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Commuinity Development Authority - MINUTES - 12/1/2003 CITY OF MUSKEGO APPROVED, AS CORRECTED, 1/15/04 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (CDA) MINUTES Monday, December 1, 2003 CDA Chairman Frank Waltz called the meeting of the Community Development Authority to order at 7:01 p.m. Those in attendance recited the Pledge of Allegiance. The meeting was posted in accordance with the Open Meeting Law. PRESENT: Commissioners Rob Glazier, David Lidbury, Suzi Link, Gail Miles, Frank Waltz, Ald. Petfalski and Ald. Nancy Salentine Also in attendance were Mayor Slocomb, Plan Director Brian Turk, Associate Planner Jeff Muenkel, Finance Director Dawn Gunderson GUESTS: 6 (no sign in sheet) APPROVAL OF MINUTES Ald. Salentine moved to accept the minutes as submitted for the October 15, 2003 meeting. Commissioner Glazier seconded. No corrections or additions. Upon a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. Ald. Salentine moved to accept the minutes as submitted for the October 30, 2003 meeting. Commissioner Glazier seconded. No corrections or additions. Upon a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. PRESENTATION Common Council Authorization to Study Of The Redevelopment Of The New Valley Sand & Gravel Quarry In The City Of New Berlin. Plan Director gave a 15-minute slide presentation. Early in 2003, city officials in Muskego were approached by the Mayor and the Community Development Director of the City of New Berlin regarding the New Valley Sand and Gravel site which is located at the southwest corner of Racine Avenue and I-43. The site has been in New Berlin since it was annexed to that city in the early 60s. The site is approximately 226 acres in area and is an active, non-metallic mine and it has been for over 50 years. The City of New Berlin sees this as a brown-field site, a redevelopment site. It has had active zoning compliance issues and court litigation for several years and they are very aggressively pursuing eliminating the nuisances on that site. The request from the City of New Berlin was to assist them in the review and study and reporting back to both Common Councils on the viability of being a tax increment district to redevelop the site for business and industrial purposes. They also asked for review of the proposal for consistency with both New Berlin and Muskego comprehensive plans. The CDA has been involved in several TIF projects in Muskego. CDA Minutes, December 2, 2003, page 2 The issues of study and the main reason why New Berlin is asking for Muskego’s help in this is infrastructure. Both water service and sewer service are most economically provided by the City of Muskego. New Berlin has no facilities in the area that can serve the development on this site. In addition, the site connects to roads in the City of Muskego and would require support for those improvements. New Berlin has offered to look at inter-municipality cooperation on a number of issues including costs and revenue sharing such that any increase in revenue that comes off the quarry development may in some form be shared with the City of Muskego. There may be the feasibility of tax increment districts in the City of Muskego in the area of the Muskego Motor Car and the old, abandoned theater property. They will also be looking at State law to see how new legislation called brown-field tax increment districts can also assist in this. Through this process, both communities would be looking to refine their land use plans both at a neighborhood and project plan level and looking at development densities and unified architectural theme. In looking at this joint effort, the communities would be planning and engineering and looking at the creation of two tax increment districts; one in New Berlin and one in Muskego as tax increment districts cannot cross municipal boundaries. Also noting in the inter-municipality cooperation in this the quarry is entirely within the Muskego-Norway School district so the taxpayers in Muskego would have a direct benefit in the development of the quarry through increased tax base for the school district. One of the areas of concern is that the approved reclamation plan for the quarry indicates that there is enough raw materials on that site to allow it to be an active quarry for up to 45-55 years followed by 1-3 years for final reclamation of the area. This is troubling to New Berlin officials as they have potential now to turn this into a revenue-generating property. There are also environmental concerns due to shallow depth of ground water beneath the surface, exposed ground water, runoff and its exposure to that exposed ground water, and how the fill activities on the site would relate to those areas. New Berlin and Muskego planning staff are concerned about the highest and best use of the land. The nuisance issues that are in place now as well as any nuisance issues that could be created as a result of any development and how to mitigate those including incompatible land uses, dust and noise, visual impacts that could generate. They will also be looking at plan consistency. New Berlin has a comprehensive plan called the growth and development plan. Their growth and development plan says long-term. That corner of the interchange should be a business park of some scale smaller than Westridge; Westridge being the area around I-43 and Moorland Road. They see smaller buildings, smaller floor plates, smaller lot sizes but the same general class of business in the area. Muskego’s comprehensive plan calls for its gateway to be largely retail, service-oriented and to some extent, believe that it could be tailored to complement what New Berlin is trying to do with the quarry site. Muskego also has a conservation plan that depicts Tans Drive as a resource corridor and a view corridor. While it did not receive “rustic road” designation from the State two years ago, it is strongly felt that some effort should be made in preserving that view along Tans Drive corridor. Both communities have architecturally design guides and on review, they are very similar. It is believed that an integrated approach along the interchange can be achieved. The reclamation plan for New Valley has to be taken into account and may need to be amended. Chairman Waltz questioned what was the reclamation plan? Plan Director Turk explained the reclamation plan is a required component prior to WDNR (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) issuance of any permit for non-metallic mining. It is essentially your end vision once you take all the raw materials off the site what the site will turn into in the end. Any new or existing operator has to come into compliance with existing State statutes to tell local municipalities what they are going to do with the site once they are done so they don’t leave a scarred landscape. In looking at opportunities for the site, timing is critical. There is a development team interested in exercising their option to purchase the property. There CDA Minutes, December 2, 2003, page 3 is a very limited scope of opportunity here. The economy is beginning to show signs of rebounding for business and industrial development so they could hit the market window just right. On an aerial slide, he showed the study area. There is a massive amount of dirt to move on the site to balance it and make it flat and level for large floor plate businesses in a business park environment. On the slide, it showed the reclamation site overlaid on the air photo and leveled out. There is a looping ring road through the site with two entrances on to College Avenue and no business park entrances on Tans Drive. There would be only residential entrances on to Tans Drive. Lot sizes range from the two-acre to six-acre range and that could be adjusted based on the end user. In general, it is a fairly good layout for a business park. It has high visibility to the highway corridor and really represents a good use of the site. One thing noted in the review are the residential subdivisions high on the hilltop that overlook the site. As they look at redevelopment of the site, one thing to keep in mind is looking at the roof top of industrial buildings is no more attractive than looking at a quarry. Currently the Muskego Plan Commission looks at four-sided architecture for commercial buildings, however, in this development, they would be looking at five-sided architecture and roof top treatments. Another slide showed what the buildings could look like in the development, very attractive and well landscaped. New Berlin is working with the developers to establish project timelines and critical paths. The timelines were discussed briefly in correspondence between New Berlin and the developer. CDA was provided copy of this correspondence. What needs to be done? Project planning and feasibility study by the plan commissions, presentation of the results including costs and cash flow analyses to the Common Councils. Possible adoption of the redevelopment plans and tax increment district plans and public hearings and then forwarding to the CDAs for implementation. The Councils have agreed to study the issue. Each city is working with consulting engineers. City of Muskego is working with Ruekert/Mielke to develop what the city’s cost and revenue benefits would be on this project. In the short term, the city should have a more refine study to present to both CDAs, Plan Commissions and the Common Councils. Chairman Waltz asked when the CDA would hear next on the subject? On December 1, the city had received revised engineering studies from Ruekert/Mielke. These were distributed to engineering staff, utility staff and the Finance Department. There should be something preliminary at the next CDA meeting. Commissioner Lidbury Glazier asked if the property needed to be purchased or was it dependent on how far the planning process gets, who owns the property? Commissioner Link replied it was owned by State Financial Bank. Given the geography with 15 percent New Berlin and 85 percent Muskego, Commissioner Miles questioned why New Berlin was involved with the Muskego community? Plan Director Turk explained that the property is entirely in the City of New Berlin and largely in the Muskego/Norway School District. He shared that in earlier discussions that if the only benefit to the City of Muskego is utility revenue, then it is probably something that is not worth of pursuit as it would be a multi-million dollar project. Negotiations still need to occur to see what Muskego benefits would be. OLD BUSINESS None CDA Minutes, December 2, 2003, page 4 NEW BUSINESS Chairman’s report : status of former Parkland Mall site. Following the October 30 meeting, Art Dyer and his associates met with city officials, city staff, and Chairman Waltz and reviewed a number of issues associated with the proposed development. Chairman Waltz addressed issues in his letter of November 5 stating the various proforma(s) and market information that was needed. He summarized Item 5 of the letter that once they had received all the items requested, Martin Associates, city staff and also possible independent consultants would analyze the data and then advise the CDA on the various assumptions made on the project costs, etc. He stated that Mr. Dyer has provided some of the information. When the balance of the information is received, it would be reviewed. He expected the information and the review of the information would be done in time for the January meeting. Consideration of a recommendation to the Common Council concerning approval of a Revolving Loan Fund loan to Gorski, Inc., dba Li'l Angels Day Care to assist with the purchase of the building at S84 W18473 Enterprise Drive. Plan Director Turk shared that Mr. Meland from the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) sent his regrets that he could not be at the meeting for the presentation from the commission. The commission is contracted by the City of Muskego to administer the program. However, a memorandum was sent to the CDA recommending approval with eight conditions that must be met for the loan. If the CDA recommends approval with the eight conditions being met, then it would go on to the Common Council for approval with the eight conditions. If the Common Council approves the loan, no funds would be released until the eight conditions were met. Mr. and Mrs. Gorski reviewed the conditions and indicated they would have no problem in meeting them. Ald Petfalski moved to approve the loan subject to the conditions set forth by SEWRPC. Commissioner Link seconded. No other discussion. Upon a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. Requesting Council to authorize expenditure for professional services to validate the proforma(s) associated with Redevelopment District #2. Plan Director Turk stated that the CDAs by-laws indicate that any single expenditure in excess of $5,000 must be specifically requested to be approved by the Common Council and action taken in the affirmative on the same. He explained that with his departure and the remaining workload that will be left, Associate Planner Jeff Muenkel will be the Interim Director. He has only been on staff for a short term. A lot of the daily functions will be outsourced including a quantity of the reviews needed for the Beacon Square proposal. There is a possibility that this could exceed the $5,000 whether it be an engineering review or an architecture review of the costs. Also, if there needs to be any new contracts signed, those would have to be approved. There are some service agreements in place such as with Crispell-Sneider and Ruekert/Mielke which can be utilized. However, if they hit $5,000 on a project, they need to be approved. The CDA does have a professional services budget which could be used if necessary. He believed that these are expenses eligible for TID 8 administrative costs. Commissioner Link moved to request the Common Council to authorize these expenditures. Commissioner Lidbury seconded. No further discussion. Upon a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. CDA Minutes, December 2, 2003, page 5 PUBLIC INPUT None. NEXT MEETING: The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 14, 2004, at 7:00 p.m. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, Commissioner Link moved for adjournment, seconded by Ald. Petfalski. Upon a voice vote, the motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 7:31 p.m. Stella Dunahee, CPS Recording Secretary