[0:12] Good evening. Oh, had some summer upgrades. The mics are way better. Welcome back from summer

[0:21] recess. This is August 18th meeting. I'll ask the clerk to call the roll.

[0:29] Here. Here. Here. Here. Here.

[0:37] Thank

[0:39] Thank you. I'll ask Council Member Todd Walter to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

[0:56] I

[1:04] must comment that I like the flags too. They're like perfectly triangle. So, thank you.

[1:12] First item of business is to approve the consensus agenda. May I have a motion to approve?

[1:15] So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed?

[1:23] Say aye.

[1:24] Motion carries. Consent agenda items are approved.

[1:29] We'll start tonight's meeting with a couple of reports and presentations.

[1:34] The first of that presentation being our fire division annual report presented by Chief Zimmer.

[1:40] Good

[1:56] evening council and good evening to the residents from the community there

[2:00] here. It's it's my honor again once again to present our annual division

[2:05] updates to council in the community and it continues to be my privilege to be

[2:10] fire chief here in Upper Arlington and to represent the fire division and the

[2:14] men and women of the fire division and so their professionalism and dedication

[2:20] was on full display once again today as many of you may have heard one of

[2:24] our residents suffered a fire loss at the residents on Andover Road. So our team responded

[2:32] promptly and they were able to contain the fire and prevent it from extending beyond

[2:36] the building of origin. So I'm super proud of our team and their professionalism and

[2:41] dedication at the display daily. So with that, we'll move on with the vision updates.

[2:49] So just a quick overview of what I'm going to go over this evening. So I'm going

[2:51] touch on our annual report that was published recently for 2024. We're going to look at some

[2:57] data trends. We'll talk about training and staff development, talk about our strategic plan,

[3:02] just give you a brief update on that, where we're at, some CARES updates, talk about apparatus

[3:08] and equipment, and of course our public engagement and fire prevention week that's

[3:13] coming up in October and then looking ahead in the future beyond this fall.

[3:18] So the 2024 annual report was published to the city website recently and just kind of

[3:24] a high-level summary of what you'll find in that report.

[3:26] Hopefully everybody's had an opportunity to take a look at that.

[3:28] It's posted to the city's website.

[3:30] Last year we did about 5,000 calls for service, so about 14 runs per day, and that's pretty

[3:36] typical for what we see as far as call volume, 68%, almost 70%, EMS-related, medical-related,

[3:43] and 32% fire-related.

[3:45] And so again, this is very consistent with what we see typically here and up around the response times or average response times are again consistent with what we typically see.

[3:55] So for an EMS run, four minutes, 44 seconds, and for a fire run, four minutes and one second.

[4:01] And the busiest day of the week is Thursdays.

[4:03] And the busiest time of the day typically is anywhere between 8am and 6pm.

[4:10] And our CARES team, they did 291 social resident checks in 2024, and they had 209 new patients

[4:18] that they had contact.

[4:21] So some data trends.

[4:23] Now, this is looking over the last five years, so not just only in 2024, previous five years.

[4:28] And so we've seen an increase in our call volume, so just over 7%.

[4:33] And when you look at the numbers, so there's the percentage, but looking at real numbers

[4:38] For us, we went from five years ago from 4,700 runs that year to last year, again, just

[4:46] over 5,000 runs.

[4:48] Just to give you a little perspective of what that percentage looks like.

[4:51] We had a 10% decrease in auto aid given, and that's us leaving Upper Erelington to

[4:57] go into our neighboring jurisdictions to help them out.

[5:01] So we went from 934 down to 832.

[5:04] two. And some of that, the explanation behind that could be in part, our ladder truck as

[5:11] many of you may remember, has had some mechanical issues and so it was out of service for an

[5:16] extended period of time. And so that may be part of that explanation. And then we had

[5:22] a 19% increase in automatic aid coming into Upper Arlington. And again, partly probably

[5:27] due in part to the ladder truck being out of service, but also an increase in what

[5:33] what we call resiliency or multiple runs going on at the same time.

[5:36] So as we're looking at data, and Assistant Chief Bell and I are getting more acclimated

[5:42] to the new report management system that we have, that went online late last year, is

[5:49] really taking that data and trying to get a handle on sort of cause and effect and

[5:54] really what's going on with our workload.

[5:57] So CARES had a 150% increase in patients on the calls for service over the last five years.

[6:05] And again, that can be attributed most likely to the fact that we expanded our program, right?

[6:10] So many of you may remember we went to the current system that we have of two firefighter

[6:15] paramedics that are community paramedics.

[6:17] And so their time is spent and focused on serving the community in that community

[6:23] paramedics of all.

[6:24] And so that increase is as a result of their efforts and their scheduling being available to to handle those those needs in the community

[6:31] The training hours increased 144%

[6:35] much of that due in part

[6:37] To the number of new employees that we brought on board over the last several years

[6:42] Due to retirements

[6:44] So again data trends automatic aid

[6:46] That's the help that we have either going out of the city you're coming in and so

[6:50] We've noticed an increase so we look at other jurisdictions, right?

[6:53] so we look at our help around us. And the map on the right is the stations we've identified,

[7:00] other jurisdictions around us that are typical, coming into Upper Erelington to help us over

[7:04] going there. So Mill Run is station 30, Columbus Fire Station, station 83 on Davidson Road,

[7:11] which is Norwich Township, station 19 on High Street, that's Columbus, station 11

[7:16] up North by Don Scott Airport. And so we're noticing, we look at their data also in

[7:23] just high level we see, when you combine the neighboring jurisdictions, there's a 26% increase

[7:29] in their call volume. We can get into the granular data, but for just a high-level summary,

[7:36] call volumes are going up around us. And there is also, we've noticed an early trend of

[7:42] when we have larger events like a structure fire or other, or multiple calls going on.

[7:46] At the same time, we have stations coming into Upper Erelington to help us from

[7:51] farther away. And so I think part of that is explained by the fact that they're getting

[7:55] busier. And so, you know, you look at density, you look at population shifts, and, you know,

[8:01] we're getting busier. And then when we're calling for help, those stations have seen

[8:05] an increase in call volume. And so they're less available to come help us on occasion.

[8:10] And so that may explain that. So training and staff development. We

[8:14] did 6, last year, we did 638 hours of classroom and practical instruction. 479 hours

[8:20] fire and 158 hours of EMS. We do annual live fire training at the Ohio Fire

[8:27] Academy and so that's a program that started several years ago. We take our

[8:31] personnel out to the burn building at the fire academy in Reynoldsburg and

[8:35] just gives our staff an opportunity to have more realistic training just

[8:40] short of having an acquired structure here in our city to use for live

[8:45] fire training. We utilize the resources that are available to us at

[8:49] State Fire Academy. So we're fortunate to have that resource here locally where we can just

[8:54] drive over to any side and use those facilities. And then last year was a pretty incredible year

[9:00] for hiring new staff. We had 10 probationary firefighters that we hired. I think it was

[9:05] the highest number ever in our history that anybody can recall. And so the probationary

[9:10] firefighter training consists of four weeks of in-house. We call it a mini academy

[9:15] and internally, followed by intensive training

[9:19] throughout that probationary year.

[9:21] And again, Kudos to our staff.

[9:23] It's a very heavy lift for a small department.

[9:26] And it takes effort on everybody's part to assist,

[9:30] bringing those new employees up to speed

[9:33] to get them trained so that they're successful

[9:35] in their career, hopefully for a long career.

[9:39] Our strategic plan, you may remember last year,

[9:42] We finalized that whole effort of bringing together a formal strategic plan for the division,

[9:47] and this is for a five-year period of time, and so four initiatives were developed in

[9:53] training and professional development, operational performance and staffing, capital improvements

[9:58] and community risk reduction.

[10:01] And so, within those four initiatives, we have 19 goals that were identified with

[10:06] 58 objectives.

[10:07] And so far, as of this month, we've already completed 25 of those falls and objectives.

[10:13] And we have 16 in progress.

[10:15] And so the remaining effort, the remaining work as we go through the next four years

[10:20] is, in many cases, things are predicated on one thing to another in successive steps.

[10:26] And so we've already made some good progress in some areas that were identified and looking

[10:31] forward to not really getting into strategic. The standards cover and community risk assessment,

[10:37] which is a very intensive day to dive into how we perform our job and how we serve the community.

[10:46] CARES updates. So, again, this was through the budgeting process last year. We had an

[10:51] additional position that was approved by council. And so Nate Hall was selected as our social

[10:58] worker that we're going to bring on full-time within the CARES program. Nate will start August 25th

[11:04] and his focus will be on referrals and follow-up from not only the fire division but also the

[11:09] police division and other city departments. Additionally, he's going to focus his efforts

[11:14] on developing mental health education and training for city employees as well as the

[11:21] community. Nate's got a broad experience within social work and just recently came

[11:31] from the Worthington Fire Division as a community risk reduction service coordinator. So licensed

[11:36] social worker and has experienced in hospital and homeless shelter settings and he previously

[11:41] served honorably in the United States Army for five-year period of time. He was infantry

[11:46] remand that team leader and within the Army, his responsibilities in the Army, he was distracting

[11:52] fellow soldiers on harassment prevention, suicide awareness, PTSD issues.

[11:59] And his education and social work was obtained at the Ohio State University.

[12:07] So continuing on with our CARES update, we're continuing to develop our engagement at the

[12:13] community center and currently we are doing blood pressure checks and working

[12:18] on a hands-only CPR training program to provide the community. Our CARES team is

[12:24] there at least twice a month now where they're available to engage with the

[12:29] public and looking into the future working on creating a resource desk

[12:33] and just coming up with a more consistent schedule of staffing that

[12:37] location just to reach out to the community. That was of course one of

[12:41] areas identified in our strategic plan. That outreach in the community was very much supported

[12:48] interest in engaging with the public more. And so this is just again one of our efforts to

[12:53] continue that making that connection with the community. Social resident checks, we're doing

[12:59] about 24 months. 48 Knoxbox installations last year. And we had a milestone that was achieved.

[13:06] We had 1,500 grab bars that were installed, 1,500 installed in the community, and that's

[13:13] in 500 homes over the last, since 2018 when we started the grab bar installation program.

[13:23] Hopefully many of you remember last year we, the CARES team was involved in the community

[13:29] health assessment team emergency preparedness kit handout.

[13:31] We did a drive-through at station 782, and that was very successful.

[13:35] And we also created a homeless kit, a pilot program, and we have kits that are available

[13:41] to hand out to those in need that we encounter in the community.

[13:44] We've given out since November, I think, four of those kits, at least four kits.

[13:48] And we work directly, very closely with the police division,

[13:51] engaging some of those individuals in the community moving into contact with them.

[13:56] And just, you know, the CARES team is continuing their supporting vulnerable and aging residents

[14:02] to include the IMPINE phone program, check-in program, and of course snow angels and other

[14:09] in-home volunteer support program.

[14:14] So apparatus and equipment, Ladder 72. So the replacement

[14:18] vehicle that was approved I think in 2022, if I'm not mistaken. It is well underway of being

[14:25] constructed. And so we get photos weekly from peers, manufacturer in Appleton, Wisconsin.

[14:32] And so we're very excited, because this is well underway now.

[14:36] We're hoping to do the return trip to Wisconsin for the final inspection of the completed vehicle, I think mid-September.

[14:45] And so you'll see that rig in service, hopefully by no later than mid-October.

[14:50] So we're very excited for that process and how the manufacturing process is going to go.

[14:56] by your safety trailer that was approved for this year's budget.

[15:00] That is in the production queue, expecting that, hopefully later this year or early 2026.

[15:06] And then you also approved a significant amount of funding for rescue tools, hydraulic battery

[15:11] operator rescue tools for fire apparatus, and that's currently on order.

[15:19] Public engagement, again, it's no surprise considering how our community is, they want

[15:25] that engagement with city staff, police division, fire division, parks and rec, other departments

[15:33] within the city. And so just kind of a recap for us this past year. July 4th is a big effort of all

[15:40] staff, right? So police division, public services, parks and forestry. And it's a strong

[15:46] collaboration that city staff has with the Civic Association. We're glad to work with

[15:52] Pacific Association closely to have a successful event for the community.

[15:56] And this year with the drone show that was undertaken, that initiated our collaboration

[16:03] with the FAA.

[16:04] And so we had an inspector come in and make sure that that was going to be a safe show

[16:09] and that we were satisfied with all the safety measures that were not only required,

[16:14] but that the vendor was able to demonstrate to not only the inspector, but to us to

[16:19] make sure that it went off without any issues.

[16:20] And so we were satisfied and I think the spectators were as well.

[16:24] And that gave us an opportunity to live for celebration to open up our emergency operations

[16:29] center and really just again, kind of putting our staff and equipment through the paces of

[16:34] preparation for the 2026 USGA senior open that will be inside our country for all of

[16:39] this year.

[16:41] And just kind of a list here, a reminder of the public engagement that we do on a

[16:45] regular basis.

[16:47] Safety town, of course, right, you know, it's always been a big drop for a number

[16:51] of years here in the community for youth, and light Ohio blue, we were excited to support

[16:57] our police division in the light Ohio blue recession that came down on Prima Road. National

[17:05] light out again, another good collaboration with the police division. Labor Day Arts Festival

[17:11] that's coming up, that's our opportunity as the fire division to really take the

[17:15] time they engage the community leading up to fire prevention in October and of

[17:21] course our public safety educators we have Jody and Pam and they are out there in

[17:25] the community not only in schools K through 8 but also helping out safety

[17:30] town and different other events across in the summertime.

[17:34] So fire

[17:35] prevention is coming up in October you'll have a resolution for you week

[17:40] about October 5th and of course this year the theme is lithium ion battery

[17:46] safety and so the city manager and I we banter back and forth about that just

[17:50] because of my concern about battery safety and lo and behold the theme this

[17:56] year is lithium ion battery safety and so really the key messaging here is

[18:04] probably you'd into fire prevention week in October is just making sure your

[18:07] smoke alarms are tested, they're working,

[18:09] haven't escaped, and keeping the batteries

[18:12] out of the trash collections cycle, right?

[18:17] And so we'll have more information to share

[18:18] with the community as we get closer

[18:20] to fire prevention week,

[18:22] but just continuing with the battery safety,

[18:25] just kind of a high-level reminder.

[18:27] So, you know, don't throw batteries into the trash.

[18:30] We don't want them in the trash bins

[18:31] and the garbage cans for the trash collectors

[18:35] to throw into the compactor.

[18:37] We have recycling locations throughout the community, certainly at the Public Service

[18:41] Center on Roberts Road in the lobby, and there's a picture there on the bottom of the lobby,

[18:46] the bins where you can dispose of batteries, all kinds of batteries, but also at different

[18:53] stores. So batteries plus low status people. Pictures on the right, so we've had, personally

[18:59] in my tenure here in the fire division, I've had two garbage trucks catch fire,

[19:04] And by all accounts, it's more than more than likely some kind of a electronic device that's failed in that process of being exposed of the garbage truck catches fire.

[19:13] We have to find a location to dump the load and then extinguish the fire.

[19:18] So we've had several of those experiences here in Upper Arlington and Rumpke Waste Disposal just recently had a public service announcement, I think this past week.

[19:29] They've had nine fires either in trash trucks or in a recycling facilities, waste transfer

[19:38] facilities and by all accounts caused by battery failures because batteries being improperly

[19:43] disposed of in the trash cycle in that process.

[19:49] And so they just recently had some advertisement and service announcements.

[19:54] Again, encouraging people to use the proper disposal techniques.

[19:57] in Swayco, it's just 45 East State Avenue,

[20:00] Pace, Pesos, we'll take batteries

[20:02] and other household hazardous goods.

[20:05] And just to wrap it up, looking ahead,

[20:08] of course, we have the Station 71 renovation

[20:10] and or relocation.

[20:12] So, you know, we're gonna start working

[20:13] through that effort and that process here,

[20:16] late fall of 2025.

[20:18] We have about $12 million allocated in the CIP,

[20:21] 2028 when Station 72 is paid off.

[20:24] And so we're gonna be working closely

[20:26] with city manager's office and finance department and facilities in that effort and service delivery

[20:32] capacity.

[20:34] So with data and with our report management system and with all the things that I've shared

[20:40] with you this evening, just a high-level summary, things that are in the annual report,

[20:46] taking that data and really, you know, looking at our service delivery capacity.

[20:50] And so it's making sure that we're hitting the benchmarks that we established for what

[20:56] the community expects as far as response and how we handle emergencies.

[21:00] And so it's just that continual data evaluation.

[21:03] So monitoring what our risk is here in the city, what we expect to encounter as far

[21:08] as an emergency, and looking at our calls for service, our resiliency, that's our

[21:13] ability to handle more than one call at a time.

[21:15] And then, of course, coming up probably 2027 around that timeframe, doing that more in-depth,

[21:22] very formal data dive, which is the standards of cover of community success.

[21:27] So that's part of the strategic planning effort.

[21:30] So you'll have more information that will be for you once that portion of the strategic

[21:35] plan is made.

[21:37] That is it.

[21:38] Hopefully, I encourage you to take a look at our annual report and certainly entertain

[21:43] any questions that anybody has.

[21:45] Thank you.

[21:50] Thank you, Chief Simmer, for the report, and thank you for everything you guys do in the community.

[21:54] You guys are a great resource.

[21:55] Station 71, I live right behind it, and I love it.

[21:58] It's a beautiful building, but understand there's a lot of different dimensions when you're evaluating,

[22:03] are you going to renovate it or relocate it?

[22:05] If we were to decide if the data showed that it was better to relocate it,

[22:09] Would we be looking for, you know, it's very far south, 72 is right in the middle, looks

[22:16] like the north half of UA is just disproportionately without a fire station.

[22:20] Have we given any thought to what just logistically might be a better place for a fire station

[22:25] if we were to move 71?

[22:27] Yeah.

[22:28] So part of that effort of if we were to relocate is a response time analysis.

[22:33] So we would work not only internally with Chief Bell and myself, but also kinds of with

[22:38] funders that are interested architects that have that ability to take that

[22:42] response time analysis and then essentially it's concentric rings, it's

[22:47] time and distance throughout the city and so we would use that information to

[22:53] try and find available land and then based on any purposes that are

[22:56] available we would entertain potentially looking at you know space

[23:01] that we could possibly build a fire station. Would part of that analysis be

[23:06] the shared services between cities look like Worthington had the most you know

[23:11] either we are going there they're coming here with 101 I assume that that

[23:15] factors into it as well that just the busyness of the suburbs around us shared

[23:20] services for response time analysis we don't have any other fire houses are

[23:23] close enough to help us in that regard when we're looking at either whether

[23:28] it's fire response or a medical response so you think of the most

[23:31] dramatic example so house fire or cardiac arrest or stroke so you know

[23:35] you're looking at at very short-time response times. So we don't have any

[23:41] other facilities that are close enough that we'll be able to engage in a shared use type of work.

[23:50] Council Member Kulowicz. Thank you President Locke-Singio. Thank you very much Chief

[23:55] Zimmer for reporting the work of the fire division. Congratulations on the

[23:59] response times for EMS and fathers are finally important to the community and

[24:04] And people really appreciate it out there.

[24:07] I was wondering, when shared services are in place, do those response times, are they

[24:14] factored in the same way as when our own vehicles respond, because that would elongate the response

[24:22] time of the message?

[24:22] It would make the response time longer.

[24:24] I'm not aware of any shared services relative to fire in EMS, locally in central Ohio,

[24:31] for municipalities or communities of our size, distance, density.

[24:37] All right. That's very remarkable. Thank you.

[24:40] And may I ask on the social worker, Mr. Hall, how is his time

[24:46] divided between referrals and follow-ups on resident issues

[24:52] and development of education and training programs?

[24:56] How does that allocate it?

[24:58] So, we'll create a priority system internally once he comes on board just to identify outreach

[25:05] that's needed, you know, immediately to residents and then make sure that there's a balance

[25:10] between the immediacy priority of serving the residents in need versus more scheduled

[25:16] outreach, more of a programming.

[25:18] So you have to determine internally a process where we prioritize requests for his skill

[25:25] So how do you deliver that?

[25:33] It's a member.

[25:34] It's a member, Walter.

[25:35] Thank you for the presentation.

[25:37] And please thank the rest of your service members on our behalf for their good work.

[25:43] As it relates to the response times, what is the target and how do those compare to, you know,

[25:52] recommended best practices for the benchmark?

[25:55] Are we inside of those?

[25:58] Yeah, we're pretty close for response times for the initial unit, so 480 seconds for a fire response for the initial for the first unit on scene.

[26:09] Once you start getting outside of that first unit on scene, then we have eight minutes overall for, if it's a 2,000 square foot single family dwelling or smaller, we're looking at the number of people.

[26:21] So, we can get you further, we can dig in and add a little further and show you some

[26:28] data relative to how we prefer them beyond the first unit of the C.

[26:32] Okay, great.

[26:33] Thank you.

[26:35] You noted a kind of small uptick in calls.

[26:39] I think 7% if memory serves me correctly.

[26:42] Any sense as to what's driving that on, you know, over that five-year basis?

[26:48] is that an increase in population and the same number of calls or more frequency of

[26:53] the calls? It's been pretty consistent with what we've seen prior to COVID and

[26:59] then we then everything kind of got out of whack as far as what exactly is

[27:03] driving it. Is there any rhyme or reason as to why Thursday is the busiest

[27:09] day? There is not. Not that I'm aware of. Do you, last question, do you feel, do you feel that you

[27:18] guys have the adequate resources that you need from us to continue to meet your

[27:24] objectives and keep the city safe? Yeah, we certainly, we have, the

[27:30] resources that we have have been in place for a long time, the current

[27:32] configuration. So, you know, we're continuing to review the data to look

[27:38] at how we respond and how we're able to serve the community. And so I think if

[27:42] there's any needs that we see relative to how we're able to deploy resources in

[27:47] person, you know, that's something we'll probably a more formalized plan. I know

[27:52] I look, Chief Bell and I look forward to really doing a deep dive through the

[27:56] standards cover effort to kind of give you a better answer, how we're

[28:01] performing, what the expectations of the community are, and where we can

[28:04] where we can increase whether it's staffing apparatus deployment, how we navigate through

[28:11] any additional needs that we see that are wanted.

[28:15] Great, thank you.

[28:19] Mr. President Close?

[28:22] Chief Zimmer, thank you.

[28:24] Just a quick follow-up question.

[28:26] It may be more apt for next year's annual update, but I won't be here.

[28:31] So we're going to try it for right now.

[28:33] Do you have any update, just because I know you have software that's much more analytical

[28:39] than you've had before, as to how our false alarm legislation has helped hurt done anything

[28:46] in the last few months?

[28:49] We have not had an opportunity yet to take a look at that data, and I think probably

[28:54] a better indicator might be the police division, maybe, with their false alarms.

[28:59] So that's certainly an effort that we're going to look at to see what impact that has had

[29:04] on the program.

[29:05] So that's something that, again, with the more sophisticated RMS that we have, the report

[29:10] management system, and then looking at that impact, we're going to definitely take a look

[29:15] at that and have an answer.

[29:16] It's been pretty early, too, I think, eight months in, eight months or less.

[29:21] Yeah, we've had it in place for about six months live now, and I just actually

[29:26] asked place last week for an update so once we get that we'll send it up to

[29:30] all of council.

[29:33] Great thank you. Council Member Adams. Thank you for the report and

[29:39] all of your work that you do. I was curious for the community center you

[29:42] mentioned community engagement there. Have there been medical responses at

[29:46] the new center? Certainly there have been a few. I think actually on the

[29:51] first day during the ribbon-cutting. Yeah, we've had a few, you know, it's not a huge...

[30:00] Driver call volume for us, but we certainly have had some calls for scrups there.

[30:03] Is it about what we were expecting? I believe so. There's no outliers there.

[30:09] I'm very excited about the CARES expansion with the social worker. What's the plan after that to see

[30:17] kind of what's next for CARES? Yeah, so, you know, staff, we're always engaging staff on

[30:23] trying to get a sense from the community, right? It's a community engagement to see

[30:30] what's in the future for us and how we can improve our services. So I think it's

[30:34] probably working together with trying to gather that information and then

[30:40] just really come up with a plan for what's next. It's been very successful currently.

[30:44] I appreciate it. Chief, I'll add to that a little bit. So we're gonna go

[30:49] through a process next year as we as I think you all know the commission on

[30:56] aging is undergoing some transition and we're taking on some of what they're

[30:59] they've been doing over the last decade or so and so as we get the new social

[31:07] worker on staff as we transition this some of those things over I think next

[31:12] year we're gonna spend some time really thinking through what is the

[31:15] future of older adult services in U.A. more generally and kind of take that

[31:21] approach both with the team and fire and in cooperation with the team and

[31:25] the Parks and Recreation in particular and really look at that

[31:28] comprehensively. That said, to be clear part of bringing social worker position

[31:34] on is to expand CARES beyond what we've traditionally thought of as being

[31:40] an older adult services program and getting into having better services for anyone in

[31:46] UA who's in crisis.

[31:49] And so I think that's the other piece of that.

[31:52] That, you know, I think Chief and the Assistant Chief and Christine Leshan are all really

[31:58] focused on making sure that we are flexible, we have some structure but are also flexible

[32:05] enough to see where this new program, new expansion program kind of takes us.

[32:11] Thank you. And the, you know, the wins you highlighted, I think are just fantastic.

[32:18] Yeah. Chief, thanks for the great presentation and your team's doing a great job. Please thank them all.

[32:24] I want to just build off of something Councilman Adam said just about the CARES program.

[32:28] Listen, I think some people who don't have aging parents, you know, take this for granted,

[32:32] but it really does help people age in place in our community.

[32:35] It's something we should all be proud of. My favorite senior, my 89-year-old, the original Jim Lynch.

[32:40] he's a repeat caller, but he's been able to live a good life at home and stay in

[32:45] place. We're the owner of three of those grab bars, so just thanks for all

[32:49] you're doing to help people enjoy their senior years. Also, I just wanted to ask

[32:55] a question about the calls per day, 13.8. I don't really don't have any

[32:59] reference, so 13.8 sounds like a lot to me. How would that compare to like

[33:03] the city of Columbus? How would that compare like a Washington township or

[33:06] some other peers. And so where you're at, right? City of Columbus, they have some

[33:11] firehouses that do 20 to 24 runs a day. They have some firehouses that do three.

[33:16] So it just depends on the neighborhood, the community, what the demand is, that area.

[33:20] Washington Township, I think, does about 7,800 calls a year. So I think calls

[33:28] for service for, you know, the type of community that we're in is pretty

[33:31] pretty average, pretty consistent. No surprises there. And again, we have

[33:38] information from other communities. You know Columbus has 36 fire houses, again

[33:44] depending on where you're at in the city, you can be extremely busy or not so

[33:51] busy, so it just depends where you're at. Thank you. Thank you.

[33:57] Chief Sima, I just want to join my colleagues here and just thank you

[34:01] and thank you, team, through services, community, I know, you know, I'm one of

[34:09] those people that calls for my burnt chicken and the response time is always

[34:12] incredible. Question though, I've heard you talk a lot about the great work

[34:19] that you're doing and you feel very confident with the numbers that we have

[34:23] and that you have it handled on on track. Are there any vulnerabilities that

[34:28] that you see with the fire department right now

[34:32] as we think about just planning ahead?

[34:35] Yeah, so, you know, I think it's really looking at

[34:37] where we're at today and how we're providing services

[34:39] and then where we're going in the future.

[34:41] So part of the strategic planning effort

[34:43] is really trying to get a handle on, you know,

[34:46] I think probably, I don't know if the city manager

[34:48] will agree, but maybe sort of final steps

[34:50] of economic development in the city.

[34:52] So whether it's Henderson Road or Riverside Fishery,

[34:55] we see to some degree the experience

[34:58] we've had on Lane Avenue with the density and so I think that's sort of a

[35:04] predictor for you know what we can expect in the future but you know it's

[35:10] no surprise we have what was station 73 at Coach McKenzie you know there's

[35:15] there's an area of the city that we're able to get to and respond to and

[35:18] provide services to the community but that's certainly an area that we're

[35:21] paying attention to as far as making sure that we are able to get to

[35:25] people's residence promptly and aid them when they're in need. So we're always looking at that

[35:31] data, especially with what would be time and distance, you know, analysis. So where fire

[35:37] stations are physically located, they're there, they're there, right? Like, it's pretty difficult

[35:42] to move a firehouse. But I think looking at that opportunity of having that facility still

[35:48] maintaining that facility and opportunities in the future, whether it's, it's not,

[35:53] it's not a magic like what's the magic call volume number it's looking at our

[35:57] risk looking at the types of calls that we have and making sure that we have a

[36:01] personnel and resources to do so we're looking at that and we're gonna have a

[36:05] better answer for that over the next probably 18 years. Great do you want to

[36:11] follow up on and great hire with the social worker that's coming on seems

[36:16] like a great background great fit for our community I do want to echo what

[36:21] City Manager Shony said, because when my colleagues and I sat and we thought about that position

[36:27] and approving that position, we didn't want to add the mental health services, the things

[36:33] that you're talking about here are some of the expanded services that we would like to

[36:36] see, CARES handling beyond our aging population.

[36:41] Talk to me a little bit about, it seems like he's going to start with the backlog

[36:45] or just the callback, what's that scoop?

[36:49] What does that look like in terms of the backlog that he's going to work on?

[36:55] I suppose what I'm trying to, and this is not a trick question or anything,

[36:58] I'm trying to understand when he would be able to get to looking at

[37:05] part of the expanded services that we're thinking about.

[37:08] So, yeah, we don't have a backlog per se, right?

[37:11] It's really trying to really get a handle on some of the gaps we've had with different

[37:18] residents in the community with various challenges beyond just medical.

[37:23] So as far as expanding his ability to reach out on the community, I think it's just a

[37:29] matter of time to get him situated, you know, see what, you know, from a number standpoint,

[37:35] you know, just from a visual, it was, well, 33% of the time, 33% of the time, 33%

[37:41] 3% of the time, see your center and the community center.

[37:46] But that's, you know, that's more of a,

[37:48] I think almost like a binary, you know,

[37:50] we wanna see where this person's gonna be

[37:52] versus what their availability is.

[37:55] You know, that'll show us all the time

[37:57] and we'll make sure that his resources

[38:01] are going to be used appropriately

[38:03] based on the demand and the need which is there.

[38:06] Okay.

[38:07] Well, great.

[38:08] Thank you very much.

[38:08] I don't think there's any other questions for my colleagues.

[38:10] If I can give Chris at the risk of giving him too many compliments and I do want to

[38:17] Kind of call out Chris and Mike on a couple things. He highlighted the number of hires

[38:23] They've done over the past year. I think one of the things that

[38:27] You guys may not pick up on but out of the eight or so higher so far

[38:32] There's eight to ten hires so far this year and you have what four or five last year

[38:40] So, out of that 20 hires, I think you've had one or two folks leave, which when you think

[38:48] about turnover and match and the amount of training and bringing into a unique kind of

[38:57] culture, I do want to not let this go without complimenting them on doing that and the

[39:02] entire team on doing that very, very hard work.

[39:05] I also, you guys heard it consistently, I should have had a little ticker in terms of

[39:10] how many times Chief said data, but I think both Chief Zimmer and Assistant Chief Bell in

[39:16] particular Chief, Assistant Chief Bell have really worked on making sure that the data

[39:21] we have is solid and accurate.

[39:25] I think in the past we had data, but it wasn't, I don't know that we always knew

[39:30] what the data actually meant. And I think Mike's done a great job of really diving in

[39:36] and making sure that we know exactly what the data means and not just happy that we

[39:40] have a number. So those two components. Fantastic. Well, thank you very much. Thank you.

[39:57] Moving

[39:58] on to our final presentation for tonight, that's from our finance director on our

[40:07] Council usually I like to lead off with a with a joke on that piece but since

[40:12] Chief Zimmer did such a good job tonight I'll cut him a little bit of slack

[40:16] except for except for I knew I had a good feeling he was not going to be

[40:22] asking for more money tonight because he fell or since chief Bell weren't in

[40:27] their dress blue so I felt good coming in. That'll be in October.

[40:35] I tried to

[40:36] edge them on with the vulnerabilities but he didn't bite so we'll hear from

[40:40] him. That's why he did such a good job tonight, very proud of it. Now so you have

[40:46] the June financials in your packet it's old data at this point since you're

[40:50] just coming back from summer break but you know really it looks like the

[40:54] first five months. Financials are strong income tax is doing well expenditures

[41:00] are within budget and in good shape so I thought what I would focus on a

[41:06] a little bit of some of the things maybe that happened

[41:09] while you were on break

[41:12] and what's coming up here over the next couple of meetings.

[41:17] So as you left for break,

[41:19] we talked about refinancing bonds, here's a bond.

[41:22] So we went ahead and did that in July.

[41:25] So you have the city about $2.6 million

[41:28] in that rather small financing, refinancing,

[41:33] reaffirmed our AAA credit rating with both movies and S&P so lots of good

[41:39] things there. Coming next meeting you will get the July financials also we'll be

[41:48] coming with any mid-year budget changes really isn't a lot new there's gonna be

[41:56] some big numbers in there because we are moving some things around related to

[42:00] this bond refinancing, just appropriating some of those dollars, so there are some

[42:07] big numbers in there as well as spending down some of our excess bond proceeds

[42:13] that were tied to that refinancing. So there are some big numbers in there but

[42:17] nothing really new, it's mostly just some small new things. And then really

[42:25] Finally, we started the 26-up budget update process.

[42:30] This last week I sent the information out to directors to start working on that.

[42:35] And we'll have our three meetings scheduled starting after the election in November through

[42:43] December, a little expedited process this year.

[42:47] I think we're done a little bit earlier than normal.

[42:50] So that's coming down the pipeline.

[42:55] What's that?

[42:57] That's it.

[42:58] Council Member Lynch.

[43:00] My sense is with over 10,000 members of the community center,

[43:03] that's not giving you any heartburn.

[43:05] I need to hear.

[43:07] Thank you.

[43:09] You'll hear quite a bit more next week.

[43:11] So we will have a full financial report

[43:13] on the community center next week.

[43:14] Thank you.

[43:17] Any other council comments on the finance report?

[43:20] Fantastic.

[43:20] We'll now move on to legislative items.

[43:23] This evening we have a series of those on the agenda because I see quite a few

[43:28] members of our community in the audience. I do want to remind you that

[43:33] Council welcomes comments from our community members in order to give a

[43:38] comment before us. The comment has to be on an item that's on the agenda

[43:42] tonight and you need to fill out a speaker slip. These are these yellow

[43:47] slips are located outside the door. If you have those filled out just get

[43:51] them up to the clerk and they will make their way up here. When your name is

[43:56] called and you come up to the podium you'll have three minutes to give those

[44:02] comments. We have a nifty traffic light system on the podium that works very

[44:08] similar to your traffic light. The green means keep speaking, yellow means start

[44:14] to wrap your comments up, and red means that your time is up. I'll ask

[44:20] you respectfully wrap up when the red light is up. Otherwise you'll hear me say

[44:26] please wrap up. You do have quite a few comments tonight and I want to be able I

[44:31] want to make sure that we get through all of those so please be respectful keep

[44:35] your comments to three minutes.

[44:41] I believe I should have all the slips now. If there's

[44:44] anyone that still has a slip please make sure that I have it. Otherwise I'll

[44:47] move on to the legislative items.

[44:50] We'll start with a few up for first reading tonight,

[44:55] first reading and public comment tonight.

[44:58] The first of that is ordinance number

[44:59] 2.

[45:00] 28-2025, an ordinance authorizing the city manager to enter into a development agreement

[45:05] with national church residents and upper Arlington schools. City manager, Shoney. Thank you, council

[45:14] member Coulwitz. Council member Coulwitz is abstaining from this ordinance.

[45:23] Thank you. And I've got with me tonight James Russell. James and I are going to be walking

[45:29] Talking through an update on the National Church Residence

[45:35] Redevelopment Project, the specific purpose for tonight

[45:39] is to talk about the economic development agreement.

[45:42] We actually have, right now, there

[45:44] are really three different streams

[45:48] in which this project is moving through.

[45:50] So we have this process that we're

[45:52] going through the Board of Zoning and Planning

[45:56] is going through their process

[45:57] us to review the design and the specific land use plans related to this project.

[46:03] Same time, the school board is also reviewing their role in the three-party agreement that

[46:08] we're talking about tonight.

[46:09] So James and I will talk a little bit about all three of those streams, but in terms

[46:15] of the actual piece of legislation that you are dealing with tonight, it is the

[46:20] development agreement and the incentives that are inherent in that development agreement.

[46:24] But if you've got questions on the other pieces of it, we can certainly respond to those

[46:29] chats available to respond to questions as it relates to anything in the VZAP process.

[46:35] We also do have representatives from National Church here, if we have questions that are

[46:38] more appropriate for Matt rules here and if there's something that's more appropriate

[46:42] for Matt to answer, I may ask Matt to come up and speak to that.

[46:47] Okay. So, the National Church Residence Program is here, what we're seeking tonight is approval

[46:56] for an incentive package that would help encourage their $85 million redevelopment, reinvestment

[47:01] in their property on North Bank Drive just off of Arlington Center Boulevard.

[47:15] They're

[47:16] one of which they lease the other one sits vacant today.

[47:19] Their plan is to construct a new corporate office building,

[47:22] which is what you see to the right of the screen here.

[47:26] They also then would have two additional multi-family units.

[47:30] Those would be age restricted senior living units

[47:33] in both of those buildings.

[47:35] And I'll talk more about what's specifically

[47:37] in those buildings here in a moment.

[47:40] So as you all will recall,

[47:41] City Council approved a rezoning of this district from the ORC, which is not the

[47:51] Ohio revised code. It's Office Research Commercial District. Although I

[48:00] remember all the lawyers were very happy when we stopped calling it the

[48:02] ORC because it eliminated a fair degree of confusion. That zoning district

[48:07] would have allowed 76 foot tall buildings to be within 25 feet of the lake, if you recall,

[48:14] we lowered that. The new height limit was 64 feet. The project as National Church has presented it

[48:23] really does, frankly, more than we thought in terms of the use of the land and the

[48:32] preservation of green space. So one of the things that they've done with this

[48:37] proposal is take almost all of the parking, all the parking that's practical,

[48:43] you do need some little bits of surface parking in spots, but they've

[48:48] really taken the bulk of the parking and put that underneath of these

[48:51] buildings in structured parking and taken the space that was up on North

[49:00] Bank Drive as surface parking lots, they've converted that to green space that is now south

[49:06] of the building.

[49:07] So that's that green – it's not a one-for-one, but in essence that's what's happened with

[49:12] the site plan.

[49:14] There are no proposed changes to the roadways on the project.

[49:18] You can get a good sense of it here, and as I said earlier, as you've got questions

[49:22] about the zoning, Chad will be happy to answer that.

[49:26] This image is a cross section of the office building, which, if you will, again, the office

[49:30] building is the one here that's appropriately labeled office on the screen.

[49:37] So the image here, this is an image from National Church and their design team, shows

[49:44] really the cross section of the office building and how the building stacks and as well

[49:48] as where it sits on the existing site and compares the new building to the dimensions

[49:55] of the existing building on that site.

[49:57] So as you can see here,

[50:00] the new building is further back from the lakefront.

[50:05] It is higher than the previous building,

[50:08] but it does even with the rooftop mechanicals fall

[50:13] pretty clearly below the standards set forth

[50:19] in the zoning.

[50:20] So you have two, basically two floors of parking

[50:23] top by two floors of office and you have on the lake side you have it kind of

[50:30] stepping back from the lake as it moves up. It's 58 feet tall for the office

[50:39] phase two which is a senior living is about 47 and a half feet tall. They

[50:43] have they are requesting one variance and that's for the front yard set back

[50:47] due to an existing utility easement. You can see it there on the image the

[50:52] utility easement is 15 feet or 10 feet of the utility easement because there's a

[51:00] sanitary sewer running through there as well as AP I think also has a utility

[51:07] utility easement through that space as well.

[51:12] So in terms of what's in each phase

[51:16] if you will I'll go jump back I apologize for jumping back and forth so the

[51:21] The National Church Residence Headquarters Office Building, that is Phase 1.

[51:26] The building immediately to the left or west of this, as you look at this, is what we'll

[51:32] call Phase 2.

[51:33] And then the other two buildings are what we refer to as Phase 3.

[51:43] So Phase 1 is, first of all, demolition.

[51:48] The company intends to start demolition towards the end of the year this year.

[51:52] They intend to open phase one, which is the office building in the first quarter of 2028.

[51:59] That will be a 16 and a half million dollar building, 57,000 square feet of office.

[52:05] That building will actually be owned by a third party developer.

[52:11] Am I allowed to say who it is?

[52:13] Yeah,

[52:16] the Daimler Group is anticipated to be the developer of that.

[52:20] that, they will be signing a 30-year lease with Daimler for that building.

[52:27] Phase 2, which is the first of the senior living buildings, will start fairly soon there

[52:33] after intent is to have that completed by the first quarter of 2029.

[52:39] That will be an $18 million building with 80 units of senior housing.

[52:43] And then Phase 3, looking at 2031, although that's tentative in talking with the company,

[52:50] they do want to see what the absorption is on Phase 2.

[52:54] They want to understand the market.

[52:56] They want to make sure that everything's going well before they firmly commit to what Phase 3 will be.

[53:02] It is currently programmed at being about a $34 million building with 120 units of senior housing.

[53:09] So, the company in cooperation with the city has done a number of community meetings.

[53:15] We did four community meetings.

[53:17] We presented the concepts to the neighbors, got some feedback, and the company has worked

[53:23] to incorporate some of that feedback into their process.

[53:26] Additionally, I do know they have been meeting either individually or in small groups with

[53:31] neighbors that have specific concerns.

[53:35] So, a little bit more about National Church.

[53:36] If you don't know, National Church is the nation's largest nonprofit developer of senior housing.

[53:44] National Church has been headquartered in UA for over 40 years.

[53:47] You can see an image of the area when it was first being developed over here on the right of the screen.

[53:55] National Church is one of the top three private employers in the city in terms of income and withholding tax.

[54:02] and they also operate First Community Village which is on the opposite end of

[54:07] Arlington as far south end of the city. So when we talk about this project

[54:12] there are a number of reasons why we think it is good for the city. James is

[54:17] going to walk you through the financial aspects of that but we do think

[54:21] from a overall city planning and design and needs of the city we think

[54:27] there's a lot to believe that this is consistent with. First of all the project

[54:33] is the first real redevelopment of anything that we've seen in that area

[54:39] for a long time and I think I hope it is the first phase the first step in the

[54:45] redevelopment of the entire corridor and it is consistent with the Envision

[54:49] Henderson plan that this council adopted earlier this year. It is the

[54:53] for, as I said, it's the first project under our new plan mixed office district, and it

[54:58] will help with the provision of senior housing within the community.

[55:03] So one of the things that we heard and saw within the data from our housing analysis

[55:10] is that there is demand for senior housing in the community.

[55:15] There is more demand for older adults to have options in terms of how they live

[55:20] than the community and how they choose to age in the community.

[55:24] And so we think this does a good job of providing for that.

[55:27] It doesn't provide an excessive amount of senior housing.

[55:30] It doesn't put us out of balance in some way, shape, or form.

[55:33] But we think that when you look at it,

[55:36] it really does help provide the portfolio of housing

[55:40] options that we're really looking for as a city.

[55:44] With that, I'm going to turn it over to James.

[55:46] Let him walk through some of the specifics

[55:47] in the development agreement and some

[55:49] the economics behind it.

[55:53] Thank you part of this development agreement I would like

[55:55] to talk about the commitments both from NCR and the city from the NCR side and

[56:01] important of this project paramount really is the retention of twenty one

[56:05] point two million dollars in annual payroll subject to city income tax that

[56:10] is required for 12 years from the issuance of certificate of occupancy

[56:14] additionally starting in five years after the issuance of said certificate

[56:19] and continuing through the 12th year of occupancy is a requirement for $5.25

[56:24] million an annual payroll in addition to maintaining that baseline. So that is the

[56:30] growth requirement as part of this development agreement. Additionally NCR

[56:36] will be grading the property adjacent to the lake that is just north of the

[56:41] lake consistent so that the city can come behind and construct a shared use

[56:45] path. Additionally, NCR will be required to make service payments to UA schools equal to

[56:52] the property taxes received in 2024. That is keeping the schools whole throughout this

[56:57] agreement. Additionally, one thing I do want to highlight with those payroll requirements

[57:02] in the event that a payroll threshold or requirement is missed with the annual report

[57:07] submitted to the finance director will be a check of the difference.

[57:12] Continuing with the commitments from NCR, NCR will replant the property to create a separate

[57:18] parcel that includes the northern portion of the lake, as well as that buffer previously

[57:23] discussed to accommodate a shared use path.

[57:27] As also mentioned earlier, it will enter into a 30-year lease with a third-party developer

[57:32] for that phase one office building.

[57:35] At the request of the schools, the NCR will enter a separate agreement that allows

[57:41] the opportunity for collaboration on educational programming and service

[57:45] opportunities. Additionally, we talked about the age restrictions, so there's a

[57:50] 90 percent age restriction at 55 plus that needs to be in the deed for any

[57:56] residential properties receiving TIF funding. That 90 percent, just to explain

[58:01] that with this being a corporate headquarters, it was the company's

[58:05] request to leave some flexibility if they have to on a short-term basis

[58:09] just put up some executives where folks travel in from the company.

[58:14] On to the city's commitments in the development agreement, we'll work with

[58:18] U.A. schools to implement a 30-year parcel-by-parcel TIF

[58:22] district.

[58:23] That will be approximately a 55 – that will retain 55 percent of property

[58:29] tax for U.A. schools over the life of the TIF.

[58:33] There also is a $1 million grant from the Economic Development Fund

[58:37] that would be given at certificate of occupancy issuance and when an affidavit is delivered

[58:43] to the city stating that employees have begun to begin relocation to the site.

[58:51] Before I go into the specifics of this TIF deal, I do want to talk about just TIF in

[58:55] general and I should start with tax increment finance or TIF as we call it.

[59:00] So starting with TIF adoption on the left hand side, you'll see that revenues will

[59:05] be frozen at that base value, so in this case the revenues that were at 2024

[59:10] revenues, excuse me, be frozen base values. So that will lock in the value

[59:17] property tax for the schools and the city and that will allow for this growth

[59:22] and area tax base as you see. Coincidentally this actually does show

[59:27] a three-phase project here, so you can see what that ramp up would look like

[59:31] for this project. Those additional funds that increment is bonded against the annual revenues

[59:37] will pay down that bond. That bond will be used for infrastructure and site development cost

[59:43] and closing the gap on this project. So this project does proceed forward. And then at the

[59:48] end of the TIF, and this is a proposed 30-year TIF, the funds would be unfrozen and that base

[59:53] value would be reset to the actual value of the property at that time. And then collections would

[59:59] to resume.

[1:00:00] for all levy agencies, including city and schools. The source on this, SB Friedman, would like to thank them,

[1:00:06] National Bond Consultant and Public Finance Company. So just a infographic there.

[1:00:13] Getting into this TIF specifically, depending on how you calculate and really talking about

[1:00:19] rounding differences, this is effectively a 40 to 44 percent TIF. So that means of that additional

[1:00:24] increment, 40 to 44 percent will be rerouted to infrastructure costs to finance that bond.

[1:00:32] Over the life of the TIF, this will generate an additional $6.4 million of revenue for UA

[1:00:39] schools and an additional $2.6 million of revenue for the city that would not have otherwise been

[1:00:46] realized without this project proceeding. Important to note as well, all three phases

[1:00:51] will create revenue over a baseline independently of each other.

[1:00:56] So with this being independent TIF clocks,

[1:00:58] that was very important to make sure the schools remain whole.

[1:01:02] As an example, if you look at the chart on the right

[1:01:04] for the UA school's current,

[1:01:07] there's a tiny sliver at the bottom for phase one,

[1:01:10] and that's the current generation from the property.

[1:01:13] If we were to assume that only phase one happened

[1:01:15] and you would realize that jump to the larger phase one section

[1:01:19] In the second column, with the TIF, you could take the phase two and phase three from the

[1:01:24] first column and apply that to that second column, and that would be the operating picture.

[1:01:30] So at no point will the schools be less than whole or the city less than whole for what

[1:01:35] they are currently generating.

[1:01:37] The TIF will be used to fund $11.3 million of development costs at the site.

[1:01:44] Getting into the return on investment of the Economic Development Grant, again,

[1:01:47] this is just that $1 million economic development fund grant. I have three

[1:01:52] scenarios here that is a conservative moderate and aggressive scenario.

[1:01:56] Conservative scenario is what will happen with the agreement. So by law the

[1:02:01] agreement will require the payment of that $6.3 million on the retention

[1:02:07] side and a growth of $1,050,000. From a retention perspective

[1:02:14] that's a 537% ROI from a growth of 5%. Again, that is assuming zero escalation that the

[1:02:21] first four years they operate at payroll threshold one, which is their existing payroll, and

[1:02:27] then immediately ramp up to that payroll threshold two with the required growth.

[1:02:33] The moderate scenario contemplates what is a more likely operating outcome, and that

[1:02:37] would be that there's a gradual ramp up across those four years to get to that

[1:02:41] second payroll threshold as well as an annual escalator of 3% throughout the model.

[1:02:48] On average, this also bumps the required years on site or the years on site in this model

[1:02:54] to 15 years.

[1:02:56] Looking at that, you can see a total ROI of 980%.

[1:02:59] Almost 200% on the gross component and almost 700% return on investment from a retention

[1:03:06] perspective.

[1:03:07] looking at an aggressive scenario which contemplates both the 30-year lease and

[1:03:12] 30-year tef clock and assumes that NCR would stay on site for the duration of

[1:03:17] both of those items as well as that 3% annual escalator you will see a very

[1:03:23] positive ROI for the community.

[1:03:31] So as I said at the outset we're really

[1:03:34] looking at three kind of approval streams that this project is going

[1:03:39] through so this is our first week here tonight I was James and I were at the

[1:03:44] school board making a presentation on all this they will be considering approval

[1:03:51] of the same agreement at their September 9th meeting these app has their

[1:03:59] September 3rd work session and they will have a September 17 final review as

[1:04:07] as it's scheduled now, those dates are all subject to change and subject to

[1:04:13] decisions by each of those bodies. And then I do want to note that probably

[1:04:19] towards the end of this year or early next, we will be back with additional

[1:04:22] legislation to set up the TIF. There will be some additional legislation

[1:04:27] that we'll have to come back with for that. So with that, unless I'm

[1:04:32] mistaken, I think that is our last slide. Yes, happy to take questions or

[1:04:35] or we can hold those until after public comment.

[1:04:40] We're gonna hold those till after public comment.

[1:04:42] Thank you.

[1:04:46] I'm a little bit taller than average,

[1:04:49] so I'm gonna lower the dance a little bit.

[1:04:51] Thank you, Steve.

[1:04:52] We'll now move on to public comments.

[1:04:55] And then at that point after that,

[1:04:59] then colleagues will have a chance to ask questions.

[1:05:03] First person up is Trisha Miranda.

[1:05:10] Trisha, when you get to the podium, just restate your name for the record and then your three

[1:05:15] minutes will start.

[1:05:16] Thank you.

[1:05:22] Thank you.

[1:05:22] I'm Trisha Miranda.

[1:05:24] I am here to urge you to halt any movement with the redevelopment proposal as is by National

[1:05:30] Church Residents for its corporate campus on North Bank Drive.

[1:05:34] Here are my three reasons for tonight.

[1:05:36] One, new developments are important to Upper Arlington.

[1:05:40] U.A. has made many good decisions. However, this is not one. This redevelopment plan,

[1:05:46] as is, does not fit our area. The height of the buildings and the amount of density will

[1:05:52] harm the character of Concord Village. I went to the National Church residences in and

[1:05:57] around Columbus, Gates Junction, Westerville, Dublin, Blacklick. Some were in eyesore.

[1:06:04] One, which was at the top of a neighborhood had litter everywhere, noise in the area,

[1:06:09] beyond the ambulances, and thick traffic patterns.

[1:06:13] Two, the public has received deceptive information from National Church residents.

[1:06:19] Published glossy materials and websites are filled with superficial tidbits.

[1:06:24] They are not definitive on what they are delivering to our community.

[1:06:28] When asked about the effects on the area, they point to the same faulty studies that

[1:06:34] are used across the country.

[1:06:36] I'm sure you have poured over those studies to see the erroneous logic, surveys, and data

[1:06:41] collection.

[1:06:42] Even more deception, we get answers from NCR that are the first left two bullet points

[1:06:48] of a top of a chat GPT.

[1:06:51] Conclusions are made by NCR and UA city without evidence.

[1:06:55] You have to make arguments for these conclusions to support that crime will not increase, that

[1:07:02] property values will not go down, and that the beauty of the area will not shrink.

[1:07:07] Where is the solid, deep analysis evidence?

[1:07:11] All I have heard is condescending tones about the fear factor of redevelopment.

[1:07:16] This is just a common shallow attack when folks oppose redevelopment.

[1:07:20] Three, national church residents is not equipped to handle and effectively manage a site with

[1:07:27] this many complexities and numbers and still keep the integrity of our area.

[1:07:32] They can barely handle their internal employees' complaints for their treatment.

[1:07:36] How will they handle our neighborhoods grievances?

[1:07:39] Maybe they have had only four presidents in 62 years.

[1:07:44] But their management turnover is high.

[1:07:46] There is no trust that complaints in the area will be taken care of swiftly and effectively.

[1:07:53] NCR President Susan DeMichel, who used to be the tough main part of their legal department,

[1:07:58] wants to add more service offerings.

[1:08:01] What does that mean for this campus?

[1:08:03] What do we have in writing from them?

[1:08:06] Where has been our due diligence with boilerplate language to make sure that this campus is not a runaway train of issues?

[1:08:14] where is our legal protection and some I find it unconscionable that UA City is

[1:08:20] making Concord Village a casualty in the plan to increase the tax base. This

[1:08:26] decision because it has come so far will follow us for years to come and by

[1:08:31] then it will be too late for any remedy. Thank you. Thank you.

[1:08:45] Our next speaker

[1:08:46] up is Vicki Jaffe.

[1:09:02] Hi, my name is Vicki Jaffe. I'm a new homeowner in Center

[1:09:08] Lake, which is part of Concord Village, so I'm relatively new to the issue, this

[1:09:15] issue generally. I attended my first meeting last month that was hosted by

[1:09:20] NCR at the community center and I had a couple takeaways from it. One is the

[1:09:28] residents and there's there's there were a lot more there that night the

[1:09:33] residents are not opposed to the redevelopment of the property they're

[1:09:38] not they're very bright there they understand that the that the buildings

[1:09:43] are outdated they understand that NCRs bought up all the all that property

[1:09:49] with some intent they understand the need for housing they're they're very

[1:09:53] engaged, they've been engaged in this from the very beginning.

[1:10:00] The impression I also got was that the room was being the one,

[1:10:06] even though they said they they've had four meetings and they

[1:10:10] keep stressing, they even tried to engage the community in four

[1:10:12] meetings. The one I went to the impression I got that everybody

[1:10:17] was being lectured to, as if we didn't know that we need

[1:10:21] senior housing as if we didn't know that the buildings were outdated.

[1:10:27] NCR to a lesser extent and to a lesser extent the city has really turned a deaf

[1:10:34] ear to the concerns that are being voiced by the community and the

[1:10:41] residents there. They keep asking for input but they're not integrating it.

[1:10:48] They keep asking for, they keep asking for saying they have, they're engaging the

[1:10:54] community, but they never, they are not, they're not integrating any of these

[1:10:58] suggestions that people have. And it's at the project, as this nice woman

[1:11:03] before me said, it's just like, it's like a runaway train. It's just like

[1:11:07] on the rails and nobody's going to get it off. Mr. Russell did a very fine

[1:11:12] job analyzing the economics of the project, but I don't see any place

[1:11:16] where there's been analysis of the impact on the neighborhood and the families as the project stands

[1:11:22] right now. So I'm encouraging that this be tabled until the actual input from the residents have

[1:11:32] been addressed. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Jim Fisher.

[1:11:51] Hi, my name is Jim Fisher. I live

[1:11:53] in Concord Village at 2177, partly a drive. There's been a lot of talk about the buildings

[1:12:00] and the community, the size, the placement, this type of thing, and I think that's worthwhile

[1:12:04] discussion, but that's not really what I wanted to talk about tonight. My concern is

[1:12:08] something that I think is being overlooked, and it's the construction of the buildings

[1:12:12] themselves. If you know Concord Village, some of you may know it, it's really divided

[1:12:18] into two segments. There's a western component that you get at from roads south in Arlington,

[1:12:24] Mackenzie and those, and there's a eastern section that you get at from Henderson Road.

[1:12:30] I live on the eastern section of Comport Village and there's really one access road,

[1:12:36] Arlington Center Boulevard, it's the only way in. And that road is a small boulevard,

[1:12:41] nice road, a small boulevard, the lanes on both sides going different directions

[1:12:46] are rather narrow with parking on both sides. And I think the use of that road is going to be

[1:12:52] problematic for our community going forward. Just to quantify it for you, about 70-ish homes

[1:12:58] on the east side will be affected by the use of Arlington Center Drive as a construction avenue

[1:13:05] for this project. You heard in the presentation that the project overall is a 2025 to 2031

[1:13:14] type of a project, so five, six years. I'm concerned, first of all, that it's

[1:13:20] open-ended. You saw the word tentative there, and so it's a five-plus year

[1:13:26] construction project. I've actually had a person associated with the project

[1:13:30] tell me, you know, it could go ten years. And so if you can imagine living

[1:13:34] near or in a construction zone for that period of time, that's a

[1:13:39] long time. There are questions about how often there will be construction delays.

[1:13:45] There'll be a lot of materials coming in on that road. Construction delays could

[1:13:50] be a problem taking it down to one lane access. That raises the issue of in a

[1:13:55] community where there's a number of older people and there are monthly

[1:13:59] emergency services back into the area. We have to be very concerned about

[1:14:04] access for those emergency vehicles. Very concerned about that. At the end of a

[1:14:09] five or six year construction project, what will Arlington Center Boulevard

[1:14:13] look like? It will be I'm sure pretty well torn up and are there is their

[1:14:17] funding to recover from that. So I guess what I would say is there have to

[1:14:23] be other options rather than using Arlington Center Boulevard. I believe

[1:14:27] there are a couple. One that I'll speak to is I think there's an

[1:14:31] opportunity to build a temporary construction road that is to the west of the National Church

[1:14:38] residence properties that goes straight out to Stonehaven across what is a piece of the

[1:14:43] park adjacent to the ball diamonds there.

[1:14:45] I'd ask you to look into this.

[1:14:47] I don't think there's been enough thought given to the how it's constructed piece

[1:14:51] and it's going to be very problematic for the people who live back in that area.

[1:14:57] Thank you.

[1:14:58] Thank you.

[1:15:01] Next speaker up is Kanu Goyal. Hopefully I said that right. Goyal, Goyal, okay.

[1:15:12] Hi, thank you everyone. My name is Kanu Goyal. I live on 2230 Concord Village Drive. It's the house across the narrowest part of the West Lake.

[1:15:23] week. And I've been here for 11 years and it's been a wonderful community. And the presentation

[1:15:29] that was recently given, there really is – it's an impressive ROI on the investment

[1:15:33] and the redevelopment. So, frankly, it's a little hard to argue against that process.

[1:15:39] But it does feel like the community, the Concord Village community, is paying the

[1:15:43] price. And this was our concern three years ago when the rezoning occurred in several

[1:15:49] meetings. We have had, since then, multiple meetings with NCR and with a lot of conversations

[1:15:56] that have occurred. I'm not sure I really saw any concessions made. It was suggested

[1:16:02] that concessions were made or some of the suggestions that were made were taken into

[1:16:06] consideration, but I have personally yet to see those adjustments.

[1:16:12] So I would propose

[1:16:13] that the corporate building, which is in my backyard, literally my backyard, a stone's

[1:16:18] throw away from my dock, decrease their height, increase the setback, improve the softscape

[1:16:25] and landscaping, avoid a shared path that will feel like it's in my backyard.

[1:16:32] And I'm asking all of you here to please hold on voting on the proposed redevelopment

[1:16:37] process or on NCR until our concerns in the community and our requests are fully

[1:16:43] evaluated. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker up is Carly Witherspoon.

[1:17:04] I have

[1:17:05] lived in Concord Village for 41 years and I'm in favor of all the points that you

[1:17:11] will hear from my fellow village neighbors. I feel strongly about the

[1:17:17] building size and the beautiful homes that are right across from that view

[1:17:22] and I feel that the new headquarters that's going to be owned by Daimler and

[1:17:28] rented should be back where the headquarters are presently. It wouldn't

[1:17:34] be such a tall building right when you come in off the North Banks for our

[1:17:40] neighbors to look at. So I don't know why that has to be moved. I also feel

[1:17:50] that a service road, as Jim Fisher said, should be either at the other end over by Henderson

[1:17:59] or maybe out the other way by public storage, some way that we don't have to deal with all

[1:18:05] that construction for so long.

[1:18:07] Mud coming in our garage is noise, nails, all the trucks in and out, tearing places

[1:18:15] is down and also rebuilding is going to last a long time and be very inconvenient to all

[1:18:23] of us. Our village has been known to be a very private and wonderful corner of the world

[1:18:32] and we would like to keep it that way. Thank you.

[1:18:35] Thank you.

[1:18:36] Thank you.

[1:18:38] Our next speaker is Marjorie Blunt.

[1:18:52] I'm Marjorie Blunt in Concord Village in 2220 Sandstone Road.

[1:18:57] I have many thoughts on this, but this is just kind of a little personal thing that I've

[1:19:01] lived there over 40 years.

[1:19:04] I love the peace, the quiet, the safety, the closeness and some support that all

[1:19:09] of us have for each other.

[1:19:11] I always felt very secure with you.

[1:19:13] We have the lakes there.

[1:19:14] We have the park, but I have any grandchildren, great-grandchildren,

[1:19:20] nieces and nephews, and I have felt that they could venture over there.

[1:19:23] They were safe in any area, watched over, you know, it's a quiet area, and it

[1:19:27] breaks my heart to think that we could lose any of this. I totally agree and

[1:19:32] appreciate the concern that we have for senior housing. I know there's a need

[1:19:37] for that, but I have my senior housing, and I would appreciate that you listen

[1:19:41] to everybody that is speaking tonight and their concerns, because I totally agree.

[1:19:49] I'd like you to respect our wishes for our senior housing that we have and try to make that work

[1:19:55] along with what NCR wants. But protect, you know, listen to our concerns, listen to the lake that

[1:20:03] they want to put a walking path right next to the lake, which could be concerns for other

[1:20:09] people walking along there, you know, let's make it more trees and space, but

[1:20:14] don't put our sidewalk right there for the safety of kids riding on bikes for

[1:20:19] numerous reasons in the park. And like they said, with the traffic, mind's

[1:20:25] minor and it sounds like it might be personal, but it's not. We already have

[1:20:28] our senior housings. I would appreciate your need for it and just the

[1:20:33] please respect and listen to ours concerns,

[1:20:35] or they go for.

[1:20:38] Thank you.

[1:20:42] Next speaker, because I had a chance to try this,

[1:20:45] is Ramiah Goyle.

[1:20:48] Maybe I said it right this time,

[1:20:49] and maybe I didn't.

[1:20:54] Hi, my name is Ramiah, I live on 2230 Concord Village.

[1:20:58] I'm the most, I guess the closest to the corporate

[1:21:02] building that there can be, about 60 feet,

[1:21:06] I think between my backyard or my kids play and where this potential path will be in 2022

[1:21:12] I've been living there for 11 years now and the buildings have been not very occupied

[1:21:18] So we were thrilled in 2022 when we did discuss like the multi-use the potential

[1:21:24] Of what could be done with these buildings

[1:21:28] We had mentioned several times that please be

[1:21:32] understanding of how delicate the

[1:21:35] Eastmost part of the Westlake is because it's so close. It's so narrow. It's

[1:21:39] actually had a lot of issues with the shallowness of it. The conduit between

[1:21:44] West and Eastlake has gotten clogged. So just please be sensitive to how close

[1:21:50] you are in proximity to our homes and Arlington Boulevard, which is the

[1:21:55] commute every single day for people who live on the east side of Concord

[1:21:59] village. We were excited and we felt we were being heard. I think we did not go to the correct

[1:22:06] meetings because we obviously weren't being heard. We had said two to three stories, please,

[1:22:13] you know, the closest part of the lake. Now we are lectured that they are well within their

[1:22:19] zoning rights and could actually exceed it and were threatened during these meetings that

[1:22:25] we've had, public meetings, Benciar, that you could have a worse tenant that will build

[1:22:30] even beyond the capacity of what we're building.

[1:22:33] It was truly disappointing to find out that the multi-use zoning was far from Lane Avenue

[1:22:39] and Bridge Park and the excitement that we had, but is now one tall five-story corporate

[1:22:46] building in my backyard and apartment rentals in the wider part of the lake.

[1:22:51] and there is no amenities that we can enjoy as community members like coffee shops, retail,

[1:22:59] things that were mentioned to us during the zoning meetings, none of which have come to fruition.

[1:23:04] I think we'd find it tolerable if we felt like there was something other than just a massive

[1:23:10] corporate building and maximizing apartment rental space. That seems to be the only mission.

[1:23:16] the building itself and its daunting height also has balconies. They're

[1:23:22] literally above three or four houses. They can see into our houses, they can see

[1:23:27] into our backyards. The need for balconies and a massive corporate

[1:23:31] structure that are roofed and intrusive, I'm not sure what that need

[1:23:35] would be. The bike path, it should definitely be

[1:23:39] rerouted because I don't think anyone would prefer to be riding

[1:23:44] their bike literally in the backyard, in the privacy of people's yards. And what would be

[1:23:50] appreciated is maybe some trees and things that could protect privacy. My husband and I got a

[1:23:56] quote, I think it's $11,000 to try to enhance the privacy of our backyard in preparation for

[1:24:02] this 10-year process. I would think that national church residencies might do the same

[1:24:08] and try to look at that. I also just quickly want to mention that my mom and many other

[1:24:13] people have multi-generational communities like in Concord Village and my parents live

[1:24:18] on the Eastlake.

[1:24:19] I'm not unique in this.

[1:24:20] We are very concerned about Arlington Center Boulevard and the traffic that many seniors

[1:24:26] will be encountering every time they go by the construction and we would appreciate it

[1:24:31] being rerouted.

[1:24:32] Thank you.

[1:24:33] Thank you.

[1:24:35] Next speaker is Lisa Marzell.

[1:24:45] Hi there.

[1:24:46] My name is Lisa Marzell.

[1:24:47] I live not in Concord Village. I'm on at the end of Chevy Chase Avenue, 4856 Chevy Chase

[1:24:55] Avenue. And so, you know, we've lived there for 22 years. We hope to stay there for a long time.

[1:25:01] And so the quality of life in the neighborhood is really important to us. I don't have an

[1:25:09] objection to modernizing the office space and even expanding it to a degree, and I don't

[1:25:18] have an objection to some senior housing, that seems to make sense, that's their business.

[1:25:24] What worries me is the scale of the project.

[1:25:30] The size of the buildings, particularly the

[1:25:33] heights of the buildings. The thing that worries me the most about that is how close they are to

[1:25:40] so many of the single family residences. Those that are across the lake from

[1:25:47] in Concord Village across the lake and for what appears to be the third phase, that would be

[1:25:55] the section that would affect those of us at the end of Chevy Chase Avenue. We are very close.

[1:26:00] Our property is very close to North Bank Drive, and the third phase would be extremely close to our home.

[1:26:08] And that's also one that seems to be planned for an even taller height.

[1:26:14] So I'm really worried about, you know, obviously the nature of the neighborhood changing significantly with the addition of all those tall buildings

[1:26:24] buildings, and so many additional residences, you know, potentially 200 if everything materializes

[1:26:33] the way that it's envisioned.

[1:26:37] And just having such a large tall building so close to residences, I am also worried

[1:26:44] about property value decline quite honestly because home buyers don't like to buy a house

[1:26:49] that's being towered over by a large building that's, you know, high density housing, office

[1:26:58] building, whatever.

[1:27:01] Those properties, the National Church Residences

[1:27:04] parcels are just so close to so many of the single family homes that I just feel that

[1:27:11] the scale of the buildings is really not appropriate with the proximity that they

[1:27:17] have to those homes. I feel like some adjustments, significant adjustments,

[1:27:24] should be made to the scale of the project and the heights of the buildings

[1:27:27] before this project proceeds. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Jill

[1:27:36] Sanbe.

[1:27:45] My name is Jill Sanbe and I live at 4877 Pleasant Valley Drive. I've been a

[1:27:52] resident of Concord Village for the past 40 years.

[1:27:56] I thank you for all of us comment on the fact

[1:27:58] that we do not oppose what National Church Residence

[1:28:02] is doing refurbishing the area.

[1:28:05] It is a tired and sleepy office park

[1:28:07] that quite frankly has been let to go into defined.

[1:28:11] So it is a need of refurbishment,

[1:28:13] but we're asking that it's done responsibly.

[1:28:16] We last left this topic in 2022

[1:28:19] and we urged the Board of Zoning to be mindful, ample space be given between

[1:28:24] buildings and the residences and a graduated approach lower to higher.

[1:28:30] That's where we left it. As we all know the zoning went through, the zoning

[1:28:36] proposal went through, and now we were two months ago presented with the NCR

[1:28:42] plan. You can imagine most of our shock to see a four-story building proposed

[1:28:50] within yards of residents' homes and that at the most narrow part of the lake

[1:28:57] and the most narrow part of Arlington Center Boulevard. You can imagine the

[1:29:03] shock to see a five-story building proposed right about it against Northwest

[1:29:08] West Park, more specifically in close proximity to a baseball diamond.

[1:29:14] And finally, a cement boardwalk proposed on the north side of the lake for general and

[1:29:22] public use, further diminishing the privacy of the residents who live along the lake when

[1:29:29] all these years North Bank Drive has served the same purpose.

[1:29:32] What

[1:29:37] we're asking is for national church residences to be responsible in accomplishing their mission and working with us.

[1:29:45] We ask that city council not vote for the proposed development until they hear all residents concerns and requests and thoroughly evaluate them.

[1:29:54] Thank you very much.

[1:29:55] Thank you.

[1:29:58] Next speaker is Mallory.

[1:30:00] Oh, he does not have a last name on this. I hope I'm calling the right Mallory. Oh, oh, okay.

[1:30:07] That makes sense to not have. All right. I would love to hear from you, Mallory.

[1:30:15] My name is Abby Davis. This is Mallory Proud. We live at 2,300 Confort Village Drive, so

[1:30:25] right on the lake. We moved in March of this year so my husband and I are three

[1:30:34] kids. My husband is a 100% disabled veteran so in this property here we

[1:30:44] found a lot of solace and peace being on the water so that's what attracted

[1:30:51] us to this particular house in this neighborhood. It was tucked back in. It was very, you know,

[1:30:58] very clean, very quiet. So we were a little surprised to find that this building project

[1:31:05] was going to be happening here pretty soon. And I understand that, you know, National

[1:31:21] serving the community by building senior housing.

[1:31:25] I get that.

[1:31:25] I think what bothered me the most after going

[1:31:28] to so many of these meetings is that I feel like we're just

[1:31:35] being, like, toyed with a little bit.

[1:31:38] I think that we're voicing what we need,

[1:31:43] what we're wanting, hoping to see.

[1:31:44] And I haven't really seen any adjustments to their plans.

[1:31:49] I just feel like they're wanting to be good nature's,

[1:31:54] but they're not being good nature's.

[1:31:57] I just feel like they could be doing more, I think,

[1:32:02] to just beyond going through the motions of having

[1:32:06] these meetings, having us voice our opinions and ideas,

[1:32:13] and then being like, oh, yeah, we'll think about it,

[1:32:15] and then not really seeing anything being altered

[1:32:19] in their plans.

[1:32:22] I definitely feel strongly about the height of the buildings.

[1:32:27] I think that just to scale, it just

[1:32:30] would look almost ridiculous to see

[1:32:33] these five-story buildings on this pond.

[1:32:37] I know people are calling it a lake, but it's a pond.

[1:32:42] And it just would look, I think,

[1:32:45] Also, I have concerns about the parking garages being where they are, where they're placed.

[1:32:50] I think that having cars in the winter time, it gets started at 5, 5.30, and headlights just

[1:32:58] being shined to our homes and car alarms going off. I think just the noise level,

[1:33:05] I think, would just be a lot for us, a lot to adjust to after years of construction.

[1:33:12] So I just, and to like my other neighbors along that same street, just having the buildings

[1:33:20] being so near to the lake and being so tall, I think it just, it's just a lot worth that

[1:33:27] pond.

[1:33:28] So I would love to see a pause in the project until we get more of our ideas in there

[1:33:40] just so it just feels like it's something that we could,

[1:33:46] a project that we could all be proud of.

[1:33:49] And that's it.

[1:33:52] Thank you.

[1:33:53] Thanks.

[1:33:54] Abby, I had you next.

[1:33:56] So if so, both of you are done.

[1:34:00] All right.

[1:34:00] Thank you.

[1:34:05] All right.

[1:34:06] Moving on.

[1:34:07] We're next because Richard Fischel.

[1:34:16] Good evening.

[1:34:18] My name is Richard Fischel.

[1:34:19] I've been a resident at 2270 Concord Village Drive, which is directly across the lake from

[1:34:28] this proposed development.

[1:34:31] I think there's a – I've been to several of these meetings.

[1:34:35] I think the spirit of this rezoning project to the residents was just not really met

[1:34:41] from day one some two years ago.

[1:34:44] I think that the current building design of 50 to 60 feet will clearly impact property

[1:34:52] values, views, and the general ambiance of the lake.

[1:34:56] I'd also like to say that I've been to several of the NCR meetings and I felt like I really

[1:35:01] do one of the residents suggested earlier, I felt rather threatened.

[1:35:06] You would basically make some suggestions about design of the buildings and they'd

[1:35:11] say, well, it could be worse.

[1:35:14] And I don't think that's the right way

[1:35:15] to treat the residents of this nice, quiet neighborhood.

[1:35:19] I think there's a couple of simple design solutions.

[1:35:22] Some of them have already been said, like tiered or set back

[1:35:26] floors in the building.

[1:35:27] I think you could move the buildings back even further.

[1:35:32] I don't think any of us are or I think most of us

[1:35:36] are not against rebuilding this area because it really

[1:35:40] is kind of an eyesore, but we'd just like to see it done responsibly.

[1:35:46] Ultimately I'd like to see NCR meet with the residents, take their concerns to heart, and

[1:35:59] then ultimately that will provide some goodwill for the residents in NCR.

[1:36:06] Ultimately, I would respectfully request that the U.A. City Council not enter into a development agreement with the National Church Residences until the designs and concerns of the residents around the lake are met.

[1:36:18] Thank you.

[1:36:19] Thank you.

[1:36:22] Next.

[1:36:23] I have Diane Quattron.

[1:36:27] I can't – sorry, I can't make out what this is.

[1:36:29] I think it's Quattron.

[1:36:38] Hello.

[1:36:39] Hi.

[1:36:39] My name is Diane Quattron.

[1:36:40] I reside at 2240 Concord Village Drive.

[1:36:43] I have a little speech prepared, so I'm within my three minutes.

[1:36:46] But I just want to say that we have very detailed and specific feedback with actual solutions that could potentially be considered to resolve a majority of these issues.

[1:36:56] We've organized as a community.

[1:36:58] We are very understanding of your time.

[1:37:01] We're going to be here for a while, so we want to be mindful of that.

[1:37:04] We're willing to email that to City Council for review.

[1:37:07] My husband and I moved to Upper Arlington earlier this year.

[1:37:11] We are not from this region or even from Ohio, but we have a close connection to this area

[1:37:16] and quickly came to realize that this would be a wonderful place to raise our two small

[1:37:20] children.

[1:37:21] We found our home and we were warmly received by our neighbors.

[1:37:26] What's transpired in the last couple of months has soured our excitement and replaced

[1:37:30] it with dread about this project and what it's going to do to our lives and the

[1:37:35] property value of this home that we just bought during what is known as a very difficult

[1:37:40] time of home ownership in this country.

[1:37:43] During the 2022 rezoning initiated by the city, our community was very clear about the

[1:37:48] value of the lake and the importance of maintaining low-profile height, low-profile

[1:37:53] buildings along its perimeter.

[1:37:56] Unfortunately our community's wishes for reasonable height limits were not reflected

[1:38:00] in the final ordinance.

[1:38:01] all this community had left coming out of the process with city staff's repeated

[1:38:05] assurances that there would be opportunities to ensure reasonability

[1:38:09] once actual building plans were presented. We are here today to ask

[1:38:13] City Council to uphold those commitments. Our community's fears about this

[1:38:17] rezoning have come true. I think you've heard a lot from us about how

[1:38:21] we feel, how we've been treated, how we haven't been heard. We want the

[1:38:25] hand padding to stop and we want direct and meaningful responses to our

[1:38:30] concerns and ideas. We believe the current design has little regard for our

[1:38:34] community and a more balanced approach as possible, one that reduces harm to us

[1:38:39] while preserving the overall vision of the project. So along with my I agree with

[1:38:44] all of my fellow residents feedback and asking City Council to please not vote

[1:38:48] on this proposed development agreement until all of these issues are heard

[1:38:52] and are fully evaluated. I'm here to specifically discuss the position of

[1:38:57] the building. I live next to the boil, so I am directly impacted by that office building.

[1:39:04] We have very minimal options for privacy. Our rating prevents a privacy fence from

[1:39:10] doing anything to shield our backyards and just the overall proximity of the building.

[1:39:16] There is a utility line that NCR has cited as being an issue to moving their building.

[1:39:22] We are asking the city to engage with their engineering division to value what it would

[1:39:28] cost to move that sewer line and then to engage with NCR to see if they could move their building

[1:39:34] which would greatly help us in terms of the impact of that building.

[1:39:39] Thank you so much.

[1:39:40] Thank you.

[1:39:41] You did mention that you had a list if you could email that to council.

[1:39:48] That would be great.

[1:39:48] Absolutely.

[1:39:48] May I ask one more thing?

[1:39:49] may I submit a cry for my husband who is going to be here very soon or is it too

[1:39:53] late? I have one more slip and if he's not here by the end of that is that your

[1:40:01] husband that just walked in? I will well look at that perfect timing I will take

[1:40:05] that slip.

[1:40:15] We'll let you take a beat and then you'll be up.

[1:40:20] Alright, Jenny Wang, you are next.

[1:40:26] Good evening. I'm Jenny Wang. My house is

[1:40:30] right across the business building and the Z-shaped senior house

[1:40:37] building, that the south end of the Z-shaped building is just right in front of my backyard.

[1:40:44] So right now, actually, the office building across the lake is like two-story. So now they're going

[1:40:51] to go to four to five stories. So it's like more than double the height. So that's going to

[1:40:57] basically, I mean, reduced open view of the house and I mean, my house and other houses

[1:41:03] is along the lake.

[1:41:06] So that's definitely not only just that

[1:41:08] and also compromise the privacy

[1:41:10] because they're just so close to our backyard

[1:41:14] and so close to our houses.

[1:41:17] So, I mean, they should either push further, push back,

[1:41:22] make sure the building is further away from the houses

[1:41:25] and also reduce the height of the buildings

[1:41:28] and somehow to preserve the open view of the houses

[1:41:31] policies and also protect our privacy. I remember at the 2022 rezoning meeting, I attend a few

[1:41:42] meetings and I think the City Council reassured us saying that the approval of the rezoning

[1:41:51] doesn't mean it's going to approve any of the development plan. So this is the time.

[1:41:55] So now there's a valid plan that request.

[1:42:01] So I really hope that the City Council will keep the promise and listen to our concerns

[1:42:08] and then make sure our concerns are addressed before approving this building plan.

[1:42:17] And lastly, I just want to, I know it's difficult to have that feeling when you're not

[1:42:25] living in those houses. So I really hope the council members just think you're in our shoes.

[1:42:32] How are you going to feel when you suddenly face like more than double the height of the building

[1:42:41] across the backyard. I mean, it's staring into your backyard. So I just hope that you

[1:42:47] will take our concerns in consideration and don't approve this plan until it

[1:42:54] address all our concerns. Thank you. Thank you.

[1:43:00] Our next speaker is Andrews Amayola.

[1:43:04] Hopefully you've taken a breath. You have three minutes because you weren't here

[1:43:08] when I gave the instructions. You have three minutes. There's a traffic light

[1:43:10] system up there. Green keeps speaking, yellow start wrapping up, red please wrap up. We could reset

[1:43:16] that form to start. Thank you so much.

[1:43:21] My name is Andres Almeida and I reside at 2240 Concord Village

[1:43:25] Drive. I'm here to speak about the proposed development agreement with national church

[1:43:30] residences. In 2022, the city initiated the rezoning of this area despite this community's

[1:43:37] persistent input that the building heights not to exceed two to three stories along the

[1:43:41] Sher Lake, the final ordinance allowed much greater heights, maximum of five to six stories,

[1:43:48] and much of this to the community's greatest advantage. We believe the rezoning very seriously

[1:43:55] underestimated the risk for our community and the entire effort unilaterally benefited the

[1:44:01] one entity and that's national church residences.

[1:44:07] All this community had left for peace of mind was

[1:44:10] city staffs repeated assurances that there would be opportunities to ensure

[1:44:15] reasonability once actual plans were presented. We were here today to ask city council

[1:44:22] to uphold that commitment and not vote on the proposed development agreement

[1:44:26] until our concerns and requests are fully evaluated.

[1:44:31] To national church residents' credit, they did sit down for a meeting with a few of us on the narrow lake,

[1:44:38] but no material commitments came out of that meeting,

[1:44:41] aside from them considering to redesign of the prominent balcony features on the third and fourth stories

[1:44:46] to restore the minimal functionality of the setbacks.

[1:44:51] They said the city would need to address our largest concerns around building location removal

[1:44:56] of the shared path and narrow section of the lake.

[1:44:59] Lake Main.

[1:45:00] And preservation of Arlington Center Boulevard, which is the only access to the eastern portion

[1:45:06] of the Concord Village community.

[1:45:12] I request that the city council consider instructing

[1:45:16] city staff to engage with the UA's engineering division to fully vet the relocation of a sanitary

[1:45:24] sewer line to make the relocation possible.

[1:45:28] This area will be exposed already due to planned major excavation, and there's a good chance

[1:45:34] this utility line may be impacted by construction anyways, they're going so close to it.

[1:45:40] Either way, additional cost or delay, if any, should be minimal relative to the scope

[1:45:45] of the project.

[1:45:46] If the city is already making sizable investment into this project for infrastructure, this

[1:45:51] is an opportunity to balance the scales and do something that would help mitigate the harm

[1:45:56] to us. The impact of this request would be extremely meaningful to improve the setback

[1:46:02] and reduce the encumbrance to our homes.

[1:46:08] My other concerns are relative to the share

[1:46:10] path and notes located at the narrow section of the lake. These features invite a lot

[1:46:17] traffic and nuisance to our homes at the narrow side.

[1:46:24] The noise also from people

[1:46:28] it will reverberate on the on the lake. I would like there to consider

[1:46:33] additional landscaping and layers to minimize that that incumbent and remove

[1:46:42] the path all together. There's another, there's a there's a path along the North Bank side of the

[1:46:51] street so access to the park is already there. I feel like it should be removed and that would

[1:46:59] actually help us improve that the nuisance. In closing I want to know that this project

[1:47:07] It cannot be compared to other UAE projects such as the lane, which is often loaded as

[1:47:14] major success for UAE.

[1:47:15] Our neighborhood is character is unique with the lake and its amenity is being directly

[1:47:20] diminished.

[1:47:21] There are no exciting walkable amenities being created by this project to offset the less

[1:47:26] desirable impact of the rezoning in 2022.

[1:47:31] The PMO of the area is otherwise fully developed and continuously occupied, leaving

[1:47:35] us with little hope that any amenities will emerge in the near term.

[1:47:41] Thank you.

[1:47:42] Thank you.

[1:47:46] All right.

[1:47:46] That wraps up public comments.

[1:47:49] I do want to thank every single one of you.

[1:47:52] I know sometimes it can be intimidating to stand up there, so I always commend public engagement

[1:47:59] and you all coming out to share your concerns with us.

[1:48:04] Thank you.

[1:48:04] Before we get into questions, City Manager Choney, if you – I thought it would be helpful

[1:48:09] to level set – again, go back to what is before council tonight.

[1:48:15] I heard a lot of actual concerns in terms of design development, those kind of things

[1:48:23] that are before BZAP right now.

[1:48:26] Can we – can you help beyond breaking down what's on that, like from a very practical

[1:48:34] level. What is before the ordinance before council tonight? And then I'll

[1:48:40] throw in on top of that Steve the kind of the ordering because it's been a

[1:48:44] while since I think we've done a development in front of council where

[1:48:47] it's you know there's a development plan there's a development agreement and

[1:48:52] kind of the ordering what goes first what goes second because I've know we we've

[1:48:56] run into this issue in the past but we haven't had a development in front of

[1:48:59] us in some time that required both of these and so I know the ordering is

[1:49:03] important obviously for the residents so if you could explain that as well. So in

[1:49:08] terms of what is in front of you tonight it is essentially the exchange

[1:49:23] of commitments right the the commitments by National Church for all these

[1:49:31] things and the incentives that the city is offering in exchange for that.

[1:49:36] That is the document that you are being asked to approve that you are considering tonight.

[1:49:43] If I could rephrase what's before us tonight is the agreement on what monies the incentives

[1:49:49] that would come from national church residents and what we are, what UA city money-wise

[1:49:55] is also getting to the deal.

[1:49:56] That's what's before us tonight.

[1:49:59] Would you like me to have Chad explain the BZAP piece of that?

[1:50:04] Correct, because the BZAP piece has to do directly with look, feel, development, setbacks, all of that.

[1:50:13] Could you talk to that piece?

[1:50:15] Thank you, President Joachim Jeter. You're absolutely correct.

[1:50:18] There is a major site plan that's currently pending for BZAP.

[1:50:22] Second, work session on September 3rd, formal meeting on September 17th, where you get into

[1:50:27] all those specific development issues, setbacks, lot coverage, building height, building materials,

[1:50:34] lighting, landscaping, traffic, all of those things are handled specifically by the Board

[1:50:40] of Zoning and Planning.

[1:50:44] Thank you.

[1:50:46] So can I jump in?

[1:50:47] Yeah, go ahead.

[1:50:47] Can you just explain them, Chad, Steve, just kind of the interaction of the two and

[1:50:53] the timing of the two?

[1:50:54] I mean, as a development plan, we heard a lot tonight that there were meetings and there

[1:51:00] were comments and they were received.

[1:51:02] But obviously, it seems that there hasn't been a BZAP meeting to show maybe any kind

[1:51:07] of redesign to the plan.

[1:51:08] So can you explain just timing-wise the interaction between this development agreement

[1:51:12] timing, because we have readings for this, it looks like we vote on the 25th potentially,

[1:51:18] and then obviously with the site plan.

[1:51:20] And then I'll follow up with the question after that, go ahead.

[1:51:24] So I guess I'll start with a comment that the development agreement is separate from the zoning process.

[1:51:31] Yep.

[1:51:31] And that involves specifically city council.

[1:51:35] And so what you're going to have at this app is not going to have any discussion on financing or development agreements.

[1:51:42] It's going to be specific to the zoning, the plan mixed office zoning that's in place.

[1:51:46] Does the proposal meet that zoning or does it not?

[1:51:51] And so we have a couple meetings coming up.

[1:51:55] One is the work session on the third where the board will review

[1:52:00] the technical review committee meeting letter that was issued several weeks ago,

[1:52:05] which outlines all of the issues that staff collectively pulled together.

[1:52:10] National Church will also have the opportunity to address any public comments

[1:52:15] that have been brought forth and for their outreach meetings as well as this meeting.

[1:52:20] So that gives us several weeks from tonight to talk with National Church and see if any

[1:52:25] of these issues can be addressed and incorporated into the plan.

[1:52:31] Okay, that's great.

[1:52:32] And so can you also talk in terms of, actually I think virtually all the public comments

[1:52:40] that we heard tonight are these app work session type comments.

[1:52:44] And so does this public have an opportunity beyond what was here tonight at BZAP?

[1:52:52] And does that come back to us here at Council when we're talking about actual site plan?

[1:52:57] So unless there's an appeal, City Council will not see the major site plan application.

[1:53:03] This is strictly reviewed and disposed one way or the other by the Board of Zoning

[1:53:08] and Planning short of an appeal.

[1:53:10] So that's where you have all those issues that I listed before, fully vetted in detail.

[1:53:16] Staff has already been actively collecting comments from the neighbors to incorporate into the board's packet

[1:53:22] so that they can review all of those issues and do whatever they can to collaborate and work with National Church on potential adjustments.

[1:53:32] Thank you.

[1:53:34] That's a good point that City Attorney Shulman just brought up.

[1:53:37] So there is a Platt amendment that accompanies this and that is generally locked configuration

[1:53:43] and easements.

[1:53:44] It has to deal with easement and language on the on the plot for this office park.

[1:53:49] That specific piece will come to City Council.

[1:53:53] Can I ask a follow-up?

[1:53:55] So just for clarity, does that mean that what's before us is just the agreement portion

[1:54:00] of it?

[1:54:01] But Council really has no mechanism to intervene with the design portion of it.

[1:54:06] That's correct.

[1:54:07] unless there was an appeal.

[1:54:10] Just to add on to what Director Gibson said, when we revised our BZAP appeal procedures,

[1:54:16] most of the things go to court.

[1:54:17] Correct me if I'm wrong, Director Gibson, but this was one that would go to council.

[1:54:21] So if someone appeals a timely and they meet the criteria, you would then get it.

[1:54:24] So I don't want to say you'll never get it.

[1:54:26] It doesn't go to court right away, the other ones.

[1:54:29] Thank you for clarifying.

[1:54:30] right.

[1:54:34] City Manager, do you have like a there's a lot of discussion I know it's

[1:54:38] not germane to our talk but just as we level set over all development that

[1:54:41] shared use asks do you have a visual for us visual learners where you can get a

[1:54:47] better idea what the site plan is

[1:54:51] yeah let's come back sorry it's way at the

[1:54:57] Yeah, here we go. You can see kind of what the vision is here. It is the brownish stripe that runs along the lake.

[1:55:11] So that it is envisioned to be shared use path width. We have not done a lot of detailed design on it.

[1:55:21] And the agreement has National Church turning over that property to us in a condition where

[1:55:33] that portion of property has been graded to accommodate a shared use path.

[1:55:40] One of the things that as we go, we will go through our normal parks design process.

[1:55:46] If this all goes forward and we end up taking control of the parcel that will be created

[1:55:53] to accommodate the lake and the property to accommodate the path, if we do end up going

[1:55:59] forward with that, we will go through our normal parks development process to understand

[1:56:06] what that looks like.

[1:56:07] I think, you know, honestly, one of the things that by this being a phased project and us

[1:56:16] really not wanting control of that property until the bulk of the construction is done is it will

[1:56:22] give us the opportunity to see how it feels with actual buildings there rather than just

[1:56:29] looking at a picture, which I think when you deal with the development that's more unknown

[1:56:34] like this than maybe other situations we're gonna take that time so you know

[1:56:42] is that last leg that runs in front of the office building an absolute must no I

[1:56:51] think it's one of those things where we want to see how the buildings feel and

[1:56:57] how the entire development feels once it's built before we really fully

[1:57:01] design that path. And frankly, that will all go with the plan for landscaping.

[1:57:10] One of the things that we didn't know just for reference, the darker trees on the picture that

[1:57:18] you see in front of you along the lake are existing trees that will be maintained.

[1:57:31] The

[1:57:31] So it does give you a sense of the tree cover that the landscape buffering that already exists

[1:57:41] and then can be added to.

[1:57:43] Thank you.

[1:57:44] And there were a couple of comments.

[1:57:47] I know these weren't your comments.

[1:57:48] So about a service road or do you have any idea where that is on this?

[1:57:55] I don't.

[1:57:56] Those who are the first that tonight was the first time I'd heard those comments.

[1:58:00] Since my assumption is if you were to pull up a map Stonehaven runs on the other side

[1:58:06] of northwest Kiwanis Park, I think the gentleman was essentially proposing to run the temporary

[1:58:12] road across the park from Stonehaven, which is to the west of here, in order to reduce

[1:58:24] traffic on North Bank and on Arlington Center. Got it. And last question from a

[1:58:34] sequencing, can you remind me you said office building goes first? Office building?

[1:58:38] Which senior housing? The one in the middle. Okay. I wanted Jason to do it. Thank you.

[1:58:47] City Attorney Shulman. Thank you Council President. I just wanted to get a lot of

[1:58:52] questions about process and procedure. I just want to kind of throw

[1:58:55] something out, because we don't do a lot of development things here.

[1:58:59] As Director Gibson mentioned, there's only, I believe, one variance being requested for

[1:59:03] this property.

[1:59:04] When someone's building within what the code allows, you really won't have a lot of levers

[1:59:10] when that BZEP appeal comes here to change that.

[1:59:13] When they come with a lot of variances, that's when you can sort of require things.

[1:59:17] So the reason I want to flag that for you is I would hate to have you pass this

[1:59:20] with the expectation that, oh, we'll just clean it up when that zoning appeal

[1:59:24] comes.

[1:59:24] You should probably get your concerns addressed before you pass the economic development package because that's your best chance.

[1:59:30] Yeah.

[1:59:32] City Manager Shoney, I want to put a final point on the timeline.

[1:59:37] I kind of want to understand the order of things.

[1:59:40] As we have them ordered right now, is there a significance in why it's ordered that way, set another way?

[1:59:47] I guess to be more blunt or more clear, could the BZP portion happen before the development

[1:59:55] agreement portion?

[1:59:57] There is nothing.

[2:00:00] From a technical perspective that says it has to be done in this order. This is just an ordering

[2:00:08] to want to keep things moving in parallel as close as we could have it running.

[2:00:20] One thing that I did want to say in Darren's last set of comments for some, I'm not sure

[2:00:27] or how exactly it turned my head back to it.

[2:00:29] But the other thing we will do,

[2:00:32] one of, I think one of the two of you asked about

[2:00:37] BZAP and the comments made tonight,

[2:00:40] basically getting to BZAP,

[2:00:41] we will make sure to share the recording of tonight's

[2:00:46] presentations and public comment

[2:00:47] with the members of BZAP so that, Chad,

[2:00:51] so that they have this going into their meeting

[2:00:55] and so that they're aware of the comments coming up.

[2:01:04] Okay, thank you.

[2:01:05] Any other?

[2:01:07] One more question.

[2:01:09] It sounds like the community has had four opportunities

[2:01:12] to talk to NCR and voice their concerns.

[2:01:17] I'm wondering about the process,

[2:01:18] and you said maybe somebody from NCR is here.

[2:01:21] The process of listening to that and integrating that,

[2:01:24] is it just too soon?

[2:01:26] Does that happen when they get closer to BZAP?

[2:01:28] I'm just interested in that portion of the process.

[2:01:30] Yeah, I'll ask Matt to come up.

[2:01:33] I think one of the challenges in development projects

[2:01:37] is there's always a tension between when

[2:01:47] do you bring a project forward?

[2:01:49] How much work do you do before you bring a project forward?

[2:01:55] And how much room do you leave yourself on a project?

[2:02:01] And, you know, if you compare this

[2:02:11] site plan to the potentials that were shown in the zoning

[2:02:20] hearings in 2022, if National Church had walked in with what we showed as the potential build

[2:02:31] out of this zoning hearings as their first proposal and then had gone to this after the

[2:02:40] feedback, it would have felt different.

[2:02:46] So I think that's just being perfectly honest.

[2:02:49] I think that's some of the frustration that folks are feeling.

[2:02:57] that said, you know, it's, there are concern, look, I live in an area, I live between Lane

[2:03:04] Avenue and the high school. I don't know when construction started in that neighborhood. It

[2:03:11] feels like it's been going on for,

[2:03:15] you know, well, I know when it stopped, it stopped two

[2:03:17] years ago, but it felt like the 15 years before that, it was all construction. I get it.

[2:03:22] Understand that living through this kind of stuff. It's hard and living through the plans on this is difficult

[2:03:29] I think you know getting to where

[2:03:35] You know, you you have the opportunity to really understand

[2:03:41] How far I think I want to be fair to National Church and then

[2:03:46] They have before

[2:03:49] They came out with their first plan

[2:03:50] You know, there's a lot more that there's a lot of thought that they put in this to try and move things back as far as they can. So anyway, Matt, I don't know if you want to come up and address some things.

[2:04:07] Thank you.

[2:04:10] Council members, I have to answer questions. Maybe I'll start with your question, which

[2:04:17] is I believe if I could restate it was, you know, how have we taken feedback into consideration

[2:04:23] as we've worked through this plan? And I think, you know, Steve just alluded to it.

[2:04:26] When we listened in on the process and we're in attendance in the process in 2022 and heard

[2:04:35] the community's feedback about the rezoning, you know, we heard very clearly the need for

[2:04:40] green space, the needs for setbacks from the pond, the desire to be really sensitive, aesthetically,

[2:04:49] and the design of the building.

[2:04:51] And you know, Steve alluded to this, you know, we thought being a good neighbor would

[2:04:55] not be to come out with something as a negotiating point, a place of beginning,

[2:04:59] and then backpedal from it.

[2:05:01] What we wanted to do and worked really intently with MA

[2:05:04] and other consultants to do is write out of the gate,

[2:05:07] try to be respectful of the community's desire for setbacks.

[2:05:11] That was first and foremost for us,

[2:05:13] was really how do we create green space

[2:05:15] between the pond and between what we really believe

[2:05:19] is a mission we're called to do, which is senior living.

[2:05:22] So we pulled those buildings back,

[2:05:24] really effectively flipping reverse engineering

[2:05:26] the current existing design conditions,

[2:05:28] which has the buildings pushed up on the central portion

[2:05:33] and on the western portion pushed up against the lake,

[2:05:36] we tried to reverse that.

[2:05:38] And that entailed pulling the buildings back

[2:05:40] onto North Bank Drive and adding about two and a half acres

[2:05:43] of green space as a buffer between us

[2:05:46] and Concord Village and the pond.

[2:05:48] That was an intense effort, a challenging effort,

[2:05:52] one that is actually quite costly.

[2:05:54] The podium parking there,

[2:05:55] well, it's a fantastic amenity,

[2:05:57] certainly for seniors as they age in place and navigate inclement weather. That's a challenging

[2:06:03] and costly infrastructure improvement. We felt that was really respectful of our future residents

[2:06:10] and also of the community. So podium parking it, adding the two and a half acres of green space,

[2:06:15] those were first and foremost in our design considerations.

[2:06:19] You know, as you've heard today and is certainly a valid concern, one of the biggest

[2:06:23] challenges of this site is the narrow portion of the lake on the eastern side

[2:06:28] and that just happens to be also where North Bank Drive narrows between the lake.

[2:06:36] So some of the challenges of we wanted to put the building there we felt like

[2:06:39] that's what this site plan called for I was in consulting you know with many

[2:06:43] design professionals and city officials you know why do we want the

[2:06:47] office building there it's to limit the through traffic back to the park

[2:06:51] It's also because the existing condition right now an Arlington Center Boulevard has multiple other corporate buildings layered onto that

[2:06:59] So it felt aesthetically. That's where it wanted to lay. It's created challenges and you for the community

[2:07:06] Comment on those challenges here tonight

[2:07:08] One of the ways we've attempted to mitigate the first challenge

[2:07:11] Which is the height of the building is to have a setback

[2:07:15] We pulled the building back an additional 12 feet from where it stands today as Steve noted the existing landscape

[2:07:22] We've retained what you see up here on the site plan

[2:07:25] And then as we go up after those first two floors of podium parking

[2:07:29] We pulled back the actual office suite even further

[2:07:33] So the building the third and fourth floor the building are actually 60 feet back from the edge of the pond

[2:07:40] That's about double where the edge of the building sits today, which is about 30 feet back

[2:07:45] from the edge of the pond.

[2:07:46] So you heard of the concept of laddering.

[2:07:49] We tried to incorporate that in the office building.

[2:07:51] It's not a perfect solution.

[2:07:53] You've also heard residents rightly so call out the challenges

[2:07:57] that the easement along North Bank Drive creates.

[2:08:01] There's utility easement just south of North Bank Drive.

[2:08:05] It really inhibits our ability

[2:08:06] to pull that building all the way into North Bank Drive.

[2:08:09] What you see in front of you is

[2:08:11] we are pulling the building up

[2:08:14] as close as we can get to the existing easement for utilities without relocating that utility infrastructure.

[2:08:25] Thanks. Any follow-up questions? Council Member Muntz?

[2:08:29] Any other questions for Mr. Wohl? Wohl, he's up there from National Church.

[2:08:34] All right. Thank you.

[2:08:37] Are there any general council questions on this agenda item,

[2:08:42] knowing that this is our first reading and we do have an additional reading?

[2:08:46] This question, Director Gibson.

[2:08:50] So looking at the roads, and this is, I don't want to get slotted for this because I know

[2:08:55] that these roads, you know, we talk about the eastern access and the northern access.

[2:09:01] I've always been confused about the configuration of Arlington Center and Concord Village.

[2:09:08] I mean, I remember walking, yeah, I remember walking, knocking on doors.

[2:09:14] back in 2017 and not quite understanding why I couldn't get from one side to the other side.

[2:09:20] Again, I know this is a lightning rod, so I don't want to say like you should do anything with

[2:09:25] that because I know people, it's an unintended consequence, but just thinking of other developments

[2:09:30] that we've had in our community and how those developments have made us maybe look at some

[2:09:39] issues that have been there but haven't maybe warranted a second look, I can think, you know,

[2:09:43] in terms of Kingsdale and to the east,

[2:09:46] and when the school went into the north, right,

[2:09:49] there were a few things that we were able to accommodate

[2:09:53] in terms of traffic pattern sidewalks,

[2:09:56] roundabouts, things of that nature.

[2:09:58] I was just wondering if this was one of those things

[2:10:01] that, you know, would warranted a second look,

[2:10:05] not by NCR, but by the city

[2:10:07] as something that we can do for the community

[2:10:09] in terms of cleaning that up,

[2:10:11] or if that is like that for a very specific reason that we cannot touch.

[2:10:16] We're not want to touch in case that's a lightening.

[2:10:18] Thank you for the question. During the planned mixed office process, the outreach process,

[2:10:25] the residents made it clear that they did not want Allington Center to punch through.

[2:10:31] That was very clear, very obvious.

[2:10:34] Okay.

[2:10:34] A number one message. As part of this major site plan application that BZAP is going to review,

[2:10:40] there's a traffic impact study that was submitted. And the conclusions pretty

[2:10:46] clear. If you'll remember we used to have AOL, CompuServe Tree of Life, which by

[2:10:54] understanding at one point had over a thousand employees. So significant traffic

[2:10:58] volumes since then has been diminished significantly. But the roads were designed

[2:11:02] to accommodate significant traffic. And so the traffic impact analysis does

[2:11:08] not call for any significant road improvements as part of this development.

[2:11:14] So we're clearing down several office buildings and we're replacing with office and some senior

[2:11:20] housing, which is low impact, one of the lowest impacts of all of residential uses.

[2:11:25] So what the traffic impact study says is that our current infrastructure is okay.

[2:11:31] One other issue that was brought up was the condition of the roads.

[2:11:35] It's engineering departments all over this,

[2:11:38] in terms of adjusting our capital plan,

[2:11:41] not going to replace the road until the construction is done.

[2:11:46] So they're very good about that

[2:11:47] to make sure we're not allowing damage

[2:11:49] to our newly built infrastructure.

[2:11:52] So hopefully that answers some of your questions.

[2:11:54] No, yeah, you had at the beginning,

[2:11:55] which was, I mean, he doesn't want it, so.

[2:11:58] Absolutely.

[2:12:01] Thank you.

[2:12:02] Just to add a little finer point.

[2:12:05] We didn't there was not unanimity on that point within the community. They're just to be fair.

[2:12:11] There are some folks who would like those two things to punch through but kind of the sense we got

[2:12:15] from the community that they're there with a fair amount of passion about keeping it

[2:12:19] configured as it is. I assume there are two different planning communities is how it became

[2:12:24] like that. Was that right? I mean that wasn't one unified development. That's my assumption

[2:12:31] and I'm going to look at Chad for the, Chad's nodding, yes.

[2:12:34] Historian.

[2:12:35] So Concord Village was developed in a large number of sections and phases.

[2:12:40] And my recollection of going through all of those minutes from decades ago was that was

[2:12:45] an intentional piece to sort of separate the neighborhood from Henderson Road traffic.

[2:12:51] And again, you had AOL, CompuServe, Time Warner, that building, large building over

[2:12:57] 200,000 square feet with a lot of traffic.

[2:12:59] So that was a big scary user, a commercial user at the time.

[2:13:03] So if my memory serves me, that was done intentionally.

[2:13:08] Great.

[2:13:09] Tell us about the lunch.

[2:13:11] City Manager Shoney, whenever we approve TIF agreements,

[2:13:15] something we've heard in the past is can the schools handle the influx of students?

[2:13:21] And like, for example, we heard that on Lane Avenue,

[2:13:24] I've never seen any numbers.

[2:13:25] my guess is 10, 15, maybe people who are renovating their house move over there,

[2:13:32] that's they just might show up in the paperwork that way. And this is obviously

[2:13:36] senior housing, but there could be some family circumstances that force someone

[2:13:41] to have to stay with their grandparents or you know an older member of the

[2:13:44] family. I don't see much student, too many students living in that area, would

[2:13:51] you? So I've never asked Mr. Rule this question before but I'm gonna violate

[2:13:58] number one rule which is don't ask a question you don't know the answer to.

[2:14:02] Matt, do you in your senior living facilities do you have any student any

[2:14:08] that have a kind of student population that you can like a K through 12 student

[2:14:12] population that you can think of?

[2:14:19] I'm not aware of it we that's not to say

[2:14:24] It's never happened where a grandchild has moved in

[2:14:26] with a grandparent for a season.

[2:14:30] And it's not something that we're encouraging

[2:14:35] or happens frequently.

[2:14:37] Yes, they are 55 plus.

[2:14:39] And my kids are not far out of school

[2:14:43] and I am not far from that milestone.

[2:14:46] So I don't wanna say it's not possible

[2:14:50] that you would have parents moving into schools

[2:14:52] and have a high school kid or something but we've just heard that in the past

[2:14:57] and so I just wanted to tell you and to your

[2:15:00] Actually, there are, we do have data in the housing report that shows actually literally building by building the number of students that are in our multifamily projects.

[2:15:12] Great. Thank you. Any other council questions, comments?

[2:15:18] I just want to thank the residents for their coming in and giving their comments. I know that takes a lot. Thank you.

[2:15:27] Fantastic. Well, this will come before us for a second reading on August 25th.

[2:15:36] Moving on to our second ordinance here tonight for council, for first reading, no council

[2:15:44] action tonight. That's ordinance number 29-2025 and ordinance authorizing the city manager

[2:15:51] to enter into contract with Continental Building Company for the revocation of the toddler pool

[2:15:56] at Devon Pool.

[2:16:02] We'll give it a minute. We will file out.

[2:16:32] All right.

[2:16:36] Is there any council questions

[2:16:39] or comments on this ordinance?

[2:16:43] This is Devon Pool. I was just curious what we thought about the

[2:16:50] situation why we didn't really receive any other bid.

[2:16:55] All right.

[2:16:58] Yeah.

[2:17:00] Jeff, why don't you take that one?

[2:17:04] Yeah, absolutely.

[2:17:05] Thank you, Councilmember Adams.

[2:17:06] Yeah, it was a little bit of an interesting bidding on this.

[2:17:08] In fact, that we put it out for bid the first time,

[2:17:11] had it out for about a month, which is pretty typical

[2:17:14] for a project of this size, and we got one bid back.

[2:17:17] That was pretty significant over budget.

[2:17:20] it was that time that we kind of went back with the architects look for

[2:17:25] opportunities to do some value engineering, but it was already a pretty

[2:17:27] narrow scope. So really wasn't a lot we could do. So we did go ahead and put it

[2:17:33] back on the street with pretty minimal changes. We kind of addressed some

[2:17:36] of the comments we got through the building permit review. We clarified

[2:17:39] some of the scheduling requirements on the project and clarified a few

[2:17:43] full details, but it was essentially the same project. Upon a rebid, we

[2:17:47] again got one bid, same bidder who had been on it the first time. It was all about 18% reduction

[2:17:54] over $300,000 on the project. We did do a post-bid review with them. The difference was mainly

[2:18:01] they got more competitive electric subcontractors on this bid. Really not a change to the project,

[2:18:07] but they were able to get a little more competitive and reduce the bid on it.

[2:18:12] So we feel like after doing the two sets of bidding,

[2:18:15] it's a pretty realistic indication of kind of what

[2:18:18] the market will do for this project right now.

[2:18:20] We don't feel like going back out to bid at this time,

[2:18:23] we would really see any more reduction in the cost.

[2:18:26] There's really not an opportunity to reduce the scope.

[2:18:29] So alternative would be to wait another season

[2:18:31] and then likely still not see much of a reduction in bid

[2:18:34] without finding a way to reduce the scope.

[2:18:37] So there were some comments in the report.

[2:18:40] we feel pretty good about the stuff we veed out that we don't that that's okay

[2:18:45] that we're we don't I would say really more all clarifications I don't feel any

[2:18:49] of it was truly a reduction in scope for the project okay thank you any other

[2:18:56] council comments questions on this ordinance hearing men will take this

[2:19:01] of second reading and action on August 25th moving on to ordinance number 30

[2:19:06] dash 2025 and ordinance authorizing the city manager to make payment to

[2:19:10] American Electropower AEP for utility relocation services for the Fish and the

[2:19:16] Road Phase 1 Reconstruction Project. Is there any council questions comments

[2:19:22] on this ordinance? Council comments. This is hopefully an easy one. I'm just looking

[2:19:27] for the definition of aerial utility crossing. So those ones that go over

[2:19:32] the street. Yeah sorry Erin I'm going to jump in because this dates me way

[2:19:38] But I used to get beat up at council about the intersection of fishing or a reed.

[2:19:43] So please go out there and look at it because it's beautiful.

[2:19:46] So basically we're talking about we still have the overhead lines on one side of fishing here.

[2:19:51] Right.

[2:19:52] But all the utility crossings that used to cross at the intersections and various other parts that go over fishing here are all being undergrounded.

[2:19:59] Yeah.

[2:20:00] I'm really excited about that.

[2:20:01] Yeah.

[2:20:01] So that's just that just happened because it's an opportunity because we had to move these other things and they decided to.

[2:20:06] Yes.

[2:20:06] It sounds like the goodness of their heart. They decided to make it less visually cluttered for us

[2:20:10] But I have to assume there was something else that play now

[2:20:13] So when they did the design for fishing here, and they installed conduit under the road

[2:20:18] So it's already there pull the utilities under. Okay, awesome. But we have to help pay for that. Okay

[2:20:26] Great questions. Any other council question comments

[2:20:31] We will take back to second reading and council action on August 25th

[2:20:34] Moving on to ordinance number 31-2025 and ordinance authorizing the city manager to enter into contract with double Z construction for construction related services for the 2025

[2:20:46] Hydrant Replacement Project.

[2:20:49] Is there any council questions on this one?

[2:20:54] Question. I know we've talked a lot about fire hydrants. Can you remind me the notice process to the residents?

[2:21:02] The notice process that we sent.

[2:21:04] Yeah for the residents when they're oh as far as construction goes yeah so if

[2:21:10] there's going to be direct impact to a resident we typically for something of

[2:21:14] this scale we would directly knock on their door if it was something that was

[2:21:18] going to impede access or anything like that we would be giving them advanced

[2:21:22] notice normally about a week roughly but for this kind of a project it'll be

[2:21:26] pretty small scale isolated really in the grass right right for behind the

[2:21:32] walk depending where that is so should not see many impacts residents so we

[2:21:36] would have typically a day or two beforehand hey we're gonna be in your

[2:21:40] front yard working on this fire hydrant give them kind of a rundown of what

[2:21:43] that process looks like what restoration would look like.

[2:21:49] Any other

[2:21:49] council questions? Alright I

[2:21:54] think that concludes our legislative items for

[2:21:58] tonight. Yes it does. Alright moving on is there a city manager update? No not

[2:22:05] really welcome back everybody we've got a full fall in front of us and look

[2:22:11] forward to closing out the year strong fantastic all right I'll now call for

[2:22:19] motion to adjourn second it's been moved and seconded all those in favor of

[2:22:25] adjourning be signified by saying aye aye any opposed stay side meeting is now

[2:22:31] adjourned thank you

City Council Meeting

Agenda

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