City Council Work Session

good evening I would like to call the special meeting and work session of September 30 September 3rd 2024 to order jumping ahead to the end of the month I am going to read a motion to conclude our closed meeting at 7 0 5 p.m. the City Council concluded its closed meeting to conduct interviews for boards and commissions and discuss appointments to boards and commissions I move that each of us certify that to the best of each council members knowledge one only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements in the free Virginia Freedom of Information Act and two only public business matters identified the motion commuting the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered all council members in favor of the certification

motion please signify by voting aye aye those opposed to the motion please vote nay the motion the motion passes for with one abstention I will now recess the special meeting to go into work session I will recognize miss Shinneberry for the first work session item for discussion our first item is a discussion update on the Willow Sherwood Health and Community Center project Brooke Hardin Community development and planning director will provide the staff presentation thank you and pleased to be with you mayor and members of council this evening we were last here in February of this year for the Willow Sherwood project at that point the team was wrapping up schematic design things have progressed since then and the design

development phase is now being wrapped up so we are here tonight seeking your authorization to move forward to construction documents with me this evening is James Patterson the city's project management consultant from Blue Heron Leadership Group and Stacy Summerfield the city's director of Parks and Recreation before you is the agenda for this evening we're going to touch on on the schedule and where we are with that the design not not many changes necessarily since you last saw from a big picture but update you on the design as well as costs and budget for the project and then again get back to next steps at the end again seeking your authorization to proceed to the next phase so with that I will turn it

over to mr. mr. Patterson to go through the slides thank you Brooke and good evening great to see you all again and I'll jump right in the first elements just walking through the schedule I didn't put a where we are now but basically we're at the second you guys can see my little highlighted pointer right here at the end of the third quarter of 2024 at this star and the stars represent when we get to the end of the each design phase it's a go no go we share the cost updates we share where the design is and we seek authorization to move to the next step of the design process which in this case would be the development of the construction documents phase so we're here this shows the construction document phase which is approximately nine months to go through that process this schedule assumes if approved tonight this is what the

schedule would look like the community and stakeholder engagement we've had two rounds we did it at concepts we did it at schematic and the architect I believe has done a great deal of incorporating and the feedback we've gotten as we've gone back to the community as they've really used that input to inform the design as they have gone forward so the community meetings have been very positive what we're showing on this next phase of community engagement is really more informational would go back out to the stakeholders the parks and recreation advisory board to the commission of the arts to the community to the board of architectural review share where we are getting any additional feedback as we initiate this last phase of the design

the permitting and entitlement here it actually I could this blue line could go further back we had a pre-application meeting with the city we've met with the city's planning and development staff a number of times they provide a great direction again to inform the site plan and the sup submission we made the application was submitted on July 15th so it's now in the review process which we we anticipate to take about nine months to go all the way through the entitlement and come before the city council the site permitting actually can start right at the end of the entitlement process so we have about nine months to go through the full thing starting a little bit towards the end of calendar year 2024 and then the building permitting once we're at about 95% construction documents we go through the building permitting process which again

takes about nine months the key at the end of the construction document phase is we actually go into we've partnered with our C mark the Christmas company they're working with us they've actually been a fantastic partner they've provided they've what I call it is they've built the building on paper so they were really gone deep into the drawings which gives us a high confidence in the cost estimates we're getting now they're talking to a lot of the subs they will engage with down the road to get really good cost so it's really helpful having them on board early but when we finish a hundred percent they actually go through the process of officially buying out the contract so they go to the HVA sub the structural sub the earthwork sub the steel working sub and they get actual prices they use that to come up with a guaranteed maximum price that then they know

negotiate with us with the city and the county and that's the last star in the process we will come back to the city council with what is that guaranteed maximum price that they're putting on the table to build it for and then construction has a little bit of a error in this bar the construction will start right at the end of calendar year 2025 probably safe to say the beginning of calendar year 2026 and then we're actually in a warranty period for a year after that just I know we've gone through the design but I just want to kind of refresh on a few things and feel free to interrupt me as I as I'm going through this basically bird's eye view the site we're developing is about two two point four acres that everything fits in there very tightly

it's a little over a hundred thousand square foot building you're seeing in blue those are the solar panels that will sit on top this area right here is a rooftop amenity space associated with senior center and a little amenity space here there'll be for the county's infant and toddler connection program the we are seeking to achieve lead gold certification for the building so we have a lot of sustainability measures that are going you can see here this is the connecting bridge on the second level which connects the main level of the existing Sherwood Community Center with the second floor of the new building the site access to the building we're closing the old entrance that was here the eastern entrance off of Layton Hall

the main entrance will be off Blenheim Blenheim Blenheim Blenheim doing a new left hand turn lane that will come into the site here all this parking will remain as is we're building inter connecting roadway here two way that will come to the new site and then on the Leyton Hall Drive side will be coming in right across from Democracy Boulevard straight across there you'll come into the site there's several surface parking spaces we're providing and then this is the ramp to the two level underground garage where you go in down here the only other things to point out on this slide is this little box right here is the optional improvements the performing arts center and then we're saving a 60 inch one one of the things that came up during the design

is a 60 inch oak willow oak i believe that we're saving here that we had to reconfigure a little bit to accomplish this is looking from if you're standing in the intersection of blenheim and layton hall drive again you see the solar panels you see the rooftop area and the whole idea with this we're showing bocce ball but it's flexible space so however stacy and her staff want to program it they can have bocce ball or they can put something else here there's seating there's a little bit of an overhang to provide a little bit of shade that's on top the county daycare center is in this area this is a playground for that daycare center this shows the transportation hub nicely that's being built with the blenheim project so the bus stop

there's going to be a bike share in this area right here the two-way cycle track here and we're working closely with the transportation with dave's team and the transportation group to make sure it's an integrated design it doesn't feel like two different projects you know that it all goes well together we moved one of the feedbacks we heard from the board of architecture review and from the city council was if you remember this ramp up to this other level you used to have to go all the way all the way down and around and everybody said that was too far so we actually reconfigured the ramp to come down so it's more closely approximate to the transportation hub the um and we're trying to for the way finding signage we're using the city standards again so it has a really integrated look

with the blenheim improvements uh this is another view uh you know coming in closer from that intersection and you get a really good view uh one of the things that city council told us right off is they wanted something very iconic you know it's a very primary corner as you head north and blenheim so something that really draws you in so the the rooftop feature here that's going to be made out of a weddle metal but have a wood weddle so that's wood that looked it's a metal that looks like wood i invented a new word this is going to be metal that looks like wood a lot of glass here so the space in this area is a fitness classroom and then a fitness exercise area so as you drive by you can kind of see what's happening inside the building

a lot of glass around this two-story entrance so it really calls out that entrance you have the glass for the gym and then these um shade fans that go along here and they just put fairfax on here for something but i i think we heard from this group and we also heard from the board of architectural review is it's a good opportunity to put some artwork and maybe something that shows you know fitness or wellness that represents what's happening inside the building the site has always had a big topographic challenge there's a 14-foot drop from the far end to this end of the site so it really needed to have a retaining wall but we try to soften that the designers try to soften that with kind of a tiered

landscaping with the wall and then faux stone built into the wall so it has a nice welcoming look and then again trying to integrate it the best we can with the transportation hub and then a lot of landscaping along this frontage and then the fence which is required as part of the playground licensing doing some fun artwork on there so it has a nice look from the latent hall frontage this just shows we're having ongoing coordination with our rinker design and our civil and dave staff and our project team just to make sure we understand the sequence sequencing of the project how the utility relocations will happen between the two projects and what the traffic impacts are and that we've really thought through all the elements so we have a well coordinated effort we're making sure we

connect the bicycle trail that's along here that comes in and ties into the track here and and i believe that was all and then where are the responsibilities for the different party this orange line you can see along here is basically the limits of responsibility for the blenheim boulevard project and then we're taking care of anything behind behind that project but as you can imagine the construction is going to have to be well coordinated going inside the building this is the two levels of underground parking you see the ramp that comes down the garage entrance there's two loading spaces here there'll be an emergency generator located here there's a transformer for the building here there are three elevators that serve the building you have two

located in the middle of the parking garage you have an elevator on this side at this level it's more of a freight elevator and then we have four stairways that serve the building throughout the number of spaces we have on both levels we have 249 spaces planned for the parking garage and we're doing seven surface spaces outside the on the joanne jorgensen side so 256 spaces in total and the last thing to note on this uh or this plan is this is a location of kind of the building utilities where the electric panels are the fire control room the facilities management kind of shops that will be located going into the buildings again i know you guys have seen this before but just to highlight a few things

on the ground floor ground floor plan you have a full-size basketball court you have pull out bleachers that will seat up to 350 spectators you have two half-size courts going this way it will be striped for a pickleball and it will have volleyball inserts so it will be a multi-purpose court it has storage back here for gym equipment then on the this side this space is a city preschool program four classrooms with bathrooms for each classroom kind of cubbies on this side with a sink for our projects and the sort each classroom will have direct access to this outdoor kind of walkway they'll connect to a playground exterior playground that's fenced off the gym then going up to the second floor on the gym side you'll have an elevated two-lane track kind of a wide

two-lane track so it's going to feel like three lanes you have spaces in the corner to stretch etc it's going to have two locker rooms plus two unisex unisex family changing rooms that will be for the gym this is the parks and recs administrative area here they'll have a conference room storage and offices you have the fitness classroom and then the gym area with aerobic equipment built into that and one thing the other thing i want to point out is just kind of access through the building on the first floor you enter the building here you'll come in this is the stairway that gets you up to the second floor open stairway you walk straight there'll be some art sitting areas social areas here there's an information desk here for the parks and rec will man and then on the back side you

come in off the blenheim entrance here so it kind of has a long spine across the building and then it's got this long hallway i going into the gym into the stairway on the second level you can come into the building through the sherwood center so you come through here this corridor this corridor will be built this is the bridge feature that goes across this is an existing art room which will be shrunk to make room for the corridor you do have to navigate a few stairs because the elevations don't exactly match but then you come into the second floor or you can go up an open stairway to the senior center or the seniors can also go this way to an elevator to the senior center and again then you have the elevator track the locker rooms the fitness the fitness classroom the admin area

this is the third level and the building will look like a two-story but we'll have a three-story but the third story is set back so you won't necessarily see this from the ground but this is a senior center which is very similar to what's at green acres now in terms of space you have the elevators here you come across right into the senior center there's a check-in desk two offices a large gathering area here a smaller more intimate gathering area here a demonstration a full demonstration kitchen classroom here and then two classrooms associated with the senior center but are also multi-purpose located here and then the rooftop amenity space and this is a nice feature that i should have pointed out in the elevation but at some

landscaping here that kind of softens that edge of the building and also creates some stand back from the edge so you're not peering over the edge of the building the performing arts center and i want to break this into because part of the modifications to the sherwood center are what i call base building which happens whether you decide to do the performing arts options or not and then parts of it are the option so the base building component are basically modifications we will make to the lobby to improve the entrance entrance and security as you come into the building and then modifying this arts classroom back here to create this corridor and then the bridge that goes across to the new building all of that is part of base building the optional piece is the addition

of dressing rooms it's basically this back part here male and female dressing rooms and then a costume shop here and a back corridor for fire egress and then creating a sound and light room control room here redoing the room divider that exists now and then throughout the space is taking down the existing ceiling to improve the lighting for performances and sound so the installation of these wood acoustical wood reflectors and then rails so you can move performance lights around depending upon where you put the stage and the thought is the stage could be in multiple locations depending upon how you're doing a setup or how large the event is and you could move the lights to fit the specific performance so that's all the optional piece

this looks at financial impact and this has been at least the split has stayed consistent throughout the building is roughly 42 percent the cities 58 percent the counties so the costs are split up pro rata based on that the parking costs are broken apart based upon parking utilization because different uses have different parking demands so we're really trying to do the math to figure out well what's the utilization of the different uses and how do you equitably share that cost and then there's the three million dollar additional city commitment that was discussed last time we met with you and that was really looking at the cost between doing an above ground parking versus underground parking was three million dollars and to make the project go forward the city contributed an

additional three million dollars to make that happen and to really be careful about as we look at cost the good news is we're under budget the bad news is there's a long way to go before we get to a guaranteed maximum price so we feel good we're under budget the costs have crept up from the concept to now where we are in the design development uh and that's what i show down here is at the concept phase when we came to you it was 123 820 uh at schematic it was 126 873 and at design development we're at 129 million 650. so from concept phase to where we are right now it's going up about 4.7 percent and as you go through cds and we build in design contingencies but you just find more details as you go through the bidding process and people really have to put pencil to paper and commit that

i'm going to build it for this you see costs uh can creep up so we kind of have that awareness going forward we try to build in adequate contingencies the cmar we think helps with that the counties had several projects go through the cmar and they said they have seen some price jumps at the final guaranteed maximum price so i just full disclosure we're trying to manage this tight but we also want to be aware that prices can change oh um thank you brooke the other thing we're working on is part of the county policy is they do value engineering on any project over 10 million dollars we just went through a value engineering we're a independent group of evaluators architects mechanical engineers civil

engineers come in and they spend a week kind of going through the going through a process of doing value engineering and they've had recommendations that we're now working our way through we're not putting those on the table yet because we'll really get the details and what the cost savings are going to be in construction documents right now it's in the range of one to two million but again that's very preliminary so there will be some savings but it doesn't take us all the way back to the concept level and the cmar partner is also looking at value engineering options we're doing some additional geotech studies we we've priced it based on a conservative assumption of the groundwater and some of the

geotechnical aspects we're doing some additional studies so we can tighten those numbers up and they're only going to they should only go down because we went in with the conservative assumptions on the geotech the um and then to kind of pull that into this matrix this is the county side with their pan this is the city side you know our 42 percent and garage share is 51.93 million the additional commitment is a 3 million so you're looking at 54 9 30 currently and then 4 million at the concept phase we're at 4.5 million on the performing arts we're now 4 million that one came down a little bit and comparing that to budget these are they're already adopted and then you have a fiscal year 26 proposed of 9 million so the budget

has been from the concept phase 56 million but that fiscal year 26 is not adopted yet that's proposed we looked at the upper operating uh impacts as well as well i broke this into two tables you have willard sherwood on top and then you have the performing arts option at the bottom the total building value i just put here because some of these costs are based on percent of building value so the base building fixtures furniture and equipment and and the best way to describe ff and e is if you turn building upside down and shake it it's all the stuff that falls out so it's tables chairs desks furnishings anything that's not built in um that's that we've done a detailed um cost estimate on that at 1.28

uh 3 million which would be a one-time cost in fiscal year 27. then the app annual operating cost which i show starting in fiscal year 29 but again the building would open at the end of fiscal year 29 so the first year would be a half year uh cost but i showed these annualized so this is what a full year would cost so the maintenance which using kind of industry standards the maintenance is somewhere between two and four percent i estimated three percent of building value so this is three percent of the 54 million capital repairs which are you know replacing pumps replacing roofs replacing hvac some people create a sinking fund if you were to create that um others don't but this is how you annualize that cost the

first five years are wash that's kind of built into the warranty and the initial initial maintenance but starting in fiscal year 34 that's an annualized cost of a little over 800 000 uh security throwing in a little bit for a full-time security guard uh custodial is two and a half dollars per square foot utility is about two dollars a square foot you get a total operating cost of a little over 2.7 million again starting in different fiscal years and then the staff cost of 2.1 million and the discussion there was while that cost staffing in the building will be fiscal year 29 you don't staff up right before you open a building you would start staffing up the previous fiscal year to ramp up staff and then on the performing arts

option it's a similar type of calculation just going through the total building value the ff and e maintenance costs capital repairs custodial security we're not adding anything on this side of the building and staffing is all included and the number up here a summary of staff is summarized on this bullet with two full-time staff and 35 42 part-time employees some benefited some non-benefit positions and then parks and rec are developing a cost recovery model that is in process so again as as brooks said what we're looking for tonight is authorization to move forward into construction documents and what to do with the performing arts option and you're committing basically to go through cds if you say go forward performing arts you still have the option at the

completion of cds before going into construction of hey do we move forward performing arts or not and there will be as we move forward the development agreement every time we have a budget or schedule change we update the development agreement so that will come back to the city council after we're in cds there will be stakeholder and community informational meetings that i talked about in the schedule those will be held in october the entitlement application is in process we met with the bar last night as an last week last week as a informational meeting that that went very positive a lot of good feedback from them with some good suggestions as well and then again we would be back to city council in late 2025 for the guaranteed maximum price prior to moving into construction

community community that uh council member bates thank you um is there going to be a ramp or an elevator on the sherwood side up to the bridge by any chance yeah so i'll go back to that so as you come through the sherwood um so if you come in the senior center and you want to go to the third floor senior center the way you navigate that as you come here there's stairs here and there's a ramp here and i believe the elevation difference is three to four feet as you come up this ramp and then to go all the way up to the third floor you can navigate this open stairway to get to the third floor or you walk around the corner here to get to this elevator that goes up to the third floor okay perfect thank you the other and the other to access the senior center the other way is you

park in the garage and you basically go up this double set of elevators and that has a landing on each floor including the third floor right across from the senior center other questions okay council member ross yes um thank you for that very thorough presentation it's exciting to see this moving an additional step forward and obviously we have to concur with that but um this is such an exciting opportunity for the city and i think that sets a very high mark for the future in terms of what park and recreation agencies are doing in terms of the connection with wellness and health and all those good sorts of things um you mentioned if this plan is followed construction would commence probably in 25

you said i think there was a possibility of starting the end of 24 but more likely 25 would be through 28 would be those years of construction you mentioned at the end there that it would be under warranty um could you explain that a little bit about what that means and and um obviously i think many of our residents and we are all aware what a warranty is on a product we buy but how would this relate to the construction of that yeah and the construction's actually beginning of calendar year 26. okay so it's 26 not 27 20 sorry i had my wrong date just a little bit less than three years for constructions would be opening at the end of calendar year um 2008. okay is the current schedule and the warranty

uh basically you have a one year bumper to bumper full coverage that the general contractor has so any defects any elements you find anything that goes wrong for one year you're covered then you get all of your normal warranties so the hvac comes with a warranty the roofing material comes with a warranty the gym flooring will come with a warranty everything will have its individual warranties that's built out in the and the specification package and they're all different durations sure gym floor a roof might be 25 years a gym floor might be 15 years an hvac unit might be 15 years but all those come at the end of the job they're written over to the city and the county right so in effect and i i think you touched on this

very well the city's cost of operation and maintenance well operation there's a certain factor regardless but in terms of maintenance it would conceivably be less during those years but what is an option here is to create that kind of a sinking fund so as you would with a normal home you're putting money into reserve to pay for hvac replacement or roofing replacement or the dishwasher going south all those sorts of things and that seems to me to be a very good and thoughtful idea to make sure that's built into this um warranty will cover it won't cover normal maintenance like replacing a belt or correct right now yeah those kind of things you would be paying for that right but if there's an obvious

defect or something went wrong before it should have there would be um a way of recovering the car or having that replaced um the seniors will be very happy i know to hear that this will be similar to the size of the greens at the senior center of green acres i have the privilege of serving as the because of my age and seniority i guess because of my serve on that group and they'll be very excited i know to hear that they're going to have the same space um the um option for the performance arts center that you presented um and maybe i missed this in the presentation but are we talking also about uh space for equipment storage and for all sorts of things that go with performing arts because i know i've heard

consistently over the years the need for our arts groups and our arts organizations our musical groups to have places where they can store equipment on a regular basis is that and i might stacy might want to elaborate on this we're we're building in storage with more performing arts storage costume storage and we're taking the corner that was a closet and making that into uh sound and light room to control the space and then otherwise we kind of we have the normal closets that have been there so we're not we're not building more storage into the existing sherwood center yes the additional storage in the in the addition there would be available to store props costumes anything during a performance run there so it would provide

additional storage for the performance but we probably just because storage is at such a premium we would ask that people move some of that out after performances and um so that it remain open kind of in a cyclical fashion right i i the reason i raise it i know this has been an issue for some of the groups in the city and i think we've got to be very clear on on what our policy is going to be how that's going to be used and um perhaps we need to somehow think beyond if we do go ahead with this where we could be helpful to some of the performing arts groups in in that regard um it sounds like the stage and the lighting would be pretty flexible so it could accommodate different types of performances um which i certainly support and

like um and then um my final question was on the the construction schedule if we proceed with the four million dollars for the performing arts center and i understand there will be several stages to that that we would begin with the planning and then but it is con is it conceivable schedule wise that the construction would all go forward at the same time or would they be staggered so it could be one contract for the entire enchilada if you will yeah it'd be one contract and when your hvc people were in there they're doing all the hvac we haven't gotten to all the details of the construction sequencing understand because it's going to be an occupied renovation as well so we got to figure out kind of how to work around in an open building but it's going to be one contract and all to go together

some of them might be sequenced a little bit later than sure sure but the idea would be it all go forward at once rather than being a piecemeal kind of thing and i assume that would be a more efficient way of cost wise and everything else by doing it all at once rather than having separate yeah kind of contracts yeah obviously you'll have an option of you could just finish the design and it's independent enough you could just build it sometime in the future right you're gonna you kind of get the benefit of of um you know big contract a little piece so it's going to be a lot more efficient a lot less expensive to do it as one contract okay versus that's helpful yeah and and again i think getting back to one of the key points for the reason this is such a positive opportunity for

the city is to do it together with the county and i assume that relationship has continued to work well in terms of um going these steps doing the planning and all the work that's going on and we're still in a very good place with the county right now is that correct good i see his head nod so that's i'm assuming that's an affirmative thank you thank you for that that's actually going really well yeah thank you other questions from the dice council member bates thank you one more thing uh i'm very pleased to see the inclusion of solar panels in the project um we've seen a lot uh we've seen some things in news about uh school solar projects in the county being stalled due to the new dominion energy

interconnectivity requirements schools of a certain size that had been slated for solar is that something that uh you all have considered for this or is this of a sufficient size that that wouldn't really be a consideration yeah i think they've run into problems in some of their fire stations because the footprint is so small for a fire station um there's a minimum level of 300 i figure what the number is but we're making we've made sure that we're over that level um they've had conversations but we haven't nailed down exactly because this would be done as part of the county's power purchase agreement where somebody else comes in and they they install the panels um and then we pay them basically as part of that ppa

agreement but we feel like we're in good stead with the size of the solar arrays we have on the rooftop okay great to hear thank you other comments or questions council member doyle feingold thanks mayor you mentioned the the rooftop space is for city parks and rec to determine how to use can you sort of explain to the community so is the roof totally under city purview and what parts of the building are under city purview just as my initial question so if you look at the rooftop piece and i'll stacy can talk about the programming this area here with the double doors here and a single door here this is basically for the seniors so this is city space now you might want to use it for something

it's basically city use this space here mostly around the seniors but it could be used however you all want to use it this piece here is part of the infant toddler connection space and so some of the counseling they do for new parents and kind of working with parents and their kids they use outdoor space so they wanted to have a space and it's divided there's actually a divider here with so it'd be screened between the two uses so this is a kind of a more private intimate space for the itc so this would be county a space that they would access through the doors here or door here okay the spaces that james highlighted are city use space only so we would have we would this rooftop space for example the senior center the demonstration kitchen the two classrooms those would all be

under city purview only um i think as and this is of course we're in preliminary conversations but as we've discussed it so far we would want to program every inch of the space as much as we can all of the hours that were open so we really see the patio being a senior space during the day when the senior center is open using it prior to the senior center opening for like a morning yoga class to do programming in the evening potential rentals a lot of our classes would be in these two classrooms upstairs we utilize the kitchen for classes as well during the summer our tiny chefs classes uh the senior center would be utilized as the senior center as it is right now during the hours the senior center operates from 8 a.m to right now 4 p.m and then post that time in the evening we would use

it for programs different events so it's all multi-use space especially on the first floor those floor four classrooms that you see so we do have the tiny school the city's preschool program but it would also be used for before and after school programs for daniel's run it would be utilized for summer camp in the summer it'd be utilized in the evening for kids classes and programs like our icode classes so we envision utilizing every inch of the space that we have so all the spaces that james highlighted the fitness center the fitness classroom track gym our classrooms downstairs those are all under city control okay because i i've heard some concerns from parents you know um as a mom of kids getting into county

programs is very difficult um you know you're sitting there clicking when they open and you often don't get a spot city programs are a little bit better and so this is city owned or this is county owned property this building that we are contributing to and so there are some concerns about what will be city and will it still be sort of the small community you could get your kids into programs or will it become like the county programs where you can't get your kids into programs so you know that's my questioning there and sort of something to keep in mind and think about um my other question is we have the dollar amount and that is helpful but can we explain for residents what does it mean you know we're

talking about a school bond and fixing schools what does it mean in terms of dollars and cents and our tax rate and the timing of this sorry jc you're fine uh so based on the calculation if you can go to the next slide james slide 13. slide 15. slide 15. 13. this one so we as was noted we have enough budget to do the construction aspect as it is stands right now not 100 for the performing arts which is an additional four million dollars to maintain operations once it opens then it starts creeping up and that's i think some of the conversations we're wanting to have with council now of we're looking at a potential just for the community center excluding the performing arts we're looking at about two million dollars

in operating costs excluding the capital repair sinking fund which isn't going to come due to poly fy 34. in addition to that another two million dollars on an annual basis increasing every year due to merits and inflation for personnel as well so we're looking about four million additional dollars to basically operate the facility per every single year per year and added for people what does that mean for them and tax and looking at about a penny per eight hundred thousand dollars um you would divide that so we're looking about four and a half almost five cents potential of additional uh revenue that would need to be generated on an annual basis not 100 on the real estate but just collectively an additional

four million dollars of revenue that would need to be generated to cover that on an annual basis you add in the performing arts center that's an additional four hundred thousand dollars and another two hundred thousand dollars of operating on an annual basis from there as well so that's why we added the last bullet there i think it's going to be critical if we if we want a to reduce impact on residents coming up with a cost recovery model which is what some other recreation centers community centers do across the region that could generate some revenue it does usually not profitable you're not in this to make money it's still a community service so but at least you're recovering some but it's going to that's a

policy decision about what what the pros and cons are of just doing something like that okay thanks that's all i have for now okay council member ross yes um thank you um and thank you for raising that question i think it's important to to put it in the context that that cost of operation is not taking into account any cost recovery uh fees charges other kinds of things i know from my own experience the county has a very active number of recreation centers throughout the county i think the original intent on that was to make them fully operational in terms of cost uh through fees to charges lessons that sort of thing i i don't know that they've made that mark i think they're far short of that and the reality is there would have to be some cost to the city in terms of operation

and i would also throw in that not only with some cost recovery of fees and charges for programs i assume there would be some staff costs that are already being paid for for example the senior center green acres other facilities that we're running would be consolidated this so i think the four million dollar figure i want to be careful how we use that because i think it's important to recognize we're not dumping all that on the city at one point uh in terms of tax costs to the the residents there will be offsetting cost to that there would be obviously some cost of operation and i think we've got to enter into that with our eyes wide open on that but at the same time i think this is something that we've heard for years city residents want and would be willing to support thank you mayor

councilmember bates thank you a couple things first off as i recall the uh the operating costs here are just for the city's part of the project and the county is going to be paying for their part of the project and also um the uh the basketball court inside the project we don't have a basketball court that is available for sort of drop-in use at green acres right now but this would be available for that uh once this is built is that correct yeah we would program open gym would be a piece of the programming that we would do so um as james mentioned we'd line it for basketball we could play half court or full court um we could also do volleyball and pickleball are the three things we've identified at this point to line the

floor with yeah thank you councilmember greenfield thank you mayor um can we go back to the floor plan i'm i'm curious on the first floor where where the health center is if kids are coming in or or adults with an an infectious disease are they parking in the parking garage are they coming through a secure area or they are they going to be walking through facilities that are under our control as well so therefore exposing potential exposure so we've tried to isolate the health department uh on the first floor we kept all those uses together and you can't see it great here there's there's a outside drop-off area there's an independent entrance here um if they go in through the garage they would be using a common

elevator there's seven surface parking spaces out here so if you come into the health department you don't have to come through the main building although there is an entrance here we've created this entrance here and then they're trying to um the hvac design will create some negative air pressure areas so you try to keep the air from the lobbies and um where people are coming into the health department separate from the general population so it's not completely not commingled but we've tried to create some independence in those spaces and most of the first most of the clients that are coming in for services of getting screenings and those kind of things are located on the first floor at the nurses station so

not as much on this is that going to be by appointment i i do not know can we find out because i think if it's by appointment only then they can really be driving folks to the parking spaces outside the building and only going through that doorway to take them into the health department and i think if it's by appointment only then they can really be driving folks to the parking spaces outside the building and only going through that doorway to take them into the health department versus walking all throughout the rest of the rest of the building yeah we'll report back to you and just to share that that's certainly an aspect that the health department itself is very sensitive to and have have provided that feedback in terms of design that you see

so certainly high on their list as well and then the city's preschool program that's not main street child development center is this something in partnership with city schools or we run a preschool program out of sherwood which would move into here called the little school so it's not a day-long sort of daycare preschool it's preschool programming so we have the variety of preschool so that would move into here and then main street does plan to um potentially bid on the the county's child care space because they are just a leasee from us okay over green acres this is the the county's pink yeah early childhood program is the space in purple here okay all right um and then back to the the budget i i appreciate what you're saying

about you know a fee structure i expect that there will be something here similar to um you know some of the the other county facilities where you can go and you pay to go in and do different programming but i think we need to be selling to the community what the worst case scenario could be and in with two new people and 35 to 42 part-time new part-time people am i reading that correctly that's the four million dollar potential for a four million dollar impact and i think we have to be completely transparent about that and not say well it's not really going to be that bad because we're going to have some kind of a fee structure we don't know what it is yet and we don't know how much revenue we'll generate from it um so i think we we've got to go out to the community just like

we're doing with school bond here's the worst case yes there are some options out there that could make a huge difference but that's not what we have right now and the other piece i would say is is fy26 we still have to allocate another nine million dollars toward this project am i not am i reading that correctly because that's proposed for fy26 so that's another nine million we have to put in that then brings us to our share of 56 million correct in the five-year cip that was done three or four years ago we laid out or the previous cfo laid out that budget to get us there as was noted that amount in fy26 has not been allocated or adopted it's just in the proposed this is in the approved cip is that

correct it is in the approved cip but we approved the cip on a per annual basis understand correct so we still you won't be here none of us may be here but for fy26 that nine million that nine million dollars still has to come from from i understand that action from the body but i i i do think it's important i'm sorry i guess i didn't realize that i yielded the floor no you did not all right council member greenfield has the floor council member greenville has the floor thank you and i will thank you i'm sure you will um so so now let's just one last piece i i think it would be helpful to get a again a slide here we're talking about a lot of different projects with a lot of impact to the city some within budget some are over budget this project we've already heard may come in when we go

to construction drawings over budget i think it would be good to understand what that overall impact is i think you started working on that mr martinez when we were talking about schools looking at what's what's funded but over budget what's not funded um you know but potentially over budget all those different scenarios i think that would be good to be able to have for the community to have again a full understanding of what people are paying for and how they are going to be paying for it because ultimately it's going to come to the the residents to pay for it thank you mayor yes can i add a point about kind of at least from my experience worst case scenario from a cost recovery this was post pandemic

reopening people still hesitant to come was about 25 cost recovery of cost usually you're averaging around 40 i think that's closer to the national standard but it's it's a policy decision about what you want your rate structures to be how affordable do you want it what the competition looks like but again that's from my experience was the worst case around 25 if you want to kind of present a worst case scenario to to residents and states i don't know if you have other experiences as well yeah the typical number is that you shoot for is 40 cost recovery so you look at putting in 60 percent getting back you know 40 percent um and i think um we would be we've looked at a lot of local models and a number of other nationwide models and we'd be looking at a graded model where things

that benefit individuals would be the highest cost recovery and things that benefit the community would be the lowest cost recovery and so we'd be able to kind of look and get an idea of what the overall building would be it's helpful i just think it's a number that we should share that it because again i agree when we went through the downturn in 2008 2000 there's a lot of things in the city that was just free and we could no longer have them be free from room rentals to recovery to cleaning the facility after the after the rental all of those things we had to take into consideration so it's just we've got a number it can shift a little bit but i just think being candid about that i think is really

important thank you council member ross yes um thank you i always believe in in candor um and i also think it's very important as this pointed out to be realistic about the numbers that we'll be placing on our citizens to pay for but i think it's also important that we uh understand and and help our public understand that that the the the worst case scenario is probably pretty unlikely as it is in our school funding we're looking at options we may have additional ways to recover revenue um so i think it's important that we make sure we get the entire story and not just part of the story that was a point i was going to make thank you mayor thank you councilmember daryl feingold um thanks i just have one addition as part of that analysis um i know costs right now for city programs

the preschool and the classes at sherwood and things like that are fairly affordable so as part of looking at that if we are looking at increasing those costs if we could just be upfront about that you know in order to get the cost recovery are we going to have to look at changes in what is free or increasing costs and you know provide that information to the public also yes so as part of the cost recovery program we wouldn't just um roll it out in one day and be like this is where our pricing has to get to we see it as a gradual increase for some of the things that we've held artificially low and also i think the other feature of this is to we have a very generous community so right now we're able to maintain a very robust

scholarship fund to be able to offset programming costs if anyone becomes priced out of the model council members daily i think you may read uh so i'm haven't heard anybody on the dais say that to not move forward which i think is an excellent thing uh that's the guidance that you're seeking for today i want to call attention to a note we got from the chair of the planning commission and i really appreciated his uh weighing in on the consistency with the city's comprehensive plan um i had the privilege of serving on the green acres advisory board um and that entire document which seems like a very long time ago because it was a very long time ago but it's good to see that continuing moving forward i also remember one of my first council meetings sitting in the in the

sherwood center talking to people who were there when it was designed saying going out the back is exactly what we designed it for and so as this is probably my last time to as a council member comment on this project i just want to say how excited i am to see it move forward to fruition this has been eight years of me on the dais i served on the greenery committee when i didn't win the first term so it's been a decade of my life shepherding this project through and it is the absolute right project for the city we'll work the details they'll continue to refine and come forward we'll continue to look at cost recovery we'll continue to look at the programming aspect of it is it pickleball or basketball or is it maybe goalball which is a brand new sport for me that

i got to watch in the paralympics so i loved it it was an incredibly fascinating sport in that area but what i know is this is the absolute right spot for this center i know that because of the work we did to get to this point i know that because of the community outreach we did to get to this point i know that because the conversation we're having with fpyc about how excited they are about having a full-size gymnasium under the city of fairfax parks and recreation advisory board and advisory councils and under our own department's control this is the right project for our city and that's what makes me so excited and to see our chair of our planning commission come in and share that information

with us and share the alignment and and i i loved his closing your support of this proposal to proceed is justified and necessary and i can't think of a better way to describe where we're at at this particular moment for the good of our community to continue this project moving forward it's the right partnership with the county look at those numbers right we are in the absolute right space to partner with the county to do this a public public partnership unheard of it's an amazing relationship that we have in there elevators to get to the sherwood center for parking for all the events that go on there so you don't have to walk across the street and go across blendon boulevard anymore right we're

leveraging all parts of our community right now to make this investment for generations into the future this is an amazing work session to have right here and one i'm incredibly proud of the decade i've gotten to shepherd it through and now i get to pass it off to the next council to continue it to move forward right by the time we get to construction i'll probably have one in college and one in high school right i can't wait to see where that goes i can't wait to see us move forward and build this this is the hard work of government that we have to continue to do it's the joy we get to have in government it's the joy to work together with lots of different stakeholders to create and seize the

day as we move it forward so i appreciated the conversation tonight i heard nobody say no which is awesome uh to move forward on there and mayor i can't wait to see this thing get built when i'm not on the dice thank you very much thank you council members daily any other comments or questions i would just echo what council members daily said this is a fantastic partnership with the county i don't think we could have afforded to create or build this or fund this without a partner it is the highest best use of this particular piece of property in the city its proximity to public transit to the sherwood center to two elementary schools it is in the right place and and it may be aspirational and in

and in and it does have a price tag and i appreciate saying that we don't have a blank check in this city to just write whatever it costs but there are different models and i think we can continue to model as we go forward what it might look like there might be cost increases but again there's factors that we can't know today but there are models we can put in place to communicate with the public what we think the impact is going to be by the time this opens in 2030 but i do agree it's a great project i am behind it and i appreciate you keeping us up to date and we appreciate the fact that you're going to continue to keep us up to date mr harton thank you madam mayor so we will take that as consensus to move forward to the next phase and as

was said we will be back again on multiple occasions actually thank you thank you next on the agenda ms shinberry all right our second items of discussion on the breckenridge hoa request for a license agreement to assume responsibility for the maintenance and operation of the city-owned natural gas street lights on the public right-of-way portion of breckenridge lane i'm going to recognize stephanie kupka the environmental sustainability coordinator to provide the staff presentation the purpose of this work session is to discuss a letter we received from breckenridge hoa requesting a license agreement a five-year license agreement they want to operate and maintain the gas street lights that are located on breckenridge lane uh shown on the map to the left uh breckenridge lane is uh just north

of city hall um and it it goes off of university drive this is a public street that leads to the breckenridge hoa which is located just north of um breckenridge lane here um and along the breckenridge lane that leads to the hoa there are 10 city-owned natural gas street lights uh as you are most likely aware the city is in the process of replacing natural gas street lights with led street lights the hoa is aware of this and they want to keep the gas lights to maintain consistency between the gas lights leading to their hoa and also they have 53 gas lights that are part of their community which are located in front of houses or in community areas so to give you some information about our current and future planned uh streetlight

projects we we began replacing the the aging natural gas street lights um in 2023 uh so the first phase was completed in the old town area where we replaced 40 gas street lights with 25 led street lights so you can see a picture here when both the gas lights and the new led street lights were there together uh those gas street lights in the areas for phase one are now removed so you can see the difference between the two fixtures and phase two is currently underway we'll be replacing 60 gas street lights in old town with for the 40 led street lights for fiscal years 25 through 28 we plan to replace the remaining 200 gas street lights with leds so there are many benefits of replacing the gas street lights with leds

first of all it reduces energy consumption by switching to natural gas to electricity that also reduces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution caused by leaking gas provides cost savings for both our utility costs and maintenance costs because gas street lights are very expensive to maintain and operate it also improves illumination and enhances the lighting the new street lights are dark sky compliant so it reduces light pollution and it also improves public safety because the illumination is focused in the areas where we need it on the sidewalks and our streets and improves public safety another benefit to the led street lights is there will be a six pin receptacle and we'll have the ability to integrate smart city technologies in the future

because of all the benefits of the led street lights staff opposes the other issues that we are considering is the gas lights the existing gas lights the conditions are really deteriorating so in the near future these gas lights will either have to be painted replaced the the lamps to be replaced so there's significant investment that would be needed to maintain the gas lamps the other there's also operating and maintenance risks there's a liability for maintenance and safety we've had experiences with gas leaks and there could be malfunctions the hoa also may uh lacked expertise to manage the gas lamps infrastructure effectively and also if we were to enter into a five-year agreement by the time that time is over and then if they decided not to go into a new agreement then the led street light conversion funds will have been expended by then because we're expected to be done with that by fiscal year 28

so then we we wouldn't have the funds to then replace them later and i have an image on the left this shows um actually is that one of the street street lights on breckowitz lane that was showing a malfunctioning uh gas plant to show the the issues that we're having with us so we reported that to our our streets division and they're uh taking care of it so at this point uh we would like your guidance on whether or not staff should move forward with considering of an ordinance that would authorize entering into a license agreement to allow breckenridge hoa to maintain and operate the city-owned gas street lights along breckowitz lane i'll now open it up to questions and feedback questions feedback from the dais council member doyle feingold

uh thanks mayor so in um if there is a license agreement would the hoa be responsible for example you know you showed the light that's malfunctioning would they then be responsible for fixing something like that under correct okay so they would take on all costs for operating and maintaining it okay could we make it part of the license agreement if they decide not to renew there's some sort of uh conversion funds to led yeah so we could make that part of the agreement and then in terms of the environmental um issues that you mentioned i know there's been a lot of discussion about that and a lot of people have natural gas ovens in their home can you talk to what's the comparison so we have people with natural gas

ovens in their home are is a natural gas street light similar different from comparable to the the risks that are from emissions when you have it in your house do we know can we talk about that so it's the same natural gas that's used in your oven as it is in the street light so the same the emissions associated with natural gas is much greater than electricity i don't have the exact numbers i can provide those to you um and then also with having sorry a gas stove there's also the off-gassing of chemicals that go into your household which also causes a human health hazard so those same um human health hazards with the off-gassing happen in your streets so as you've walked downtown you may have smelled the gas and the

off-gassing so similar kind of risk walking in the street not as much as your household because the households contained so there's a you know more of a breeze in the street so there's less risk there but there's still the uh the pollution caused from natural gas and then also the greenhouse gases associated is much greater than electricity so this would be the first time since i've been with the city that we would enter in a license agreement for a um and some kind of infrastructure within the city right of way most of the license agreements we have are either for landscaping in the right of way that an hoa wants to do or signage so this this would be unique because what we would be doing is having a license agreement for something that was

taken out of the public facilities manual this is no longer in city standards and it's a part of public safety the reason why these lights are being replaced a big part of it is so there's adequate lighting for pedestrians um i'm a little concerned about setting a precedent and allowing something that doesn't meet safety standards that doesn't meet lighting standards that we have never done before as a license agreement and approving that so they can still apply to to the city council for a license agreement the reason why we had this work session is you know based on the recommendation by the city attorney is is just to let you know that if they do come forward with a license agreement application

we recommend denial and we would recommend denial thank you for that other questions comments from the dais council member ross and then council member greenfield yes um thank you mr summers you answered the the first question i had on in terms of have we done this before and apparently the answer is no and a good justification as to why not um if this was implemented uh would there be a cost of administration to the city and some responsibility that the city would be required to carry on the the only cost would be is for the public works department to occasionally check to make sure that they're doing the proper maintenance of these lights just like we do with other license agreements the license agreement allows us

to cancel it if it's not maintained right whether it's landscaping or some kind of signage if it's not maintained by typically the hoa we can rescind the license agreement and that would be the same case with this if the lights and the lights do require a lot of maintenance and they require painting mantles being relit uh you know sometimes there's they get hit by vehicles they're rather uh flimsy right right so um um and but but what i'm i'm hearing is there would still be a city responsibility with that whether it was licensed to somebody or not right my inspectors would have it on their list right something to check occasionally right right thank you also to add the cost of enforcing it now you're entering into

agreement with someone so there's gonna have to be some if they're not complying some some staff time and potentially legal uh costs to enforcing this legal agreement now councilmember greenfield thank you mayor um the the lights out in front of farcroft along main street and blenheim boulevard are those the cities or those farcrofts the ones in the right of way are the cities along blenheim boulevard right okay yes thank you um one one other thing is um we did discuss uh miss feingold what you said and and we would if if this license agreement was somehow approved by the council we would have in there that if um they decided not to maintain them anymore that they'd be responsible for the design and

implementation of the led street lights within the right of way just as we were going to do as part of our project what would be the mechanism for enforcing that i'm just oh well our our city attorney appears as if by magic and ultimately we would have provisions in the license agreement for enforcement but that it could involve taking one of our hoas to court right because they're basically you know entering into an agreement where future homeowners of breckenridge will be responsible right so if at some future point there's a different hoa board or a different hoa president and they're like oh we don't want to keep maintaining these and the hoa is like yes well we don't want to pay for them

then yeah that that whole community is on the hook in the future for replacing them at the cost of the hoa that's correct and and you know just full disclosure is as many or most of you know obviously the neighborhood on the private portions of breckenridge lane have gas lights in front of all of the residences so they do have experience maintaining although those are different lights different size different uh probably not different volume non-commercial and a different cost even though uh this would we wouldn't need 10 because they have 10 gas lights maybe we would need five the cost of the led lights are almost fifteen thousand dollars each correct and then the city is relying on a private entity at

that point on the public portion of breckenridge lane to maintain an object in our right of way and if they do not that does impose a liability on the city um you know and it's been mentioned i think already that the cost of then converting to led this would be outside of the program the city's already undertaking so that's a question of budget and funds but yeah i mean there's a number of issues and there's a reason why this is a negative staff recommendation it's not because anybody has anything against gas lights uh at breckenridge it's just a uh it is a little bit of a precedent i would argue it doesn't bind the city to doing anything in the future with any other neighborhood but it is different than what we would

normally do and this street is also complicated because again it used to be a private street years ago it was dedicated to public use so now it's a public street so a number of issues okay any other comments questions council member doyle feingold um just one we don't have a formal request from them though we're just talking about this no we we do have a formal request we we just thought it was best rather than just have it simply appear on an agenda with a negative staff recommendation uh to at least have a brief discussion and if there's no consensus or any direction this evening uh we'll decide what we need to do i mean ordinarily we would just bring these forward but as mr summers miss kupka have

noted that it will be with a negative staff recommendation okay so is there a public hearing for this yes it would be by ordinance so two meetings introduction and public hearing in the hoa obviously the certainly the hoa president would show up to speak i would imagine okay well thanks for the heads up yes what it is heads up and i do think it it is a more robust conversation about consistency in the city we hear a lot about the environment and the environmental impacts of choices like light polluting light fixtures and we have moved to consistently replace them in the city in response to our residents who care deeply about the bats and the birds and the bees and so i think it is not setting a very good precedent to allow

hoas to take over gas lights which pollute in the city's right of way when we as a community have committed ourselves to the best environmental practices possible so i think this is a larger discussion beyond this one licensing agreement because it sets a precedent and i don't think it's a good i'm speaking only on behalf of myself i think it's a good precedent any other comments council member bates thank you uh i certainly share the mayor's concerns as well as staff's concerns um and uh you know i certainly my biggest my biggest concern is the environmental impact um however on the other hand uh if this were still a private street i'm sure that those would still be owned by the hoa at that point along with the other gas lamps is that

probably accurate yeah if it was a private street we wouldn't be here it'd be their street yeah their lights yeah and uh you know additionally i think that it's also important to keep in mind that anywhere that you're going pretty much on this street you know correct me if i'm wrong but the uh the trail is of course not lighted and uh within breckenridge they just have the gas lamps yeah um so we we may have greater lighting on breckenridge lane but um you know then it just kind of ends and wherever you're going from there uh doesn't have that and uh additionally i certainly do believe that the benefits are um are definitely worth it throughout the rest full town especially in areas of old town that are frequented

by pedestrians and where there are a lot of businesses um however this little uh stretch of breckenridge lane here is a very pleasant kind of um has a very pleasant ambience to it you know as you're walking along at night um or you know uh near the end of the day uh with those gas lamps that it would be a shame to lose and uh additionally that's also sort of a part of our city's history that um we'd have an opportunity to in a way preserve uh we may replace the lights throughout the rest of old town but we'd still have this little stretch of public right away here to kind of show where we came from and you know those have been there as long as i can remember but again i do still share the concerns have been mentioned

so um i think it's worth further discussion at any rate any other comments or questions paris went led i think probably 10 years ago and the city of lights is still quite beautiful with led i just put that out for everyone's consideration thank you for the heads up on this we will expect to see it on an upcoming agenda thank you thank you uh yes just as a reminder these license agreements just like with any uh sailor conveyance public property you will need five votes to approve so just passing thank you for that heads up we'll have it on an agenda we do appreciate that okay thank you mr lubkerman next on the agenda all right it's our last item and discussion on a resolution to reappropriate

the general forward slash operating capital and enterprise funds that were appropriate in fy 2024 and have not yet been spent or committed as of june 30th 2024 i'll recognize jc martinez chief financial officer to provide the staff report thank you mayor council each year the finance team presents to the city council a list of general operating capital and enterprise funds and a recommendation as to whether or not those funds should be reappropriated the situation occurs when the funds are either one appropriated but as the end of the fiscal year have not been spent or obligated or two a purchase order was issued but not fully expended and the remaining encumbrance balance should be carried over

to the new fiscal year fy 2025. the reappropriation of the general operating capital and enterprise funds is presented to council at this time of the year in order to take into consideration any year-end adjustments and the final audit work just a quick verbal report out if we go to the i think the third page on the staff report that shows the breakdown by fund just really quickly on the general fund we're requesting 117 purchase orders to be carried over equaling a little over three million dollars in encumbrances the majority of those about almost a million dollars or 40 purchase orders is for public works so facility maintenance construction things of that nature from the general fund requesting to be

carried over that weren't completed in the capital fund that's where the bulk of the carryover is about 149 purchase orders the majority of that's still being in old town hall thais park public safety vehicles that were ordered but haven't been received and then you have the other enterprise funds the wastewater fund the transit fund and the stormwater fund minimal amounts minimal number of purchase orders in totality we're looking at about a little over 21 million dollars or 341 purchase orders from fy 24 requesting to be carried over as an encumbrance to fy 25. of note as part of the year in closing process we did review and evaluate all open purchase orders for all funds and collectively the

departments identified 312 purchase orders equaling 1.7 million dollars that should and were closed and the encumbrance released and put back into fund balance for fy 2024 so we have done our due diligence we're only requesting what we need in order to maintain operations to be carried over happy to answer any questions do we have questions from the dais for mr martinez questions seems very straightforward i think we all commend you for your excellent budgeting abilities thank you for letting us know um any closing comments from our city manager none tonight thank you all right with that i will adjourn the meeting at 8 32 pm astonishing