City Council Minutes - 08/05/2003 Agenda Item No. * 1
Meeting of
Minutes for Special City Council Meeting of August 5, 2003
Location — 10305 SW 87th, Tigard, OR Home of Councilor Sydney Sherwood
Mayor Jim Griffith opened the special Council meeting at 2:15 p.m. The purpose of the meeting
was to conduct a City Council Strategic Planning Discussion. Present at the meeting at
2:15 p.m. were Mayor Jim Griffith, Councilors Sydney Sherwood, Brian Moore, Craig Dirksen,
and Nick Wilson as well as City Manager Bill Monahan. Lucy, Councilor Sherwood's cat, arrived
at 3:40 p.m.
The Council first discussed its goals for the day. Council emphasized that it was open to
identify unique ideas, identify projects to undertake, and suggest unique features for present
projects. Immediately there was a discussion of the downtown area and the opportunities
present as a result of commuter rail. Councilor Dirksen, the Council liaison to the downtown
citizen group, emphasized a need for public projects to encourage private developers to invest
in the downtown. He suggested a public plaza or square, housing for elderly needing public
transportation, and other public investment.
After much discussion, Council suggested that staff contact Jeff Tashman, a consultant on
urban renewal. Mr. Tashman will be asked to meet with the duwnluwn task force and the City
Council possibly in September or October, 2003. The purpose of the discussion will be to talk
about the economics of the downtown area and whether or not the economics can support
Tigard's ideas for redevelopment. Mr. Tashman will be asked to discuss the Tualatin
experience and opine which elements of the Tualatin concept would conceivably work in Tigard.
He also will be asked to give some general advice on financing opportunities, in particular tax
increment financing.
Council discussed tax increment financing and recognized that a charter amendment exists
which prohibits Tigard from undertaking a tax increment financing district without first receiving
support of the voters. The charter amendment, placed in the charter in 1983, was formulated at
a time that the implications of tax increment financing were different than they are today. Mr.
Tashman will be asked to explain to the City Council how tax increment financing presently
works.
Economic development was also discussed. Bill Monahan explained that an opportunity is
scheduled for a discussion with the Economic Development Partners, a non-profit made up of
several local jurisdictions as well as Portland Development Commission. In January the City
Council suggested that consideration of an economic development program be discussed
during 2003 as part of its Council Goals. Bill will report to the City Council on August 26 on his
recommendation regarding the opportunity to join the Partners and potentially to create the
position of Economic Development Director.
Council also discussed Tri-Met service. There is significant interest in creating inner-city bus
service in Tigard. Bill will work with Finance Director Craig Prosser to initiate discussions with
Tri-Met to better understand the numbers presented by Tri-Met which, according to Tri-Met,
illustrate that Tigard receives more bus service than is paid for by locally generated Tri-Met tax.
In essence, Craig will be asked to perform an audit of Tri-Met similar to that performed on other
franchises in the City. Tri-Met will be pressed to justify their numbers. Staff will also develop
strategy to investigate the feasibility of inner-city bus service. Perhaps a demonstration
program can be set up with a local company like RAZ. The City of Wilsonville has a successful
Tigard City Council Meeting Minutes—August 5, 2003 Page 1
program, thus staff will check with Wilsonville regarding the costs of delivering an inner-city
service.
Bull Mountain was discussed. The Council gave direction to staff to continue to move forward in
bringing an annexation plan to City Council in September. At the same time, staff will work with
Washington County to discuss communication opportunities to present information to the entire
community.
The White House on the library site was discussed. Council would like to make a decision in
the next several months whether the house should be preserved or removed from the site.
Council suggested that it would like to tour the house sometime in the next few weeks. It was
suggested that to justify preserving the house there needs to be a use, but not an office or
house. Once Council has toured the facility, a discussion of options will occur. If a decision is
made to save the house, Council suggested that others need to be involved.
As the meeting drew to a close, Councilor Wilson suggested that the next discussion topic be
transportation. The street maintenance fee is coming back for discussion by Council. If funds
are freed up from the gas tax monies, Council needs to give direction on what to do with the
freed-up dollars.
The meeting concluded at 5:45 p.m.
it iam A. Monahan, City Manager
Attest:
May , City g rd n
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Tigard City Council Meeting Minutes—August 5, 2003 Page 2