The excitement caused by the chicken ordinance way overshadowed the other items on the agenda of both the special Common Council meeting and the Public Services & Safety Committee meeting.
I have to acknowledge a correction to an assumption or two I made. The special Council meeting dealt, in part, with the revised parking lease with Alta Resources. It was true, as the City Attorney admitted, that he and his staff had overlooked the clause in the contract that required approval by Alta before any other business was given a shot at renting a block of parking spaces. But I was mistaken in saying that Alta asked for and received additional concessions. City Attorney Godlewski very specifically stated that Alta Resources has been a fabulous corporate citizen and very cooperative in the parking lot negotiations with Plexus. He even pointed out that though Alta has about 700+ employees, they're getting by with only 500 stalls rented in the parking ramp; some of the stalls are filled in shifts, kind of like bunks on a submarine.
I had speculated that changing the lease term from 20 years to "in perpetuity" meant that Alta's preferred monthly parking stall rental rate of $5 would be extended perpetually, too. Not so, according to Godlewski. The city can and will re-negotiate the rate at the end of the original 20-year lease period.
Once the ramp in question -- the Church St. ramp -- has its remaining parking stalls rented out to Plexus, the city will virtually be at a break-even point on ramp maintenance. That, according to Community Development Director, Bob Buckingham, was the goal all along with that ramp. The development of the downtown has gone so well that the city's investment in that ramp can just about be covered by parking fees, thereby relieving the property tax payers.
After approving the revised parking lease agreement, the Council heard explanations of a couple snags in the acquisition of property from K-C. Nothing major, but big enough to require the Council to be kept apprised in a more formal way; that is, publicly at a Council meeting, rather than by memo only.