HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem #6 Funding Requests440d,t\
CHUBBUCK
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Memo
To: Honorable Mayor & City Council
Community Services Department
290 E Linden Ave., Chubbuck, ID 83202
208.237.2430
From: Devin Hillam, Community Services Director ID 1
Date: February 7, 2023
www.CityofChubbuck.us
Re: Council will discuss with the Community Services Director, additional funding requests in FY23 for the
following items: Comprehensive Plan Amendment, Tennis Court Resurfacing, Parks Development Impact
Fee balance, and use of the FY22 Parks & Recreation Balance in FY23. (Action Item)
At the January 4t" Council meeting, I presented a request to reopen the budget to allow for the use of FY22
unexpended Parks & Recreation Division funds in FY23, an amount of approximately $73,569. The Council approved
the use of the funds to move forward but a budget hearing and ordinance were then required and the
hearing/ordinance were scheduled to be held on February 1, 2023, but scrivener's error occurred on the notice and
as such, the events were postponed. Since the budget needs to be reopened, I also seek Council input and approval
to include in the same hearing/ordinance, some additional funding requests tied to my department's operations.
First however, I'd like to provide an additional idea that occurred since the January 41" meeting regarding one of the
parks funding needs — vehicles; following a discussion about vehicle funding, I am seeking to reopen the budget to
use the fund balance to pay for a comprehensive plan update, to authorize the expenditure of parks development
impact fee revenues which have been accumulated to date, to allow the use of grant monies received from the Blue
Cross of Idaho Foundation for park improvements, and to earmark FY23 tennis court surfacing monies for FY24 (if
unexpended).
1. Parks & Recreation Division Vehicle Need- alternate method proposed: At the 1/4/23 meeting, we
discussed an urgent need for at least on additional truck in the department and I proposed that between
$20k -$30k of the $73,569 would be used to purchase a used truck. Since that time, I've been exploring the
possibility to transferring one or two of the Building Division's trucks to the Parks & Recreation Division,
and then leasing replacement vehicles for the Building Division with some of the unexpended FY22 parks
funds. Due to the nature of Parks & Recreation, trucks are needed and I don't believe that a lease would be
feasible with the amount of wear that their duties place on trucks. However, a lease option could be perfect
for the Building Division since their use is predominantly road travel and trucks aren't even required- small,
fuel efficient SUVs (AWD or 4WD) is all that they would require to access job sites. However, before exploring
the lease option in more detail, I wanted to seek Council feedback for full transparency.
2. Comprehensive Plan Update- will need to open the budget: As I've informed the Council previously, our
existing Comprehensive Plan, while still very valid in several of its goals, policies, and objectives, and while
it has been amended from time -to -time, is extremely outdated. Our Plan, called "Our Valley, Our Vision"
was adopted by the City Council in January 2002. At the time, it was created through a regional planning
effort by Chubbuck, Pocatello, and Bannock County and since its adoption, both Pocatello and Bannock
County have had updates, minor and major, to their own plans and the regional cohesion of plans has
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somewhat dissolved. Comprehensive Plans are required by the Local Land Use Planning Act in Idaho Code,
particularly in order to have valid land use ordinances (See Idaho Code 67-6508).
Our Plan's projects are outdated- our projects run only through 2020. Any input given from the public
around the turn of the century on the Plan and its goals, policies, and objects is surely outdated and revisions
needed after extensive public input. Unfortunately, going through significant plan updates is not cheap. By
state law, comprehensive plans must address each of the following elements (usually as separate chapters
in the plan):
• Property Rights
• Population
• School Facilities and Transportation
• Economic Development
• Land Use
• Natural Resources
• Hazardous Areas
• Public Services, Facilities, and Utilities
• Transportation
• Recreation
• Special Areas/Sites
• National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors
• Public Airport Facilities
• Implementation — This is the portion that could effectively turn into a constantly reviewed City
Strategic Plan.
Rather than try to update plans in-house, most jurisdictions in my experience rely heavily on consultants
(hence the cost). Consultants can play a neutral facilitator role in public open houses and forums, and have
the resources in personnel, software, and experience, to efficiently and effectively help local communities
through the Plan update process. Those jurisdictions that do in-house updates, like Pocatello and Idaho
Falls, have planning staff much larger than Chubbuck's, with planners whose entire jobs revolve around
long-term planning. At Chubbuck, with my shift in duties to oversee numerous divisions, we have a one
employee planning staff (Don Matson) and a consultant is entirely necessary (although we are committed
to doing what we can in-house to save costs). To help with costs, Don and I recently applied for a Blue Cross
of Idaho Foundation Grant to address the healthy community components of our Plan upon its update- we
recently were notified that we received the grant, which should be around $30,000; through the grant we
will obtain neighborhood, date -based information to find determinants of physical health and economic
health (things like life expectancy, social engagement, substance abuse, happiness/well-being, mental
health, environmental quality) so that Chubbuck's Plan can create objectives and policies based on hard
data, for the ultimate benefit of our residents.
Comprehensive Plans tend to cost between $100,000 to $150,000 for communities of our size. For our
initial request, I would like to start with a commitment of $80,000 which, together with our grant monies
from BCIF should get us significantly or even completely where we need to be (we won't know with more
certainty until we go through the RFP process to find consultants). I have been reluctant to seek RFPs until
I know that funding was committed. The investment in the Comprehensive Plan is also critical to a future
next step of exploring a streets development impact fee; the Public Works Director recently contacted a
firm inquiring about the process to start the streets development impact fee process and they advised us
that we needed to review and revise our outdated plan first. The updated plan will be critical to the ongoing
success of every department in the City as they plan and implement.
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Because the Plan update process can take several months, it is likely that if funds were allocated this year
by the Council, not all would be used this fiscal year and in that case, I'd request that those funds drop to
the fund balance and be earmarked for use in FY24's budget for the same purpose. Again, knowing that at
least $80,000 is secured will allow us in good faith to seek RFPs, the process through which we will learn the
final cost and will require a contract to be signed by the Council.
3. Parks Development Impact Fees: Parks Impact Fees can only be used for very specific, identified capital
improvement projects which increase the capacity of our parks. Currently, Council is aware of, and has
accepted using funds in FY23 for capital improvement projects at Long Park, Hiram Park, Brookstone West,
a gathering space on property that the CDA will donate to the City for a park, and possible park
improvements at the park in the Copperfield Development and in Miller Park. However, none of the monies
were budgeted for use this year and so I am requesting that the budget be opened to allow for the
expenditure of all of the monies that we have in the parks impact fee account, $565,348.06, for these
qualifying and identified projects. Although I certainly do not anticipate spending all of the monies, having
flexibility to respond to fund needed improvements would make for a more efficient and effective process.
I am currently surveying residents and reviewing responses for park improvements at Long Park and Hiram
Park with a stated city impact fee contribution of $70,000. If given the opportunity to spend an additional
$20,000 to install more amenities in a park for the benefit of users from the whole city, especially in
coordination with donations from surrounding residents, I believe that the flexibility is greatly needed to
respond in a timely manner. Again, these funds only have very specific uses- opening the budget to allow
for the expenditure of all of the funds is very, very far from a blank check to the administration.
For Hiram, Long, Brookstone West, and the City Hall park (not including grant monies received to create
the space from the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation), I estimate that in FY23, we'll spend approximately
$390,000. But, if the Copperfield Landing developer, who will be constructing park improvements instead
of paying parks impact fees, wishes to build some park improvements this year, having flexibility to add
more improvements through use of our existing revenues seems to only make sense. Moreover, if the City
decides to not seek farming use of Miller Park, we could easily use parks impact fee monies this year to
fund an asphalt (or chipped gravel) path around the park on the goat trail that the community has already
created through the weeds; having flexibility in available funds to do improvements like that seems to only
make sense.
4. Use of Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation Grant monies for downtown gathering space/park
improvements: The Parks & Recreation Division was awarded $88,000 for use in creating an excellent,
usable gathering space in the downtown area. While the project has morphed away from creating a
dedicated food truck park to creating a less costly space (as a way to preserve parks impact fee monies for
parks around the City), the idea continues to be supported by BCIF staff and City staff. This new proposal
will draw on input already given by the public through BCIF at Chubbuck Days to create seating area for
events like farmers markets and food truck roundups, while creating some permanent recreational
attractions to draw the public into the downtown area. Currently, a landscape architect is working on the
plan, costing, and design. These monies have already been received and must be spent by October 31, 2023
(per the terms of the plan).
5. Earmarking of Tennis Court resurfacing monies for FY24 if unable to find contractor in FY23: The
Parks & Recreation Budget currently has $60,000 allocated for tennis court resurfacing in FY23. Although
Ron Osborn (City employee/tennis extraordinaire), Aaron Schilhabel (Parks & Recreation Manager), and I
believe that the costs to resurface the court will likely be higher, we request that if those funds aren't used
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in FY23, that they drop to the fund balance and be reallocated back for the same purpose with the turning
of the new FY24 budget. Ron believes that due to good care, that the court likely will be fine through this
coming season but until the snow melts and he can survey the court, he won't be able to determine the
status of the courts to generate an accurate request for proposals to seek qualified contractors to do the
work of resurfacing. Ron is currently out on medical leave and his return date is unknown at this time.
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