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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-05-04 City Council (15)TO: City of Palo Alto City Manager’s Report HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DATE:MAY 4, 1998 CMR:221:98 SUBJECT:PROPOSED AUGMENTED DOWNTOWN MAINTENANCE PROGRAM REPORT IN BRIEF This is an informational report and no Council action is required. In response to concerns about the level of downtown maintenance, staff has been working with the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce to identify and implement an augmented maintenance program. Through an iterative process, staff and the Chamber have developed a proposed maintenance program which would increase the frequency and expand the area for many maintenance services, such as street and sidewalk sweeping, pressure Washing, landscaping and parking lot cleaning, to include the entire Downtown District, not just University Avenue. In recognition that keeping downtown clean must be a collaborativeeffort between the City and downtown business district interests, the plan also proposes that costs of the augmented program would be shared between the City and Downtown property owners. Staff and the Chamber agree that it is appropriate to allocate approximately $400,000 in costs to private property owners because of the City’s investment in downtown of $291,000 in annual maintenance costs and $1,320,000 in capital infrastructure. Staff will continue working with the Chamber to support the formation of a special tax district to fund the downtown property owners’ share of the proposed augmented downtown maintenance program. CMR:221:98 Page 1 of 5 This is an informational report and no Council action is required. BACKGROUND On August 1 l, 1997, Council approved the Downtown Urban Design Improvements Master Plan (Master Plan) and the initial set of proposed improvements to be installed in fiscal year 1997-98 (Master Plan Improvements Phase I). The Master Plan is to implement needed street scape improvements identified in the Downtown Urban Design Guide for the purpose of keeping the downtown a vibrant and desirable place for pedestrians and retailers. Among the issues identified during the development and review of the Master Plan was the level of downtown maintenance and cleanliness. Over the years, as downtown Palo Alto has grown more vital and populated, concerns about maintenance and cleanliness have increased. Concerns have become particularly strong the last few years, as heavy use of downtown streets, sidewalks and plazas, especially on weekends, has made maintaining an acceptable level of cleanliness more difficult. Last summer, in response to Council’s concerns for improved cleanliness, the Public Works Department took several steps to increase the level of maintenance, such as expanding sidewalk pressure washing services and increasing the sweeping service level and frequency of emptying trash receptacles. The Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) has also grappled with the issue by reaching out to downtown merchants to convey the importance of maintaining clean streets and sidewalks. During the development and review of the Master Plan, the Chamber became particularly concerned that the prospect of future improvements would add to the difficulty of meeting acceptable levels of maintenance. At the August 11, 1998 Council meeting, the Chamber expressed its support for the Master Plan, and also its intention to focus on long-term issues related to downtown maintenance and the ongoing maintenance of the improvements once they are put in place. DISCUSSION In response to the concerns about maintenance, and recognizing that keeping downtown clean must be a collaborative effort between the City and private business interests, staff began working last fall with the Chamber and key downtown property owners to identify and implement an augmented maintenance program. The process to identify proposed mainten- ance standards and.practices was iterative and envisioned that acceptable levels of mainten- ance could be accomplished through a public/private solution. At the Chamber’s request, staff compared the City’s current downtown maintenance program with a private shopping center program in order to arrive at an .initial proposal for the "optimum" level of maintenance for downtown. The comparison involved detailed review and analysis of maintenance activities and frequencies and the preparation of cost estimates. With this initial proposal, staffthen met with the Chamber to review, discuss and refine it. These discussions of the proposed maintenance plan resulted in agreement on the attached matrix, "Proposed Downtown Maintenance Program Scope of Work" (Attachment A). ClVIR:221:98 Page 2 of 5 Proposed Downtown Maintenance Pro~am Scope of Work Attachment A shows the current and proposed downtown maintenance program and costs, and indicates which program components are proposed to be funded privately and which are proposed to be funded by the City. For the most part, the City’s current maintenance program covers the area of University Avenue from Alma to Webster. At the urging of the Chamber, the proposed plan expands the area of the program beyond University Avenue to include all of the Downtown Parking Assessment District (Proposed District-wide Costs). The boundaries of the Downtown Parking Assessment District are shown in Attachment B. Also, to help its members understand the full extent of what the City provides downtown, the Chamber felt it was important to include in the proposal all downtown-related City costs. Therefore, the Proposed District-wide Costs include costs for bathroom facilities, Phase I Master Plan Improvements and maintenance, sidewalk repair and University Avenue street resurfacing. The far right column of the matrix shows which activities are proposed to be funded privately, with the asterisks indicating those activities which are anticipated to be funded by the private sector but administered by the City. City-funded activities include basic services, such as street sweeping, refuse service, maintenance of light poles and fixtures, tree trimming, signs and code enforcement. Privately-funded activities include those which, as per the Palo Alto Municipal Code, are the responsibility of individual businesses, such as sidewalk sweeping/cleaning and litter pickup. Also included are amenities such as landscape and furniture maintenance, tree lights and banners, and parking lot cleaning, which is already included as a cost covered by parking permit fees. Annual costs for the City’s current downtown maintenance program total $265,150, and Proposed District-wide Costs total $646,150 (subtotals on page 1 of matrix). Of the Proposed District-wide Costs, $387,850 would be privately funded and $258,300 would be City-funded. Including the capital project costs, total Proposed District-wide Costs are $1,998,450 (page 2 of matrix). Of the $1,998,450 Proposed District-wide Costs, $387,850 is proposed to be private and $1,610,600 is proposed to be City-funded. It should be noted that the costs of Proposed District-wide Costs include the addition of City staff, which is discussed in the "Resource Impact" section below. RESOURCE IMPACT Additional Maintenance There are two mechanisms for enabling the costs identified to be bome by downtown property owners to be collected: a maintenance assessment and a special tax. A maintenance assessment district would be governed by the parameters of Proposition 218, which requires a more rigorous analysis of benefits, and only the "special benefits" of the public improvement may be assessed to property owners. A special tax would be simpler CMR:221:98 Page 3 of 5 and more flexible to administer. Such a tax could be devised for the downtown area, provided it received a two-thirds approval of downtown property owners. Staff believes this level of support is realistically attainable for additional maintenance downtown. There would be some initial legal and balloting costs to set up a downtown maintenance special tax district. A very preliminary estimate of these one-time costs is $25,000. If the annual costs were charged via a special tax that was based on the amount of linear footage of street frontage, the following are very. approximate annual tax amounts for several properties: 221 University (Stanford Theater) 219 University (Staceys) 525 University (7 story office tower) 628-40 Emerson (Gordon Biersch) $ 100 $ 200 $3,100 $ 500 Capital Projects Capital project costs are $120,000 for bathroom facilities; $750,000 for Master Plan Improvements Phase I, and $32,300 for Phase I maintenance; $50,000 for sidewalk repair and $400,000 for University Avenue resurfacing. The $120,000 cost for bathroom facilities represents the annual rental for two automated public toilets; which are anticipated to be installed in 1998. All of the capital costs are part of the 1997-98 Budget, except for augmented sidewalk repair. Staff is proposing that $50,000 be added to the capital improvement project budget in 1998-99 to be earmarked for sidewalk repairs in high pedestrian use areas such as the University Avenue business district. Additional Staff The increased maintenance proposed under the Proposed District-wide Costs will require the addition of one full-time Street Sweeper Operator, one full time Street Maintenance Assistant and one half-time Code Enforcement Officer, for a total of 2.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. The additional Street Sweeper Operator will make possible the increase of street sweeping to seven days per week; the additional Street Maintenance Assistant will provide for the District-wide sidewalk cleaning. The additional half-time Code Enforcement Officer is needed to increase inspections to five days per week, which should resolve many problems such as overflowing dumpsters and debris in the alleys. CMR:221:98 Page 4 of 5 POLICY IMPLICATIONS The proposed augmented downtown maintenance plan is consistent with the Urban Design Element of the Comprehensive Plan, Policy 5: "Encourage rehabilitation of aging retail areas to keep them economically healthy." TIMELINE " Staff’s next step will be to work with the Chamber to provide information to downtown property owners supporting the need to create a special tax district to fund the property owners’ share of the proposed augmented program. In accordance with the Chamber’s goal, the formation of this special tax district is anticipated to occur, with property owner approval, at the same time that the downtown parking structure is approved, in November 1999. Increased City costs of the augmented program will be approved through the budget process. Matching funds of $50,000 are included in the Proposed 1998-99 Budget, should the downtown property owners wish to initiate elements of the Plan in 1998-99. ATTACHMENTS Attachment A: Attachment B: Matrix: Proposed Downtown Scope of Work Downtown Parking Assessment District PREPARED BY: Janet Freeland, Senior Financial Analyst APPROVED BY: Melissa Cavallo Acting Director Administrative Services CITY MANAGER APPROVAL: Em]~Ha~-’~on Assistant City Manager CC: Chamber of Commerce CMR:221:98 Page 5 of 5 ATTACHMENT A !! ATTACHMENT B Web,teriyaki Street ~/~Cowper Street Parking Lots ¯....Not assessed ~==~Waverley Emerson Street i UNIVERSITY AVENUE P arkin~ Assessment District Alma Street 4 ~50 University Avenue