Wednesday, July 22, 2009

MINUTES - Revised

Members: Steve Bacon, Laurie Best, Karla Fox, Chris Kueffner, Frank McNabb, Peter Millman, Ruth Moynihan, Betsy Paterson, Karin Randolph

Staff: Cynthia van Zelm, Kathleen Paterson

Guest: Jon Hand

1. Call to Order

Steve Bacon called the meeting to order at 5:08 pm.

2. Public Comment

There was no public comment.

3. Approval of Minutes from June 16, 2009

Karla Fox made a motion to approve the minutes of June 16, 2009. Peter Millman seconded the motion. The motion was approved with one abstention from Betsy Paterson.

4. Recommendation of Jon Hand to Planning and Design Committee

Mr. Bacon said that long-time member of the Committee, Leon Bailey, had resigned. Mr. Bacon said that Jon Hand had indicated an interest in serving on the Committee several years ago.

Mr. Hand introduced himself and said he has lived in Mansfield for twenty years and has taught at the Mansfield Middle School for that time period. He said he has always been interested in design issues.

Ms. Paterson made a motion to recommend to the Partnership Board of Directors that Jon Hand serve on the Planning and Design Committee. Mr. Millman seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously.

Mr. Bacon said he will send a letter of appreciation to Mr. Bailey for his dedicated service.

5. Update on Storrs Center including Parking

Ms. van Zelm said that a kick-off meeting on the Storrs Road project is still being planned. The CT Department of Economic and Community Development had approved BL Companies as the engineer to complete the design of the road. Ms. Fox recommended that it occur after summer vacations. She said UConn comes back on August 24.

Ms. van Zelm said that she, Town Manager Matt Hart, and Public Works Director Lon Hultgren gave a presentation to the Town Council on creating a parking steering committee. She said they will take the comments received and come back with a recommendation to Council. Ms. van Zelm said addressing the parking issues will be a major undertaking.

Ms. Fox reiterated her interest in serving on the steering committee.

Ms. van Zelm said that the Partnership had also sent a letter to the businesses affected by relocation to update them on the status of the Phase 1A buildings and relocation process.

Mr. Bacon announced that Storrs Automotive had signed a letter of intent to be part of Phase 1A.

6. Visit to Princeton, NJ?

Ms. van Zelm and Mr. Bacon said that Jim Constantine with Looney Ricks Kiss had offered to host the Committee on a trip to Princeton, NJ. There is a new parking garage that may be of particular interest to the Committee. Mr. Constantine also offered to set up meetings with government officials who have been or are involved with downtown development (note that Looney Ricks Kiss served as the Partnership’s planning consultant).

Mr. Bacon asked if there was interest in a trip.

Ms. Paterson said she would be interested in finding out more about the management of Princeton’s garage.

Ms. Fox pointed out the difference in the Princeton and UConn community noting that the UConn academic population is almost all residential and has 3,000 commuters. The parking patterns will be different.

Committee members noted other communities that may be good examples with respect to university communities with parking and/or small/rural communities with paid parking e.g. Newark, DE; Hanover, NH; Clemson, SC; Hartsdale, NY; and Latrobe, PA.

Mr. Millman suggested putting together a document on communities that have paid public parking.

Ms. van Zelm said she could put a one-pager together and would initially send some of the research that had already been done by the Town’s consultant Walker Parking and presented to the Town Council.

Mr. Bacon agreed that the research would be very useful as an education piece and an inventory of places that the Committee or the parking steering committee could visit that are closer to Mansfield.

7. Final Review of Committee Charge

Mr. Bacon reiterated that the Committee decided to revise its charge as it was not consistent with what has been done.

He passed out suggestions from Chris Kueffner and Frank McNabb.

Mr. Bacon pointed to the draft committee charge language in the June minutes and suggested that the first bullet, “Crafted design, and sustainability guidelines” accurately describes what the Committee has done.

After some discussion, Mr. Bacon suggested that there could be specific Committee processes separate from a public charge. He referred to several of Mr. McNabb’s suggestions that would be part of Committee process.

Mr. Kueffner said he thought it would be important to include as part of the charge that the guidelines would be reviewed in the context of new and innovative strategies.

8. Adjourn

Mr. Millman made a motion to adjourn. Ms. Paterson seconded the motion. The motion was approved. The Committee adjourned at 6:35 pm.