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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_GTEC_11.30.2005Minutes of the Meeting of Georgetown Transportation Enhancement Corporation and the Governing Body of the City of Georgetown, Texas Wednesday, November 30, 2005 The Georgetown Transportation Enhancement Corporation of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met on Wednesday, November 30, 2005. Board Members Present: Henry Carr - President, Joe Savage – Vice President (arrived at 2:06 p.m.), Farley Snell – Secretary, Paul Brandenburg – General Manager, Micki Rundell – Finance Manager, Gabe Sansing, Ricki Salazar, John Kirby, Henry Beocker Board Members Absent: Farley Snell left the meeting @ 2:40 p.m. Staff Present: Jim Briggs, Jana Kern, Tom Benz, Mark Miller, Laurie Brewer, Trish Carls - City Attorney, Joel Weaver, Terri Calhoun, Ed Polasek OTHERS PRESENT: Trey McLendon - Williamson County Sun, Curtis Crenwelge, Rick French, Steve Turner - Leander Road LLC, Les Best The Page House LLP, Terry Irion - Atty. for Greg Hall, Bruce Barton - Omni Projects, Inc. Gary Gemar - HDR Minutes Regular Meeting Meeting called to order by Mr. Henry Carr @ 2:05 p.m. Board may, at any time, recess the Regular Session to convene in Executive Session at the request of the President, a Board Member, the City Manager in his capacity as General Manager of the GTEC Corporation , the Assistant City Manager, or legal counsel for any purpose authorized by the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551, and are subject to action in the Regular Session that follows. A. Consideration and approval of the minutes from the regular meeting held November 16, 2005. Paul Brandenburg Discussion: None Action: Motion by Snell, seconded by Sansing to approve minutes as written Approved 5-0 (Joe Savage absent for this item only, John Kirby was not at last meeting so he did not vote) B. Consideration and possible recommendation of funding related to the relocation of the access point to the future IH 35 southbound frontage road from SH 29 to FM 2243 (Leander Rd). Tom Benz Discussion: Briggs presented the item. This item is dealing with installation of a driveway, in front of the Page House and eliminating the driveway that comes in at Leander Road(FM 2243). This was part of the TxDOT project, but due to the fact that the Round Rock raw water lines needed to be moved, TxDOT removed this from their project. The Board had a very long discussion with several logistic questions. Complete version is on tape. At this time Mr. Carr opened it to the public wishing to speak: Mr. Terry Irion - Attorney for Greg Hall: Mr. Hall is the owner of the 20+ acres Southfork tract. This track is to the north of the Page House. To clarify some of questions that have been raised here. Mr. Hall does have access to his property. It is located on what we call the Page Road/Southfork Road. The one that we have been talking about, comes in to Leander Road right at the intersection with the new frontage road. Mr. Hall does have zoning, while it is in the century master plan that this would be appropriated commercial property, it is zoned for multi-family. If adequate commercial access is not acquired, it will be developed with multi-family. The problem is, if we develop it with multi-family, we will further exasperate the dangerous intersection at Leander Road/Best Road, which will be the only access that we will have. What we are requesting is that you fund a interlocal funding agreement with TxDOT to get this done. This access road was in the original plans, as Mr. Briggs said, it came out because of the excess costs to the project due to the Round Rock raw water line. We intend to ensure GTEC that you will get 100% of your investment back and we are willing to pledge at commitment, with promissory note and funding mechanism, if that is a letter of credit, we will do a letter of credit. We believe that this is a qualified project, because it is a transportation related project and it will promote economic development. If we don't get this access and we build the multi-family project the city won't get any additional sales tax off of this 20+ acre track. And the access issue on Leander Road will not be resolved.We came together with the Leander Road LLC track, and the Best track and said can we all work together to close that existing intersection at Leander Road. Agree to buy the private access from the Best's and deed it to the City of Georgetown so it will become a public road. Realign it so it comes out on Leander Road further to the west. When we can pay for it, is if we know we got a commercial develop- ment, with the funding we can get for thisanticipated development, we know we can make it all work. Problem is we have a timing issue right now. This project is being let right now and we have this window between now and December to get this done. Greg Hall intends to file a rezoning application in this next cycle (late in December), and if all is successful we can get through this process in 60 to 75 days. We will then have a qualified commercial property along with existing track where this current road comes in right now. The Leander Road track is a qualified commercial track right now. Until we know we have commercial access, off the frontage road, it doesn't really make any sense to try an develop a site plan for a commercial property. No one is going to be interested in it, if you can't demonstrate that you have the access. We need the public sectors support to kick this project off. We are willing to guarantee the repayment, as soon as that access road is in place there isn't any doubt that we will be able to develop the property commercially. With respect to these considerations, that staff is recommending, we really don't have any problem with any of these. With respect to the one about 52% repayment rate, I am a little confused by this, because what we are asking is not the same thing that Wolf Ranch did. Wold Ranch made an agreement with the City of Georgetown not GTEC. It was a tax abatement program. Basically the developer fronted some money, because they already had a commercial project and they already had access. They fronted some money with a guarantee that they would be repaid out of sales tax revenue. They are going to get paid back. I think what we are offering GTEC is really better. We're saying fund up front this money and if you don't get repaid 100% within seven (7) years - not 20 or 30 years, but seven years we have our promissory note and other fiscal arrangements to guarantee that you get paid back. I don't want to speak for Mr. Best, or the Leander Road LLC, on that last issue. We don't have any objections to any of these conditions. We would like some expression of interest and support, a go forward direction here so that we can move forward with the staff and put this agreement together. We are going to file the zoning case. But the issue is, when we get down to the end of our zoning case, if we don't know that we are going to have this access available, I am not sure that we would go through with the zoning. It doesn't make sense to spend all of that money when your property is going relegated to a multi-family project as opposed to commercial development. Action: Motion by Sansing, seconded by Savage to direct staff to work on the negotiations. Staff to bring back their recommendations to this board, within 90 days. Approved: 6-0 (Snell absent) C: Discussion and update with regards to Southwest Bypass intersection with IH35 and impacts on the Williamson County Road Bond program funding of off-ramps. Jim Briggs Discussion: Briggs updated the board on the latest developments of this project. Complete discussion is on tape. Action: None Meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 03:30 PM. Approved : Attest: _______________________ ________________________ Henry Carr - President Farley Snell - Secretary