HURA elects new officers and discusses district expansion
HURA 1/9/2023 meeting summary and notes
The Hayden Urban Renewal Agency’s first meeting of 2023 happened on Monday, January 9 at 3pm at City Hall.
New officers elected
Because it was the first meeting since the resignation of Chairman John Young from the HURA board, HURA elected new officers.
Chair - Ronda Mitchell
Vice Chair - Randy McIntire
Treasurer - Steve Meyer
Secretary - Colin Meehan
HURA district expansion
Melissa Cleveland was introduced as the new Executive Director via the Welch Comer services contract.
As part of Continuing Business for the meeting, the board had more discussion of Urban Renewal District expansion. Expansion options include:
West on Hayden Ave.
North of Lancaster
South of Lancaster to the West of Ramsey
Urban renewal district expansion cannot increase the size or value of the district by more than 10%. Melissa Cleveland and Welch Comer will be collecting GIS data, boundary information, and valuation information to create scenarios for HURA board to consider at upcoming meetings. This is not a “feasibility study” but a “preamble” to it.
HURA board members seem wary of attempting to create a new urban renewal district due to potential pushback from citizens and city council. They seemed to be aware of the citizens in the room recording video (it will be posted soon) and sharing information about recent HURA meetings on sites such as this and social media.
Website update discussion
There was a brief discussion with Melissa Cleveland discussing improvements to HURA’s website. Things that she and the board intend to change on the website:
Include 2 to 3 years of minutes.
Include annual report.
Include audits.
FAQs - to educate the public (Ed DePriest gave a public comment about need for additional public education on HURA functions)
Potentially a video or report on how urban renewal agency’s work
The HURA board intends to use this as an educational tool so citizens can better understand the role and purpose of what HURA is doing and how it works. (Opinion: and so that citizens will be supportive of what HURA is doing.)
Community Center
HURA board continues to push forward on community center plans. Hayden City Council has a potential citizen survey (on the agenda for their 1/10 meeting) that will ask questions about a community center. HURA board discussed various scenarios for how this could move forward. Melissa Cleveland asked how she can help drive it forward.
With the HURA district closing at the end of 2029, HURA has a limited timeframe to participate in funding and creating a community center. It’s now 2023 - so there are less than 7 years left of the current urban renewal district.
Executive Session
Steve Meyer motioned to enter executive session for discussion of a potential real estate purchase.
In previous HURA meetings, the HURA board (including Steve Meyer) has discussed the the Owl Café property as part of the normal course of the meeting. This property may or may not be related to this executive session.