Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-11-13 ACE MINUTES• • • ACE Meeting November 13 , 2008 Page l of l l ALLIANCE FOR COMMERCE IN ENGLEWOOD Nove mber 13, 2008 I.~ CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Alliance for Commerce in Englewood (ACE) was called to order at 11 :40 a.m. in the City Council Conference Room of the Englewood Civic Center, Chair Schalk presiding. Present: Sc halk, Guinther, Vas il as, Lonborg, Pa netta Absent: McDermott, Espinoza Also present: Michael Morton, Exec utive Director, Chamber of Commerce Joe Jefferson, City Council Liaison Randy Penn, Councilperson Jim Woodward, Mayor Staff present: A lan White, Comm u nity Deve lopment Direc t or Darren Hollingsworth, Economic Developme nt Coordinator John Voboril, Pla n ner Gary Hultberg, Manager of Recreation Bob Leonard, Facility Supervisor Mike Flaherty, Deputy City Manager APPROVAL OF MINUTES October 9, 2008 Ch air Scha lk stated that the Minutes of October 9, 2008 were to be considered for approval. It was determined there was a quorum. Chair Schalk asked if there were any changes or adjustments to the Minutes. There were none. Vasilas moved: Panetta seconded: THE M INUTES OF OCTOBER 9, 2008 BE APPROVED AS WR ITIEN. The motion carried u nanimo usly . 11 . ACE BUSINESS ENGLEWOOD RECREATION CENTER l.D. CARD A brochure on My Englewood Rewards was distributed to all in attendance. Mr. Hultberg stated he is Manager of Recreation for the Department of Recreation . He introduced Mr. Bob Leonard who is the fac i lity supervisor at the Englewood Recreation Center. Mr. Hultberg stated Mr. Leonard came u p with an idea that we would like to present to the ACE group. H e thanked the ACE members for allowi ng them to attend the • • ACE Meeting N ovembe r 13 , 2008 Page 2 o f 11 meeting. He stated he discussed the idea with the Parks and Recreation Department and they suggested we speak to Mr. Hollingsworth who in turn suggested we come before ACE . What we are proposing is a rewards program . We have thousands of people who are patron card holders at the recreation center and thought it might be a good idea to team up with businesses that were interested to offer some type of discount in goods and /or services when a customer shows their recreation l.D. card. He turned the presentation over to Mr. Leonard. Mr. Leonard stated there are other cities doing something very similar to this. We feel it is a win win for our patrons and will help generate business within Englewood businesses. The rewards are basically things that you determine as businesses that you would like to do in terms of discount services . We feel it's a great way in these tough economic times to generate business in Englewood. We are not looking at a long-term commitment. It will be presented to our patrons at the recreation center, at other facilities and on our website as far as what types of discounts and services will be offered . The cards would have the City of Englewood logo on them and a bar code. He said some type of advertising would be pro v ided to display at participating businesses. Chair Schalk said maybe the program could work both ways ... are there opportunities for businesses to receive services for a reduced price if you do a bigger amount and to offer to your employees or are you trying to offer your members with an avenue of getting discounts in and around Englewood? Mr. Leonard said the latter is what our first attempt would be. Mr. Hultberg said most of the recreation center's card holders are not residents . The idea was to offer it to only Englewood businesses to generate business from non- residents . Chair Schalk asked if they had examples of how this concept has worked in other cities . Mr. Hultberg said they would maintain a list of participating businesses on their website and a hard copy at the recreation center for patrons to look at and ask them to be on the lookout for the advertising displays at participating businesses. We want to make it simple . If a business wants to pull out they can certainly do that or if a business wants to change what the y offer we will do that too . Lafayette has done something similar, but they have a v ery small number of businesses participating. We are envisioning this on a much larger scale . Mr. V asilas said in 33 1/i years of doing business on South Broadway this is the first time the City has offered to partner with the businesses. He said it is an excellent idea and offered to be the first person to sign up. Ms. Guinther said she would be the second to sign up. Mr. Hultberg said great and if they proceed and if Mr. Hollingsworth and Mr. White are willing we'll include them in the specifics . Mr. Vasilas asked for information to be given to him to pass around in the Business Improvement District (BID). Chair Schalk encouraged them to provide the BID with information . M r. Panetta asked how they plan to roll this program out to make sure they get as much • exposure to as many businesses as possible . How is it going to be promoted? 2 • • • ACE Meeting November 13, 2008 Page 3 of 11 Mr. Hultberg said that 's where we hope to have some help from Mr. Hollingsworth. Ms. Guinther said it's newsworthy too. Mr. Hollingsworth said it will go out in the typical channels such as the Englewood Citizen newsletter, the website, by word of mouth through the BID , the Chamber of Commerce, the Activity Guide for the recreation center and the local press . Mr. Hultberg and Mr. Leonard left business cards for those in attendance and exited the meeting. SWE DI SH HO SPIT AL DI SCUSSION Ms . Lonborg said ACE asked me to talk a little about the hospital and its employees. She said if there are other things that you want to know that I don't address, just ask and if I don't know I'll find it out. The hospital has 2000 plus employees of which 100 live in Englewood. The average age of an employee is 48 to 49 years of age. The average age of the nurses is the same . She stated the hospital is working hard to recruit more nurses, which we have been successful at and in doing so have brought and will bring the average age down . We have instituted a new graduate program that is going strong. Many of the nurses live in Lakewood, Littleton and Douglas County. Because the typ ical schedule is three 12 hours shifts and then you are done for the week it is not uncommon at all for them to live farther away and commute for those three days . Th e ancillary staff, which provide service to the hospital, statistics are no different. Wages vary across the board; most would be classified as middle income. We offer a sliding scale ECO Pass from RTD so anybody can get an RTD pass for the year . The most a person would pay is $28 and some would be free. All employees are offered good insurance. Mayor Woodward had a question regarding the ECO Pass. He asked if Ms. Lonborg had received any feedback on the ART Shuttle. Is the service of value to the employees? Ms. Lonborg said yes employees, patients and family members use it. The hospital offers a day care . They lease the building from En glewood Schools and are in partnership with Craig . Services are offered to employees at a discount rate and services are also available to the public. The hospital does not offer any housing except on a very short term basis if we have moved an employee in from out of town. Ms. Lonborg asked if she had answered th e questions ACE had in regards to the hospital. Mr. Panetta said in some of the studies Mr. Graham did the hospital area was identified as one of the key areas in Englewood. He was interested to know from her perspective as well as her peers' perspectives, is there a gap that exists in terms of needed businesses in the nearby community and specifically whether or not better housing stock would be a benefit to attract employees. He said he thought what I heard you say was that basically since a lot of employees work only three days a week that maybe the housing would not be a benefit. Ms. Lonborg said the housing stock question is in tandem with the school situation for our younger families . When I look at where people are living in all honesty they are living in 3 • • • ACE Me etin g No ve mber 13 , 2008 Page 4 of 11 more suburban planned communities . She said the employees that she knows that do live in Englewood are older and don 't have family considerations and many are single . She said she can 't think of a segment of businesses that are missing. We have a need for hotels, but have partnerships in existence today with hotels outside of Englewood because there have not been hotels in the area. For a hotel to be successful we would have to commit to unwinding those partnerships and we just resigned for several more years . We ha v e good relationships with dry cleaners, car washes , and oil and gas establishments and ha ve a concierge program in place. They have gone to Englewood businesses to partner and offer great rates on services for hospital employees . They found good partners in lots of businesses around the hospital. We don't offer enough time for our employees to take a lunch to make a restaurant business out of it. Mr. Panetta said to paraphrase what I think you said was that Englewood perception or real lacks some of the necessities that residents feel are important for their quality of life or raising their family to move to Englewood. Ms . Lonborg said particularly in the form of housing and schools. She stated she visited with a young woman last week who is typical of our younger nurses ... single mom with two kids. She's buying her first home and needed a place in a good school system . She could not afford anything around here and ended up in Castle Rock where she could get the square footage she needed, schools nearby, safe environment, views and is willing to commute. This area was not a consideration at all. That is an example of what the younger set is looking for. Mr. Vasilas stated his son also wanted a nice three bedroom house in Englewood, but could not find one with good square footage in the $300,000 range here. He ended up buying in the area of Bowles and Wadsworth. The schools suffer because young families cannot find affordable housing in the City. He stated he is currently looking for rental prop e rty under $200,000 . Properties over that price with one bathroom are difficult to rent; people w ant more than one bathroom . He stated he attended a City Council meeting a few weeks ago where there was a group of South Ogden residents who were opposed to a developer building a duplex in their area . We need to educate the residents of the City to allow pro gress ... either we allow developers to build new duplexes and housing or the school sy stem in Englewood will die because there is no housing for young families . He noted 90 to 95 % of his customers are destination customers. They don't live in this area. He asked if there are statistics on how many people work in Englewood and how many live in Engle w ood. Mr. Hollingsworth said a citizen survey was done, but he did not recall the exact numbers. He believes approximately 20% of the work force lives in Englewood. Mr. Vasilas said it should be about 80%. He asked Mayor Woodward what the specifics were regarding the Ogden property. Mayor Woodward said the property is zoned R-1-C , which means it is in a single family residential are with most lots being 50 feet wide. This particular lot has 96 feet o f frontage . Several years ago City Council, in a study session, discussed these types of problems with lots and the 2004 Unified Development Code. They decided that the City Manager's designee, which would be Community Development in most cases , would have administrative control to basically give something similar to a variance to subdivide a lot 4 • • • ACE Meeting November 13, 2008 Page 5 of 11 provided that it was within 5% of that zoning. If it's 96 feet that's within 4%. A developer came along, bought a piece of property and wanted to subdivide it. It was approved by Community Development, however, it was brought up that that decision was not made and approved by City Council other than in a study session. It was not codified. As a result, the nei g hbors took it to the Board of Appeals, which denied it because they had no way of approving it since it had not been codified. It went to Planning and Zoning to start the process of codifying. It th e n came to City Council and went through two different nights of public hearings where it was voted down . That's not to say that it will not come back again because this 5% is not atypical for other communities and to make that decision administratively. Mr. Vasilas asked what was happening in Denver. Mayor Woodward said there is a lot of down zoning going on so it's not a good place to compare. Mr. Panetta asked what down zoning is. Mr. White said it would be like going from an R-2 to an R-1. Mayor Woodward said Denver is also looking at d es ign standards to stay in line with the rest of th e nei ghborhood . He said he personally disagrees with that concept. Ms. Lonborg said are we reacting to what is going on in the specific situation with a specific house and developer or are we lookin g at what does the City need to ha ve happen and what's best for the future of the City. Are we tryin g to preserve what we have or are we trying to move to what's best for the future for the City? It feels like the zoning doesn't match . Mr. Vasilas said either we move ahead or we lose our City . Mr. Morton said this is his ninth y ear selling real estate in Denver. When he shows people around in places like Littleton and Englewood the problem is the lots are so small to try and put a duplex back on a sin gle -fam il y lot produces an undesirable home. It can be done, but people do not like the look. What is possible right now doesn't fit the consumer's needs and wants even if the y can scrape and rebuild . Buying a house in Engle wood and scraping it is ve ry difficult to do price wise for a builder. Mr. Je fferso n said he believes part of the problem is that we are a land locked community and the issues are not uncommon. Maybe it is an education issue . Mayor Woodward said the duplex zoning code was changed in the R-2 zone district within th e last couple of months. You can now build a duplex on a 50 foot lot in that zone district. H e said he does believe that Council and Staff are looking at the bigger picture. Bein g a fir st tier, post World War II suburb any ty pe of remodel is expensi ve due to the cost of takin g down a place, abating the asbestos, etc. It's really easy out in Highlands Ranch or Douglas County to scrape a piece of ground, dig a hole and build a house . Englewood is prime location . When a lot of the seniors in District 4 start moving to places like the Terraces on Penns y lva nia, nursing homes or other types of condominium homes and that housing starts opening up those four bedroom two bath houses that are on nice lots, that will start a new generation of change. He said he hopefully will be on the steering committee for the National League of Cities because Englewood is different that the East coast where their first tier cities are older than the st ate of Colorado . Littleton is experiencing exactly the same sort of problems that Englewood has experienced ; the y are just a few years behind 5 • • ACE Meeting November 13 , 2008 Page 6 o f11 us . They are talking about shutting down two elementary schools and Denver certainly has had its problems with schools. Chair Schalk asked if the people attending these meetings are owner residents or renter residents. Several noted they are owner residents and they say we love our houses, we love our neighborhoods, we don't want to see any development, we are happy ......... Ms . Lonborg said "we don 't want any change". Mayor Woodward said these are public hearings and they start out by being sworn in and are asked to state their name and address and they usually state how many years they have been at that address. Ms . Lonborg said the passion they have for the City and what they feel they have is remarkable ... that is the good news . Chair Schalk sa id it doesn't equate to a vibrant economy. We have a group of people here that keep Englewood from moving forward . Mr. Penn said a lot of people in Englewood cannot afford $600,000 to $ 700,000 homes and if they can their children are not going to go to Englewood public schools . You just create another mess. You have to find a way that is somewhat more medium so we can keep these people in Englewood and keep their kids in our school. He said he agrees with Mr. Panetta in that when we grew up in Englewood we might have had only a two or three bedroom one bath house and all the kids lived together .... that society has changed and their va lue s have changed and that is why we are having a problem with the housing situation right now. Hopefully, we'll have the opportunity again to look at the 5% reduction issue and still get the house that we need . Discussion ensued . Mayor Woodward noted that the City has applied for a $3,000,000 grant to be used for the purchase and rehabilitation of foreclosed properties in the City. The City would sell the homes after the rehab is complete. T he possibility of establishing a CDC was discussed. The members all expressed their hope the City receives the grant. SMALL AREA PLAN UPDATE ~ Mr. Voboril passed out a map of the proposed Medical District Small Area Pl an rezoning and a synopsis of past meetings. He said the previous conversation was very interesting regarding the needed change in Englewood . Community Development has been working hard to see if we can bring about some change . Staff has been working closely with the people w ho live in the medical district area. Several years ago we held se v eral public meetings with them and engaged them in order to see where they would accept change. Since early 2007 Staff has been working on defining that area and developing new zoning districts that would make it much easier to develop than what exists today. He referenced the map he distributed earlier. He reviewed the two different zones. The difference is that the M-2 zones would allow for small scale retail uses and M-1 would not. Categories discussed were Land Use, Height, Lot Development Standards and Pedestrian- • Oriented Design Standards. 6 • • • ACE Meeting N ove mber 13 , 200 8 Page 7 of 11 Staff is looking to add hotels as an allowed use within the entire area. Stepped height zones would range from 32 feet to 145 feet. Swedish Hospital is currently at approximately 130 feet. The 145 feet maximum would allow them to add one more story onto the front of the hospital. Reduced setback requirements, reduced landscaping requirements, parking requirements, 1st floor windows and parking area screening was also discussed. Mr. Voboril stated Staff is looking at restricting retail to 10,000 square feet per lot with a few exceptions. City Council has asked Staff to look at the NEC and NWC of Clarkson and Hwy. 285 and also at Logan Street and Hwy. 285 to allow larger retailers . He noted on November 12 th Staff held the first public meeting with some of the stakeholder 's in the neighborhood and showed them all the different concepts. They were good with most of it. The one thing that might need to be adjusted is the height restrictions. They were somewhat concerned with the 145 feet maximum . Chair Schalk said what about hotels. What if someone wants to build a hotel? He stated he is in favor of increasing the height limit. If someone wants to put that kind of capital in v estment into our neighborhood .... for us to not want to do that feels like insanity. Mr. Voboril said a developer could do a PUD. Chair Schalk said that's what we are trying to avoid . Mr. Voboril agreed . Chair Schalk said why wouldn 't we want a taller building? Mr. Jefferson said an example is what was done at Kent Place; the developer was trying to build taller buildings there. Some of the residents felt they were affected by the shadow of the buildings, their views became obstructed, etc. Mr. Voboril thought some of the stakeholders felt that the entire area would be covered with 145 foot buildings and that's not realistic. Mr. Schalk said he would like to see that t y pe of development in Englewood. One person's concerns should not stop progress in the City. Mr. Voboril said Staff felt the areas south of the hospitals would be the appropriate place for that higher type of development because it isn't really affecting single-family areas. He referenced several buffer zones on the map that have been created . M r. Morton asked if Staff could designate two or three areas that would be good for a hotel. Mr. Voboril said that is what we did show the residents . We created three different height zones within the whole area. Chair Schalk asked what the hospital thought of the 145 foot limit. Ms. Lonborg said the hospital feels that limit will work for them. Discussion continued regarding the hotel issue. Mr. Panetta asked Mr. Voboril what the next phase was for the Medical District Small Area Plan . How do we move forward? Mr. Voboril said there is one more public meeting tonight. He invited all members to attend. Early next year we'd like to begin to codify these concepts and hold a series of 7 • • • ACE Meeting Nove mber 13 , 200 8 Page 8 of 11 Planning and Zoning Publi c Hearings. It would then be forwarded to City Council for approval. Staff would like to have the new zoning in place by the summer of 2009. Mr. Panetta asked what's the draw to bring residents and businesses in other than Swedish . Mr. Vasilas said central location . Mr. Panetta said we have that now. Mr. Voboril said the other piece we are working on now is that we have hired a planning consulting firm, Britina Design Group, who specializes in streetscape design. They did the streetscape in Old Town Arvada. This process is going to begin early next year . We want to get the community involved in looking at ways that we can improve the design for the Old Hampden corridor and Broadway downtown. Mr. Panetta asked if there were medical related architects that specialize in community development using a hospital as the focal point and have experience in developing the sub- communities around that focal point. Is there somebody that is doing that already in the United States? Mr. Voboril said yes there are. He stated when the Request for Proposal went out we did get some interest from larger firms that were from out of state but they quickly became less interested when they found out what our budget was . MICRO BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT UPDATE ~ Mr. Hollingsworth distributed a memo regarding the Micro Business Development bankruptcy. He stated the memo was included in Council's packet last week. He provided some background on the City's involvement with Micro Business Development. The company has filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Englewood granted $218,365. 72 to them . Their annual report stated they had made one lo an of approximately $128, 1 77. The loan assets are being held by an intermediary and loan payments will always go to an intermediary. As a grantor we will more than likely not be in a secured position to be able to make any claims against Micro Business Development. However, there is a creditor's meeting in December that Staff will be attending. Mr. Flaherty said when the City granted that money it was gone. The benefit was, at least theoretically, that it would drive business development in the City. Mr. Hollingsworth said there is a new group that has been formed called Rocky Mountain Micro Finance Institute that will be managing the loan assets for Micro Business Development and hopefully we can build a relationship with them. When those dollars are repaid we can see if they would maintain the intent of those original dollars to help Englewood businesses though they have nothing binding with us. Ms. Lonborg asked if Micro Business Development had other debts. Mr. Hollingsworth said the y did ... $5 .8 million in debt and $4.7 million in assets. Mr. Hollingsworth stated Staff would be contacting other grantors to see how they are handling the situation. Mr. Jack Crawford is the only Board member left and Staff has been in contact w ith him . Mr. Panetta thanked Mr. Hollingsworth for the update and said hopefully we learned something from this . 8 • • • ACE Meeting No vember 13 , 2008 Page 9 of 11 Ill. COMMENTS & EVENTS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Mr. Morton said the Chamber has a new website in development; www.myenglewoodchamber.com. It will be easier to use for not only the members but also for people relocating to the Englewood area. We will also have the advantage of being able to let local businesses advertise on our website . Our next event is on Friday, December 12 th , which wi ll be the holiday party held at The Alexan. It will start at 5:00 p.m. The Chamber is looking for people to help sponsor the event and for donations for the silent auction , which will be a fund raiser for the Chamber. H e invited all to attend. Mayor Woodward noted the holiday party is open to al l businesses , whether they are a member of the Chamber or not. The next Business After Hours will be held at Liberty Bank on Tuesday, November 18th from 5 to 7 p.m . Liberty Bank is located b y Safeway. Mr. Penn said the golf tournament will be held on June 12 1h at Broken Tee Golf Course . The cost will be $99 per person . We have talked about holding some business type seminars next year. He asked ACE members for topic suggestions . The Chamber would also like to start the Women in Englewood Chamber meetings again . Mr. Morton noted in the membership directory you will ha ve the ability to connect directly to business websites. BID COMMENTS Mr. Vasilas said the BIO holiday banners have been installed and look very nice. The streetscape will start next week with a final walk-thru next Monday afternoon . After that construction crews will begin installin g the bike racks and planters. Se ven pieces of art will also be instal led within the planters. The program wi ll continue next year. The tree replacement took place last weekend. Ten trees were remo ved and replaced with new trees. The owners of the businesses are very happy. Mr. Vasilas said he would lik e to thank Community Development, City Council and the Parks and Recreation Department. We all worked together to get the job done . Thi s program t oo wi ll continu e next year. The coupon book has gone to press and should be available next week. Mr. Vasilas said there are 90 businesses in the BIO district and only approximately 35 participated in the coupon book. He will bring one to the next ACE meeting for all to see. There will be a big Christmas tree on the north side at Broadway and Yale and we will light at least three buildings on the north side and the trees on the south side. 9 • • • ACE Meeting No vember 13 , 2008 Page 10 o f11 Mr. Vasilas distributed the Notice of Meeting for the annual meeting of the BID . It will be held at 1 :30 on Tuesday, November 18th at the Twin Dra gon restaurant at 3021 South Broadway. He invited all to attend . Things are starting to happen in the Business Improvement District. Next year we will see more and better things. The merchants are now seeing things happen and we have the cooperation of the City Council. The members thanked Mr. Vasilas for a nice job. ACE MEMBERS Mr. Panetta asked about the application for the $3 ,000,000 grant. If the City gets all or any of it, when would that be funded? Mr. White said the federal government still has to allocate the money to the State. We made application to the State and it will probably be sometime next year but there is no guarantee we will get the entire amount. Mr. Panetta said if we anticipate a timeline for receiving funds, and based upon the anticipated use and the vehicle being a CDC, how long of time does it take to form a CDC so you aren't sitting on the funds and not putting them to use? Mayor Woodward said that was one of the questions he had and has asked Community Development Staff to check into it. Mr. Vasilas asked if that money would be a loan . Mayor Woodward stated it would not be; it would be a grant. It would be used to purchase foreclosed properties that we would rehabilitate and then sell. Mayor Woodward said he would hope we can look into forming a CDC and also to make sure we could put the funds from the State into it. Ms . Guinther said since the intent of ACE is for supporting commerce if we, as individual businesses , could give a report that addresses the community need through our own individual businesses. The point is how are we addressing the community's needs through our own individual businesses. She stated she refers people to other businesses, but didn't necessarily know exact ly what everyone around the table has to offer. She distributed a new p ubli cation that has come out, Metaphysical Journey, if anyone is interested in advertising in it. Chair Schalk asked Ms. Guinther if she had an outline of what she would like to see from each of the ACE members . She stated she would put something together and give to Mr. Hollingsworth to distribute . Chair Schalk said we made 60 Minutes last Sunday ... we got some national publicity. STAFF COMMENTS Mr. Flaherty noted Englewood Shines will be held on Saturday, December 6 th at 5:00 p .m. Santa will be there and the lighting of the Christmas tree will take place. It is sponsored in part by Millennium Bank. 10 • • • ACE Meeting Nove mber 13, 2008 P age 11 of 11 No further business was broug ht forth for cons id eration. Th e meeting was adjourned at 1 :22 p.m . The next meeting is scheduled or December 11, 2008. Barbara Krecklow, Rec rd in g Secretary 11