Minutes Long Range Down 3 11 02 MINUTES
DOWNTOWN PLANNING COMMITTEE
LONG RANG E PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION
March 11, 2002 ~' ~
Conference Room #2 - City Hall Anne:~ ~ ~ '~
1300 Main Stroe,, Dubuque ~'~ '~J~ /
PRESENT: Chairperson Rusk, Committee Members Bob Felderman, John Walsh, Jim
Gibbs, Dods Hingtgen; Staff Members Rich Russell, Laura Carstens, David Harris and
Bill Baum; Guests: Cali Beals, iowa Department of Economic Development; Jim Holz
MSA; Mary Lynn Neumeister, Long Range Planning Advisory Commission.
ABSENT: Committee Members Ruth Nash, Ann Michalski, Pam Jochum, Dan
LoBianco, Steve Horman aha Jim Giesen; Staff Member Lisa Sesterhenn.
CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Rusk called the meeting to order at 11:38 a.m. without
a quorum.
MINUTES: Motion by Felderman, seconded by Walsh, to approve the minutes of the
February 18, 2002 meeting as submitted by consensus due to lack of a quorum.
Chairperson Rusk road Jim Holz's resignation letter.
Chairperson Rusk introduced Cali Beals of the Iowa Department of Economic
Development (IDED).
ACTION ITEMS:
Report on Master Planning Process: IDED Pre-Application: Chairperson Rusk
distributed, and then reviewed, a list of milestones from February 2000 through March
2002 for the downtown planning process. He reviewed the status of the four steps of
the downtown planning process. He noted that step #1 was completed with the City
Council's adoption of Vision Downtown. He then reviewed the three remaining steps for
creating Dubuque's downtown master plan: assess the vision vs. reality, assess the
vision vs. existing plans, and create a comprehensive downtown master plan.
Call Beals distributed a brochure on IDED's Community Development Fund, and
reviewed the program's parameters. She noted the City's proposal addresses three
targeted issues - growth management (smart growth) an(~ two housing issues (upper
story and infill lots). She said a pro-application can be made on-line; however, the
application must include the name of the consultant. She said the IDED will not fund a
project without this information.
Ms. Beals noted that the maximum amount is $50,000, but IDED has not funded at this
level this year. She said the IDED has not funded any downtown master plans, but
recently has funded two projects at $20,000 and $25,000. She emphasized that the
Minutes - Downtown Planning Committee
March 11, 2002
Page 2
IDED would like £o commit the money before the end of the fiscal year, which is June
30, 2002, to avoid reallocation to other state programs.
Ms. Beals then explained that the application must be from the City on behalf of a non-
profit organization, such as Dubuque Main Street. She ndted there is an additional
grant program that provides $5,000/year for commercial development. She said that
the Community Development Fund is not for tourism; Vision Iowa and CAT funds are for
those types of projects. Examples of regional partners that Ms. Beals said would be
considered include the School District and Dubuque County. For our project, she said
we have the right partners at the table.
Ms. E~eals stated that IDED would ask: Does the project really address the issues of
Vision Downtown as a back door way to address culture and entertainment for toudsm?
She then reviewed the rating criteria. She said for Models for Success, we would need
to hit this rating very hard. For Industry clusters, she said supporting documents and a
letter of support from GDDC would help this process.
Ms. Beals noted that she serves as advisor, advocate and reviewer in Des Moines. She
sa~d the pre-application takes 7-10 days to turn around and to make the first cut. She
said the turnaround time on the final application is approximately one month.
Chairperson Rusk thanked Ms. Beal$ for attending this meeting, and for providing
information about the program. There was then discussion on how to proceed.
Carstens noted that selecting a consultant prior to rece~wng a grant is the typical and
generally required process of other State agencies and the City. She said with the
City's consultant selection process, which requires an RFP and then approval of the
consultant by the City Council a consultant could not be named in a month. Ms. Beals
encouraged a pre-application without the consultant being named, so that we could at
least begin the grant review process.
After further discussion, consensus was that the recommended consultant selection
committee for the downtown master plan RFP would be: Rusk, Felderman. LoBianco,
Horman, Harris, Carstens, and a representative from the City Finance department.
Carstens said she would review the committee and IDED process with the City
Manager.
National Trust for Historic Preservation Grant: In the absence of LoBianco, Chairperson
Rusk reported that LoBianco, Felderman and Carstens will work on this for submission
in March.
ITEMS FROM COMMITTEE:
Felderman reported on Dubuque Main Street's collaboration with the Fischer
Companies to find uses for vacant buildings in the 900 block of Main Street,
Minutes - Downtown Planning Committee
March 11, 2002
Page 3
Felderman reported that he and Hingtgen would pursue a grant from the Dubuque Area
Board of Realtors, with Committee support. The Committee supported this action by
consensus.
Committee Membership: Chairperson Rusk reported that LoBianco has met with the
Fischer Companies to invite their representative to serve on the Committee, but they
declined due to other commitments.
After discussion of invitations to NICC and the School District, consensus was to ask
both for a letter of support for the IDED grant, indicate the Committee will send minutes
and invitations to forums, and would welcome their designating a representative to
serve on the Committee. After further discussion, consensus was to ask for letters of
support from ~)oth Finley and Mercy Hospitals and to re-invite Art Roche of Mercy to
rejoin the Committee, to gauge their level of interest in participating.
There was some discussion of whether to invite the Archdiocese as a major downtown
property owner, and whether this might create a community perception of singling out a
particular religious group. Also discussed were the difficulties of creadng too large a
committee. Neumeister suggested a broader invitation list could be used for task forces
with one or two meetings to give a more realistic opportunity for their participation.
Consensus was to request letters of support from the Archdiocese and DACU and to
gauge their level of interest i~ participating.
After further discussion, consensus was for this correspondence requesting letters of
support to come from Neumeister as Chairperson of the Long Range Planning Advisory
Commission, on Planning Services Department letterheact
Meetinq T me: Consensus was to move the meeting time to 11:00 a.m.
Neumeister indicated that she no longer could commit her time to this process, and the~
thanked Rusk for his leadership of the Committee. Committee members asked
Neumeister if the Long Range Planning Advisory Commission should have a
representative [o replace her. Neumeister agreed to ask the Commission to select an
additional representative for the Committee,
ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned at 12:45 p.m.
Respectfully submitted
Laura Carstens, Planning Services Manager Adopted