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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, January 29, 2018 Page 21 Councilmember Etten commented this will solve several short-and long-term needs for the City. Owning the Center will save the City over $100,000 a year in rent for the License Center. The Council has looked at significant investments in the License Center to make it a better experience and more successful enterprise. He agreed one of the biggest reasons is that it is contiguous land to the current City spaces. This could also allow for the possibility of a Community Center. He noted the City is hiring Gaughan Company to continue to manage the property. The City will be able to start paying off this bond without raising taxes for the res- idents, which is a tremendous opportunity for the City. Councilmember McGehee asked with what money the bond will be paid off. Councilmember Etten noted the rent savings of$107,000 per year, as well as the revenue from the other tenants in the building. Councilmember McGehee noted the other tenants can stay only as long as the City does not use the space. It is one issue to talk about expanding the License Center,but it is another.to continue to have tenants when there will be.other space needs in the future. She noted this will be taken off the City's tax rolls. The fi- nancial piece of this is important to consider. She also noted that in the same ar- ea, adjacent to the City Hall, there is a major park and Skating Center which holds 3.9 acres and this parcel is only 2.55 acres. The parcel that is owned by VFW is 1.91 acres, and it pays significant less in taxes to the City, and it would be a sig- nificantly lower cost. She conceded that is not ideal for the License Center, but there were many pieces of this not discussed, including other locations and other space needs and re-utilizing other spaces the City has that are not currently uti- lized. Until that is understood, she cannot support this. She felt the process has not been satisfactory. Councilmember Laliberte agreed about the Council discussion about long-term space needs. She noted the Council has continually talked about space needs in compartmentalized ways. A better process would be to have a planning and pub- lic process to discuss the City's needs in total, in the way the City plans parks and other big projects in the City. The Council has failed to bring it all together in one big picture discussion. She also expressed concern about the different numbers the City has seen over time at the License Center. Also, renovation will have to hap- pen, and that has not been decided. In the long-term, she noted it is a good piece of property, but the timeframe for purchasing is not now. She commented that how the City has gotten to this place at this price has been choppy at best. Councilmember Etten stated the timing comes from the City's planned invest- ments at the License Center. Though the price point is not agreed upon, we know it will be happening. Purchasing this location allows the City to halt $107,000 go- ing out the door and there are also two empty tenant spaces that the City can use right now, or they can be rented out to receive revenue from them. That is a fu-