Mac council to discuss urban renewal

Urban renewal will be back before the McMinnville City Council on Tuesday. The council plans to discuss boundary and growth scenario options.

The council is scheduled to meet in informal dinner session at 6 p.m. and formal business session at 7 p.m. at the McMinnville Civic Hall, 200 N.E. Second St. Both are open to the public without restriction.

The various growth scenarios outlined in the feasibility study “make different assumptions about the level and timing of growth in assessed valuation through development,” City Manager Kent Taylor told councilors in a memo included in their agenda packet. “The medium-growth scenario would require an intent to provide some early public and/or private interim financing of improvements to stimulate growth,” he said.

Echoing advice from the city’s two urban renewal advisory committees, Taylor is recommending the council adopt both the medium-growth plan and the boundary used in the study, which encompassed the Northeast Gateway District as well as the city’s current downtown.

The council is also scheduled to hear an update on a proposal to begin transmitting council packets electronically, review the city’s progress on its goals and objectives for 2012 and vote on one ordinance and two resolutions.

The ordinance would eliminate a prohibition on new vacation rental homes within 660 feet of an existing one. The ordinance drew majority support on its initial reading in October, but a second reading and new vote is required when the council splits initially.

One of the resolutions, growing out of a new contract between the city and its firefighters union, would move firefighters to a co-pay health insurance plan. In a memo to the council, Taylor said, “This new arrangement will allow for a ‘win-win’ situation, with both the covered employees and the city paying less than they would have under the old health plan.”

The other resolution authorizes the city to award a contract for replacing old, deteriorated clay sewer pipe, and routing the new line differently, to low bidder Kizer Excavation at $76,620.