Glass City Jungle

As a reference point, the material shared in the coverage of last week’s Agenda Review may be useful for those of you wanting more detail.

Appointment – Board of Community Relations (BCR) – confirmed with the exception of Ashford who voted no.
Appointments – Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) – confirmed
Appointment – TARTA
Nuisance Abatement Trust Fund Board – referred back to the administration at their request

Authorize transfer of parcels with TPS, Colony and Bowman Parks for Ryder School & Glendale property

Shultz wanted to know if the appraisals were done on the property, it was a referral that she had made that was not addressed by the administration. Webb asked if the Law Director Adam Loukx could come up to answer some questions. She asked about the separation of the question to have each land parcel be separate legislation. The one subject rule is to prevent having a bill for road improvement but adding a pool to it, he shared as an example and how you could have 7 police cars as one ordinance instead of requiring 7 separate pieces of legislation, he felt this land deal was one subject. Then the sections of the code that referenced the floodplain issue and that is not waivable by Council. He said the city has a complex floodplain requirement, there is no prohibition against it, there are studies and other technical requirements, his understanding was there is no aspect of their code that outright prohibits it or states if there is an alternative you have to go elsewhere.

Webb said this has been a controversial issue in her district, she has tried to take this out of the backrooms and bring this into the sunlight so that the community had an opportunity to have their voices heard. She felt this in the end made the neighborhood stronger and while realizing she will not please everyone but she feels it’s important that the public hearings were held. Webb said she is voting no that up until her public hearing only one meeting had taken place where a representative from the City showed her the plans, she felt that had she been brought in earlier and they could have achieved a different result, she feels decisions need to be made on their own merits and that was not how this was set up. Basically a 90 year old school being taken out is based on another economic decision, playing on the fear of the city needing more jobs. From the neighborhood perspective, they got 800 signatures of those who wanted to keep the school in that neighborhood, she can appreciate how parents would want this for their children, fighting for the move, but she needs to look at the issue as a whole, between TPS and the City of Toledo and the coupling of multiple land developments. She felt the administrations had failed to bring people together to have a dialog, she encouraged others to join her in voting no. The LEED certification was referenced compared with the increased number of children being bused, the carbon footprint is offset. In her opinion the landswaps were tied together incorrectly by the Mayor and that is now how government in the sunlight is supposed to be run.

Shultz raised some of the issues she raised during the hearing on Longfellow related to when Skeldon-Wozniak was a Councilperson and she had a question for the Law Director, she wanted to know a direct explanation on section 38, the one subject rule that was previously addressed by Webb. She also expressed concern that Foley had stated if all of the legislation didn’t go through he would not advise recommending it to the TPS Board as a threat. Shultz referenced the ACME plant as a scenario where the environmentals should have been known and she felt that the City had invested money in the property, Bowman Park, she thought that they should talk to Wozniak and that they needed to check more into the floodplain, the appraised value and the traffic study issue before this is passed. She also felt there should be another hearing. Loukx said he had already given an opinion on Chapter 38, Shultz said there was a person in the audience was an expert, that they couldn’t build on a floodplain.

Collins said he went back to the 1998 documents, the master plan called for over 5 million dollars in investment. He felt this was a value added to citizens in West Toledo, what causes him pause is the way it’s been jerry rigged. He referenced some of his concerns about the Glendale property that were brought up in the hearing, then the Ryder School issue and Xunlight being interested in that location, he thinks that is important if we are true to our support of alternative energy, in return for that we give up part of our 65 acres of Bowman Park. We don’t have the money to care for the resources we have now, and parks and pools will be a part of the 2010 budget. He doesn’t think the park location is any safer than the current location and he faults the mayor’s office on this because they did not plan properly. Everything becomes an emergency because they are treated as the mushroom in the cave. He thinks this should move into the next administration, 9 months ago they put this plan in place and they didn’t bring it to council or to the neighborhood. Now if they don’t do this, then the property on Nebraska (Ryder) could fall through the cracks and they could lose Xunlight. They haven’t heard from the Bell administration so they don’t know where they are on this (though that was asked during the hearing so it does not appear the Bell future administration responded). He wants the Ryder issue dealt with separately and see what can be accommodated and to look into buying two homes so at the current Longfellow situation so that it could be built there, though he acknowledged TPS didn’t have the money to buy property in their building plan.

Sarantou wanted the time constraints for this project confirmed. John Foley said they have to complete the projects by 2011 and if they need to abate the current location to rebuild they have to act by this month, if the land deal does not go through they need to act to move the students to be able to rebuild on that site. He also said it was not a threat but that it was in their opinion a package deal. Sarantou asked about meetings, Foley said a meeting took place in March and then one in the Fall, then the recent meetings arranged by Council. Sarantou said from his perspective, and went and observed the traffic a recent Monday morning, he felt it was not very safe, he also went out to the Bowman site and was impressed with what that could bring and none of the improvements made to Bowman Park would be undone, they would remain. He does not recall any time when they have had such a high amount of controversy over the building of a new school. He moves that we vote and they vote emergency.

Call for the vote, Collins, Shultz and Webb voted no, Steel abstained, the rest present voted yes.

Amend Development Agreement with TPS for redevelopment of portion of Bowman Park & Start H.S
Removed from committee, Collins, Shultz, Webb voted no, Steel abstained, the rest present voted yes.

Agreements for collection of delinquent water and sewer bills for DPU, fees added

Able made a request for more time to review this, so it’s been sent to Environment & Public Utilities Committee

Resolution – Partner with Port Authority for grant application to DOE for energy efficiency retrofit prog.

McNamara said this is competitive and the grant is due December 14th, the Port Authority is willing to do the work, the ceiling on the grant is 50 million dollars, he thinks we are positioned to get it, but there needs to be legislation formally saying Toledo will work with the Port Authority. This could create some economic development opportunities.

Steel echoed his support for this, Szollosi said the President mentioned retrofitting as a push and stated this is a timely action.

All present voted yes.

Sarantou asked for the port authority appointments to be relieved from committee of the whole (they had been held in committee to let the new administration make these appointments as a background) – seven votes are needed to relieve from committee.

Collins said there is less than three weeks left and he doesn’t understand why this has to be moved on now, they put it in committee because they believed it should be a decision for the next administration. He doesn’t know what the motivation is to push this now, this is not a stigma or a reflection on anyone there, but it is giving due deference to the next administration.

Sarantou said his motivation was the Mayor of the City of Toledo is elected for four years, he believes both candidates are excellent appointments, (Tushman and DeLion) he’s looking beyond who appointed them and feels they are worthy.

Webb said she’d find more substance in the argument that we should wait if we waited on all of the appointments. This is the process they have. She felt would rather see this go forward since they are both good candidates. She called the question.

Ashford, Brown, Collins, Copeland, Craig, McNamara, voted no – Sarantou, Shultz, Szollosi, Steel, Waniewski, Webb voted yes – so it’s a tie. The Mayor could come down and break the tie then or at the next City Council meeting.

Encroachment into public r-o-w of Collingwood Blvd. for existing parking lot behind 533 S. Erie St.
Passed by all in attendance.

Authorize sub grant to Toledo CDC for petroleum remediation of 1646 Fernwood Ave,$200,000 Grants
Passed by all in attendance.
Authorize sub grant to UT Foundation for petroleum remediation of 3135-3159 Dorr, $150,000 Grants
Passed by all in attendance.
Authorize sub grant to Toledo Urban Fed CU for petroleum remediation of 1409 Dorr, $140,000 Grant
Passed by all in attendance.
Street Lighting – Garden Lake Blvd., Garden Lake Parkway and Garden Lake Dr.
Passed by all in attendance.
Accept State Traffic Enforcement Program grant for overtime for Police, $60,386
Passed by all in attendance.
Accept Weed and Seed grant for NorthRiver Development Corp. for overtime and cell phones,$31,640
Passed by all in attendance except McNamara who abstained.
Agreement with Ohio Rail Development Commission for Airline Yard intermodal with Norfolk Southern
Passed by all in attendance.

Res. – Eminent Domain for easements from Frank Saglioccolo at 3230 Douglas Rd. for Peterson Ditch
Waniewski said we have an opportunity to get funding to clean up Peterson Ditch that will help address the flooding and will get families out of the floodplain, this impacts in part one area, that is a business, they need to get under the parking lot, he (property owner) gets a new parking lot when we are done, it will only take about a month. He’s not a fan of eminent domain but in this case he thinks it’s necessary.

First Call – Ashford, Brown, Collins, Copeland, Craig, Sarantou, Shultz, Steel,

Waniewski wanted to first say he admired Webb’s work on Longfellow even though he didn’t agree with her on the votes, he wanted an update as to the $300,000 from Toledo Edison, when it was coming in.

Webb wished Waniewski a Happy Birthday, she then stated she had promised the neighbors they would begin the discussion after the first of the year as to what the Longfellow location would be. She also asked people to be aware of needing to bag the leaves, and she has a referral into the City on all information related to their sexual harassment policy, formal as well as departments.

McNamara said the Toledo Lucas County Housing Fund was set to receive the funds from one parking garage and every year when the housing fund comes for the net proceeds as to Superior One, they still owe the 2008, and he wants to plug in their number instead of the one the Administration has, there is a hearing on the 17th at 10:00 a.m., he knows it’s toward the end of the year but this is for 2008 and he’d like to see some resolution. He also said that concerning Longfellow, there is still additional planning steps that need to take place, on the First Energy dollars, he is waiting an answer from the Law Department on the supplemental they are reviewing that and should have an answer very soon. The actual deadline is 2011 but it could be up for interpretation/negotiation.

Passed by all in attendance.