City Council Minutes 2021 05 25 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes May 25, 2021 Page 3 of 4 Alex Gorsevski stated the South Boulder Road and Main underpass is a priority but he wants to make sure the LRC has enough funding for other projects in the URA as well. Mayor Stolzmann stated the Council is hoping the LRC will help fund only the three underpasses in the URA. She feels the LRC has not paid for a number of infrastructure projects in the URA over the years and this would be one place to collaborate with the City and to specifically address blight in the URA and stimulate economic activity. Mayor Stolzmann stated that if the LRC does not participate in this funding the Council probably would not move forward on all six underpasses. It will depend on how much property tax increase the Council wants to ask for and what other options there are. Adler asked when a decision is needed from the LRC. City Manager Balser stated Council needs an answer from the LRC in June as the ballot language must be approved by Council in July. Councilmember Lipton stated he feels this process has been light on cost estimates and is a bit rushed. He stated the Council is not committing to building six underpasses at this point but are looking to see how much funding can be found in the General Fund and Capital Projects Fund to fund a bond issue. What can't be funded from that would require a tax increase to pay the rest. The LRC funding would be included with the City sources to offset a tax increase. He noted that if the LRC is looking out for businesses, they should keep in mind a tax increase has a bigger impact on businesses as they pay a higher tax rate. Therefore, he would prefer finding other funds before asking for a tax increase. Councilmember Dickinson stated this is a mutually beneficial project and without LRC funding it does make it harder to do it without a tax increase. He stated that he hears from residents in the North side of town that they that they don't feel connected with the rest of town and this is a way to connect those areas with downtown and the URA. Councilmember Fahey stated while she would like some funding from the LRC she understands they cannot spend all of their funding as they have other projects but this is a great collaborative project. Adler stated they really need more financial data before they can make a decision but this does seem to help advance property values in the URA. However, the LRC does have projects they are interested in completing and those costs also need to be considered in the conversation. Tofte noted that LRC is, to a large degree, reliant on private property owners to come to them to have projects to fund and not many of those have materialized. Therefore, it is