Infrastructure projects dominate mandatory to-do list vs. much
longer, optional list.
Councilmembers will rise early Saturday morning and spend the day prioritizing a laundry list of city projects.
From lighting on the Christmas Hill Park levee to shifting the city’s election cycle to even years, the BMX dirt bike park to revamping the way developers receive housing credits, the council will consider a variety of discretionary projects. Some are nearly complete, others are still ideas on paper, but anything can be moved around or nixed, except the so-called “mandatory project list.”
The mandatory list consists of projects required by state and local laws, according to City Clerk Shawna Freels. One of her required endeavors throughout 2008 will be to purge her office’s records system. The Community Development Department has the longest list of mandated projects, mostly traffic and utility related, that stem from various master plan requirements and other local ordinances.
At the semi-annual policy summit last January, the council identified an array of issues and specific projects to tackle in the near future. Since then, city staff have addressed the body’s requests to various degrees. Saturday morning they will update councilmembers. Last month staff informed the council that the city coffers dedicated to new roads, other infrastructure and new public buildings were coming up short due to the down housing market. To varying degrees, councilmembers have said this economic crunch will affect how the elected group prioritizes the city’s long list of to-dos.
