City Council recap of 01/12/2015 meeting

The West Linn City Council held a meeting Jan. 12. The agenda included an intergovernmental agreement, citizen advisory group liaison appointments, a public hearing on a rezoning and a resolution creating a citizen advisory board.

Liaisons

As its first order of business, the council made liaison appointments to the citizen advisory groups. Each volunteer advisory group has a council member liaison.

The following appointments were made:

Councilor Brenda Perry: Economic Development Committee, Library Advisory Board, Public Safety Advisory Board, Utility Advisory Board, Audit Committee and West Linn Chamber of Commerce

Councilor Jenni Tan: Historic Review Board, Audit Committee, Clackamas County Coordinating Committee and Willamette Falls Heritage Association

Councilor Russ Axelrod: Parks and Recreation Board, Planning Commission, Sustainability Advisory Board, Committee for Citizen Involvement, Neighborhood Presidents Association and Willamette Falls Heritage Association

Council President Thomas Frank: Transportation Advisory Board, West Linn Chamber of Commerce and alternate to the Clackamas County Coordinating Committee

Mayor John Kovash: Planning Commission, Committee for Citizen Involvement and Neighborhood Presidents Association

Frank and Tan were also appointed to the South Fork Water Board.

Damascus IGA

The council approved an intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with the city of Damascus for West Linn to provide financial and information technology (IT) management services. The Damascus finance director recently left the city for a position in Newberg.

The city had a similar shared service arrangement with Milwaukie that lasted more than three years.

Under the IGA, West Linn will offer up to 20 hours a week of financial services and between two and 10 hours per week of IT management — at the rate of $100 an hour. The additional revenue to West Linn is estimated at $130,000 to $150,000 a year.

“It should be quite a revenue generator for us,” City Manager Chris Jordan told the council.

The agreement is for one year, with the option to renew.

Frank asked, “Do we have the bandwidth to share our city staff this way?”

Jordan explained that the new responsibilities would be shared between a number of West Linn employees not just one person.

“We wouldn’t touch this if we didn’t think we had that bandwidth,” Jordan said.

“I think this is a great opportunity for the city to share services,” Frank said. “I commend staff for thinking outside the box and creating some new revenue for our city.”

Comp plan amendment

The city council held a public hearing to determine whether to allow a rezone of 10.13 acres of three parcels totaling 11.41 acres at Tannler Drive near Blankenship Road. The property is currently vacant.

The property was zoned commercial in the 1980s and the applicant wishes to rezone it to medium-high density residential. The residential zone would be for single-family and multifamily housing. The northern most 3 acres would be retained as open space and the portion fronting Blankenship would remain commercial under the proposal.

There is single and multi-family housing to the north of the property and Albertsons is to the south.

In 2007, the property owner received approval for a 289,000-square-foot office development. However, according to the applicant’s economic analysis, there is little demand for office space in West Linn but there is a demand for multifamily housing.

A traffic study of the area shows 50 percent less traffic in the area if it is developed as residential versus commercial. The planning commission heard the application at its Oct. 24 meeting and unanimously recommended approval of the proposal.

Having previously testified against the proposal at the planning commission level, Perry recused herself. Axelrod, who recused himself from an Oct. 8 hearing while serving on the planning commission, also recused himself. In quasi-judicial hearings, such as a land use one like this, councilors must enter the hearing unbiased.

“My responsibility is to make an unbiased decision on the entire record,” Axelrod said. “I really feel strongly I can make an unbiased decision on this, however I worry about the exposure for the rest of the city.”

The city council heard a presentation from staff and then heard from the applicant. The council also heard from about 10 citizens. There were concerns about density and traffic the new development may bring. Two spoke on behalf of the project, including the owner of the property, who said the reason why the property hasn’t been developed yet is because it is incorrectly zoned and would be better used as proposed.

As the clock neared 10 p.m., the council closed the public hearing and voted to continue the issue at a special meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 5:30 p.m., City Hall, 22500 Salamo Road. The council did not address the Transportation Systems Plan citizen advisory committee.

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The city council will conduct a work session on Monday, Feb. 2, at 6 p.m.