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City of Lincoln Urban Development Department Mayor's Neighborhood Roundtable Meeting Agenda and Summary September 2007

Chairperson Tracy Lines Corr called the meeting to order at 5:37 P.M., Thursday, September 13, 2007, in the Mayor's Conference Room, County/City Building, Lincoln, Nebraska. Twenty-six participants attended.

Tracy Lines Corr, 40th and A Neigh. Assoc.	Jeff Schwebke, Arnold Heights Neigh. Assoc.
Gloria Eddins, Clinton Neigh. Org.	Rick Noyes, Downtown Neigh. Assoc.
Cherie Krueger, East Campus Com. Org.	Pat Anderson-Sifuentez, Everett Neigh. Assoc.
Paula Rhian, Everett N. A. & NE Dept. of Econ. Dev.	Ruth Johnson, Hartley Neigh. Assoc.
Dorothy Ebner, Hartley Neigh. Assoc.	Doug Kerns, Havelock Neigh. Assoc.
Scott Baird, Near South Neigh. Assoc.	Gary Irvin, South Salt Creek Com. Org.
Gail Anderson, University Place Com. Org.	Lois Haupt, University Place Com. Org.
Bill Vocasek, West A Neigh. Assoc.	Larry Frisch, Witherbee Neigh. Assoc.
Shawn Ryba, NeighborWorks Lincoln	Lynn Fisher, REOMA
Harry Heafer, Health Dept.	Lynn Johnson, Parks and Recreation Dept.
Karl Fredrickson, Public Works & Utilities Dept.	Wayne Teton, Public Works & Utilities Dept.
Dave Landis, Urban Development Dept.	Wynn Hjermstad, Urban Development Dept.
Nancy Engel, Urban Development Dept.	Mayor Beutler

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
Ms. Corr opened the meeting and asked the participants to introduce themselves. A sign-in sheet was provided for check-in.

Tracy mentioned the newspaper article about the newly approved Quiet Zone in the South Salt Creek area. Gary Irvin expanded on the developments.

Larry Frisch, Witherbee Neighborhood Association, presented a resolution to keep Hawthorne Elementary School open and asked for support from neighborhood associations.

MAYOR'S COMMENTS
Mayor Beutler had no specific comments, but thanked all for attending. He expressed his appreciation for the good participation in the Roundtable.

NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION VOLUNTEERING: Parks and Recreation Department
Lynn Johnson, Director of Parks and Recreation Department, presented the new Hands On - Help Out program (see handout). The first event was last night, September 12th, 6:00 P.M. to 8:30 P.M.. About 35 people participated at Peter Pan Park and it went very well. Parks Department delivered three truckloads of mulch to the park and the volunteers distributed it around all the trees. The City Web site provides information for each park; simply type the word "hands" in the search field to access the data. It identifies parks already adopted, tasks to be accomplished, and the number of volunteers. A news release on the program will be coming next week. Volunteers have adopted about 1/3 of the park sites. Parks Department hopes to get the work done in about eight weeks through October and possibly into November. The big parks currently are not on the list. If a large group, such as a church or corporation, wishes to volunteer for a major event, Parks will direct them to the large, regional parks.

In response to a question about volunteer mowing, Mr. Johnson recalled a time during the Helen Boosalis administration (1975 - 1983) when Parks did have such a program. Parks may establish mowing clubs for people who just love to mow so they can get together to accomplish the task and socialize.

Sometime this winter, Parks will launch a new, interactive Web site that will list activities and volunteers so citizens can readily look on the Web site to volunteer. Then, Parks can make the connection so the volunteers can accomplish the work.

Contact Janet Ball (441-7035) to volunteer, or get further information.

NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION VOLUNTEERING: Public Works Department
Karl Fredrickson, Director of Public Works Department, discussed the following areas for citizen participation:

• Detention Cell Inspection. Watershed Management has developed a checklist which needs to be reviewed along with a map of the sites.
• Sidewalk Inspection. Development of criteria and a check off form is ongoing. In the next couple of meetings, more details should take form so the effort can start.

Wayne Teten, Manager of Antelope Valley Project and Street Maintenance, presented a draft proposal about reporting streets missed by snow removal operations (Snow Partners). He acknowledged the lack of neighborhood organizations in the outlying areas where most of the missed street instances occur. He displayed a map depicting the eighteen residential plowing areas in the city. The plan involves a phone tree calling system in which one contact per area talks with Public Works and further communication flows up or down through that contact person. For any given storm, Public Works receives about 300 to 500 calls. This proposed system is an effort to reduce that volume significantly and to provide better service. The training Public Works will provide is basis knowledge of the snow removal operation. Contact 441-7644 to volunteer.

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Teten fielded questions and comments from the Roundtable.

Harry Haefer, Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department, reminded the Roundtable about the annual neighborhood cleanups that happen in the spring through June. He encouraged volunteer participation in these neighborhood events.

MEET DAVE LANDIS
Dave Landis, Director of the Urban Development Department, presented his philosophy and the meaning of community development and urban development under the Beutler administration. Some past trends will continue to affect the work of the department.

• Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) -- the very best, most flexible, most usable and most neighborhood-friendly money available -- is essentially flat-lined.
• In the two years prior to this administration, Urban Development Department lost a couple employees; so staffing is somewhat down.
• Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is increasingly being used as an economic development tool, not just a community development tool, as it originally was designed to do.

When Tax Increment Financing was first created, it was a community development tool used to attack the worst of the worst. It was an incentive to get the private market to invest in areas which were not doing well -- older, more difficult, more troubled areas. This approach had some success, but TIF is only one tool, not the only, ultimate answer for these areas.

In addition, TIF law is written in a way that allows TIF to be used for a wide variety of areas, once a blighted and substandard finding has been made. The rest of the state has used TIF funds in a wide variety of ways while Lincoln had restricted TIF use. As a result, Lincoln was labeled unfriendly to business. In contrast to Lincoln, about any city in Nebraska would say: "Come and, if we need to blight Main Street, we'll do it. What do you want? I have a checkbook, let me show you how much money I have in my checking account. Can I write you a check today?"

In the last couple of years, there has been pressure on Lincoln to respond to the climate of economic development. Aggressive city administrations began looking for advantage. As a result, Lincoln has now begun to use TIF as an economic development tool. That use of TIF is likely to continue because that is the reality the City faces in a state that is using TIF from border to border in exactly this way.

For Urban Development, that means we will be drawn into larger and larger commercial projects. At the same time, we are still working on streetscapes and redevelopment efforts on South Street, 27th Street, West O Street, North 48th Street, and University Place. We are drawn into these new commercial projects with somewhat fewer staff and virtually frozen CDBG funds.

The neighborhoods might say to themselves: "Don't you love us anymore? You have always been our voice, you have been our pals! If there was anybody who was a pal in city hall it was Urban Development! We want you to love us!" And, we do love you! We will do our best to continue our obligation and commitment to neighborhoods. We will have to balance that with the strong message from the community for economic growth. It means our resources will be stretched. It does not mean we have replaced a neighborhood agenda with an economic agenda. It does mean our agenda is now broader than it used to be.

Mr. Landis asked for advice on two topics:

• First, the City, over the years, has acquired a number of parcels some of which are in the control of the Urban Development Department, some of which are in the control of other departments. These unused parcels are assets that are not on the tax rolls. They can be opportunities for growth.

  There's another reason to sell unused City parcels. Urban Development is broke as far as land acquisition funds. Many of the neighborhoods represented at this meeting know of some problem building the City bought at one time and demolished. We could not do that tomorrow for you, no matter how bad the building was. Urban Development just does not have acquisition money.

  Some neighborhoods may react positively to these sales when they see growth and activity on what used to be empty parcels. Others may object to the change. Mr. Landis personally prefers to sell the City's unused assets to get the parcels back into the hands of the private sector and on the tax rolls. It would replenish Urban Development's site acquisition funds and it would fuel the economic engine of the marketplace.

• Second, Mr. Landis sees the Urban Development Department as struggling to meet three overall goals: equal treatment for everyone, addressing the most pressing social needs, and getting the most results from the money available. These goals compete with each other. Treating people all alike, going after the most important social needs, and getting the most results for the money you spend are all reasonable, standard goals. The difficulty is, if Urban Development tries do all three simultaneously, none are achieved as well as we'd like.
  • Treating every neighborhood equally fails to respond to the differences of neighborhoods. Urban Development's commitment of resources needs to be weighted depending on each neighborhood's situation.
  • Focusing on the most severe need is sensible when Urban Development's contribution will have demonstrable results. With limited resources available, applying those resources to make the most impact is, in many ways, the most attractive option. This option will leave less severe needs unaddressed.
  • Doing everything to achieve maximum cost efficiency may not be a good way of addressing the more long-term, complicated needs facing Lincoln.

Mr. Landis emphasized the idea of the synergy by which focused projects encourage further development beyond the project itself, including increased home ownership. Increased home ownership levels and the construction of new homes on vacant lots in the older neighborhoods helps balance growth on the outskirts and shows activity in established, older areas.

Mr. Landis fielded questions and comments from the Roundtable. Based on comments from the Roundtable, there appeared to be consensus with Mr. Landis' idea to sell City-owned property. It was also agreed that neighborhood assistance by Urban Development needs to be strategic.

SET OCTOBER AGENDA
The next meeting of the Mayor's Neighborhood Roundtable is scheduled for October 11, 2007, 5:30 p.m., in the Mayor's Conference Room, County/City Building, 555 South 10th Street, 2nd floor. The October agenda will include a presentation by Lynn Fisher on Quality of Life and Problem Properties.

ADJOURN
There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at 6:45 p.m.

Submitted by David G. Ensign
Urban Development Department

Urban Development Community Development Division Mayor's Neighborhood Roundtable

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