Loading...
Item 9AAGENDA ITEM # 9A FEBRUARY I I, 2008 February 4, 2008 MEMORANDUM TO: The Honorable Mayor and Members of the Commission FROM: Jim Hans C' ager , SUBJECT: City Mana is Report Sale of Alcohol to Minors; The Atlantic Beach Police Department conducted an another alcohol deployment on January 31St to check for businesses that would sell alcohol to minors. Fourteen businesses were checked, but only one (the Hess Mart) sold alcohol and was charged. This makes a "buy" rate of slightly over 7% and indicates that recent efforts of the Police Department are getting business owners to provide better training for their employees. Of particulaz note was that the Ocean Sixty Restaurant was one of the 141ocations. Their employees did not sell alcohol to the minor as they had in three recent alcohol deployments. After the last time that they were charged for sale of alcohol to minors, Mayor Meserve wrote a letter to the owner strongly urging their attention to this issue. Issues for Strategic Planning Consideration; Attached you will fmd a list of major issues for discussion at the upcoming strategic planning meetings. These issues are a combination of carry over items from previous strategic planning lists as well as new items brought up in discussions with city commissioners and from the staff. The commissioners will have an opportunity to bring additional items for discussion. These strate~ic planning workshops will be held on Wednesday, February 2'7tI' and Thursday, February 28 Each will begin at 5:00 pm and will last until approximately 9:00 pm. Both are scheduled at the Adele Grage Center. AGENDA ITEM # 9A FEBRUARY 11, 2008 City of Atlantic Beach List of Issues to Consider for Strategic Planning Sessions February 2008 A. Ongoing Issues from 2007-08 Strategic Plan 1. Mayport Road Medians. A major goal of the city commission for the last five years has been the construction of raised medians along Mayport Road to improve traffic and pedestrian safety, to encourage economic redevelopment, and to improve the aesthetics of the comdor. Because of the high price of the project (recently bid out at $6.3 million) and the fact that portions of Mayport Road are in both Atlantic Beach and Jacksonville, the project has become a joint effort of the Cities of Atlantic Beach and Jacksonville as well as the Florida Department of Transportation. After preliminary studies supporting the medians were completed, agreements were approved between the three entities for joint design and funding of the project. The design work has been completed and bids were recently opened. However, funding from the three partners only totals $5:5 million leaving a shortfall of $800,000. Recent approvals for project scope amendments have reduced the deficit to about $100,000 and options are currently being considered that will bring the project within the total budget. Construction is expected to begin in the late spring of 2008 and will take approximately one year to complete. All necessary Atlantic Beach funding is budgeted with a contingency for problems that may arise during the project. 2. HoQkins Creek Retention Pond. Consultants working for the city called for the construction of a new storm water retention pond on Hopkins Creek in the vicinity of the Aquatic Gardens Subdivision in a September 2001 update of the Storm Water Master Plan. Anticipating the completion of the core city storm water improvements which were ongoing at the time, Aquatic Gardens was the last area in Atlantic Beach that experiences significant street and house flooding during a five year rain event. The city has purchased the property to construct the pond, taken bids and awarded a construction project. Construction is underway with completion expected in December of this year. All necessary funding is in place for this project. 3. Acquisition of the Buckman Trust Property. The Buckman Trust owns approximately 350 acres of wetlands in Atlantic Beach's city limits including approximately 10 acres of upland property in several small islands. The purchase of the property by the city would protect the area from future development and allow for the opening of the property for public recreation. The estimated value of the property was set at $2.5 million and a grant was received from the Florida Communities Trust to pay approximately 75% of the acquisition price. Atlantic Beach has budgeted $605,000. At the city's request, the FCT handled the appraisals. Negotiations for acquisition have been handled by Atlantic Beach with assistance from the City of Jacksonville. Negotiations are ongoing for the acquisition of the property and the appraisal values remain confidential. Negotiations are expected to be completed one way or the other by April of this year when the FCT grant will expire. B. FinanciaUBudget Issues AGENDA ITEM # 9A FEBRUARY 11, 2008 1. Properly Tax Referendum. The property tax referendum was adopted on a State-wide basis on January 29~' although rejected by Atlantic Beach voters. Staff estimates that the effect will be to reduce the city's tax base, and consequently tax revenues, by at least $500,000 beginning with next year's budget. The cost of the "portability" provision cannot be accurately estimated. The city commission will be required to take several steps to balance future budgets. One option is to reduce or eliminate some city services, thus reducing operating costs. Another is to delay or eliminate future capital projects. Raising other revenue sources is a possibility as well as increasing the tax rate. A combination of these may be the most prudent. The choices to be made will be difficult and will not please everyone. With this in mind, the commission should be extremely cautious about taking on any new financial obligations. Staff will provide many options in connection with the budget proposals next summer to make the ends meet. In the meantime, should the city begin cutting costs now? 2. Public Safety Building. Over the past several years, the City Commission has established a need for a new Public Safety building. The existing facility is inadequate to meet the demands of the community, and renovation of the present structure would not be cost effective. Three city owned sites for a new building were evaluated by a Public Safety building consultant. Costs estimates in June 2007 ranged from $5.9 million (City Hall site) to $6.8 million (Jordan site). No action was taken on the consultant's evaluation. The City Commission deferred any action on this project until after the January 2008 referendum on property taxes. To move forward with the project, the Commission must first select a location for the new facility. If it is not on city owned property, then property must. be acquired. Once this has been done, the city can select a firm for design. It has been suggested that Mayport Road would be a good location for a new police station. Current estimates for Mayport Road property range from $435,000 to $710,000 per acre. A minimum of 2.5 acres of usable land would be needed. Regardless of the choice of location, the construction of a new Public Safety building will require some type of financing because the cost significantly exceeds the city's availability to fund this through normal operating revenues. 3. Wastewater Plant Expansion to Meet New Nitro eg_n Regulations for the St. Johns River. The State of Florida, the St. Johns Water Management District and many local public and private agencies have all been working together over the last two years to establish new nitrogen limits for the St. Johns River. These will require that most, if not all, of the wastewater plants in the region be upgraded including those operated by Atlantic Beach. The State Department of Environmental Protection will begin issuing permits under the new regulations immediately. These permits will include administrative orders with compliance schedules. Atlantic Beach has contracted with HDR Engineering to assess the most cost effective means to meet the new requirements. Options being reviewed include making AGENDA ITEM # 9A FEBRUARY 11, 2008 reclaimed water available for irrigation, transfer of flows between treatment plants and upgrading one or both treatment plants. Initial estimates of the cost for the plant upgrades exceed $10 million although we are optimistic that the HDR study will find more cost effective solutions'. T'he cost related to final design and construction of the wastewater plant improvements will also require the city to issue bonds. Anticipating this fmancing, along with the need to fund an ongoing program of sewer rehabilitation and some other major projects, water and sewer rate increases have been increased 10% in October 2007 and similar amounts for the next two years. 4. Funding for Water/Sewer Master Plan Implementation. The city has in place water and sewer master plans assessing the condition of infrastructure and recommending capital plans for the next ten years. These plans for infrastructure improvements and repairs have an average cost of about $2 million per year over a 10 yeaz period. Less than half that amount has been available for capital expenditures due to declining consumption and revenues. Because of the sewer line rehabilitation needed, recommendations in the water master plan for replacing old, undersized and asbestos concrete water mains have been pushed out to 2014 and beyond. Funding for the continued maintenance of the water and sewer systems should be considered in connection with the financing needed for the TMDL wastewater plant upgrades and the future rate increases. 5. Information Technology System Development. The City of Atlantic Beach currently utilizes hardware, software, and networking to automate and manage it's information needs including utility billing, payroll, purchasing, building and zoning, asset management, geographic information system (GIS), and day to day communications. Improvements in the information technology and expertise can greatly increase the efficiency of city staff in providing services to the public. Further development is feasible and should be considered. Some cities provide on-line bill paying, GIS access to citizens, crime data on demand, licensing/permit applications, and other access to their local government. However, such enhancements require expertise and funding and Atlantic Beach may not be able to afford all of these functions. It would be helpful for the city commission to express its level of support for long term information technology goals so the planning can be implemented and resources can be identified to achieve those goals in the future. 6. Royal Palms Infrastructure Reconstruction. The Royal Palms neighborhood has been in place over 40 years and the water, sewer and storm water lines are deteriorating. Point repairs have averaged $18,000 per year, but aze expected to increase as the infrastructure ages. Many of the storm water and sewer lines are in side and rear yards making maintenance difficult. The plan for reconstruction calls for removing as many of these to the street as economically feasible. A preliminary engineering study is almost complete, having been delayed several months to get additional TV inspection storm drain lines. The next step will be the detailed design for improvements and $400,000 is included in the current year budget for that project. The current estimate of the cost for the storm water and street improvements is 6.2 million dollazs. AGENDA ITEM # 9A FEBRUARY 11, 2008 It is anticipated that this construction can be designed in four phases out of current revenues. However, some of the later phases for the Royal Palms reconstruction project have been pushed out several years in the ten year plan due to funding shortfalls. One additional consideration is the city's suit against Ferrell Gas to require their removal of 35 underground storage tanks in the subdivision, many of which will conflict with the reconstruction project. To aid in the case, the city recently removed one of these tanks at a cost of $15,000. 6. Intercoastal WaterwaXPark System. If the city can acquire the Buckman Trust property, then the city parks at Dutton Island and Tideviews will be connected. When considered in connection with the parks owned by the Cities of Jacksonville and Jacksonville Beach, the potential for an integrated recreational, educational and ecotourism programs along the Intercoastal are virtually unlimited. Atlantic Beach should explore access to the marsh with additional canoe/kayak launching points using some of the existing right of ways (e.g. West 9~' Street and West 14~' Street). Grant funding may be available for some of this development and projects should be coordinated with the City of Jacksonville and the City of Jacksonville Beach. C. Legislative Issues 1. District Elections. A referendum was approved by the voters of Atlantic Beach in October 2007 that requires commissioners elected in the future to live within one of four districts. While commissioners must live in the districts that they represent, all voters in the city will vote for each city commissioner. It is now the responsibility of the City Commission to establish or revise the precinct lines for the four existing precincts and to assign commission seats to those precincts. This should be done through an ordinance procedure within the next several months. While the Commission should take the time needed to make these decisions in a deliberate and studied manner, it would be appropriate to have the decisions complete well before the election cycle begins for 2009 thus giving any interested candidates time to plan for election. The decisions made by the City Commission on this item may have several effects. The first would hopefully be to eliminate the perception held by some that residents on the westside of Mayport Road are not adequately represented on the City Commission. A second effect may be that some existing Commissioners would not be eligible to run for re-election when their current terms expire. It is anticipated that the effective date for these changes would be when the current terms of office expire in 2009 and 2011. 2. Amendments to the Tree Ordinance. Considering major amendments to the city's tree ordinance has been on the strategic plan for the last couple of years, although it was put "on the back burner" until sufficient legislative time was available to give due consideration to proposed changes. The new commission may be less inclined to make major modifications to the tree ordinance. However, a number of minor changes are needed to update the ordinance with respect to format, language and certain administrative provisions. The need to make these "housekeeping" revisions was discussed with the Tree Board at the workshop last AGENDA ITEM # 9A FEBRUARY 11, 2008 fall which was very supportive. Among others, they included a revision of the process to provide for the administrative approval of simple tree permits for single and two-family projects only where a tree permit application clearly complies with the ordinance. These routine approvals require a great deal of Tree Board and staff time in prepazation for the meetings. Commercial and other projects should continue to go to the Tree Board, and staff would want to preserve the right to refer any application to the Board if deemed appropriate. 3. Town Center Overlay District. The Town Center Agency is a charitable corporation established many yeass ago and was instrumental in getting the streetscape improvements in Town Center installed. A couple of years ago, the Agency presented a list of proposed zoning changes, called an overlay district, for consideration of the Cities of Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach. Changes would include revising the height limits, eliminating parking requirements, allowing sidewalk dining and allowing balconies over sidewalks. Some of these changes may have a dramatic effect on the Town Center area as well as adjoining neighborhoods. Some would be controversial. Revising the zoning standards for the Town Center azea would be a major legislative and planning effort. In recent years, the Commission determined that this should be put on the list of strategic priorities, although put on the "back burner" until sufficient time is available to consider the request. Consequently, no action has been taken. D. Legislative and Financial Issues. 1. Mayport Road Crime. Over the past few years, crime along the Mayport Road corridor has been repeatedly discussed. This area of the city (and outside of the Atlantic Beach city limits) has a variety of challenges and problems that should be addressed. Compared to the rest of the community, Mayport Road has the highest levels of traffic crashes, drug offenses, prostitution, incidences of disorder, and crimes of violence. To make significant, visible progress in revitalizing the area will require the combined efforts of multiple jurisdictions and departments. State, county and local agencies will need to work together and form partnerships with citizens, police, code enforcement, traffic engineering, and housing and zoning officials. Each group has respective concerns to be addressed in the area. The Police Department has already dedicated manpower and resources to the area through various grant funded positions and initiatives. The PD has also joined with other law enforcement agencies to conduct sting operations for prostitution, illegal drug sales, underage alcohol sales, and similar crimes. Routinely, our patrol officers focus enforcement efforts to highly visible offenses that degrade the quality of life for people in businesses in the area. Building, zoning, and code enforcement officials have assisted with ordinances and zoning issues over the past several years. The PD has also conducted surveys with businesses and met with various associations and groups to form partnerships. A result of all this is that it has become apparent that challenges along Mayport Road are not simply policing problems, and a more comprehensive approach is needed to significantly change the existing conditions. Some initiatives have already been implemented, some are in progress, and others will require legislative and budget support. Improving the life along AGENDA ITEM # 9A FEBRUARY 11, 2008 Mayport Road will require an ongoing commitment from government and community leaders. 2. Green Cities Initiatives. Following all the media coverage of issues related to global warming and energy in recent months, many cities across the country are becoming "green local governments." Frank Ortis, President of the Florida League of Cities this year, is making this a FLC priority and has said "it would be my desire that all 412 cities in Florida embrace this as a priority for their city." There are many avenues that a city could or should pursue under the umbrella of being "green". Many of these would reduce energy costs in the future. These may include buying more fuel efficient vehicles for the city fleet, retrofitting city buildings to be more energy efficient, and constructing new buildings to meet the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. Other initiatives under this heading may include finding ways to encourage builders of private buildings to meet the LEED standards. Even such things as expanding the city's tree planting program would fit. Undoubtedly, a considerable amount of time and money could be devoted to this goal. However, like other priorities, there is only a limited amount of administrative and legislative time available to devote to strategic planning priorities and it will be necessary for the commission to determine how much time, if any, should be focused in this direction.