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City Council Minutes Page 2 August 8, 2011 4. Open Mike • No one appeared for open mike. 5.1. Ice Arena Update Mr. Czech presented the staff report. Ice Arena Commissioner Dale Martin was also available to answer questions. Mr. Czech updated the council on the status of the renovation project. He stated the Ice Arena Commissioners and himself have approached the arena user groups and have requested them to provide a written financial commitment outlining their long-term financial support in the arena. He stated summertime is a tough time to reach these groups and as a result, he's only received one written commitment. He will continue to request this from the user groups but to recognize the groups are taking time to ensure they are able to honor the financial commitment needed to help support the arena and any renovations. After discussions with the school district's financial officer, it was determined the school board ultimately has the authority to authorize financial support to the arena. Mr. Czech felt a joint meeting with the school board and city council would be beneficial in order to discuss the future of the arena and the school district's financial role. Mayor Dietz stated he would like to schedule a joint meeting this fall with the school district. 5.2. 1715E Avenue Area Draft AUAR Mr. Femrite presented the staff report. • He introduced Andi Moffatt from WSB & Associates, who briefly highlighted the three scenarios in the working draft as outlined in the AUAR. She discussed the next steps of adopting the AUAR and working with staff to finalize the AUAR which would then be on the August 15 consent agenda for approval of the final draft. After approval, the report would be opened up fora 30 day comment period for input from state agencies and the public. A public open house would be held on August 29 for residents and land owners in the area. After these comments are received, WSB responds to these comments and the AUAR is revised. After the revisions are made, it will then go out for a second comment period of 10 days and provided there are no official objections from any state agencies, the AUAR and mitigation plan would be adopted by council, most likely occurring sometime in November. She, along with Ed Youngquist and Chuck Rickert, also from WSB & Associates, continued by highlighting major environmental issues in the surrounding area, such as traffic, air and noise, habitat and threatened species in the area, storm water management, water use, and erosion and sedimentation. In the mitigation measures regarding the recreational infrastructure, Mr. Barnhart requested council to begin think about how the council will want to handle the park dedication requirements and other financial incentives and how this would be applied to this area. He stated based on the marketing study, a big part of bringing development to this area would be incentives, such as free land, reduced rate, creative financing or discounts on utility fees, and wanted the council to think about how they would address these incentives in the future. •