11/06/2002 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes 11/6/2002 Authority (GCRTA) and declaring an emergency. Mayor Musial asked Council to consider passage under suspension of the rules as this was a companion ordinance to 2002-159. Councilman McKay asked the Mayor if this granted the RTA the deed to the property. Law Director Dubelko said it would grant RTA the deed to the property surrounding the roadway. It was requested by RTA because they have a federal funding problem if they don't have fee simple to at least part of it. They will have fee simple to land around the roadway. The rest of the roadway will be held in fee simple by the city, but RTA will have an easement. Mr. McKay asked, should RTA at some point in time decide not to keep the Park N-Ride in service, what happens to the property? Is there a method for it to come back to the city? Law Director Dubelko said not the fee simple portion, but they can only use the roadway for easement purposes. Law Director Dubelko said this must all be put in the context of the contract which Council authorized with RTA earlier in the year. They are reimbursing the city for all costs. This is the final piece of legislation which enables them to take their funding and pay back to the city the costs for the land plus all of our costs plus an administration fee. Councilwoman Kasler moved for suspend the rules requiring three readings and committee review. The motion was seconded by Councilman Nashar and passed unanimously. As the legislation was being passed under suspension of the rules, President Pro Tem Miller invited members of the audience who wished to speak about the ordinance to come forward: Deborah McNeeley, representing RTA, said the portion of the remaining land for fee simple does meet their requirements under the Federal Transit Administration. They are using grant funds to build the Park-N-Ride and it has cost millions of dollars. Today, she personally sent the memo for the issuance of the reimbursement check and expects the city Finance Director to have it within two weeks. Under the operating agreement between RTA and NOMBL, the city and RTA are full partners in the Park- N-Ride. The efforts from the Law Director's office enabled RTA to do the things that were needed within the timeframe. The lease for the mall Park-N-Ride was being ended and RTA was in a great rush to service the community with public transportation. They just made it thanks to a four-day extension. The Park-N-Ride is not totally complete, but the goal is to have a grand opening within the next 30 days. Mr. Miller asked, with the current rate of growth, how soon before the lot would not be large enough? Mrs. McNeeley said the lot is designed to hold 300 cars. It would be to their delight that they outgrow it quickly. They would probably look to expand to the remaining land that is next to it. When initially designing the lot, they thought they were including growth because the former lot only held 75 cars. They anticipated some increase, but not that it would be full day one. It will probably take about a quarter's worth of ridership numbers before they can tell whether or not the Pazk-N-Ride has already met its capacity. Before they can start to plan for enlargement, that would probably move to the next capital budget cycle, 2004. Mr. Miller asked who owns the property which would be needed for the expansion and how did they come to own it. Mrs. McNeeley said the property surrounding the Park- N-Ride directly is owned partially by Carnegie Management and by local residents. Mr. Miller inquired if the part owned by Carnegie Management was purchased from RTA. Mrs_ McNeeley said it was purchased directly from the owners. 22