Ogden City Council Finds Its Legs

By Dian Woodhouse

COUNCIL/RDA MEETING 14TH FEBRUARY 2006

It is amazing what a well-functioning local city government can do to boost one’s personal feelings of well-being. In fact, I am even currently experiencing warm and friendly thoughts towards the Boyer company for choosing “The Junction” as the name for the new downtown development. Score one for unity and working together-- those two concepts we all advocate but which happen in reality much less than one would like.

I attended the city council/RDA meeting last night, and thought I’d jot down a few things for those interested. It was a good meeting. As always, if I have made any mistakes in the following, corrections will be most appreciated.

It began with a presentation of Boyer’s plan for Phase 1 of the development by Greg Montgomery and later, John Gochner. It is important to note that this Phase 1 was the only portion up for approval last night--I had misunderstood this and thought that Boyer was to present its Grand Plan. But Phase 1 was what was presented. It is only the south part of the site, between 23rd and 24th streets, and the Plan has been somewhat revised.

The most important revision, I think, was the addition of more residential units. There will be 176 units fronting Washington Boulevard with more in the back, and street level units are also included--a change from retail on the ground level and residential above. This is actually more in sync with the original ideas from 2002 which emphasized “mixed use.” These complexes are three-sided and built around courtyards, in which will be parking. The idea here is maximum usage of available space--instead of having a row of fronts facing the street and parking in the back, there will be triangles of fronts with parking in the middle. Which is an interesting way to do this, I think.

Councilwoman Jeske asked what the comparison was to the retail units in the old mall with those in the new plan, and the answer was that the square footage dedicated to retail had been cut down by these residential units. There were 125 stores in the old mall, and with the planned square footage now being 233,000 square feet, it seemed to be a bit less than half, although no number was given. Mention was made that retail could also spring up around the development--on the east side of Washington and other surrounding areas, in response to the development, and this was hoped to happen.

Councilman Glasmann asked about the parking situation, and the answer was that parking would be roughly the same as in the 2002 plan. Parking in general was discussed extensively, since there is a bit less than is customarily allocated. But Mr. Montgomery brought up the fact that those living there might decide to keep only one car, as everything will be close and pedestrian oriented, and as for visitors to the residential units, the office parking will be available in the evenings when most of this visiting would occur.

There was also much discussion concerning the development wishing to be favorable to the Eccles Conference Center. It seemed that this was a priority of Boyer’s, which viewed increased bookings there as a mutual benefit to both the center and the development. Councilwoman Jeske asked if there were plans for another hotel in the development, since if the conference center functioned at capacity, we would not have enough hotel rooms. The answer to this was--not at this time, although this might be an option for Phase 2.

A very interesting part of this discussion was that evidently the plans include, at some future time, a median strip in the middle of Washington Boulevard. At this time, this concept does not include parking on this strip, and efforts will be made to slow the traffic on Washington by its presence, and also via curving the sidewalks out at the corners, as has been done on 25th Street, and perhaps also in the middle of the blocks to increase pedestrian access.

Citizen comment was almost unanimously in favor of this plan for Phase 1. Dave Hardman, the current president of the Ogden/Weber Chamber of Commerce, stated that, “We will never return to the retail magnitude we had in the early 80’s and 90’s,” and that therefore, the mixed use concept was a good one. He also mentioned that Earnshaw, a condominium developer at the site, has possibly sold all retail, all commercial, and all residential units in his building.

The manager of the Hampton Inn spoke and gave some interesting input, which was that hotel occupancy in Ogden had been down for the last three years, and that we are currently running at about a 50% occupancy rate. This development would raise that, obviously. He also stated that exciting things are happening at the old Ben Lomond hotel---that it would be "restored to its glory days of the 20’s and 30’s." I have no idea if he was speaking literally or figuratively here--but evidently there is something about to happen with that property that is positive.

Scott Parkinson from the Bank of Utah spoke also, mentioning that the corporate headquarters of that bank are here in Ogden, a fact that I did not know, and that they are solidly in favor of this project.

Virginia Hernandez cited the concern she had over not knowing whether the residential units would be exclusive to only some people or accessible to all. She spoke strongly in favor of diversity in the development, and is organizing some town meetings at which this topic will be gone into.

The motion to approve the plan for Phase 1 was made eloquently by Councilman Glasmann, seconded by Councilman Safsten, passed unanimously, and applauded.

Then the City Council convened. A few interesting things here--McKonkie, entering the budget for review, mentioned that Ogden can probably dedicate no new project areas for redevelopment, because a city can only collect increment on 10% ot taxable property and Ogden is currently hovering at 8.27%. He also mentioned old commitments between the city and the RDA that needed to be addressed.

Councilman Glasmann asked if there were a figure as to the overall debt on RDA projects, and was referred to the report, dated June 30th, 2005, which stated the third party debt as $12,875,000. Revenue streams are currently directed toward paying this, and there seems to be no problem with it currently. There was also “passthrough” debt, mentioned above, payment of which is contingent on inflows. Two figures were mentioned here--$515.000 and $119,000. There may have been more in the budget report itself.

Other business included the council approval of the appointment of Cindi Mansell to the position of Ogden City Recorder, the moving of funds from contingency to legal for the RDA, a thank you from the council, presented by Councilwoman Wicks, to all of those who participated in the site naming effort, (especially since the namec chosen was “one of ours,” too,) and a general plea that more individuals from the Hispanic community get involved in attending the meetings. I would certainly agree with that last, especially. Councilwoman Wicks also asked when construction for the rec center would begin, and the answer, by John Patterson, was that although much was going on “behind the scenes,” no construction was apparent, and a start date was currently unknown.

By far, the most important thing about this meeting to me was that the Ogden City Council/RDA seemed to have found its legs. Not as a rubber stamp organization, but as a well-functioning group of people who individually all think for themselves and also function smoothly as a governing body. Perhaps the difference between opposition, (which is fine, and allowable,) and infighting, (which is only destructive,) has been pinned down and dealt with. Possibly this feeling was in large part due to the fact that Phase 1 of the project was finally, at long last, given a green light. Or that it was Valentine’s Day or something. But whatever it was, there was a feeling there last night that things have finally come together and we’re on our way. This would be good.

Update 5/15/06 3:35 p.m. MT: A totally exciting addendum to meeting is that it was stated by Montgomery that the Episcopal Church will be able to purchase what it wishes, and it is also being considered to turn the two story planned building to the east of it to a one story one in order to allow light into the historic chapel window. Negotiations are in progress on this. -D.

Comments, anyone?