lcac_cultural_district_mtg_minutes

City of Lawrence

Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission (LCAC)

Annual Retreat, February 3, 2013 - DRAFT

Members present: Patrick Kelly, Chair; Kathy Porsch; Mandy Enfield; Jane Pennington; Grace Peterson; Richard Renner; Katherine Simmons; Jane Pennington; Christie Dobson; John Hachmeister

Members absent: None

Also present: Diane Stoddard, City Liaison; members of the public: Molly Murphy, Susan Tate, KT Walsh, Josh Davis, Ben Ahlvers, Dave Lowenstein, Dennis Brown.

The meeting was called to order at 1:05 p.m.

Three corrections were indicated for the January minutes as follows:

Members absent ~~Jane Pennington,~~

The meeting was called to ~~over~~ order. Richard Renner moved to approve the December minutes, seconded by John Hachmeister. Minutes unanimously approved.

Susan Tate discussed the Lawrence Arts ~~Commission’~~s Center's concept about a cultural arts district. She explained that a number of years ago, the NEA began to discuss concepts about creative place-making.

January minutes were approved with corrections.

Action Items:

The LCAC members agreed to meet at the regular monthly meeting time on Feb 13 for budget purposes.

Patrick Kelly made the following motion, which was seconded by Jane Pennington and approved unanimously by the members of the LCAC:

The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission (LCAC) requests that the city designate the area defined by the Kansas River, Vermont Street, 15th Street and the northern terminus of the Burroughs Creek Trail as a cultural district. In order to maintain the value of the area, the district should have improved pedestrian access and safety, maintain the current unique cultural and social-economic mixture currently represented, and be a destination for visitors to Lawrence. In order to develop a plan to meet these goals, we ask the City Commission to create a seven-member Task Force charged with identifying three models that combine private, public and grant funds to support improvements to the district and the start of a broader community wide cultural arts plan. The Task Force will be appointed by the City Commission with membership recommendations from the LCAC, East Lawrence Neighborhood Association, Lawrence Arts Center, and Downtown Lawrence, Inc. The seven members of the Task Force should include two from the LCAC, two from the East Lawrence Neighborhood, one from the Lawrence Arts Center, one from Downtown Lawrence, Inc., and one at large. We further request that the Task Force be appointed by March 1 and present its recommendations to the City Commission in October.

East Lawrence Cultural District discussion:

Patrick said, we have a letter before us with the expectation of a possible motion. He asked if there are questions before opening to guests comments.

Mandy: Is there a timeframe for the items laid out in the letter.

Susan: The basic idea is to ask for an immediate decision to declare a cultural district, since it does not cost money. The additional items in the letter will have to be lobbied for individually because they cost money.

She then deferred to Josh, who said he was uncertain of the timeline and would need to listen to the discussion before he would have comments. He added, it can be called a district and nothing else ever happens or it can be called a district and individuals and organizations within it can write grants with that in mind and the City can decide to invest in it.

Mandy: My point was, will it be more effective if you establish a timeline?

Patrick invited members of the public to speak.

Josh: I am Josh Davis, president of the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association (ELNA), we're excited about what this might mean for the area, but we're also kind of retracing the boundaries of the East Lawrence neighborhood and it is important to us that we keep in mind the needs and interests of the residents of the neighborhood who have lived here for, in some cases, generations. We're already pretty culturally unique, and we want to defend what it is that makes us culturally unique in the first place. I would like to listen, hear what is planned, and perhaps have a chance to speak again before the LCAC votes on a motion.

KT: I wanted to also say that my personal dream is that there be a whole city cultural plan and a city cultural administrator. This city wide cultural plan cannot be accomplished by volunteers working with existing city staff. To accomplish this, the city would have to commit funds to bring in a professional who has been vetted in leading this kind of movement. It is a prime time to address this because it is election time and we can ask every candidate to weigh in on this. We need the full-time arts administrator and we should ask about support for that.

Richard: Can designating the cultural district be a step in the right direction, given that the city has declined to fund the full time art position after efforts the past two years?

Patrick: we've talked before about our capacity (LCAC] and whose capacity it is to do a city-wide cultural arts plan. We need to have a clear idea of what our charge to the city is in regards to developing the city-wide plan.

Kristi: We've worked with KU students to generate information on the arts economy in Lawrence and learn who the players are; we've looked at Final Fridays impact, but we have not yet gained traction in our efforts for a full time arts administrator or develop a city-wide cultural plan.

Susan: That list of 12 items is meant to suggest that once the Cultural Arts District is established these are next steps. I agree with KT we really need the cultural administrator and the cultural plan. We're saying these 12 steps are important after the designation of the cultural district. We've written two grants in which we refer to a cultural area despite the lack of an official designation. Our deadlines for these grants for this year have passed. Should we receive our arts place grant, we'll bring in an artist and architect who will come to Lawrence periodically for a year or two and they have been doing cultural planning in Alberta and other cities. I'm not suggesting that the city hire them or take any other action, but that they will be here and we could put them to work a little bit to start getting the ball rolling in terms of cultural planning; if this body would be interested in this, we certainly would be interested in talking about it.

Jane: I wonder if tweaking this letter slightly to say "We recommend the City immediately designate this area as a cultural arts district and then add a sentence saying that will be the first step towards the 12 items on the list would work.

Susan: that letter was to the LCAC.

Mandy: I thought it was for us to approve to be sent to the commission.

Richard: If we send this to the city commission we need to give them a heads-up about what the ensuing expectation is.

Patrick: Yes, this can be tricky. The first question is "what does that mean?" If you don't answer that question they wonder why it's necessary. This list of 12 items may scare some people off, but if we just define a cultural district its' empty. I'd like to use it more as an opportunity, a starting point to do some of the things this group has been trying to do for a long time. I caution us against staying it has to be lead by an arts administrator. That request has been turned down twice.

John: There really has to be more of an action plan. I don't know about the priorities. are items 1-12 the priorities in order?

Susan: No. We have no priorities to say this is what has to happen first.

John: We need to establish priorities. I was involved the Kansas City Crossroads District and the people who identified the values ended up ultimately being the losers in that project. Jim Leedy, who started the crossroads arts district, had his taxes go up $40,000 in one year and subsequently go up every year until there was an agreement to freeze the taxes. The original owners ended up having to sell their property. It is very important to first insert a mechanism to avoid the type of gentrification that injures the people who actually created the cultural community.

Mandy: What would such a mechanism look like?

John: In Kansas City there was eventually a cap put on property taxes for buildings that were 50% or more art related. That didn't help if taxes had already gone up and forced people to sell out and have their buildings turned into condominiums. The situation in Lawrence is different because it's largely residential. My property in East Lawrence is commercial, but has houses all around it. What happens if I change my property and it becomes very valuable, what happens to the properties all around it? How do we keep their taxes from going up?

Patrick: Property taxes are based on surrounding valuations, yet to get some of the amenities (sidewalks, lights) the city must have revenue generated. I don't know if there is a structure to do that.

Kathy: Diane, can you help us with this?

Diane: I'm familiar with tools that use growth in evaluation: Neighborhood Revitalization, and Tax Incremental Financing both use growth resulting from whatever actions are taken and the difference between properties' valuation pre and post goes back into public. The Neighborhood Revitalization Act program can be applied to a large neighborhood to help improve neighborhood structures and it rebates part of any increased taxes resulting from any changes in value back to the property owners. The owners get something back in the form of a credit after paying taxes. In Douglas County, we've used the Neighborhood Revitalization tool piece by piece, although it's intended for larger parcels. I am not aware of any sort of tax freezing tools in Kansas. It could be an issue for the city and county if taxes were frozen in a large area.

Jane: So if the City was doing a Neighborhood Revitalization Act program in an area and rebating back the additional taxes to property owners, can't you set a timeframe for that rebate ending?

Diane: Yes, it is a fairly flexible law. Douglas County has honed in on looking at what improvements have been made and how they have caused the values to raise. Elsewhere in the state it has been more broadly interpreted. Here, if there are improvements, any reimbursement of taxes has to be clearly tied directly relevant to the actual improvements.

KT: The problem is, we must have the money to make the improvements to begin with, so the Neighborhood Revitalization Act doesn't help. We in East Lawrence don't see the advantage. I do know some states freeze property taxes for seniors so they're not driven out of their neighborhoods.

Patrick: The first part of the letter lists the people who have been involved in this conversation. Is there anyone not represented here and what would their reactions be to the designation of East Lawrence as a Cultural District? I want us to think a little bit about whether any groups are not represented. What would we expect other groups to say that haven't been involved?

Richard: The Director of Theatre Lawrence asked me if this means that the arts will only be downtown; so I would anticipate some groups saying, "What about us? We have culture too."

Kristi: The city commission recently did the Retail Task Force, what is the outcome of a task force like that?

Diane: A task force is given a charge that is very specific with a timeline and specific membership and an expected outcome. In the case of the Retail Task Force one of the outcomes was a report that looked at specific things, with 12 months to do their work.

Grace: Who decides who is on the task force?

Diane: The City Commission.

John: Would it be possible for this document to be reworked so there is a prioritized list that includes determining how to preserve the neighborhood as it is? I don't want to be a part of a committee that suggests something destructive to the neighborhood.

Susan: I think a top priority would be that we preserve the character of the community as it is. The letter was to you with the expectation that you will make the recommendation to the City Commission. It would take us a long time to generate consensus on prioritizing the list. We need to make the point that there needs to be tools and structures put into place to protect the area. I don't think we cause gentrification by calling it a cultural district, it is happening now. This could be a way to bring together a group focused on preserving cultural assets.

KT pointed out that the percolator and the Preservation of Public Art group were not asked to sign.

Susan: They were asked.

Patrick: I suggest that we begin to draft our resolution. We are not sending this letter to the City Commission, although it may be a supporting document.

John: I agree, and, to clarify, we're not asking that this area be designated the Lawrence Cultural Arts District, but rather we're asking the commission to simply designate this area as a cultural district.

Patrick: I will start the resolution by asking to define the area as a cultural district in this way: The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission requests that the city designate the area defined by the Kansas River, Vermont Street, 15th Street and the Northern Terminus of the Burroughs Creek Trail as a Cultural District. Further, we request the charge of a Task Force to look at... (specific issues that we will determine here). And then we present this to the City Commission as one proposal.

Kristi: This commission will name the task force?

Kathy: No the City Commission will name the task force, like it did the Retail Task Force, but possibly with input from the LCAC.

Dave: Interesting ideas and great discussion, however, 1) you don't know the full impact of naming this as a cultural district, 2) you don't know the impact on tax structure for the neighborhood homeowners, 3) it may spur gentrification, which Susan indicated is already happening. I know from my own business that unforeseen impacts can jump far ahead of studying the issues.

Kathy: Can we focus on the task force, put a timeline on it and ask the Task Force to look at the issues that Dave raised?

Diane: Budget requests need to go before the commission in early May. The City Commission establishes the budget for the following year in the summer. You need to decide what your recommendation is for the budget for the coming year. If you want recommendations that come out of a task force they need to be done by the end of April.

John: That doesn't' seem possible for a task force.

Patrick: We need to be clear about what we want to ask the Task Force to address and determine what a plan might look like that a task force could potentially bring together fairly rapidly, because there's been a lot of work already done. Our problem is we don't know what we want so we do nothing and it becomes an endless cycle. We have to take some leadership risks here. What we come up with may stink, but our community can be a whole lot stronger than it is right now.

John: Once you get people to start saying yes, it's easier to get them to say yes in the future. Bricking streets is costly. Pick things the City can say yes to. How about secure lighting? Everyone wants secure lighting. If we say we want to designate this area as a cultural district and improve pedestrian access and safety, it is hard for the City to say no to security.

Mandy: Pohler got funding for lights and streets, where is that?

Diane: Pennsylvania, between 8th and 9th streets, will be restored to brick and there will be undergrounding of utilities.

John: Maintaining a cultural area is very broad, but there is not a lot of money involved in that, city should agree to that.

Katherine: Which of these things are you asking the city to foot the bill for? If you're specific that may be helpful. There's nothing to say a benefactor wouldn't pay for some of this. Can the Task Force look at the costs for the city and the consequences for the residents?

Richard: Would this be a place to ask for an economic impact study of what we're asking or considering? Bloomington, IN placed arts under economic development.

Mandy: I feel like I need to understand the task force a little more. We're asked to request that the city designate the cultural district. What would the Task Force do besides look at the gentrification issue?

Patrick: I'd like the task force to develop a plan to access funds to develop the cultural district while maintaining the unique cultural mix that exists, identify economic benefits that would continue to support a taxable district.

John: It seems reasonable to investigate commitment to affordable housing.

Richard: That comes under the broad socio economic mixture.

Patrick: We want to give the Task Force enough room to do its work. If we outline what we want we're being too specific. The Task Force may come up with affordable housing on its own.

Susan: Maybe the Task Force charge is to come up with reasonable models and present three models for city funding to the City Commission. If you ask for an economic study, it will derail everything.

Katherine: That is a much more reasonable charge for a Task Force. The economic study needs come in after the City decides it wants to go forward with this.

Kristi: We've looked at many models, but investigating models focused on a specific neighborhoods and what has worked in similar situations to develop them.

Kathy: Are we asking for three models employed in similar situations or to define a recommendation of a model for this neighborhood?

Patrick: Identify three models that could be applied to neighborhood.

Katherine: I would leave it city wide, aimed towards the cultural plan and then the district resides within that plan. Maybe that's the whole district, maybe that's a node in the district.

Patrick: I see our city is a teenager. In a way, because we try to do things city-wide it is too difficult to do because it's a large city. We need to break it into a digestible size. I have decided it is worth to me to parcel it into a small area so we get something done. When we try for a city-wide plan we get nowhere. We could say this is the east Lawrence plan, because it is, with a little bit different name. I would expect pushback from other communities within Lawrence. I am willing to take that loss right now so we can seem to have a plan.

John: Would it be dispersing the energy too much to say that this would serve as the start of a more comprehensive community plan?

Patrick: That's good.

Kathy-to-Dave: Am I understanding that you're suggesting the Task Force before asking the City to designate the district?

Dave: What's the rush? There are unanswered questions and dangers of speeding up gentrifications. I am asking that you consider it carefully. If I were still sitting on the commission I'd hesitate to vote for it without answering those other questions.

Patrick: To summarize, we would be request that the City Commission instate a Task Force that would: 1) establish a cultural district; 2) study ways to maintain the unique culture of the area; 3) look at combinations of private, public, and grant funding to support improvements.

Mandy: We're asking the City to say this is a cultural district, and saying "We want to accomplish these three things and we want you to designate a task force to study how to implement those three things."

Susan: You're asking them to find three models and you're immediately asking them to look at specific priorities?

Kristi, we're asking them to explore and inform those three priorities.

Susan: But you're asking them for money.

Patrick: Do we want to have them mount a task force first or do we want to tell them what it is first?

Kristi: It's already happening and we have to recognize that, let's own it and take care of it. It's a stewardship in my mind. It's time to really take care of the process, be a part of the process.

John: Exactly. We want to ask the City Commission to recognize an existing cultural district and, in recognizing that, acknowledge there are issues that need to be addressed and establish a Task Force to determine what the issues are and solutions to them.

Patrick: My concern is, if we say we already know this is where cultural things are happening, then aren't we opening ourselves to someone from another area of Lawrence saying, "Wait a minute, what about what's happening in my cultural district?"?

Kristi: It's one of many nodes in Lawrence, but it has a need now.

Patrick: In order to maintain the value of this district there should be improved pedestrian access and safety, maintenance of unique socioeconomic mixture and funding for improvements. We ask that a task force be established to identify three models and select the best out of each that most pertain to this cultural district and make one recommendation that could best achieve these priorities as the beginning of a city-wide plan to improve cultural neighborhoods throughout Lawrence.

John: It should be clear that this is a specific Task Force for this cultural district, and a starting point.

Katherine: Again, I would be cautious in the wording of details for the Task Force. It needs to be focused on finding the models. If it gets bogged down in details it will keep going in circles.

After break Patrick presented the following:

The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission requests the city designate the area defined by the Kansas River, Vermont Street, 15th Street and the northern terminus of the Burroughs Creek Trail as a cultural district. In order to maintain the value of the area the district should have improved pedestrian access and safety, maintain the current unique cultural and social-economic mixture currently represented and be a destination for visitors to Lawrence. In order to develop a plan to meet these goals, the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission is requesting that the City Commission create a seven-member Task Force that will identify three models that combine private, public, and grant funds that would support improvements to the district and the start of a broader community wide cultural arts plan. The task force will be appointed by the City Commission with recommendations coming from the LCAC...

John should we designate how many people are from the East Lawrence neighborhood?

Patrick: I think we get into a sticky place if we begin to designate members from different constituencies. We can say membership may be recommended by LCAC and will be selected with input from the East Lawrence Neighborhood.

KT: Since August we've had lots of discussion and shouting. If there are not three people from East Lawrence I will have to go to the City Commission and protest.

Richard: What he's saying is how do you designate between artist, businessperson, and resident?

Mandy: People who do not live, work or own property in the area should only be on the Task Force if they have really specific knowledge, like tax knowledge. We can make the commitment in our own minutes that we see the Task Force as looking like this.

Grace: I was reading about what makes successful arts districts. Some of the most successful ones were those which did not target tourism at all, but looked to capture local dollars by expanding social and cultural activities.

Patrick: When you improve a neighborhood you accomplish two things, you improve the living for the residents and you make it more attractive for investment. We have some members of our communities that want all things to be funded through some form of economic growth.

Kristi: A member of the LCAC should be on the task force.

Mandy: It should say a majority should live or work in the cultural district.

Diane: I strongly suggest that you include specific language regarding the charge and timeframe. However, you can help the City in framing, that will be helpful. If you want to get this going quickly, you might want to ask them to get the task force identified by a specific date.

Kathy: Can we go so far as to recommend individuals?

Diane: You can or provide a list of suggested individuals. Certainly include how you think the task force should be composed.

Kathy: When do new commissioners take office? Can we ask candidates the question Would you serve on the task force if selected?

Patrick: The task force will be appointed by the City Commission with recommendations coming from the LCAC and the majority of the members will work or live within the proposed district boundaries.

Diane Suggested language similar to the following: The Task Force should be made up X number of people from the neighborhood, two members of the LCAC, and one city commissioner.

Josh: What happens when the new group is formed? Are we just handing over the keys? The success of this is contingent on getting the right people on this task force. It is important to get this settled as soon as possible. We want to make sure our residents are represented.

Mandy, I feel like we need at least two LCAC members. One person can get railroaded or drowned out. Diane knows about City stuff and we need to take her advice and be as specific as possible, and beyond that we do not tell the City Commissioners who will be on it and we don't specify which constituencies will be represented on it beyond the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association representation.

Katherine: It's just a fact finding Task Force, there shouldn't be any steamrolling. This Task Force is charged with finding quality fact models and examples that can be implemented in this district and bringing the information back to the LCAC and presenting it to the City Commission.

Kristi: Agreed, they look at other models and bring them to the LCAC.

Katherine: We take it all into consideration and we can present a more complete package.

Grace: I agree, it's not political at this point. People are going to do their best to present the facts.

Patrick: It's good to say it's not political, but it is what it is, even if we try to take the politics out of it. I recommend two from LCAC, two from East Lawrence Neighborhood Association, one from the LAC, and 2 at large. That keeps it at seven.

Mandy: What if someone comes forward who has special expertise?

Patrick: The task force can bring in outside voices or expertise and others can attend meetings without being members of the Task Force.

Josh: The larger the task force the more the work is spread out.

Patrick-to-Diane: What timeline should we aim for?

Diane: I'd say if you want results in six months, to ask the Commission to have the Task Force begin in March and direct it to present its recommendations to the City Commission in six months.

Patrick made the following motion:

Motion was seconded by Jane and unanimously approved.

Subsequently, Mandy, Grace, and Katherine expressed interest in serving on the Task Force. John said he is, but will be out of the country for a significant part of the early work of the Task Force.

Kathy pointed out that there will be a report monthly and this will have to be a focus of each LCAC meeting through the Task Force's presentation of its recommendation to the City Commission in October; this will give all interested members the opportunity to discuss the work of the Task Force and send their recommendations or thoughts back with the official representation from the LCAC.

In other business:

Katherine reported for the City-Owned Art Maintenance Committee that Mark Hecker is the contact at Parks and Recreation with whom the committee members will interact in making recommendations for art maintenance. Katherine, as liaison to City Parks and Recreation in regards to arts maintenance will be in regular contact with him so there is back-and-forth communication about art maintenance needs and activities. She noted that Mr. Hecker said a comprehensive list or inventory would definitely be helpful, and he hopes for such an inventory sooner rather than later.

Grace reported that she went to the Mayor' Task Force "Envision Arts KC" in Kansas City meeting. They're having 25 meetings and there is a website and a Facebook page on this initiative. She said she felt it was really interesting and recommends it, and noted that she would be willing to carpool if anyone else was interested in attending future meetings.

The LCAC members agreed to meet at the regular monthly meeting time on Feb 13 for budget purposes.

The meeting adjourned at 3:43 p.m.