HURA board discusses expansion and community center, approves 2022 annual report
No surprises at the Mar. 13 meeting as HURA board continues to slowly move forward with district expansion plans
Summary
Joy Richards attended her first meeting, Calvin Freitas gave a public comment asking HURA to help with traffic problems, and the board discussed topics including district expansion and a community center.
Read on for these and more action items and new business topics. You can also download the Mar. 13 meeting packet (via HURA website).
New board member Joy Richards at first meeting
HURA’s Mar. 13, 2023 meeting included the introduction of Joy Richards as a new board member. She gave an introduction about herself to the board. She’s lived in Hayden since the early 1980s. Richards has been a teacher, and she has an MBA and law degree. She has been an NIC trustee.
Public Comment
Calvin Freitas of Hayden gave a public comment encouraging the Hayden Urban Renewal Agency to use its present financial resources and additional funding during the existence of the district to help address Hayden’s traffic problems — a frequent public complaint — by contributing to road projects.
Consent Calendar
The consent calendar was approved.
HURA District Expansion
From the previous meeting, HURA Executive Director Melissa Cleveland made updates to the proposed district expansion area to remove some areas and add others. She pointed out that the board could not add all the areas that they would like based on limits to how much the district can expand over its current 720 acre size. The district can expand at most by 10%, or roughly 72 acres.
From the discussion, it was noted that HURA money can be used to buy real estate including potential park property (HURA attorney Pete Bredeson responded to this question from Matt Roetter). This is relevant to a proposed property purchase in the area of Miles/Maple that HURA board members have shown interest in acquiring based on the property-owner’s stated interest in selling it to them (discussed in HURA meetings at various times over the last six months).
Regarding Hayden Urban Renewal District expansion, Cleveland pointed out that “Council is the ones that have to do it.”
In terms of city council support, Matt Roetter has made his views known in this and previous HURA meetings.
“I’m not interested in adding a new district,” said Roetter. He did show support for expanding the current district. “Include intersections that need to be upgraded either with a signal or with a roundabout… That’s my number one goal is upgrading the roads.”
Other HURA board members shared their views. Michael Thayer showed support for expansion: “We should focus on expansion and not get sidetracked on any new district…”
Steve Meyer continues to look for a district to exist along W. Hayden Ave. He indicated that six years isn’t enough time to pay for street improvements on W. Hayden Ave, and that the board should do that as a new district later.
The discussion turned to next steps. Cleveland, as HURA executive director, plans to set up a workshop with Hayden City Council in the near future to address two items.
Hayden Urban Renewal District expansion
Proposed projects for HURA / City of Hayden collaboration
Community Center
In the discussion regarding the Community Center action item, Michael Thayer said, “We’re in a holding pattern…” pending city council input. The HURA board plans to get input from citizen survey that the City of Hayden will be running in the near future.
Potential timeline (via Brett Boyer in the meeting):
HCC 3/22 meeting - council should receive final draft
HCC 3/28 discuss final draft
HCC 4/14 hopefully approve
3 to 4 weeks for citizens to fill it out and give their input
Potentially 2+ weeks to compile results and report back to city council
Cleveland met with the Hayden Senior Center and they indicated they could use 8,500 sq. ft. of space if the senior center becomes part of the community center project.
HURA insurance - ICRMP
One item (excavator) was removed from HURA’s ICRMP policy and a few small pieces of land and art installations are in the process of being added to the policy.
Draft 2022 Annual Report
The HURA 2022 Annual Report draft was reviewed and approved.
The financial reporting and annual reporting can follow fiscal year rather than calendar. HURA is switching to fiscal year reporting to better align with the budgeting process.
Annual report approved. Rotter motion, Richards second, unanimous approval in a roll-call vote.
HURA Projects plan
Richards, Thayer, and Meyer indicated that they want to “leave a legacy” for the City of Hayden and do more than just roads.
The project plan was discussed as an additional topic for the future workshop with Hayden City Council.
Video recording and/or live-streaming
Matt Roetter proposed recording HURA meetings. The board discussed potential options for the services and asked Cleveland to get prices from one or two vendors. Potential costs could be $200 to $300 per meeting ($3,600/year). No formal RFP is required (costs would be well under $50,000).
Executive session for real estate
The board went into executive session to discuss a potential real estate purchase.
Based on previous HURA real estate discussions (unwisely held outside of executive session) and information in the draft 2022 annual report, this is most likely related to either 1. Owl Café property (which HURA has been hoping to purchase for a while as part of a potential space for community center); or, 2) the potential park land at Maple/Miles (less likely because this is not in current HURA district).
Note though that both of these are unconfirmed as executive sessions are private to the HURA board, the public is not allowed in, and this information is available via records requests.