City Council Meeting - FINAL

13.B.

Meeting Date:	03/03/2020
Co-Submitter:	David McIntire	From:	Jessica Cortes, Court Administrator

Information

TITLE

Discussion: Parking as it relates to:

A. 2016 Bond Measure for Municipal Court Facilities
B. Downtown Flagstaff Visioning Plan

STAFF RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Information sharing and discussion.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

2016 Municipal Courthouse Bond Measure:

The Municipal Courthouse project is proceeding per Council direction and is in accordance with the Proposition 412 ballot language, to provide adequate courtroom facilities, prosecution facilities, prisoner transport, and holding areas, separate circulation and movement for public, jurors, prisoners, and court staff, prosecution staff, space for all court events, as well as staff, jurors and the public and sufficient parking for all of the above. The descriptive title for Proposition 412 also referenced municipal court and public parking availability. In the below information section is a timeline of the courthouse project as requested from the City Manager's office.

Downtown Flagstaff Visioning Plan (DFVP):

The Flagstaff Downtown Business Alliance (FDBA) is leading a Downtown Vision and Action Plan process to create a unified vision for downtown that builds upon our current strengths and identifies new opportunities. A renowned expert in the industry of Downtown Management will help guide this process through a collaborative and market-based approach, resulting in a product that can guide public/private investment decisions for the next seven years and beyond. Areas of interest include: zoning impacts on land use and development opportunities; potential for redevelopment and desired built environment; historic preservation priorities and standards; local business development and support; economic development opportunities; parking; public infrastructure; transportation and connectivity; and the addition and activation of civic / community spaces.

INFORMATION:

Courthouse Project Timeline:

In 2008 a facility study was conducted defining the needs for a new courthouse. The current facility is undersized for the public, prisoners, defendants, judges, prosecution and staff, raising potential concerns regarding public health and safety.

In 2010 a $23 million-dollar bond was turned down by the voters. The need for the project continued and alternative funding solutions were identified and created.

In April of 2014, staff contracted with JWA, a Flagstaff-based architectural firm, to provide a concept plan and cost estimate to remodel and construct additional space at the existing court's facility. JWA delivered the concept design to the City on October 28, 2014. Upon review of the concept design report, staff determined that the City's best interest would be served by the construction of a new facility.

On April 12, 2016, staff came before Council to discuss the strategy for a new City Court Facility. As noted above, staff and Council had previously agreed that the most cost-effective solution would be to design, finance and construct a new City Court Facility. At this meeting Council directed staff to return in June 2016 and present a proposed ballot question for funding and financing of a new City Court Facility.

On July 05, 2016, staff came before Council for the Consideration and Adoption of Resolution No. 2016-27. This Resolution would allow Council to adopt an official ballot question to be submitted to qualified electors of the City of Flagstaff. This ballot question asked the citizens of the City of Flagstaff to approve a temporary increase in the City’s secondary property tax and authorize the sale and issuance of bonds for purposes of constructing a new City Court Facility. Council adopted the Resolution and the question was placed on the ballot for the election of November 08, 2016. The ballot question was approved.

In 2016 when the Bond for Municipal Court Facilities passed (Proposition 412 for $12 million-dollars) - The project was originally envisioned to provide Courthouse Facilities and related functions for the City of Flagstaff and Coconino County of approximately 70,000 square feet to be located at 211 N. Agassiz Street. A separate parking facility was proposed to meet the needs of the joint facility of approximately 200 spaces either on-site or at a proximate location. The city's costs for the joint facility were estimated at $43 million dollars. With a total budget of $21.5 million, the city made the difficult decision to pull out of the joint venture and proceed with a city project to be constructed on city-owned property located at 101 West Cherry Avenue. At roughly half the budget than what was estimated for the city/county joint facility, the City expected to be able to construct a 30,000 to 40,000 square foot facility, and the required parking to support that facility (now est. @ 100 spaces), with its available $21.5 million.

On September 18 and 19 of 2017, meetings were held between the City and County along with the project consultants, these joint meetings created a forum for information sharing which ultimately led to the clarity needed to make the determination to move forward with an alternative solution for the City Courthouse Project. In September 2017, as well as March and April 2018, the proposed joint Courthouse was on executive session agendas relative to contract negotiations. That resulted in Council direction to staff to pursue a potential design-build contract option for a City Courthouse on City-owned property to be delivered within the budget, subject to City Code requirements that parking be sufficient for the size of the Courthouse facilities.

On April 01, 2018, the City advertised a Request for Statement of Qualifications from Arizona Registered Contractors for the qualification-based selection of a Design-Builder to provide design and construction services for the City Court Facility.

On April 23, 2018, the City received eight responses to the Request for Statements of Qualifications. A five-person evaluation committee was formed, the Statements of Qualifications received were evaluated and the committee selected three firms for interviews. Upon the completion of the interviews, the committee selected Kinney Construction Services (KCS) as the most qualified Design-Builder to perform the work.

At its regular City Council Meeting on July 3, 2018, the City Council awarded the Design-Build Services Contract to KCS for the Design Phase of the project. During the Design Phase of the Project, KCS, acting as the City’s Design-Builder, facilitated the facility programming effort and their contracted architect and sub-consultants prepared construction-ready building and site plans. In addition, KCS obtained all the required City of Flagstaff Engineering and Building approvals and permits prior to construction.

At a Special City Council Work Session on January 22, 2019, an update was provided to the Council on the Flagstaff Municipal Court Facility Project displaying the design phase project elevation drawings and floor plans. Additionally, noting the completion of the facility programming, that the concept site plan was approved and that the design documents were 50% complete.

At its regular City Council Meeting on March 5, 2019, City Council awarded the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) #1 for the demolition and site work phase of the project. This award allowed for hazardous materials abatement and demolition of the building at 101 W. Cherry and site work (grading, underground utility installation). The hazardous materials abatement and demolition of the buildings at 15 N. Beaver Street and 107 W. Aspen Avenue are also part of GMP #1 this work will not occur until the new facility is complete and staff is relocated in the summer of 2020.

April 4, 2019, a City Council Report (CCR) was submitted regarding City Courts ADA Parking providing four options for additional parking options. May 14, 2019, a council discussion was had at a City Council Work Session for the evaluation of ADA accessible parking options for the new City Court Facility location. Council direction was to provide three additional ADA parking spaces on Cherry Avenue adjacent to the new courthouse.

At its regular City Council Meeting on May 21, 2019, City Council approved Amendment #2 that included a guaranteed maximum price for the construction of the court facility. This amendment contained the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) #2 agreement for completion of construction for the Design-Build Services Agreement 2018-63.

At its regular City Council Meeting on September 3, 2019, City Council approved Resolution No. 2019-42, a reimbursement resolution related to the Municipal Court Facilities for an amount not to exceed $16,000,000 ($12,000,000 for General Obligation Bond debt).

At its regular City Council Meeting on October 15, 2019, City Council approved the first read of Ordinance No. 2019-34 Certificate of Participation Debt Authorization – Municipal Court Facilities was read by title only allowing for the issuance of Certificates of Participation and to enter into a lease-purchase agreement for the purpose of financing construction for the Municipal Court Facilities. At is regular City Council Meeting on November 5, 2019, City Council approved the second and final read of Ordinance No. 2019-34 and adopted the same.

Also at its regular City Council Meeting on October 15, 2019, City Council approved the first read of Ordinance No. 2019-35: An ordinance of the City Council of the City of Flagstaff, (1) providing for the sale and issuance of City of Flagstaff, Arizona General Obligation Bonds, Series 2019 and for the annual levy of a tax for the payment of the bond; (2) approving the form and authorizing the execution and delivery of necessary agreements, instruments, and documents related to the sale and issuance of the bonds; (3) delegating authority to the Management Services Director of the City to determine certain matters and terms with the respect to the foregoing; (4) adopting continuing disclosure procedures in connection with issuance of obligations of the City; and (5) authorizing the taking of all other actions necessary to the consummation of the transactions contemplated by this ordinance and ratifying all actions taken to further this; providing for severability, authority for clerical corrections, and establishing an effective date (General Obligation Debt Authorization - Municipal Court Facilities). At its regular City Council Meeting on November 5, 2019, City Council approved the second and final read of Ordinance No. 2019-35 and adopted the same.

At its regular City Council Meeting on December 3, 2019, the City Council approved the following contract amendment: City of Flagstaff Municipal Court Facility Project - Award of Amendment #3 to the Design-Build Services Agreement 2018-63. This amendment contained the Guaranteed Maximum Price #3 agreement for completion of construction. Amendment #3, GMP #3 included the construction of the ADA parking adjacent to the facility, the fiber optic infrastructure installation, and facility furniture in an amount not to exceed $545,478 with a 45 calendar-day contract period; and authorized the City Manager to execute the necessary documents.

Municipal Court Parking Operations

The existing Municipal Court/Prosecutor’s facilities are currently operating at the corner of Beaver Street and Aspen Avenue. There is no designated parking lot solely for Court or Prosecutor business. Proximate parking facilities for Court patrons include the public parking lot to the south of the building at Beaver Street and Route 66 (25 spaces), or on street parking.

The new Flagstaff Municipal Court facility is currently under construction at the corner of Beaver Street and Cherry Avenue, with completion anticipated in July 2020. Per the City’s parking code, the facility is required to provide 99 parking spaces. The spaces as outlined below are intended to meet or exceed that requirement.

19 spaces at the new Court facility (includes 1 ADA space). This will be designated Court/Prosecutor staff parking.
~85 spaces at the Foundation for Senior Living site at the corner of Cherry and Beaver (formerly the school) to provide parking for at least two years. (includes 5 ADA spaces)
Negotiations are also underway for Court facility parking to be included in the development of the parking garage at the same location once the Foundation for Senior Living project is developed.
The former court parcel will then, after the Downtown Flagstaff Visioning Plan is complete, likely be offered for sale through a Request for Proposals process to generate the revenue required for the development of parking discussed on the Foundation for Senior Living site.

With the exception of the staff spaces at the new facility, these spaces will be managed by ParkFlag and will be pay to park.

Downtown Flagstaff Visioning Plan

The FDBA in conjunction with the City of Flagstaff, Coconino County, and Northern Arizona Intergovernmental Transportation Authority (NAIPTA) are funding this effort. Together, representatives from this team led a competitive process where more than 20 national firms expressed interest, and 10 submitted proposals. In early February, Progressive Urban Management Associates (PUMA) was selected as the lead consultant.

Specific outcomes include:

Create a unified vision through a collaborative and inclusive process
Encourage meaningful engagement from a broad variety of stakeholders and community members, including those that may not typically participate in community processes
Identify economic development opportunities
Develop strategies to support local businesses and business development
Identify zoning impacts on land use and development opportunities to provide more certainty and predictability on downtown development
Identify potential redevelopment sites and desired outcomes for the built environment
Prioritize buildings, and setting standards, for historic preservation
Assess public infrastructure and connectivity needs for walking, cycling, transit and vehicles
Analyze public parking and make recommendations for future parking and an ‘in lieu’ program to support future development
Explore opportunities for activation of civic and community spaces
Develop tactical and measurable implementation strategies to support the vision
Identify projects and activities that can proceed immediately and provide “quick wins,” as well as longer-term initiatives

Project Approach
The PUMA Team will lead a process that brings alignment and consensus between downtown stakeholders, the City of Flagstaff, Coconino County, NAIPTA and an array of interested community members. They will start by building upon past and current planning efforts (Southside Neighborhood Plan, Rio de Flag, transportation plans, etc).

The outreach process will be broad, with efforts made to connect with as many residents and stakeholders as possible. Knowing there are some constituents that typically do not participate in charrettes, online surveys, focus groups and other traditional community processes, significant efforts will be made to engage outside of traditional meeting forums, and in locations that are comfortable and convenient for constituents. One example is to use “Community Connectors” where team members are recruited directly from the community who understand the nuances of their neighborhood, and have the ability to reach out to those that may not typically participate – all while building trust for the project.

In addition to a robust community engagement process, the following structure will be created:

Project Management Team – comprised of representatives from the four funding partners

Downtown Vision Advisory Committee - This committee will be formed to help guide the planning process. The Advisory Committee will provide oversight of the process, offer creative input and a reality check, so to speak, as recommendations are developed. This committee will have approximately 20-25 participants comprised of civic partners, residents, key property and business owners, emerging leaders, champions, etc.

Working Groups – These groups will include leaders and experts in their fields, organized corresponding to topics supporting the Vision. The Chair of each Working Group will serve on the Advisory Committee. Working Groups include: Economic Vitality, Built Environment and Urban Design, Downtown Experience, and Transportation and Connectivity.

The Downtown Vision process kicks off March 17 as the PUMA team will be in Flagstaff for their first site visit. The entire process is expected to take 9 months resulting in collaboration, and an innovative plan and priorities to guide downtown decisions now and for the next several years.

Attachments
Presentation
Downtown Vision Plan Presentation