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Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday, March 23, 2015 <br /> Page 17 <br /> be preferred (e.g. office, daycare, medical, townhomes, luxury apartments; coop- <br /> erative apartments, etc.). <br /> Further discussion included preferred uses from the survey for each subarea based <br /> on community feedback; and how best to define the survey results for uses ac- <br /> ceptable and those not acceptable. <br /> Brownfields Consultant <br /> Councilmember Etten questioned if hiring someone to facilitate public/private <br /> joint work to clean up the area (e.g. grant awards) could or would address the <br /> City's long term goals. <br /> Mr. Bilotta responded that the City's goal should be to identify what contaminants <br /> are actually out there, allowing strategies to be developed to move forward and <br /> subsequently address liability issues with and for existing land owners. Mr. Bilot- <br /> ta noted that there were grant opportunities available if the land goes into different <br /> ownership, while recognizing the liability; and advised that there were also other <br /> joint options (e.g. ground leases). Mr. Bilotta advised that a consultant would be <br /> able to better position the City and/or property owners to get in the brownfield <br /> grant cycle more effectively. <br /> Councilmember Etten asked for a timeframe to receive a consultant's report and <br /> what further work they would address; and asked for identification of resources to <br /> pay for the consultant, anticipated that would be through applicable tax increment <br /> financing(TIF). <br /> Mr. Bilotta responded that staff could prepare a request for proposals (RFP) fairly <br /> quickly to seek a brownfields consultant, anticipating they could be on board mid- <br /> summer to preliminarily identify contaminants and their extent, and suggest nec- <br /> essary action steps. Subsequently, Mr. Bilotta anticipated further defining those <br /> action steps during the fall at a cost he estimated at $10,000 prior to preparation of <br /> Phase I and Phase II reports, which would then come back before the City Coun- <br /> cil for their approval of any further actions. <br /> Councilmember McGehee thanked staff for the detailed report, and noted the ref- <br /> erence in the RCA where staff had identified that the City has had funds available <br /> to hire this consultant, but had not done so to-date or used any other resources to <br /> address this problem, nor had anything been planned for the immediate future be- <br /> fore this discussion. Councilmember McGehee further quoted the report advising <br /> that funds from other agencies were available for clean-up purposes, but often re- <br /> quired significant lead time for grant the application process. Councilmember <br /> McGehee opined that the lack of a strategic action plan was an accurate picture of <br /> the history of this development; that the capability was there but the City had nev- <br /> er stepped up to the plate. Councilmember McGehee further opined that the ques- <br />