CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
Sales tax distributions
The City of Lawrence has recently received its January sales tax distribution. The distribution is the result of retail sales from mid-November to mid-December. Since this represents 2008 sales tax collections, the January distribution will be accrued and counted towards 2008 revenue. Actual distributions for the January period totaled $2,017,789. The 2008 budget for sales tax distributions was $22,675,298. The actual 2008 sales tax revenue was $23,133,235 or $457,937 over the budget amount. A spreadsheet showing total monthly sales tax distributions since 2001 is attached. Distributions from the voter-approved transit and infrastructure sales taxes are not anticipated to occur until June. As the 2008 financials are finalized the positive revenue
numbers from sales tax will be helpful in off-setting revenue shortfalls in other areas,
such as investment income.
Board of Zoning Appeals agenda packets go online
In a continuing effort to make information regarding Planning items more accessible to the public, the Lawrence Board of Zoning Appeals agenda packet will be made available online starting with the February meeting at http://www.lawrenceks.org/pds/bza_agendas_minutes. The packet includes the draft minutes from the previous meeting; staff reports, application materials, and all graphical supporting documents for each agenda item as well as written communications received by the Planning Division so that the public and the Board of Zoning Appeals have early and convenient access to the information. In addition, the Board of Zoning Appeals members will use the recently installed computer equipment to conduct their meetings in the City Commission chambers. This will save energy and resources as printed pages will be taken out of production.
Clean Cities grant opportunity for CNG transit vehicles
Kansas City Regional Clean Cities Coalition (KCRCCC) is putting in an application for the City of Kansas City, MO and UMKC toward the purchase of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) transit vehicles and they have approached the City of Lawrence about joining the application. The grant would provide $150,000 toward the incremental costs of purchasing CNG vehicles instead of convention fuel vehicles. The funds require a 50% match and only cover the incremental costs of the vehicles. The city would be responsible for 100% of the costs of a conventional bus.
The City’s Interim Transit Administrator and City’s Fleet Manager are analyzing the details of grant and plan to bring a recommendation to the City Commission. The deadline to apply is March 6th. As the Commission knows, staff is also monitoring the “stimulus” bill for energy/environmental opportunities similar to this program.
Challenges to liquor licenses
The Kansas Department of Revenue has requested city support of a proposed bill that would give the governing body of a city or county the right to request a hearing before the Director of Alcoholic Beverage Control at any time reasonable cause can be shown that a license issued to a club or drinking establishment should be revoked or suspended (see attached letter). Currently, the governing body can only request a hearing at the time of an establishment’s license renewal. Pursuant to the City’s adopted legislative policy statement, a letter of support for this legislation will be sent.
Related to the issue of drinking establishment and public safety, city staff has prepared the attached memo concerning monitoring of area drinking establishments and possible ABC hearing opportunities.
Building permits trends report
The attached report provides information concerning trends for building permits issued compared to previous years and to other area jurisdictions. Other area jurisdictions surveyed include Douglas County, Eudora, Topeka, De Soto, Olathe, Salina, Baldwin City, Ottawa, Emporia, and Lenexa.
Staff review of Manhattan unfit/substandard housing code provision
Development Services staff has reviewed the Manhattan, Kansas Housing Code Article VIII, Section 8-178, which allows the escrow of tenant rental payments from unfit/substandard housing under particular circumstances. The purpose of the ordinance appears to be a mechanism that suspends the duty of the tenant to pay rent and the right of the landlord to collect rent, without affecting the landlord/tenant relationship, when the unit has been inspected by City officials and determined to be unfit for habitation/substandard. At this time, staff does not believe such an ordinance would enhance enforcement of the housing code in Lawrence and would not recommend incorporating such an ordinance into current housing code enforcement standards. Please see the attached memo for more details.
Oread Neighborhood Plan Update meeting
Long-range Planners and the Historic Resources Administrator met with approximately 40 Oread Neighborhood stakeholders on February 9th at the Library regarding the Oread Neighborhood Plan update. At the meeting stakeholders brainstormed and then prioritized neighborhood strengths, weaknesses, issues and opportunities. The top 5 topics rated most important (with the last two tying) are: conflicts between zoning and parking requirements, landlord neglect of structures, opportunities to protect and preserve the neighborhood’s historic character, negative impacts of bars (trash, behavior, users traveling through residential areas, change in drinking age), opportunities for more families to live in the neighborhood, and opportunities to reinforce diversity of uses and structures (single-family and mixed use). The next meeting will be Wednesday, February 25th from 7:00-8:00 p.m. in the City Commission Room. The noted issues will be transformed into goals and priorities for the plan.
Daddy/Daughter Date Night hosted by Parks and Recreation Department
Daddy/Daughter Date Night was held on Saturday, January 24th. Over 200 people attended the Fiesta-themed event. Chipotle donated a majority of the food and donations from Sunflower Rental and Packerware also supported the event. After dinner there was a 20 minute demonstration of Zumba, followed by dancing. At the end of the night the daughters received their 5x7 picture, a carnation and a bag of candy. Please see attached photos of the event.
1,300 Visits to Transit Coordination Website in the first full month
A new web site, www.getonthebuslawrence.org, was launched in December 2008. The site is a joint effort to promote the development of coordinated public transit between the University of Kansas and the City of Lawrence Transit System.
During January 2009, the first full month the web site was live, there were 470 visitors. Pages were viewed 1,305 times. The launch of this site established a place for the public to obtain future updates regarding transit coordination. It also served as the gateway for a five-part series of public input surveys, which received the most attention in January.
The Top 10 Visited Pages to getonthebuslawrence.org in January were: