City Council recap of April 21 meeting and work session

Fields Bridge fishing dock

From parking lots to the police station to chickens, the city council worked through a lot of code, processes and procedures during a special meeting and work session April 21.

Code enforcement

First on the agenda was the approval of an ordinance that modifies the variety of appeals processes in the city and makes them uniform.

The council already discussed this topic twice, most recently at an April 7 work session. The result of the ordinance amends numerous sections of code that refer to the appeals process and changes the word “infraction” to “violation.”

According to city staff, the advantages of the proposed ordinance are that it:

  • Adds necessary definitions and boilerplate provisions;
  • Provides a way of designating powers and duties when departments and titles change without requiring immediate amendment of the WLMC;
  • Adopts state criminal laws, procedures and offense classifications;
  • Makes the code enforcement provisions available to all city officials that enforce the code and provides additional options for serving violations; and
  • Adds a uniform administrative appeals process.

The lengthy list of code amendments were approved unanimously by the council.

Parking lot improvements

Fields Bridge Park was next on the agenda. As part of a $200,000 project to make improvements to the park, the council approved a contract for $79,560 to install a new permeable paver parking lot at the park.

“It’s a good project,” Parks and Recreation Director Ken Worcester said. “It should help alleviate a lot of parking issues out there.”

The low bid and winner of the contract was Eastern States Paving Inc. of Portland.

“I think this is a great project. I’m really glad to see it moving forward,” Councilor Jody Carson said, who then moved to approve the contract. The motion was seconded by Councilor Jenni Tan.

“I would like to take a moment to thank Mr. Worcester and the parks department for moving to semi-permeable pavers on more and more of our projects,” Councilor Mike Jones said. “I don’t know if the average citizen respects how much that helps both our groundwater and our conservation efforts. It’s much appreciated.”

Police station

More than two years ago the city entered into a contract with Bob Galante to do project management of the new police station design and construction because the city didn’t have the capacity on staff to handle the project, said City Manager Chris Jordan.

Jordan credited Galante for finding numerous ways to make the project less expensive and less cumbersome. However, there were some holdups along the way, such as having to rebid a couple of contracts and finding an oil tank underground on the property.

“All those things required extra time on Bob’s part,” Jordan said. “At this point, it is time to alter his contract.”

The city has a contract with Galante for $98,600, the equivalent of $85 an hour, for his services. As Galante is now over his hours, the city council approved an addendum to his contract for a maximum of another $22,000. His contract ends Aug. 31.

According to the approved bill, the original agreement for project management services, design development, public approval and construction of the police station was for $98,600.

Due to unanticipated work beyond the original scope of work including oil tank mitigation, rebidding the construction contract and additional procurement efforts for storage lockers, additional time and funds are required to complete the police station.

“I’m going to vote to approve the change, but I don’t want to be too harsh, but I think some of the issues, particularly the equipment lockers, weren’t handled as well administratively as they could have been. So I’d prefer not to see another change order come from this council,” Jones said.

The scope of Galante’s work was amended to include the following additional services:

  • Contracting for separate demolition contract and oil tank mitigation (originally planned as part of construction contractor services).
  • Rebidding the construction contract.
  • Coordinating the expanded street project with city engineering.
  • Contracting for oil contamination cleanup.
  • Inspecting used storage equipment available for procurement.
  • Special procurement/rebidding of building storage systems.
  • Reviewing of change orders specific to rebid changes.
  • Coordinating change orders specific to expanded street work.
  • Inspecting used storage equipment available from new subcontractor.

Tan asked how the project was going in terms of being on budget.

“We are in pretty good shape at this point,” Jordan said.

Jordan said he would have Galante come in and give the city council another update and he offered to give the council a tour of the construction process thus far on April 28 at 5:30 p.m.

Planning docket

During the work session part of the meeting, the city council discussed the city’s planning docket, which outlines community development code (CDC) and comprehensive plan amendments on tap.

The council last approved the docket in October; however the council has since then approved its 2014 goals that have changed priorities on the docket.

Added to the docket were dates as to when projects should be completed to add some accountability. The dates should help keep projects moving along and not “drift” along for a few years with nothing happening, according to Jordan.

“If things slow down, at least everyone will know why they are slowing down,” Jordan said.

“There really are just a couple of changes,” Community Development Director Chris Kerr said. “I think of it more as an update,”

Taken off the docket include the Blue Heron subcommittee work, which is a long-range planning project, a parking management plan for Willamette, the completed trails master plan and administration for the historic resources rehabilitation program, which is an ongoing program.

New items include routine minor code refinements and economic development streamlining.

Referring to the code refinements, Kerr said, “We get these almost on a weekly basis where we see something that just seems inappropriate in our code that we need to go back and make some fixes to,” Kerr said, adding this is something that should be done about every four months.

The docket is as follows:

Docket of CDC and Comprehensive Plan Amendments

Economic development streamlining: Phase 1: Plan and CDC amendments of highest priority initiatives to streamline processes and eliminate inefficient regulations.          

                Planning Commission: completed

                City Council: May 12, 2014

Water Resource Area regulations: CDC amendments to Chapter 32 that will improve the city’s water resource areas regulations.

                Planning Commission: completed

                City Council: May 19, 2014

Residential infill/planned unit Development amendments: CDC amendments to PUDs, flag lots and alternative housing designs to provide for improved infill housing that will be more compatible with the surrounding area.

                Planning Commission: June 2014

                City Council: August 2014

Routine minor code refinements: Package of CDC amendments which may be unrelated but are critical to administer and apply the code. Staff anticipates processing several of these per year. (Ongoing)

                Planning Commission: July 2014

                City Council: September 2014

Arch Bridge/Bolton master plan: Review/approve master plan for Arch Bridge/Bolton area as part of a $220,000 grant from Metro. (Master plan approval only, plan and CDC amendments would be spring 2015.)

                Planning Commission: September 2014

                City Council: October 2014

Economic development streamlining: Phase II: As one of the council priorities, an outside consultant will be involved to audit the code. This phase will address many of the issues which were identified, but not addressed, under Phase I of the project as well as any recommended items identified by the consultant and agreed upon by the council.

                Planning Commission: Fall 2014

                City Council: Winter 2014

Sustainable West Linn Strategic Plan: Updating and adopting revisions to the Sustainable West Linn Strategic Plan. These revisions will be focused on identifying community-supported action items.

                SAB: March 2015

                City Council: May 2015

Transportation System Plan: Plan and CDC amendments adopting updated transportation system plan. The city received a $145,000 grant for this project from DLCD.

                Planning Commission: April 2015

                City Council: June 2015

This docket will go before the planning commission and then the city council at an upcoming meeting for approval.

Regulatory streamlining project

Before a laundry list of community development code amendments go to a council vote May 12, the councilors hashed out a variety of amendments, tabling some, removing others and refining yet more.

Community Development Director Chris Kerr walked the councilors through a list of 21 suggested amendments to the CDC. Topics ranged from backyard chickens to A-frame signs to outdoor seating for restaurants and parking.

One issue discussed at length was trees.

Staff initially proposed modifications to a section of code to require the protection of significant trees, rather than applying tree easements over the ground. During the planning commission hearings, staff recommended postponing the item from the current amendment package in order to review the issue more carefully.

Language at question requires applicants to set aside “up to” 20 percent of significant trees for protection. This ambiguous language could have a developer read that requirement as a maximum and then choose to just set aside a much smaller percentage.

The goal of the code is to save significant trees on sites and develop around them, Kerr said.

After a lengthy discussion, the council opted to table the tree code amendment to clarify the language and get more input. Kerr recommended moving fast on the issue though, because a developer could come in and save just 1 one percent of the trees on a parcel.

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The city council’s next meeting is a work session on May 5 at 6 p.m. westlinnoregon.gov/meetings