Loading...
02-12-0123 Board of Directors Room City Hall — 500 W. Markham Little Rock, Arkansas February 13, 2001 — 4:OOP.M The Board of Directors of the City of Little Rock, February 6, 2001, Special Meeting, with Mayor Dailey presiding. Assistant City Clerk Vanessa Sykes called the roll with the following Directors present: Directors: Pugh, Hinton, Lichty, Cazort, Keck, Stewart, Wyrick, Graves, Adcock and Kumpuris.10 present. The meeting was recorded as follows: Mayor Dailey asked the board to consider agenda modifications that consisted of the following: A motion was made by Director Adcock to add Item 2 -A to the special meeting agenda. Director Adcock seconded the motion, and by unanimous voice vote of the board members present, the item was added. 2 -A. PUBLIC HEARING & RESOLUTION NO. 10,999 - A resolution to approve 125 taxi cab operator permits for the greater Little Rock Transportation Services, LLC. Mayor Dailey declared the Public Hearing open. There were no questions or comments. Mayor Dailey declared the Public Hearing closed. Director Keck moved for the adoption of the resolution; Director Adcock seconded the motion, and by unanimous voice vote of the board members present, the resolution was adopted. 1. INTERVIEWS & RESOLUTION NO. 11,000- To interview applicants and make appointments to the Civil Service Commission. 3. EVALUATION - Of the City Manager and City Attorney The board interviewed two applicants, Mr. Randy Hamlin, and Mr. Brett Morgan. The meeting recessed to executive session on a motion by Vice Mayor Cazort, and seconded by Director Keck, to consider the appointments, and for the evaluation of the City Manager and City Attorney. The board reconvened, Mr. Carney, City Manager, announced the recommendation of Mr. Randolph Hamlin. Vice Mayor Cazort made the motion to accept the recommendation, Director Pugh seconded the motion, and by unanimous voice vote of board members present, the resolution appointing Mr. Hamlin was adopted. Mayor Dailey announced the board discussed the evaluation of the City Manager, Cy Carney, and that the board would address the evaluation of the City Attorney, Tom Carpenter at a subsequent meeting. Mayor Dailey announced that the City Board of Directors has unanimously agreed they are pleased with the service of the City Manger and the recommendation to increase Mr. Carny's salary, retro to January 1St commensurate with the increases of City employees in general, which is in the range of 4 %. A motion was made by Director Adcock, seconded by Director Pugh to approve the recommendation, and by unanimous voice vote of board members present the motion was adopted. 2. RESOLTUION NO. 10,998— To set the date of Public Hearing for February 20th, 2001 on a petition to abandon and close a portion of 10th and 11th Streets, and the Alley in Block 9 of Roots and Coy Subdivision, in the City of Little Rock, Arkansas. The resolution was read. Director Keck made a motion to adopt the resolution; Vice Mayor Cazort seconded the motion, and by unanimous voice vote the resolution was adopted. Mayor Dailey turned the meeting over to Vice Mayor Cazort to preside over the balance of the meeting. Mayor Dailey then recused, on Item 4. 4. ORDINANCE - Z- 4923 -A — Approving a modification to a Planned Zoning Development titled Summit Mall — Revised PCD, located at the southwest corner of Shackleford Road and Interstate 430, in the City of Little Rock, Arkansas; and for other purposes. (Planning Commission: 8 yes, 2 no, 1 abstention.) (Third reading.) 1 2� Director Kumpuris stated that he had just received today over twenty pages of new information, and to his knowledge the public had not seen this information, or had the ability to comment on it. Director Kumpuris made the motion to table Item 4 until March 6, 2001, and have the final vote at that time so all the information received tonight could be fully digested by the public. Director Stewart seconded the motion. The City Attorney, Tom Carpenter stated that the proper time to table the vote on the item would be after the public hearing, otherwise, everything would have to be tabled. Director Kumpuris withdrew his motion, and stated he would make the motion after the hearing. Vice Mayor Cazort stated if there was no objection from the board, he would allow the public to speak first tonight on the item, and the developers. He said there were -- approximately nineteen to twenty cards for people who wished to speak in opposition, and three beside the developer who wished to speak in favor. He proposed allowing three minutes per speaker. The speakers in opposition were: Gary Schroeder, 713 N. Pierce, Andy Burns, 1100 N. Taylor, John Fortney, 205 Ridgeway Drive, Sam Heard, 4520 Austin, Jim Lynch, 16 Lenan Drive, W. J. Monagle, 1508 S. Taylor, Gene Williams, 1407 S. Arch Street, Johnny Wilson, 3022 Wolfe Street, Edward Swaim. 36 Rosemont Dr., Walter B. Clancey, 2510 Hidden Valley Drive, Hyatt Lee, 720 Vernon #1, Dana Duree, 5 Gregory Lane, Devon Cockrell, 50 Broadmoor, Kathleen Oleson, 5717 Hawthorn Road, J. Wiggins, 119 Dennison, Rod Bryan, 2802 W. 7th Street, Luke Kramer, 321 Ash Street, Russell Lemond, 5 Kings Mountain Ct., Hattie Daniels, 3820 Ludwig, Samantha Mayo, 707 North Jackson, and Ms. Zahner, representing First Union's interest in Park Plaza Mall. The opposition statements included economic and environmental issues, property values, and prevailing cynicism regarding city government, the declining property values of the area now housing the Park Plaza Mall and the University Mall, concern the traffic funding for solutions to traffic problems the mall would create will no be there, the loss and abandonment of existing buildings and property, concern for the closure of the Park Plaza Mall as well as the University Mall if the Summit Mall is constructed. Those in opposition voiced concern of abandonment of the property in the university area, and concern if other developments were used to infill these areas, a petition was presented representing the Oak Forrest Neighborhood, of people opposing the new mall, the concern regarding continued sprawl of development into the west part of Little Rock, concerns for infrastructure in the area if the mall is built. The speakers in favor of the proposed mall were: Doris Wright, 3701 Boyd Street, George Brown, 2823 LeHigh Drive. They cited economic redevelopment and jobs that would be created for the area if the mall were approved. Mr. Thomas Schneider, and Mr. Wes Cherry said there had been market studies done, and that the area would support a regional mall. Mr. Schneider gave a brief outline on the project. Regarding the economic impact, he said the construction employment figures were based on the total dollar volume over a period of time of the constructions contracts and how many man - hours it would take to complete that contract. The permanent employment is based on per square foot employment base for the amount of square footage that is being built. He said these projections are fairly standard in the industry. He said he thought the mall could bring something new and exciting to Little Rock. He said they did some research on redevelopment, and cited several properties that Simon owned and redeveloped, and was successful. He said it was their duty and their job to maximize the value of their assets. He said they have a large staff whose function it to redevelop and redefine and reposition existing portfolios. Director Lichty asked Mr. Schneider if there is no state funding or federal funding secured from this project, and there is no city funding, does this affect the viability of this whole project? Mr. Schneider reemphasized that they are not looking to the city to fund the six million dollars, and have steadfastly stated that position. He said they would look at federal funding sources, and other funding sources. He said he was not in the position to say where they would go, but recognized they needed to find a funding source, and they have a person in their company whose job it is to find funding. He also stated that he understood that the building permits would be conditional upon getting that funding, and that the improvements have to be in place before the mall opens. There were various requests from the board for additional information including cost for additional city services such as fire, police, and bus service. Financial information with various new additional scenarios to be included such as one hundred and fifty percent 2 loss of sales tax revenues from University and Park Plaza malls, a recap of the traffic study, further review of the real estate evaluation of the mall to be used in the impact computations, data regarding the cost and scope of improvements along University Avenue. A motion was made by Director Kumpuris to defer the third reading of this item for three weeks. Director Keck seconded the motion. All board members with the exception of Director Stewart, by voice vote, voted to defer the third reading until March 6, 2001. Director Kumpuris made the motion to adjourn; Director Adcock seconded the motion and by unanimous voice vote the meeting was adjourned at 10:35 P.M. ATTEST: Nan y Woo ,City Clerk APPROVE: .;13�w ,1i 4, ti Dailey, Mayor �s