact looking for a different stage of life housing but want to stay in this part of holland heights most are in fact already neighbors there however with no zero step communities in the city of holland and a third of its residents fifty years old or older many residents are forced to leave or forced to leave the neighborhood where they have raised their families built their careers and already an intricate part of the community the villas of holland would allow its residents to continue to live in their homes when permanent or temporary physical setbacks occur by preserving and improving independence in fact the need for this housing is rightly recognized by the holland for life committee and it blueprint for action report finally i was zero step communities foster the ability for different generations to live in close proximity of to each other such as allowing grandparents to live near their grandchildren's single family home neighborhood and school resulting in the richmond of three generations of holland residents the villas of holland will certainly be a world class neighborhood and it will feature a proven builder developer engineer product and community in fact we've been contacted by many holland area residents wanting to move to the villas we have been forced to start a waiting list that now has twenty three registered prospective homeowners we believe that by working together through the plan and throughout the planning  process the villas of holland will truly become a valued part of the holland community by housing its longstanding residence with this under sterve stage of life housing we also believe that is why we have twenty three people on our waiting list  hundred survey response one hundred fifty survey responses in support a staff recommendation for approval and a unanimous recommendation for approval from the planning commission with your approval we look forward to the opportunity to fulfilling the unmet housing need and with that i will turn it over to jason for some engineering update peter has already discussed the first benefit of aging in place i'm going to begin with the second benefit of density reduction as part of the planning process staff asked us to put together a subdivision plan according to the existing zoning and we prepare seventy one unit our one plan on the twenty four point eight acres consistent with the adjacent neighborhoods today we're presenting a sixty eight unit design clustering the homes and eighteen acres in preserving six point nine acres of space as mark mentioned our plant has one thousand nine hundred buildings with a clubhouse and pool we have a twenty four foot wide private road connecting the country club drive at the legion park intersection and we have an internal sidewalk essentially has the equivalent people of only forty four single family homes are third p r the benefit is reduce traffic that results in nearly fifty percent reduction in total trips per day per unit according to the institute of traffic engineers and we've confirmed this with traffic studies and or other communities the villas of holland will have a traffic equivalent of only thirty five single family our one homes not only is our population significantly less but  residents drive less often and drive during non peak hours these reductions in density population and traffic do not come at the expense of community however our fourth p r t benefit is homeownership with a strong community our communities are comprised of for sale homes with virtually all of the residences owner occupied and the existing zoning allows up to seventy one single family rental units by contrast our existing villas communities in grand rapids have illness or relocation or fifth p r t benefit is retained property values based on zillow data our average price per square foot is approximately one hundred fifty percent of the average sale price in the area the p r t will therefore provide an improved tax base as well as retain neighborhood property values at sale the villas of handle be served by public water main and public sanitary sewer the grading design will be engineered to balance the site  management features the villas of holland storm water system will because truck to exceed city standards and will be privately owned and maintained by the condominium association we met with mecca tel greenway county parks department  and the city engineering staff to review the proposed system and solicit their input we incorporated many of their suggestions into a design which will now detain ninety percent of the storms exceed eighty percent total suspended solid removal and have final clarifying treatment we've prepared a quick hand sketch to identify the five unique steps in our best management practices treatment chain for the stormwater these five steps include screening the water sedimentation storage or detention filtering and then final clarification prior to discharge into the river the ottawa county parks department was satisfied with our design issued a letter authorizing us to submit for a permit property to the michigan department of environmental quality we are also very proud to be the first development in the city of holland to voluntarily meet the high standards set by the baseline criteria  project clarity initiative or seventh p r t benefit is the extensive landscaping and buffering covenant development works hard to create aesthetic beauty in their communities while buffering existing roads and neighbors after meeting with several neighbors we retained a licensed landscape architect to prepare a master landscape plan this plan provides the agreed upon screening for the neighbors walk concurrently master playing the collective landscape treatments for the entire community t benefit as a permanent preservation of six point nine acres of wooded open space this open space preservation would be very unlikely within our one plan due to the natural beauty of the area coupled with the ease of gravity sanitary sewer service with the existing pipeline there the ninth and final p r t benefit as a public connection to the macintosh green space park trail system we met with the county and they only wanted one pedestrian access point from the north end of country club drive because their parking lot and amenities are all on the other side of the park the villas of p r t will provide a permanent easement as mark mentioned allowing public pedestrian access to the park trail system we are also proposing a six foot wide concrete sidewalk consistent with city standards for this connection and conclusion we've worked diligently over the past year to prepare this plan for the villas of holland a yes vote for the villas of holland p r t means yes to aging in place yes to reduced density yes to reduced traffic yes to owner occupied homes yes to property values yes to storm water quality yes to extensive landscaping yes to permanent open space we wanted to fulfill a need that is unmet when looking at the aging population and fully understanding the need for this pipe of housing and the lack of this type of housing we saw an opportunity we also knew that it was something that we could do and participated in by being part of the community and growing with the community one of the things that we do i think was mentioned in the testimonial video is we work very hard from the very beginning in fact prior to anybody moving in having people meet each other have a vent and have a not real opportunity to really grow a community that when you walk away from it it goes on for ever in the ripple effects are found far beyond sticks and bricks so what you did you start in every town i believe the first home closed in two thousand and six so that wasn't really a time to be building much was it it was probably the worst time to be building  as god's plan would have it it was an ideal time for us though as we worked through that and as you mentioned in two thousand and six was literally the peak of it all and from there it went down and i'm blessed to say that through all of it those two communities that you mentioned river town the villas of a to have been the two thousand so it's selling communities in all of west michigan because of this type of housing and the lack of of this hous type in the area so did you improve anything when you went to the second development after the first and are you expecting any improvements with the third from the second absolutely we're always trying to tweak and fine tune things whether it be to something as simple as a particular knob or handle as it relates to the use of somebody who wants to pull versus a knob to color schemes to working with all kinds of new types of products one of the neat things that's happening you mentioned we mentioned manufacturing earlier in the in the meeting there are many new products that are coming out and being available we particularly look at those that require little to no removal recycling all the lawn maintenance weeding all of our communities are fully irrigated the use of the clubhouse fitness center pool and of course all the long term maintenance for the buildings themselves as well as was mentioned about being a private road road replacement in the future etc great appreciate your enthusiasm and your hard work planning and your investment in all these communities thank you very much you know the question i have one if you don't mind there was there was mention made of rental on this property and i know the planning commission proved up to twenty five percent your slide there showed three days can you address that for us we are proposing now to limit rentals although planning the planning staff suggested that twenty five percent was a was a good number as jason or peter mentioned in fact right now there really aren't any rentals and the covenant communities and we don't see this community being any different the people that live there this is their home people don't buy these as rental homes and so what we're proposing to do is deed restrict the property via the master in a manner that limits rannells to not more than three in the community name one time now we don't escalate spec there will be three at any one time we want to account for people that for whatever reason need to write their home maybe that you know husband or wife needs to go into some sort of care for a short period of time may need be that somebody gets transferred overseas for a job for some period of time those sorts of things where people need to leave for extended period of time but don't want to sell their home so what i've done  i put together some language i've said over the city manager for the city attorney to review which deed restricts the property to not more than three units being rented anytime and it also makes the city and intended third party beneficiary which means that if the city wants to doesn't have to but it can enforce those restrictions to make sure that not more than three units around it and the language further says that if the city does have to use that that mechanism of enforcement the city gets all of its attorney's fees paid by the condominium association or the owner in violation the summary of what is being proposed is accurate that it would be limited to a maximum of three units the enforcement mechanism that has been laid out the ability to collect cost if the city would enforce those and there also is a restriction on the ability to amend that provision in the document that it would require the approval of the city or so that would automatically and overrule  the vote on that particular subject as pertaining to the planning commission they approved twenty five percent got in there too i need to discuss with mark the implementation of that with the current dexter somebody we're going to get the public hearing started here but i'm going to have to primer on the lights wherever it might want to do that even i can do that will s earlier is to not take action on this tonight because of the members that are gone also to probably go to the november sixth meeting which is approximately three weeks from tonight  do this all over again so you can have up to five minutes tonight you can have up to five minutes on the sixth if that's what the council so desires so the public hearing is open tonight to urge you to deny this request for rezoning tonight i want to focus on what's in front of you which is strictly this is owning aspect and i've got a couple of overhead if i can if i can ask the city manager to bring up the first overhead for those of you who don't read city ordinances often i enjoy just going to bed and reading a good city ordinance but many of you don't and a lot of those are here probably not for mayor so what i've done is i've i've i've shown the city of all the findings and then the intent of what what this should result in if we go to p r t there exist in the city undeveloped properties adjacent to or near a stablished residential divisions subdivisions which by for two of proximity to industrial commercial districts major thoroughfares are up nonresidential uses or other environmental economic conditions have not and i'm not likely to be plan for the development of individual residences or individual lots there further exist in the city now in the areas now my opinions not to each one of those things that are outlined the question is is it in close proximity of industrial commercial districts or major thoroughfares dancer's no is this unusual or challenging environmental and economic conditions which would prevent this from being developed with individual residences or individual lots my opinion i don't know what economic conditions mean but there are no environmental conditions which would prevent them development this is been  knowledged by the owner and promoting the property and by other properties such as the road i live on bertie lane which was one of the biggest challenges probably in home heights to develop so there are no environmental conditions which prevent one development has been identified in city master plan residential development with mixed densities and housing the answer is no in fact the city considered changing the previous master plan which was public ways i public to a special planning area which would provide for such mixed densities and turned down in favor of one family residential in the master planning does the proposed development provide for a moderate density no the portion that's being developed is high density does the proposed development promote flexibility in creativity and design perhaps internally but extremely my opinion is no does the proposed development encourage the preservation of open spaces and natural medicine it does nothing to encourage it and many of the natural manner is on the site are destroyed in the process of development is the proposed development compatible with existing residential development in adjacent areas it is not consistent with the character of our neighborhood my conclusion that there was no basis for rezoning other than an economic advantage for the owner which is not a reason to resume rezone now they're there are provisions under michigan state law which allows for a here this is straight rezoning there is no conditional rezoning involved here that means this rezoning does not require the owner to sell to the developer it does not require the developer to of p r t if we could bring up the second slide i'd just like to go through that for a moment less than thirty seconds for p r b and i'd like to bring those up on the slide and just let you take a look at those that uses that would be involved with p r t all leaders also have been consistent in the past actions to make sure that any proposed developments of this neighborhood reflect that unique character in two thousand and five and that that upper asked for a thr proof because of inflated density estimates incompatible buildings buildings scale and character loss have landmark national natural features number one the proposed density is inflated because of errors and the one by right subdivision plan please look at your monitor there's a key on that monitor that will help you follow this these comments two years ago council approved one status for this part parcel planning staff the owner and their realtor advertise fifty six residential lots for development now the same parcel now the same parcel with no additional land has been approved for seventy one residential units d n a accurate one plat creates non compliant double frontage lots in two separate areas you're on your plan it says backyard roads remove remove all of these infractions would eliminate lots abutting bertie lane and eunice to court backyards this same unfeasible plan also shows twelve lots with back yards scrutiny of the planning commission eunice to court and brody lane residents will oppose it at public hearing the paradox over the value of this ravine which is on the sell side of this defies reason on the one hand it is so environmentally sensitive that it qualifies as a nature preserve to fulfill green space requirements even though it is virtually inaccessible to residents due to steep slopes what areas and its peripheral location on the other hand this sensitive area is permitted to be subdivided on the i want by right sketch where where excavation for roads foundations and driveways well a litter rated so which is it to be it can't be used to justify both the r one plat and the p r d also note that the d e q will not regulate this small ravine wetland refueling is master plan the reef seen is master planned park and it can only be accessed from the creek and really should be incorporated into the county park number two incompatible scale and character failure to fulfill p r g goals planning stiff suggests that will better regulate quote on site environmental considerations high slopes and wooded areas and on site urban design building scale architectural considerations streetscape size and appearance of buildings unquote so is this planning jug and really about saving neighborhood character and valued land form and trees the object of the p r d is to develop a special site by clustering buildings the overall visual goal is to reduce repetitious building placement could you change that to the next i'm sorry i should have done this sooner i'm this repetitious building placement with building clusters intermingled with usable green space i think you can see in this drawing that the proposed villa plan does not accomplish these p r g goals you can see that the buildings drivers and roads are positioned uniformly in a repetitious pattern over the entire site slopes and closing the park reshaped that is excavated graded to support a uniform platform for plexus and driveways the only remaining green space is the r inaccessible to pedestrians and peripheral to the whole development the proposed floor fourplex plant does not maintain local character or scale because the buildings are very large compared to the homes and the heights and the footprints is very large compared to the townhouse p r d s offered as comparables for the bill as it's ok i just have to quit i've only got one paragraph i'm sorry thank you  speaker and that was in the letter that will be distributed to very good thank you thank you thank you thank you the public meeting is still i am the lorax and i speak for the trees which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please but i also speak for the brown barber lutes who played in the shade in their suits and happily and happily lived eating in truffle of fruits now thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground there's not enough truffle love fruit to go around next night and my poor brother lutes are all getting the crummy because they have gas no food in their tummies that's right so i am here tonight because i rezoning of our one to p r to the former country club yellow dots on the slide indicate over one hundred mature trees of various species now living in the lands and they will all be chopped down if you allow this development i am convinced that the beauty of this property would better serve not just my neighbors but the entire area by remaining an open and green space  there are existing parcels in the city of holland which are vacant already zone for p r one is to van royalty farm on twenty four st there is no reason why this unique pristine property in our character of our neighborhood our corner of highland heights is made up of traditional owner occupied single family homes that are unique and individual as the people who live there all among the natural forested surroundings of the mecca tower river watershed this is a photo of deer in my backyard so i want to speak for them too because without the trees they'll have to find some place else to feed the proposed p r g development is just another cookie cutter plan that can be plopped down any place the a j c are plans deserves much better this is a photo of the covenant developments quad plex the landscaping is pretty but notice the lack of tree line that's because their other developments were built on flat bank i understand out of what county parks has offered to buy property and build a nature center similar to the grass and the outdoor discovery center this would be this would obviously be the best possible outcome and i hope we can work together to make this a reality consider the benefits of this property as a nature center which would provide wildlife habitat education and enjoyment for generations instead of changing the zoning board of the outer sky every center in the land conservancy of west michigan so it's just my own i don't represent those organizations but i do feel very strongly that the green space was just a really magnificent achievement for this area a model of public private city county partnership and in terms of conservation and f really an example for cities throughout the country so when i learned about this project which i feel it's very often an opportunistic and i don't really think that the engineering i don't i really wonder if we have any more rain events like we did a few a couple years ago where we had seven inches in a very short period of time whether the were tension ponds will be able to hold that water and all the effort that has gone into improving riparian habitat along the macintosh greenway  i think will be at risk we've just got so much at stake here and i understand the pressure that you all are under to promote and further economic development but i also feel out others do that we need to think long term we can't just feel compelled to succumb to the juggernaut of the first project that comes along for this  this property so it's very difficult to compete with a very well produced polished video presentation but i just urge you to really think about the long term and this magnificent project it's been achieved through a lot of volunteer effort in our community and reflects nature's own way of handling water in our habitat it's one of the things that as a story was settled what by people was harmed and destroyed and there been efforts made to work with nature and i don't feel that this project reflects that approach even though there have been some there's been some effort perhaps to accommodate that so i'll just leave it at that thank you thank you m hey guys i'm tom smolensky hell of a forty two country club i'm not just livin right across the street i'm actually also a local realtor i've been a local realtor for the past eight years and over those last eight years i've actually sold more homes in holland heights than any other realtor think that makes me an expert in holland heights real estate prior to that i was actually an engineer at johnson controls i was there for about nine years when for two of those years they actually invested a fifty thousand dollars education in me to learn statistical analysis to improve their products and their processes so today i actually use this education this experience and this expertise to do some statistical analysis for this situation what i did is i look for condos that have sold within the past year over two hundred thousand dollars in a five mile radius and although five miles doesn't sound like a whole lot it's actually over seventy eight square miles how i was intrigued by what i found the area stretches the south to the south side of holland in compass is the links that rolling meadows the golf course down there a significant portion of lake mack to the west all of downtown holland and of course all is elan what i found were that there were twenty eight condos sold two hundred thousand dollars over the past year  however twenty of those twenty eight were built over special feature one was built on lake mack two were built on three were downtown and of course fourteen of them were actually at the golf course the links of rolling meadows of the so so we eliminate those from statistical analysis the other eight all of them were ranch style homes like what is proposed however all eight had at least two thousand four hundred fifty square footage of of indoor living space the  analysis is that i don't see a market for these units in this price range two hundred to three fifty i don't think the market actually supports that my second point is that sometimes what we're sold especially a planning commission city council and especially in the community and in our neighborhoods is what we're sold on isn't necessarily what we always get you know it was it was made mention of earlier that right across the street from this development there was a proposal to put nine condominium units on a single law i was brought before a planning commission i'm not sure if it was brought before city council as well but over time that nine got whittled down to four and the developer actually made improvements to the property put utilities and did a bunch of landscaping retaining walls put a road in with circle drive and realize that he couldn't sell the lots for enough money to actually you know finalizes dream so  was foreclosed on another developer actually put three houses in there but again what we were sold on isn't necessarily what we got because stuff happens if you go down country club to sixteenth street where we're talking about this strafford way you know apartments i don't i wasn't around for that i don't know what we were sold on but i'm pretty sure what we were sold on is not necessarily what we've got if you go down sixteenth street across thirty one down the big hill across from the city pool there's another development there fair banks village i'm pretty sure what we were sold and we're condominium units being built in there the developer mass excavated that put foundations and then all of sudden realized hey i can't sell enough of these condos for what you know our break even point is so all of a sudden new developer steps in and being we have temporary housing for hope college students i'm not saying that's a bad thing but what i am saying is what we're sold on isn't always what we get  if you go south southeast of town a lot of people don't even realize that this is part of the city limits but you got the kensington development out there originally it was it was sold as  custom built homes in the two hundred to three hundred thousand dollars range several homes were built there and then of course dollars happens right so the developer realizes hey i can't sell enough of these homes in that price range what do i do sell to another developer and all of a sudden allan add when you went and bought the remaining lots and built a bunch of entry level economic efficiency bill you know homes under one hundred fifty thousand dollars that's not a knock on alan edwin or anything like that but what i am saying is it wasn't the original developers dream to have entry level new construction homes built right next to his custom homes stuff happens sometimes what were sold through no fault of the developer is not what we end up with and that's really my name is patty and i live at twelve twenty five you know vesta court my backyard actually goes right out to the ravine and i understand all of the people on bertie lane their concerns my concern is different in many ways  concern is that if you don't approve this that someone like it when alan holmes or alan edwin holmes whichever it is is going to come in there i mean we haven't had any other developers who want to build single family homes come in and make a proposal so my my concern is that someone's going to come in and build and put a ton of them in there the density is going to be higher the traffic is going to be higher that is my concern and with that the property values you know right now this development an asset to all of our property values if someone comes in and puts an entry level homes the maximum number of them as far as i'm concerned that's a priest my property value on top of that for the last four years since the country club went  bankrupt you know we look out to the parking lot we see what goes on there at night these people should not be in there they're not using the park they are in there doing something they shouldn't be so that's another concern of ours the  beautiful area you know we have deer in our backyard turkeys everything else they're not proposing that they alter that ravine at all i think that you know yes some people will not have them in their backyard anymore but for the most part they're going to stay in the ravine where they are now so i would really urge you to approve this i think it's a great proposal on although i do understand my neighbors concerns about it thank you thank you  giving council my name is charlie williams i live at eleven seventy eight bertie lane please excuse my auctioneer delivery this is very tightly timed i'd like to note that i support the statements made by barreling wiccans and warren stuck as do most of my neighbors i now like to add to their concerns by raising an issue which solely involves the current owner of the holland country club plans mactel back my neighbors are not required by law to comply with a variety of warrants is which regulate property ownership in the city specifically ordinance fifteen eighty quote no owner occupant or agent in charge of any law or parcel of land permit or maintained there on any grasses weeds or any other vegetation to a height greater than eight inches also ordinance number thirteen forty one all properties covered by this article whether or not occupied shall be maintained in a clean safe secure and sanitary condition so as not to cause a blighting problem or to adversely affect the public health or safety observance of these ordinances is mandatory neither me nor my neighbors have any wiggle room available to us for meeting their requirements and if you drove through our neighborhood you would see that we all do to fully comply not because the ordinances exist but because our desire is to be good neighbors for each other i submit that macca tell a bank is not a good neighbor while the bank is presumably received special exemptions to avoid compliance with the aforementioned ordinances still bank is clearly in violation of the spirit of the law  article of october ninth entitled rezoning a former country club site would allow multi family homes quote while the proposed development works its way through the system the clubhouse on the land continues to fall into disrepair city planner adding police reports have shown not good things happening in the building and on the property indeed our neighbors report witnessing gatherings of youths at night near the abandoned clubhouse one neighbor report seeing sexual activity in a car on the premises during a noontime walk with his young daughter the article fails to mention however the not good things happening off the property in our neighborhood through the negligence of the owner mactel bank most notably on the evening of july fourth and thirteen two home invasions on bertie lane blighted our neighborhood h p d investigation show that the criminals used the unlighted club driveway to back right up to the homes involved fortunately no one was injured that night however those responsible remain at large in the aftermath of these incidences you might expect that my neighbors and i are impatient to have development to mince to just get it over with that is not our position ultimately our problem with this rezoning is not with any potential development of the property but with bank which is clearly a bad neighbor why for example has the bank turned off the floodlights in the clubhouse parking lot why has the bank not installed a gate to prevent vehicular access to the parking lot why has the bank not deployed a security guard to protect the abandoned clubhouse from a legal access and vandalism connected to a bank really not afford the money it would take to implement one of these safety measures and why instead should our tax dollars be spent on public policing of an attractive nuisance on maca tele bank's private property the h p d investigation suggests that any of those safety measures implemented by the bank would have prevented the bertie lane home invasions of july fourth if the underlying issues i just address  result of neglect by me or one of my neighbors enforcement would be forthcoming yet no one for some action has been taken against macca tell bank again presumably due to special exemptions my point is that mactel bank seems to have deliberately made the c situation as bad as possible in order to bully the neighborhood into accepting a plan which is bad for us but better than nothing so that the bank can recoup some of the losses on the disastrous loans it made to the now bankrupt country club in conclusion my neighbors and i refused to be bullied rezoning of the up plans to p r is bad public policy for many reasons and of keeping the properties are one impedes its development then our neighborhood is years and were probably still considered newcomers to many of our neighbors prior to that we lived in chicago for fourteen years and yes we put up with the urban sprawl large apartment complexes duplexes and large developments that gobbled up thousands of acres out around chicago when we moved to holland we looked at many sites in and around holland and we chose holland heights it has large lots there's lots of trees there's kids in the yard there's gardens there's parked in your everything you look for in a neighborhood we have people walk by us on bertie lying around country club they wave and smile and say hi we don't know who they are they're just friendly people that's why we chose how and why i think this large development being plopped into the country club site is going to do pretty much major damage to holland and his care and yet i will remind you there is a perfect site out on twenty fourth street that has all the amenities it's close to shopping it's close to meyers it's close to restaurants it's close to vanderbilt the farm park they have easy access to thirty want to waverley road perfect so i also understand the outdoor discovery center has made an offer on the upland property and i think that would be perfect for that property second concern i have is traffic and safety issue the developer has graciously allowed access to the county park but i think we're going to have problems with people who will not drive around to the north entrance to the park they're going to want to park on country club i'm legion park around land and walk down to the county park problem is there's no parking on the street there's no place to park there's no shoulders it goes immediately from pavement to the parkway so somebody has lawn or somebody is driving you're going to have people half on the street half on somebody's lawn you know i'll share  example with you saturday morning i had to run out and do some errands and i came back up pawpaw turned on to legion park headed toward our house on bertie lane and one of the neighbors on legion park was having a grad to well somebody chose to stop and look at items in the garage sale and they parked their vehicle in the middle of the westbound lane of legion park all four wheels are on the pavement because there's no place to pull off and park and if that's not a safety issue i don't know what its speed limits are and country club are twenty five miles an hour and if you talk to the holland p tell you that traffic through there often is going fifty sixty miles an hour people use it as a shortcut between sixteen and chicago drive business this new development does create but they say four point nine vehicle trips per day per unit that's three hundred thirty three additional trips through that four way stop that we don't have today it's going to be a safety concern you're going to have a rash of accidents at that intersection i don't point i'd like to make is i have a concern about the timeframe from when they first turn soil to when those last buildings are complete i think in one of the early presentations they said they would put up four buildings initially now they're saying they have requests for twenty three units but i guess my concern is from day one until they're done turning dirt that timeframe our house it's about one hundred twenty yards south of this area and i'm concerned about noise dust dirt construction vehicles earthmovers dump trucks up and down legion bar and country club room again please turn this down good evening i'm linda false dad one fifty two bear twenty and i have lived in holland heights for thirty three years and i have seen a lot of change out there i am also a member of the hon planning commission and had the opportunity to study this development heard from the developer and his engineering firm and also i was able to put out through my social media sites and my network of friends and family information requesting that they respond to me as to whether they were in favor of this everyone i personally contacted over thirty people said they were in favor of this most of them all of them in fact were in holland heights they were in legion park and country club the which fits the ranch and two story homes that's around the property the pier is the main allows for a homeowner's association limiting the number of parental units and i'm glad to hear that we're limiting it to three thank you  has worked with the outcome of projects in the city to address storm drainage issues the project will improve the drainage at the corner of country club and regent park at no cost to the city this is a win for the city more tax revenue win for the neighborhood quality housing managed by homeowners association which you do not have under the are won currently they could put in like neighbors they could put in lower quality single family homes and no homeowners association and who's to say that you can't rent out those homes i also want to thank mr engels for reaching out to the neighbors that he reached out to i know that those of you who are sitting in the audience who are one of these condos from another state sense then she's not had any issues with sound or traffic or the quality of the development she's pleased with the exceptional landscaping done at the poles of it and she even said that they requested bigger trees be brought in and they were brought in at their request so i think that mr engels goes above and beyond i mean flexible with the community he's building at and with the future homeowners the reselling and benefit the city hall in tights and the many residents that we welcome to our award winning city thank you what i found living here is that not only do we have amazing economic development but we also have a great community and we have amazing natural resources and i think the issue that's at stake is trying to find the combination and the balance of both  as someone who has had her parents home foreclosed on i do know that sitting property is just scourging driving past and we thought nobody was in it and yet we weren't allowed to be in her house and so having the country club out of their property sitting bank isn't going to do any good so whether it's developing it further as a park or accepting this plan that they have proposed further action absolutely has to be taken and i just encourage you to take into consideration the community of holland and the wonderful residents we have here and the amazing reputation that we have as many of us now in west michigan and in the united states and just maintain our natural resources in our economic development  good evening sir i'm jim newhouse i live in a country called road which is at the very end of country club road and i also would ask you to turn down this request i was going to bring up the issue of the public access to the park but back already brought that up but i just reinforce what he said they propose that the path that they don't allow for any public parking and there's no pop public parking or any parking on the streets of that area and today if you go to the country club you'll find people parking there to use the access from their current country club so i just don't believe that that's a good idea to put that access when there is no parking thank you thank you anybody else  ask all right we're going to close the public hearing we're not going to close that we're going to adjourn the public hearing excuse me thank you and we need to have the motion to adopt on the table so that we can if we're going to if it so desired to table direct affirmative put on the table there will be no there will be no further discussion does the council want to table it to the date certain that would be a better idea yes and i think the goal is november s that's your motion yes or no that is your second yes it is right now we have a motion to table to meeting on november six tem yes motion passes thank you and thank you everyone for being here we'll see you in three weeks and there will be more public comment received at that  one of the things that was done with the technology upgrades in council chambers is that there is a spot at the podium to insert a flash drive or u s b device so in the future if you want to bring along a with cables here or an i pad you have cables here we can just plug it right into the spot at the podium and you can do it from there instead of having to shuttle back and forth to the computer you can keep doing that if you want to but there is the option at the podium if you'd like thank you also everyone for for being here and i wish i could participate in this ok page two communications from the audience this evening this is the opportunity for members of the audience to address council on matters that are not otherwise located on the agenda and i'll open up that opportunity at this time and as you heard grow it from being a purely volunteer effort on this power at this point sure many of us here already do that to something that's more organized involving perhaps maps and  churches and others it will then evolve into probably earth day activity in april and a variety of publicity and i really see next virtually no cost  comment supporting that particular idea what a great idea i can just remember you know teaching and having kids in my classroom pick up trash in the classroom and if you say hate with everybody pick up three pieces of trash it's not a big deal and i think if all of us pick up a few pieces of trash along the way it will not be a burden to any one of us and this is not just for kids so are the people this summer it was a family affair south washington and the gentleman next to me in a truck was eating a bit and i thought wow it's really cool he's eating really healthy and i'm like gosh that's a great idea so i was about to leave and he was about to leave and i followed him out to south washington where this is an older gentleman like like myself he opens his window and drops the banana peel smack dab out the window and i'm thinking wow i can't believe what's happening so this is not just for kids this is for a lot of older people and everyone to get on board with us and make our community look great and make it look sharp the summer was in boulder colorado and one of the things and it was one of the great cities as well while the things i noticed there downtown was all the trash that was there and i compare that to holland and i went wow you do a great job so let's all work together and even do a better job in excited about this particular thing so i thought on this a great thank unfortunately mr bradford left but we had a very nice meeting with him twice prior to this he called me on the phone and floated this idea and i thought it was a fantastic idea he happens to live out on sixteenth street so he has a grand opportunity to be able to pick traction and he does that very religiously what what one thing we're going to do beyond the band is also if you'll notice that the new calendars that are going to be coming out the new city calendars the third sunday of every month will be a little reminder on there we're asking that this happen every day every time you're out just take a small plastic grocery bag with it whatever the case may be you see it on the ground pick it up  our big rollout is going to be in the spring earth day these are just the little ticklers little reminders of the third day or the third sunday of every month but the big roll out watch out for new and exciting things coming on earth  yes absolutely peter's yes yes mayor thanks yes all right thank you and now as a public service announcement to all members of council and those trapped in council chambers  would note that the score is tiger six red sox nothing to our runner on third bottom of the fourth so there we go right back to other business all right here we go now let's go to some gifts i believe the city manager's office is pleased to report the following gifts for the parks and recreation department for the south herrera scholarship fund a dollar donation was received by car amount of two thousand dollars in serious simmons in the amount of five hundred dollars it is recommended that said donations be accepted with appreciation and an expression of gratitude be forwarded to the donors what's the pleasure council motion to accept letter from its owner and president mr roger bloch camp and we have had roger in this chambers many times quite often seeking our support for investments he is making and they are making in their company in the form of camp specifically referenced the fact that the company is doing well and they are hiring and profitable and this is part of the way that he and they want to give back to the community that has supported them so special thanks to all of the windmill aisle and all the donors generally to all of these various funds but i thought that one was worthy of special notice given seeking of abatements and also the number of point two mr peters which is the over night on street parking motion to place it on first reading mr cotton the briefest of introductions if we might be so fortunate this follows through on work of city  robinson and the police and public transportation services and about sixteen stations by council over the last five years  so this is your opportunity to see whether you would like it placed as approved for first reading and placed in line for second reading at a later time to implement in may of two thousand and fourteen all right motion please  not the final deal as many of these things are that we consider it is an attempt at information gathering so that at some point we can make even greater intelligent decision about this very important  this and i totally understand the situation look and the concern but this is a question of convenience and i understand that because i have three cars and i've been jacking them around as  well for families that have multi day cars etc but i think there's i think as the we've talked about before this is not just an overnight parking this is changing habits this is putting cars it's making our streets a parking lot it's a going to affect curb appeal it's going to affect the general neighborhood safety people backing out in coming into their driveways trash cans deliveries i don't really want to have you know a ninety one buick sitting in front of my house all summer and i can see that that can happen well what's the alternative i would rather see the city of holland come up with a parking sticker system where people register if they want to we can limit it people are going to have to make an effort to get it they might be able to buy it at the home place department for a buck or two or three or five or whatever put it on their license plate opposite the sticker for the state and i'd much rather try a much more controlled approach than a wide open approach on this i think this is the wrong way to go it's too open we can say well it's not going to work well to backtrack it's going to be very difficult and i think there's another this is a good approach but it's not a great approach and i think we can find a great approach rather than this one so it's all right other comments hard for me to saddle for and street parking because i have loved the city so much i really don't think it's going to be in the best interest of the community to have cars parked everywhere project just the beginning of an erosion of a sense of a value system that has kept holland the tightest city mr bradford things we can even improve it more and i think he's right  but when we start allowing cars parked all the time any time anywhere it's not going to look as good it's not going to be as safe landscaping is going to suffer the amount of litter it will multiply it won't happen right away it will happen it'll be less than it is today i really don't want to settle for less it cost us ten thousand dollars all kinds of pain for our police department all kinds of problems for our transportation people trying to keep the streets clean people will be discouraged about keeping up the landscaping along the street because cars are parked there anyway who cares children are used to watching around cars because we haven't had them so they'll just run across the street and i know people will say oh you're just a few mongar what the sky is falling she can't handle change that's not true i love change i love creative ideas i love figuring out how to do things better and fresh air sometimes there are ways that are tried and true and they're so good you don't change him and you know as well the whole discussion about downtown i was thinking yeah anybody have any comments now anybody have any comments now anyone going to comment from the audience no why because it's so successful everybody loves downtown we figured out a system that really works we have downtown businesses that are willing to support a snow melts the system they're willing to support the parties that we have with the principal shopping district system they're willing to support snow melt it work we love it i had a high school kid in the highland youth advisory council meeting and she was just talking about holland she said i'm going to be going away to college but i love holland i love downtown i love to look time and like there are things that we love and we work hard to maintain them we sacrifice to make it work not saying that this is an easy way to do things i think it's possible to do the sticker system to give some kind of choice but it has some kind of control i am picturing september with all these hope students coming in parking all over the street because they can and all of a sudden a month later really tell them all they can't what a mass i mean we recommended starting this may one and here we are instead starting it may fifteen why it's going to be a huge mass trying to do a party like to have time for all the world coming here and we've got cars parked everywhere i know it sounds reasonable i know it sounds urban everybody else is doing it we should be able to have this convenience and  but as has been said by other people that have talked to me they've traveled all over the world and other places in europe are trying to rediscover what we never gave up so i'll be voting no this is going to be the hardest vote i ever took to be perfectly honest with you because i'm going to shock a number of people and the only reason i'm going to shock a number of people is because i'm going to vote  and the only reason i'm doing that i'm not don't get me wrong i'm not for this for all the reasons nancy said for all the reasons mr camperdown said and all the reasons that have been before i've been very vocal about it but i want this to be put to bed once and for all we continue to drag this out i mean i've been a counselor for seventeen years it's been brought up at least a half a dozen times it's time to put it to better my no vote tonight could very easily kill it just i just assume to have the other two members here fall is it me but i just want this thing to go away if i ever wish for anything to fail this would be one i don't think it's going to work but we just need to put it away right anyone else mr peters oh don't make me change my mind i know i know that this is been my issue but let me tell you remind you again why it's been you guys have all heard this before i grew up on ninth street i went to lincoln school i worked on a street my whole life now i live on eleven street i have lived my whole life within the second ward of the city of allah no one has heard it more than i have or have lived it most of the people up here who are saying it's not an inconvenience it's not an inconvenience have a long driveway have plenty of room maybe even have an opportunity to park in for the house because they don't happen to have a curb and gutter there many of the people in the city have that privilege of doing it i can without trying it i cannot connect the dots were providing the central city folks in the summer time to park their cars on the streets just for a few months for that convenience connect the dots to where this is going to lead to armageddon trash death crouching people hiding behind cars i don't buy i don't think it's fair i think there are many people in the central city that are truly inconvenienced by this thing and i think a simple a simple test and it's you know so is really one of the reasons i ran for city council as a true through the matter i think it biggish as anybody else lived in the central city of holland and know what the issues of their people are facing you are completely unreasonable person i don't know what you're going to say i don't mean that at all but yeah we grew up on nice grew up with mike too but the truth of the matter is it's an issue and to try it and i really appreciate the spirit of the people around the table saying let's try it if for no other reason mike's big step here and i think it's appreciated it was just if for no other reason let's get it off the table but i would go into this fairly with a fairly optimistic view that there would be some positive feedback so in the spirit of making the city livable when the city's population has declined over the last ten years and we're trying to attract people of the central city and we're trying to make it more livable  think it's more of an issues and then we joke about sometimes so very supportive of give it a try and i appreciate the staff's i know there's some staff people that are questioning this thing but i also had some people say you know let's give it a try so a spend the next few weeks conflicted with his own self i would just as soon give him an opportunity to vote his conscience and welcome our two other members of council back to this conversation it's unusual night as we started out talking about not having the full force of intelligence i think you said  we have the full breadth of our counsel back with us for clarification that would be november sixth is your intention yes sir ok that's a motion to table by counsel or white men if there is support for it support supported by council member hooks all right the motion is to table to november six all in favor of so doing please say i i pose the same the matter is tabled to november sixth thank you that then takes us down to item five point l actually this is probably something that should mention and should introduce and explain because i think the above any other is more responsible for it there is a three hundred seventy five thousand dollar grant from the michigan economic development corporation that was supported by the state legislature and approved a subsequent to a very special event in the city hall and i suspect that something to do with it at least the beginning and to come through and in your packet are the grant documents now that do so this number is actually twenty thousand lower than what it is the present time this was a chart prepared by three weeks ago it's now ground eight hundred twenty thousand so good things continue to happen this is a huge part of it i will note that our attorney if you approve this subject to agreement as to form and andy has already pointed out  c for seeing this juan and the whole island really but especially does one has a unique and signature asset not just for this part of the state but really for the state as a whole that is a very unique asset and  that was justification for the m e d c to designate it is such an appropriate these funds you know obviously we still have a ways to go and i can tell you this afternoon as of about three thirty i was in a meeting with persons and the strategy is underway to secure the remaining amounts that are required and hopefully a bit more so we're not resting until we get it all done but this is an important piece and of course i will certainly take this opportunity to say to anyone watching that if you are interested in contributing to this this endeavor in large or small ways you can do so in two different ways one is to go to the community foundation of the holland zealand area they've got a website they've got offices and eighth street you can contribute there where you can go ahead and go to city hall come here to city hall or send a check in to to me at the office the mayor will certainly see that it gets designated in the right funds and gets used for that effort so  it's a good day for this project and my understanding is that the windmill restoration piece is remains ahead of schedule though i don't know but the weather of the past couple of days whether it set it back a little bit but overall it's going well and it was good that we ended up doing is i don't mean to make it sound like it's routine because we don't treat it that way but of course city of holland dot com is a place to find out not only what's going on around city hall in the city in general but also a place to find ways to contact your members of council me the city manager the assistant city manager the clerk's office etc and i might especially note the clerk's office with the election coming up in a little over a little under three weeks two weeks and six days is the election and  absentee ballots are still available up until a certain point shortly before the election and if you call the city clerk's office should give you all the skinny on that but it's it's an important time of the year for people in holland to be able to elect those who represent them we also have a interesting designation that i was made aware of that it's really quite remarkable when you think about i think those of us on a council have come to appreciate the city manager profession is one that because the city managers are subject to the will of people like us let's just say it's a tough business personalities among the elect  now celebrating thirty years of service as a city manager not all here of course but thirty years in the profession is is quite a remarkable achievement and this is a very poor i pad photograph of a very nice plaque that is hanging in the city manager's office and i'm sure if you wanted to show up in city hall and take a look at it mr cotton would be happy to let you see it probably not touch it but you can look at it because you know i get it but no ryan in all seriousness and all in all sincerity please know that we congratulate you on your thirty years of service and you're going to have the best year and a half of your service which has been in service to the people of the city of holland so congratulations you thank you i didn't know anyone knew that existed so that's a surprise but yes it's been an honor to be here i have thoroughly enjoyed my year and a half appreciate your very warm comments well  everything you know you learn in kindergarten yes well that's good speaking of mr cotton as we all know he has been our city manager for approximately a year and a half and over the course of the past few months we've been conducting a somewhat tedious especially mr cottons experience tedious review of him and the mayor pro tem not the acting mayor pro tem he wants new business cards by the here for us to really conduct the results of the review in a proper fashion so we are not going to deal with that particular matter tonight do we technically need table it or do we just skip it  by saying it's a uniformally very very positive review and you all think very highly of the man at the end of the last year as do i so that is that's and finally  we've referenced it many times to stephen but we're down to members tonight we want to say congratulations to our colleague the young and under forty council member mr bryan birch who is the recipient of grand rapids business journals forty one of the forty under forty for this year's class and the program and award ceremony was this evening so mr burch is in grand rapids hanging out with the governor and business leaders from around west michigan community leaders from around west michigan so that is why he is not with us tonight so congratulations brian on the mayor pro tem had duties related to his day job that he needed to accomplish and we also should note that the mayor pro tem this week began a new position as the library director in our sister city of zealand michigan and so congratulations to bob hanging with business and community leaders i'd like to remind the viewing public and also those dice and those remain in our audience that next week tuesday october twenty second at five thirty p m disability network lake shore where i earn my daily paycheck is hosting our third annual ability award we have a great number of people joining us to celebrate eleven fantastic nominees this year and what we do at that event it's a free event a free reception but we honor this year eleven nominees that focus and persevere in a community where people with disabilities can participate contribute and belong and so i extend that invitation to each of you and those in the viewing public that want to r s v p can call our office at three nine six five three to six week with caring for exactly one more day to get on that guest list and  we have a fantastic keynote speaker director jim hartman the director of michigan's department of community health who has been around the globe serving under presidential administrations and now serves gov administration as a director and he's also a west michigan guy from ten minutes north of here and so we're glad to have him give a keynote address welcome one welcome all actually see their other communications resolutions we should make one note that this is the final meeting regular meeting before the halloween holiday so be safe halloween of course ours this year are six states six to eight on halloween none of us hey we're going to do it on the weekend sort of nonsense it's the day halloween is the thirty first trick or treating the thirty first six to eight have fun and you know sophomore daughter you're too old to treaties with that this isn't one of the for your work