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November 07, 2016 Minutes CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES November 7, 2016 After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council convened in a Work Session on Monday, November 7, 2016 at 11:30 a.m. in the Council Work Session Room at City Hall. PRESENT: Mayor Pro Tem Roden, Council Member Wazny, Council Member Briggs, Council Member Hawkins, Council Member Gregory, Council Member Bagheri, and Mayor Watts. ABSENT: None. 1. Work Session Reports A. ID 16-1417 Receive a report, hold a discussion, and provide direction regarding current City of Denton facilities and how to proceed with planning for future needs. Mark Nelson, Director of Transportation, stated that the City had hired Nelson+Morgan Architects to work with City staff and look at current and future staffing needs, review the recommendations in the 2002 HOK Denton Facilities Master Plan Study and look at City Hall, City Hall East, City Hall West, and the Service Center to determine facility needs. Alan Nelson with Nelson+Morgan Architects stated that the 2002 Facilities Master Plan prepared by HOK was a good plan but was only designed to cover about a 10-year span. He stated that the City Hall facilities were aging structures (281,800 SF combined). City Hall was 50 years old. City Hall East was 70 years old. City Hall West was 90 years old. The Service Center was 40 years old. These buildings required substantial ongoing maintenance expenses and were expensive and difficult to renovate. Customer service for citizens was impaired by the lack of one key facility; limited inefficient office space; a decentralized service model; and the demands for public meeting space strained many facilities, such as the City Council Chambers, City Council Work Session Room, and Municipal Court. Parking at all facilities was limited. Current facilities did not have adequate room to expand as the City grew. Nelson stated that the goal to review and update the 2002 Facilities Master Plan included – an update to City Hall space requirements with current City Administrative staff needs using 2016 as a baseline; an update to space projections through 2026; an adjustment for departmental organization and relationship changes; and adjustments to the plan(s) and recommendations due to other physical, economic and political changes in the City since adoption of the original Master Plan. He reviewed the key elements of the 2002 Master Plan. He stated that the update would be limited to City Hall, City Hall East, City Hall West, the existing Service Center, and a proposed Southwest Service Center. Nelson stated that City Hall East was 99% full with approximately 146,722 gross square feet. City Hall East had eight major departments located in it. They were proposing to keep four departments at City Hall East –Technology Services, Police Department, Municipal Court, and the Municipal Judge’s area. By 2026 that area would need to increase by about 12,000 square feet and add another 67 people in that building. City Hall East would then become a Criminal Justice Center. Council Member Gregory left the meeting at 12:15 p.m. City of Denton City Council Minutes November 7, 2016 Page 2 Nelson+Morgan’s recommendation was to take the following departments out of City Hall East – Community Improvement Services, Community Development, Customer Service, Human Resources, Risk Management, and Parks and Recreation. These 110 people would move to City Hall. Employment projections for these departments say that staff would grow to 140 by 2026. Space requirements would be about 37,493 square feet. City Hall currently had eight departments – City Manager’s Suite, City Attorney’s Suite, Finance Suite, Economic Development, Transportation, Public Communications/Denton TV, Reprographics, and Utilities Administration. There were 108 staff in City Hall. By 2026, employment projections say that staff would grow to 156. Space requirements for that group would be about 51,778 square feet. City Hall West had 68 people and employment projections for 2026 say that staff would grow to 94. Space requirements would be about 29,026 square feet. Nelson stated that an Emergency Operations Center would become operational by 2026 and would need about 17, 645 square feet. Nelson stated that they had looked at possible site locations for City Hall. Area A was on the South side of McKinney Street. Advantages to this location were – centrally located; good visibility; no major disruption to existing activities during construction; and pedestrian access crossing McKinney. Disadvantages to this location were – parking garage would have to be on the north side of McKinney and therefore would not qualify for TIF Grant and separation from other municipal facilities by street. Area B was the 301 McKinney site. Advantages to this location were – adjacent to existing municipal facilities; pedestrian access to parking/crosswalk constructed; and existing City Hall was available as an annex for departmental space. Disadvantages to this location were – flood plain mitigation was necessary; limited horizontal buildable area; and construction congestion. Area C was City Hall. Advantages to this location were – adjacent to existing municipal facilities; remained as traditional municipal center. Disadvantages to this location were – limited vertical expansion potential; vacate during construction; major flood plain mitigation; and lose character of original O’Neil Ford design. Area D was the post office site. Advantages to this location were – location to City Hall and high visibility. Disadvantages to this location were – not currently for sale; not City property and high cost to renovate/remodel. In a 1967 drawing, City Hall was depicted as a multi-story building. Nelson stated that it could be expanded to a two-story structure but an engineering firm would have to do an in-depth analysis to see about adding any additional floors. Nelson presented a proposed space implementation plan. The North Wing of the current City Hall facility would hold Human Resources and the Parks Department. The West Wing would be an unassigned space. The Council Chambers and the City Hall basement would be kept for training and meeting spaces. A proposed City Hall facility on the former County annex property next door would include the Emergency Ops Center on the lower level. The first level would have the City of Denton City Council Minutes November 7, 2016 Page 3 Council Chambers and Work Session Room, Customer Service, Building Inspections, and Public Communications/DTV. The second level would have Development Services, Community Improvement Services, Community Development, Gas Well Review, Fire Prevention, and Economic Development. The third level would have the City Attorney’s Office, the City Manager’s Office, Utility Administration, Transportation, and Finance. Across the street on the south side of McKinney, a multi-level parking garage with 600 parking spaces was proposed. Nelson stated that the Service Center currently housed Water Distribution, Water Metering, Wastewater Collections, Water/Wastewater Administration, Water/Wastewater Admin Field Techs, Drainage, Engineering Services, Materials Management, Parks Maintenance, Utilities Safety and Training, Electric Communications and Streets Department. Currently there were 253 people at the Service Center. By 2026, employment projections say that staff would grow to 317 people. Nelson stated that the current Service Center had several challenges that included: separated key functions from other city departments and impaired customer service; poor accessibility for the public and parking limitations; space limitations – currently at capacity; expansion of location was not compatible with surrounding neighborhoods; and purchasing function was separated from other administrative functions. They recommended not changing the warehouse space. The only area in the Service Center that they had identified that could be adjusted right now was the Electric Communications Department. Nelson+Morgan proposed building a Southwest Service Center. This location would have Wastewater Collections, Water Metering, Water Distribution, Streets/Drainage, Parks/Maintenance and Construction, and Fleet Services. Nelson summarized the Master Plan recommendations: 1. Convert City Hall East to a Criminal Justice Center. 2. Re-centralize City Hall. 3. Relocate the Emergency Operations Center. 4. Relocate City Hall West/DATCU departments to new central facility. 5. Construct a Southwest Service Center. 6. Construct a Parking Structure on south side of McKinney Street. Nelson reviewed the preliminary construction costs for a remodel of the current City Hall and construction of a new City Hall, a parking garage, a Criminal Justice Center – City Hall East, and a Southwest Service Center. Chuck Springer, Director of Fiscal and Municipal Services, reviewed some potential funding options – Downtown TIRZ; Hotel Occupancy Tax; Public, Educational and Governmental Programing (PEG) Funds; Bond Capacity of Development Services Center rent; Service Center reserve; 2020 Bond Program; and other funding. Mark Nelson provided a brief overview of the County annex property adjacent to City Hall. He stated that efforts to remediate environmentally hazardous materials in the structure and contaminants in the soil were completed in September. Bid documents to receive proposals to demolish the structure were published the first week of November. Staff was seeking confirmation from Council on previous direction to move forward with demolition of the structure which could be initiated as early as January 2017. General consensus of Council was to move forward with removal of the structure on the County annex property. Council agreed that staff should initiate Phase II of the Facilities Master Plan to include direction to move forward with preliminary design efforts for a one stop City Hall Campus, City of Denton City Council Minutes November 7, 2016 Page 4 a downtown parking structure, and design and construction of a proposed auxiliary service center located in southwest Denton, and long-term planning efforts for the County Annex. 2. Concluding Items A. Under Section 551.042 of the Texas Open Meetings Act, respond to inquiries from the City Council or the public with specific factual information or recitation of policy, or accept a proposal to place the matter on the agenda for an upcoming meeting AND Under Section 551.0415 of the Texas Open Meetings Act, provide reports about items of community interest regarding which no action will be taken, to include: expressions of thanks, congratulations, or condolence; information regarding holiday schedules; an honorary or salutary recognition of a public official, public employee, or other citizen; a reminder about an upcoming event organized or sponsored by the governing body; information regarding a social, ceremonial, or community event organized or sponsored by an entity other than the governing body that was attended or is scheduled to be attended by a member of the governing body or an official or employee of the municipality; or an announcement involving an imminent threat to the public health and safety of people in the municipality that has arisen after the posting of the agenda. Mayor Watts stated that he would like to have a discussion of what to do with City Hall West. He also asked if there was opportunity to decorate City Hall West this year with Christmas lights like it had been many years ago. If not, maybe this could be done next year. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:18 p.m. ____________________________________ CHRIS WATTS MAYOR CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS ____________________________________ JANE RICHARDSON ASSISTANT CITY SECRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS