The Common Council of the City of West Lafayette, Indiana met in the Board of Works Room at City Hall on June 1, 2000 at the hour of 4:30 p.m.

Council Windler, who presided, called the meeting to order.

PRESENT: Keen Mills O'Callaghan Satterly Sparby Windler

Cohen arrived at 4:35 p.m.

ABSENT: Mayor Margerum

Also present were City Attorney Bauman, City Engineer Snyder, Director Andrew, Police Chief Marvin, and Fire Chief Ford.

Ordinance No. 11-00 An Additional Appropriation (Mayor, Kalberer Road Improvement Fund) (Prepared by the Clerk-Treasurer)

Councilor Windler said Ordinance No. 11-00 is an additional appropriation from the Mayor and for the Kalberer Road Improvement project as prepared by the Clerk-Treasurer's office. Is Josh [Development Director Andrew] here? Do we have anybody from Development?

Councilor Sparby said this is old business.

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes said this is old business and the Kalberer Road Improvement Fund is really established in support of the Engineering Department, who has presented agreements for payments in lieu of improvements to Kalberer Road to the Board of Works.

There was no discussion.

Ordinance No. 13-00 An Ordinance to Amend the West Lafayette City Code on Wastewater Treatment (Prepared by the City Attorney)

There was no discussion.

Ordinance No. 15-00 An Ordinance to Vacate Utility Easement (DeSilva) (Prepared by Paul J. Couts, C&S Engineering)

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes said I believe we have Mr. Couts here and the petitioner.

Mr. Couts said Dr. DeSilva is here if you would like to hear from her as far as what she'd like to do and why.

Councilor Windler said this is the one with the pool that is built into the easement.

Shari DeSilva said I moved to West Lafayette in September. The day after I sold my house in Maryland and two days before I closed on the house on Pawnee, I found that the pool touched a utility easement. I decided we would go ahead and buy the house anyway and get a variance and asked that it be vacated. We've gotten letters from the various utility companies agreeing to vacate the easement. The pool has been there over a decade, about 15 years. I would simply like to legalize an existing situation.

Councilor Keen said have you had any complaints or concerns from any of your neighbors on the pool at all?

Dr. DeSilva said no.

There was no discussion.

Ordinance No. 14-00 An Ordinance to Annex Certain Lands into the City of West Lafayette (McAlister) (Prepared by the City Attorney)

City Attorney Bauman said that ordinance has been submitted and the petition will be in by Monday night's meeting. It is a voluntary annexation.

Dan Teder (Reiling, Teder, & Schrier Law Firm) said I'd be glad to make a presentation, if you'd like. Alan White is also here this evening. He's part of the development group. He can answer some questions if you'd have those. I brought along an aerial photograph which I think will help you. This is Lindberg. Obviously, this is McCormick Road. We have some rezonings in here, too, and I'll discuss those to explain how we are getting to annexation. This is the McAlister property here. This is the Bogan property here. This is the Simmons property here. The McAlister property and the Simmons property are coming up before the County Commissioners for a rezone from R1 to R3. The Bogan property is coming up before the Area Plan Commission for rezone from R1 to R3. The annexation property includes the PSI substation, a little sliver of land between our property and PSI which is owned by the church, and then all of this property that we have in the rezone portion. Concerns were made at the Area Plan Commission. I would at least like to talk about those briefly. One of the concerns was the safety issue that we have because Lindberg Road is going to be improved in the future. I guess my comment to you would be that this is really no different than what we are obviously doing down at the Levee. We have a lot of safety issues down there, and yet, there is development going on. We believe this is something that is reasonable for this area, especially when our access is going to be off of McCormick. We believe that most of the traffic will then come to the four-way stop and continue on down McCormick to the university or they're going to continue, probably, in a northerly direction out here to that new development that's going on because there will be some neighborhood business out in that place. We don't believe, even once Lindberg is improved, obviously there will traffic on there, unless we have a lot of golfers in this area, we are not going to have the traffic going down Lindberg as we would the other way, in my opinion. That's one concern. The other concern was how that impacts some of the single family homes over here. Again, I don't believe it does. What's going to impact them is the Mike King development which is in this area here that's going to be in the County and it's going to be a least 200 units in that area. I don't think our units will impact them. We have units here, which are apartment units. Again, they are all kind of gathered in this area. I think that really is important. There's both pros and cons for that. It's the Area Plan and we talked about it at those meetings. I think what it's doing is taking some of the apartment people out of the other areas, some of the single family areas, and concentrating them more in areas of this nature, which I think is good for everyone. Additionally, we have promoted or discussed with Area Plan that this is really not an R1 development area. We have the power lines here, we have the PSI substation. This is really a sliver piece. To suggest that we are going to have single family units in there, we did a drawing that we would present to Area Plan and the Commissioners later on, to show that there is only between and 14 and 16 homes that could potentially be built in there. All of them would be backing to the power lines. The discovery that I've looked at with some of the realtors would say that if you are backed up to the power lines the potential of resale is difficult and is extended a little bit. So we think in that regard that that's another good reason for it. I would be happy to answer any questions. Like I said, Alan's here, he would be happy to answer any questions. I'm giving you the background on a rezoning that is not really part of the annexation. It's to let you know what the status of what that is, also.

Councilor Sparby said how many units are we looking at?

Mr. Teder said 195 or 6. That brings up a good point. If we were in the County, we would have more units. We come into the City. The City standards would not allow as many units. We discussed that with City Hall a little bit and that, we thought, was favorable. Additionally, there was discussion that the density is greater here than it is here. Obviously, we don't have a ten or fifteen acre pond, if you include all of that which is part of their development. Our density is no different than what they have down here at Blackbird Farms. In fact, I think our density is less.

Councilor Sparby said why are you seeking annexation if by coming into the City you have fewer units?

Mr. Teder said well, because we are wanting the police and the fire protection. We think it's important for our development, and the sewers. There is American Suburban out there. We are all aware of that. American Suburban is taking all the other areas around it. Everybody says well how can we have all the developments today, and I'm sure you think that and you see that in the paper and you ask those questions. My opinion, at least out in this area of town, downtown is a different story, I'll let Mike talk about that, but out here there has been no sewer. So when there's no sewer, that means there's no development. All of sudden now we've got sewer, we've got the expansion of the sewer. All those people that were going to build before are coming along online now. Everybody's saying well it's all at once. Well, it's really just been backed up. We are picking up what should have been done the last year, two years, three years, four or five years ago. So, I don't think it is that unusual because that sewer is in or coming in sometime in May or June.

Councilor Sparby said Bob [Bauman], if we annex that, will that go into the Blackbird TIF Fund?

City Attorney Bauman said no, the annexation doesn't put it into that district by itself.

Councilor Sparby said that would take Council action to put it in the TIF district?

City Attorney Bauman said I don't know that we are expecting any proposal to do that.

Councilor Windler said are you going to develop that southern segment there? Is that going to be apartments, as well? Or is that going to go to retail?

Mr. Teder said well, no. That's being rezoned from R1 to R3. It was needed to get the annexation one-eighth area contiguous, but the thought of the Area Plan is to that this is better off as R3. It's better surrounded by R3 than letting it sit there and nothing being done at this point and seeing it be NB or something else down the road, which is not what they want.

Alan White, the developer, said a gentleman named Mr. Simmons owns the property. He's lived there for forty years. He see things coming his way and asked to participate in it if he would come into the City.

Mr. Teder said but it's all R3, which is apartments just like the surrounding. It would not be NB, which would be neighborhood business. It could have a gas station or something of that nature.

Councilor Cohen said a lot of the builders are doing Purdue's work for them lately. What kind of housing are you going to be looking at?

Mr. White said we are looking at the student market. I think the location is indicative to being a student market where we're at. Again, McCormick Road into campus keeps the traffic focused that way. So, yes, I think we are targeting the student market.

Mr. Teder said Arni [Councilor Cohen], if I could comment. We checked the mix in Blackbird and there is, I don't have it exactly, but it's more like a 60/40 mix student and other residents. I think that same mix is going to occur here, and perhaps, would even occur down in King's. I don't think any of these are going to be all students and the outlying areas aren't all students. I think the only place we have that is south of State. Everything else has some mixture to it. That mixture changes, probably, the farther out that you get, in my opinion. Now I thought Happy Hollow with Knob Hill and Whispering Winds, there may be five percent that's students. It's just graduate students, young married people, working people, things of that nature. I don't think that would be the case here, but I thinks it's going to more like a 60/40 mix.

Councilor Keen said do you have any kind of a conceptual drawing of what you are anticipating put in there?

Mr. Teder said we are working on that. You don't have that quite done yet [referring to Mr. White].

Mr. White said it will be ready tomorrow. Is that too late to come back?

Councilor Sparby said bring it Monday night.

Mr. Teder said we can bring it to you Monday evening. In that regard, I just want to say, I'm here tonight to answer a lot of questions because I'm, unfortunately, going to be out-of-town on Monday night. Alan [White] will be here and someone else from our office would come. But don't hold that against us, please.

Councilor Satterly said your access will be off of McCormick and off of Lindberg?

Mr. Teder said no, the only access that we see, and obviously it is always subject to the subdivision process with Area Plan, but I've talked to the County Engineer's office and I've talked to Area Plan and everybody believes that this is the best entrance to have because we've got sight distance both ways. We are far enough away from the four-way stop that it allows access, with some safety to it, versus if we have it down here we are too close to the intersection and therefore less safety.

Councilor Satterly said and you don't plan Lindberg?

Mr. Teder said we have no plans to do that. Obviously, the County Engineer could force us to do that. But at this point, we do not want that.

Councilor Satterly said how can the County Engineer force you if you are annexed in to the City?

Mr. Teder said excuse me, the City Engineer.

Councilor Satterly said Jan [Councilor Mills], Area Plan Commission sent it on to the Commissioners with no recommendation?

Councilor Mills said no recommendation.

Councilor Satterly said what were the Area Plan Commissions reservations?

Councilor Mills said I can't really speak for everybody that voted no.

Mr. White said we can say what the staff report said. They are still referring to the 1980 Land Use Plan.

Mr. Teder said to answer your question, the vote the first time, we came up twice with Area Plan, the first time was 5 YES to 7 NO. The second time was 7 YES to 5 NO. As a result, you need eight votes down there to move it on. We were not able to do that, so it automatically moves on then to the County Commissioners and will be heard sometime in June before the County Commissioners. The comments from staff were that probably this is an area to do that, their concern was that it was pretty mature and I guess we felt like it was . . .

Councilor Satterly said mature to what?

Mr. White said they had some concerns about the utilities. And what's changed in that time frame is we not only have available West Lafayette City sewer if we were annexed, but we also, right through the center of our property, is an easement for American Suburban that's serving Mike King's project. So we now have two sources of sewers.

Mr. Teder said and I think your concern was the safety issue.

Councilor Mills said well, my concern was more density actually than safety.

City Attorney Bauman said one of the things that we did discuss, when they came in to talk about the possibility of being annexed, was would they be willing to abide by the density restrictions of R3W and they agreed that they would, which will reduce the density.

Councilor Mills said and not with their property, I should clarify that. That's not my concern. I think theirs looks very good. But my concern was the density in that square mile there because Mike King is putting in 365 apartments. And he has another 20 acres between the two.

Mr. Teder said this aerial photograph was taken before King was developing. His development is here. The additional land that he owns up here. This is something that's going to go to American Suburban. I guess my feeling is that I partially agree with you, is that it does impact, this would have some impact on there and those people will more than likely go to Lindberg. I think that our impact here is more with the apartments over here and the likelihood is that we are going to go this way. There is going to be some that way, but I think we are going to see some of that plus we are not impacting, in my opinion, the single family over here. There is very little impact. The impact that we are having is with the remaining apartments that are over here and what might transpire. Now the reason this hasn't been built, in my opinion, is that no one knows where the new S. R. 231 is going to go.

Councilor Mills said that is another concern I had.

Mr. Teder said one of the proposals is that it could come over here. This land, in my opinion, will never be developed until that is decided. There has been a number of developers that looked at it. No one wants to take that shot until they see how that configuration is going to work out. So it would seem to me that is a likelihood that this is an area that will end up being a multifamily-type of area. Again, I think we have real negative things for single-family homes in that area. I agree it causes more density, but it does have a positive that it takes it away from somewhere else and puts it here.

Councilor Mills said I have a hard time complaining about that because my district is so hard hit.

Mr. Teder said it is not a perfect world out there. I can't give that, but I think it is, all things considered, this is one of the best alternatives for this area in here. I think it's very favorable to West Lafayette and what it does for you people if we come into the City. It not only helps us, but it greatly helps you, as well.

Councilor Mills said I think it is favorable to the City in that regard too, but again, with all of those people coming out on those two roads, that's my concern I think.

City Attorney Bauman said I think, in fairness to this developer, they did volunteer to reduce the density to what we would require. We have on several occasions had discussions with that other developer out there and he had steadfastly insisted on developing to a higher density than would be allowed in the City. I think we should be careful that we don't punish other people for what the other guy is doing.

Councilor Mills said I agree and I have to say that I have very mixed feelings when I voted on Area Plan. For most of the time I was convinced I was going to vote in favor. I feel like my position there is representing a bigger group than my position here on the Council. So I had to go with my conscience for the Area Plan. It's not that I'm against your development, because I'm really not. I'm more concerned about, I guess, just over developing any one area.

Mr. Teder said I guess the only other comment I would add, and I think representing developers and real estate people most of my life, what I've seen with Lafayette or West Lafayette especially, is either we are overdeveloped for apartments or we're underdeveloped. What's happened in the last five to seven years is we've been way underdeveloped. So what occurs, these people, like the ones out on S.R. 52, they get their sheets and they look at West Lafayette one percent vacancy rate. They say go find us a place in West Lafayette and build. Then what happens? We get overbuilt by five or ten percent. And that's what occurring. Once that occurs, then the occupancy rate changes and then those people go look somewhere else. That happened back about ten to fifteen years ago. We had a number of buildings and everybody said, "Oh, we had too much." Well then there was no building again for multi-families, because it had to catch up. I think that's the world we live in. It is not where we say, "Well, we have no place for these students that are living in tents. Now we need to build." That doesn't happen.

Councilor Mills said certainly Purdue isn't picking up the slack. So it has to be done.

Councilor O'Callaghan said if this development was not annexed into the City, would it increase the density to the standard that the County would allow?

Mr. White said yes, we could. We could add another three to four units per acre, provided that the zoning goes through. We have a letter from American Suburban that says we can, they have capacity for us. It would change the density about three to four units an acre.

Mr. Teder said American Suburban definitely wants us. That's not the question.

Councilor Windler said how many beds per unit are you going to have?

Mr. White said it'll be a mix between mostly two to threes. Probably a couple fours in each building on the end caps and that's about it. But mostly twos to threes.

Mr. Teder said I don't think it's Alan's [White] intent. The other developers are Mike O'Malley and Shane O'Malley, and they do own some student apartments. They own a lot of other things, too, but I think they are looking at a mix. This is not, in my opinion, going to be South State Street at all. You've got businesses out here. You've got a number of very large businesses. I think you are going to see that mix just like you've seen over here. We are going to build, I don't know if it's going to look the same as what Blackbird is, but I think it's going to be the same quality and the same type of look, which is I think a nice look that they have down there. They are well taken care of. I think the same thing would occur here. So you are going to have some mix in there. To say it's going to be all students and Harry's Three is coming over here, that's not going to happen. It's going to have that mixture to it.

Councilor Keen said do you have any estimate on the amount of assessed value this will have?

Mr. Teder said I guess I have not looked at that. Bob [City Attorney Bauman], have you?

City Attorney Bauman said I have, but not recently. I would assume it would be similar, for example, per unit assess values to Blackbird.

Mr. Teder said what are you estimating the cost is to build those units Alan [White]? Do you have a price in mind?

Mr. White said probably in the $40,000 to $50,000 a unit range I would guess.

City Attorney Bauman said the really rough rule of thumb is the assessed value would be about a sixth. I say that's real rough.

Councilor Sparby said so you are looking at probably 500 to 700 people in those apartments. Somewhere around there.

Mr. Teder said I would say that is probably reasonable.

Councilor Sparby said I guess the question I have is for Chief Ford and Chief Marvin. Do you have any concerns with this because if we are looking at your departments being responsible for this and you are going to have to access it off McCormick, as opposed to Lindberg.

Fire Chief Ford said with the growth to the west, the request for annexation, will become an expense eventually. It will require the third fire station, more firefighters and equipment. However, that development there is not much further north than the Blackbird Farms is to the south. So I think we are within the range there. We talked to other fire departments. Whenever Lindberg starts their reconstruction process, we are going strike a deal with them for a quick response to that area. So at the same time, we can make arrangements on that.

Councilor Sparby said who is responsible for road maintenance on McCormick, that section, as far as snow removal and all that?

Mr. Teder said I think McCormick out here would be the County, wouldn't it?

Councilor Sparby said so the County has to have it cleared so that our fire and police can get out there.

City Attorney Bauman said no, if that's annexed, then that would come in to the City.

Councilor Sparby said the City would have to.

City Engineer Snyder said only half of it.

Mr. Teder said half width improvement and half width of road. I think density, we are probably talking more like 400 to 600, in that range, because there's going to be some two bedrooms in there too, would be my estimate.

City Attorney Bauman said again, we are already maintaining various other roads out there, Lindberg and all the roads in Blackbird Farm.

Councilor Sparby said would not it be advantageous for us to put this off until all the rezoning questions and the APC is all done with this?

Councilor Mills said we're done.

Councilor Sparby said you are completely done with it?

Councilor Mills indicated yes.

City Attorney Bauman said this is first reading, that will be done before this will become final.

Mr. Teder said we've got this through APC, which is McAlister. We've got Simmons through APC. Bogans will not occur until next month. These two then will come through the County Commissioners on the 19th.

City Attorney Bauman said the requirement for hearing though, they'll be done long before we get to the hearing.

Mr. Teder said I guess we thought with the nine-month process to get through annexation, now is a good time to start on that. So that's why we are before you.

Councilor Mills said the Simmons property, the small property, that passed Area Plan unanimously.

Mr. Teder said that was 12-0.

Councilor Sparby said did you have any concerns Dan [Police Chief Marvin]?

Police Chief Marvin said no. As Chief Ford alluded to, as we do continue to grow out in that area, it is going to place additional demands of both of our departments for additional personnel. But it's very close to Blackbird Farms. It's not that much further for us to respond.

Councilor Windler said OK. Unless there's anymore questions, let's move on.

Mr. Teder said thank you very much.

Ordinance No. 16-00 An Ordinance Amending Chapter 3 of Ordinance No. 32-97 being the Unified Zoning Ordinance of Tippecanoe County (Submitted by the Area Plan Commission)

Councilor Mills said these are coming up, kind of continuously before the Area Plan Commission. Now that NUZO has been in effect for a reasonable amount of time, they're finding that the language in certain ordinances need some changes. Just for clarification or to prevent something that's occurred that they didn't expect. That's what this is actually. A business had come before the Area Plan asking to be able to change tires where they sold them. Under the way they were zoned currently that wasn't possible. So rather than, they actually had come to ask for a rezone, and rather than that, they decided they should go back and look at the wording and make it clear. This passed Area Plan, 11-1. I'm sure we will see more of these. Just clarification to footnotes and definitions.

Councilor Windler said there is a staff report on the last page that may answer some questions, if you have any.

There was no discussion.

Ordinance No. 17-00 An Ordinance to Enact a New West Lafayette City Code Chapter 83, Establishing Requirements for Licensing of Peddlers (Prepared by the City Attorney)

Councilor Windler said this also includes transient merchants.

Chief Marvin said this is an effort to update the ordinance and actually make it more enforceable for us and put some teeth into it for peddlers and people who come into to town and don't want to follow the rules. It gives us a method to deal with those individuals.

Councilor Windler said I would like to point out an incident that happened last fall with a peddler that had attacked a Purdue student at the very beginning of the semester. It was difficult in that investigation to find out who the peddler was because they did not know because they did not register with the City. It was difficult. I believe it was kind of by a fluke that we found out who was going around door to door. Didn't they knock on a detective's door, actually?

Chief Marvin said no, our investigators were able to find information out. They did a really good job with that case.

Councilor Windler said that case was resolved successfully. But, like the Chief says, this will put some teeth into the solicitation-type ordinances and maybe just help the police in the future with those kind of cases or prevent them outright. The gentleman in question that was convicted was wanted in Georgia for some very serious charges. I believe it was sexual battery and child molestation.

Councilor Sparby said I believe that the City Attorney and I met late last summer, we talked about drawing up such an ordinance after a question had come up repeatedly about a food vendor who was erecting a tent on Sagamore Parkway right next to a structure that was operated by a tax paying business. It would be just like somebody putting a tent in your parking lot [refer to Councilor Cohen]. They are not contributing to the tax base at all to the City. The property owner next door to the restaurant gave them permission to throw this tent up and sell food. The restaurant was extremely unhappy about it. Besides that, it was very unsightly to be up there. I think now this puts us in compliance with the change through the Health Department because our ordinance was not. Part of our existing ordinance was not even valid anymore because of changes the County had made to the Health Department.

City Attorney Bauman said that could be. Many of our ordinances were adopted back when the City handled health regulations. That, of course, has been moved by the Legislature to the County.

Councilor Sparby said will this affect the corn the farmers come in and sell on the corner?

Chief Marvin said yes it will.

Councilor Cohen said oh heavens, that's good corn.

Councilor Sparby said I know it. A lot of people go over there, but just so we have an understanding that that will affect anyone that tries to set up a tent or a cart.

Councilor Keen said I think it would be a good idea for them to be licensed though, just as well as anyone else.

Councilor O'Callaghan said they can still do it, they will just have to pay a license fee.

Councilor Cohen said Dan [Chief Marvin] what are some of the examples of the teeth that are put in this? What are the differences? What other power would you have now?

Chief Marvin said before there was actually no mechanism for us to cite someone into Court if they did not come in and register with us. So now that language is actually in the ordinance so we can get them in the court system and do something with the individuals. Before it just said pretty much that you had to come in and do it. It does spell out what the penalty will be for each day that you are in violation of the ordinance if you do violate it. It places some time restrictions on when you can do these types of activities so that you are not out very late at night in residential neighborhoods. I just think it is really going to help us serve the community better in keeping track of these people and what they are doing in the City.

Councilor Sparby said so if I want to put a hot dog stand up on Sagamore Parkway, I have to come to the Police Department?

Chief Marvin said that will be correct.

Councilor Sparby said would you then check with the adjacent property owners to make sure they do not object to that happening?

Chief Marvin said that would be part of the application process. We are going to make sure that they have permission. If they are setting up a stand somewhere, where they are going to be set there and not traveling about, we are going to make sure that they have permission to be there. That they've checked it out and they know they are going to be allowed to set up in that parking lot or wherever it is they are going to be.

Councilor Sparby said but the adjacent property owners would not necessarily be aware of it or have a say?

City Attorney Bauman said they don't have power to veto it.

Councilor Cohen said how about festivals and things like that?

Councilor Sparby said like Global Fest.

Councilor Cohen said like Global Fest. I know this weekend there's a soccer tournament at the Purdue fields and also . . .

Councilor Sparby said but that's Purdue's property.

Councilor Cohen said but they are also having it out at Cumberland Park.

Chief Marvin said is this put on by the school or by the Parks Department?

Councilor Cohen said it is put on by . . .

Councilor O'Callaghan said TIPPCO.

Councilor Mills said a league, right?

Councilor Cohen said they are bringing in teams from all over.

City Attorney Bauman said that would be covered by the section in 83.13(a)(3).

Councilor Keen said I think another thing that might apply here too, if this is referring, as far as the application goes, it's referring to transient merchants, peddlers, and itinerate dealers. If you've got someone that's a part of the community, I don't know if we can consider that as being a transient peddler. Or am I interpreting this wrong?

City Attorney Bauman said I think that's correct. Again, that is defined on the first page.

Councilor Windler said something else of note. Under the exemptions, exemption (a)(7) is "any person who has grown the food that is offered for sale" is covered under the exemption. So that's your corn venders.

Councilor Cohen said well I guess that first part really, transient merchants.

Councilor Sparby said transient would apply to anybody that's not in the City. So if you were in Lafayette and you came over here, you'd be a transient.

Councilor Cohen said well, as a matter of fact, we will be coming over here, that's why I'm concerned. We're going to be catering both those locations.

Councilor Sparby but if it's for a charitable . . .

Councilor O'Callaghan said it says "in conjunction with" and you are doing it in conjunction with.

City Attorney Bauman said but also in (a)(2) if they are a permanent place of business in the County.

Councilor Sparby said so the one in particular that I was referring to from last summer would be exempt from this then.

City Attorney Bauman said might be.

Councilor Sparby said they can come over and pitch their tent again.

City Attorney Bauman said might be. They have a place of business in town. There are other issues that are involved in that, as well, such as zoning. The purpose of this basically is to regulate people who are in a position to sort of "hit and run" the community and be gone. To require licensure and to do background checks, photo IDs, and that sort of thing.

Councilor Keen said so if I wanted to do something under 83.13(a)(2), if I wanted to throw up a tent someplace, all I'd have to do is go into City Hall and say I plan on being here for three months and I'm exempt. Then I can move out in three weeks and say things didn't go well and so I decided to pack up my bags and leave.

Councilor Cohen said well you have to get the OK from the Health Department also.

Councilor Keen said well I understand that. But what I'm saying is with this 60 days, if they are going to be here for a continuous period of 60 days, what do we have that holds them to that 60 days? I mean I could come in and say well, I plan on being here for the next six months even, and then I could just say in two weeks well, my business didn't go and pack up and leave and never having registered, paid the fees, or anything.

Councilor Windler said well we can always, you know, there's a place of business. You can ask that type of merchant, well where's your place of business? Is it zoned properly? Is it a permanent structure? Are you renting? Are you, maybe something about having a lease agreement or property statement.

City Attorney Bauman said we'll look at that. What we've done is we've taken some different ideas from several communities.

Councilor Keen said I think it is a good beginning. I think it's something that's long overdue.

City Attorney Bauman said what we're trying to do is address some of these concerns.

Councilor Keen said you want to be able to regulate is what it amounts to.

City Attorney Bauman said yes.

Councilor Sparby said let me go back to my favorite cause, this tent. You are saying that's a zoning issue?

City Attorney Bauman said well, partly it may be. In the past, there are times, I believe, that they have had activities there that were zoning violations, for example.

Councilor Sparby said why was it never enforced then?

City Attorney Bauman said for example, there was some signage there that was far in excess of what was allowed.

Councilor Sparby said because I know I had called City Hall repeatedly about that and nothing was ever done about it. I know you [City Attorney Bauman ] and I had talked about it and I think Scott [City Engineer Snyder] and I had talked.

Councilor Windler said were they selling fireworks or what?

Councilor Sparby said no, they were selling barbecue. And they were right next door to Pizza Hut and Pizza Hut is a tax paying business in this City and I just thought it was awful that they're pitching a tent and they are pulling business away from Pizza Hut and they are not paying us a lick of taxes.

City Attorney Bauman said well, as we go through this, we can look at that and see where we draw the line.

Councilor Windler said there are two separate readings on this, so we can always amend it later.

Councilor Sparby said I just feel we need to protect our merchants that are established in our City.

City Attorney Bauman said yes, I think we've also had issues come up in terms of . . .

Councilor Keen said safety.

City Attorney Bauman said well, that, and also at times, I think, there have been concerns raised about people popping up on street corners selling supposedly licensed merchandise. There have been several areas that this problem has manifested itself.

Councilor O'Callaghan said so is the number 6 exemption, Barb [Councilor Sparby] that you think allows that? What was the reasoning behind having that number 6 exemption?

Councilor Mills said no, that's like a sidewalk sale or something, isn't it?

City Attorney Bauman said but, on the other hand, the whole regulation is of a transient merchant peddler which is defined. Some of these are good questions we ought to discuss so this can be tightened up. But, I think that we are trying to strike a balance between reasonable regulation and not just constructing red tape for legitimate business people.

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes said just one clarification. Do you anticipate the penalties and fines to be cited to City Court and paid through Court rather than having the Ordinance Violation Bureau because of that $100 limit on what we can accept.

City Attorney Bauman said I would just like to clarify we have not provided for any of this to go to the Ordinance Violation Bureau.

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes said it's all going to be cited to Court?

There was no further discussion.

Resolution No. 15-00 A Resolution Approving the Designation of an Economic Revitalization Area for Property Tax Abatement for Optolynx, Inc. (Prepared by the City Attorney)

Resolution No. 16-00 A Resolution Approving the Designation of an Economic Revitalization Area for Property Tax Abatement for SSCI, Inc. (Prepared by the City Attorney)

Councilor Windler said we've got two resolutions coming up here, number 15 and 16. These resolutions are about tax abatements for two companies that are up and coming here in the Purdue Research Park. The first one is Optolynx, Inc. and the second one is SSCI, Inc. I believe we have representatives of both corporations. This is Mike Brooks from Greater Lafayette Progress.

Mr. Brooks said if I can just take about two minutes. I know we are fast approaching the bewitching hour of what I suspect is the cap here to your pre-caucus. Each of these two companies have been, I see in your documents, through the Redevelopment Commission and has a recommendation from the Redevelopment Commission. I'm happy to be here tonight to tell you that is, I think, exactly the kind of development that West Lafayette in your strategic plan really wants to encourage. The competition for these businesses is pretty significant, as you might guess. Without going into a lot of detail, what I would like to do is offer to each of you if you have any questions between now and Monday about the tax abatement program, I'd be happy to meet with you Monday and visit with you and answer any questions you might have. We did do a workshop a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I don't think any of you able to make that. But I've got documents for you and information if you'd like to have it. To introduce the two companies, first of all we have Optolynx. Nancy Bulger is going to speak to the Optolynx story. This is one of the more exciting stories that I've heard about economic development in West Lafayette in a long time.

Ms. Bulger said we are happy to answer any questions that you may have tonight. Our big dream is to become the leading fiber optics communication company in the world. We have our little office set up. We have a sales office set up in California and also a facility in Korea. At this time, we have 11 full-time employees. We hope to grow to 25 by the end of the year and by year three have 38 employees. I brought a few brochures to share with you so you can get an overview of the company and also a few key slides that tell you about employees. I don't know if we have the amount of money in the equipment in that, but I think that's in the application that we completed.

Mr. Brooks said the application has over $8 million over five years.

Director Andrew said they could have asked for ten, but five was felt to be enough.

Mr. Brooks said each of the two companies requested a five year abatement as opposed to ten that potentially they could have been eligible for. So we talk about brain drain, and we talk about all the things that we read about and hear about. These are companies that are actually trying to do something about that not just for the State of Indiana, which is obviously good for all of us, but West Lafayette in particular.

Ms. Bulger said we hope to keep the number of Purdue University students here in the area and also go out and recruit some former alums and we're targeting Minneapolis and Austin and Indianapolis and a few other places for that. Any questions you have we are most happy answer.

Councilor Sparby said can you explain the scale on your revenue chart? Is that dollars?

Ms. Bulger said yes, thousands of dollars.

Mr. Brooks said I would also like to point out that the folks that are here today are more than willing to accommodate you on a tour of the facilities if you would like to take that advantage. We had talked actually about trying to schedule something like that but knowing how difficult it is for schedules and timing, we felt that the more appropriate vehicle would be to say to you that you are welcome to come out and visit the site. Right now it is a lot of empty space.

Ms. Bulger said it is under construction right now. But we welcome the opportunity to show it off to you and, again, we are happy to answer any questions you might have.

Councilor Sparby said would you be the person to contact if we wanted to tour the facility?

Ms. Bulger said yes, that would be fine.

Councilor Sparby said what's your phone number?

Ms. Bulger said 775-4556. Or Jeannie Cox. It doesn't matter.

Councilor Windler said I would just like to point out to the rest of the Council that in the State of Indiana there has been a lot of talk about high tech and all that good stuff. Purdue Research Park is the only one of its kind in Indiana and the community of West Lafayette has got a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of the situation. Now IU has one in Bloomington, but that's more medical based, even though we do have Cook Medical up here, but they work in conjunction with another facility down in Bloomington. Really, I would encourage everyone to look this over carefully, because we are given a golden opportunity here.

Ms. Bulger said I didn't say it, but the genesis of our company really came out of Purdue University's research in the Electrical Engineering School. We hope we become a crown jewel for Purdue. One of those crown jewels is that we are having a start up company here in West Lafayette.

Mr. Brooks said I might also add to Nancy's point. You as a Council approved the tax abatement for the Purdue incubator at Purdue's Technology Center. Nancy's company and Sally's [Byrn] company both are either in process or a graduate of that incubator programming. So that really does illustrate how important it is to have that opportunity to support the incubation of high technology business.

Director Andrew said could I also interject, Bill Baitinger [President, Economic Development Commission] couldn't be here, but in the handout I gave you that last paragraph is his words.

Mr. Brooks said Sally Byrn is president of SSCI.

Ms. Byrn said SSCI stands for Solid State Chemical Information. The easiest way to understand what we do is to think of carbon, which exists as graphite, coal, and diamonds. Organic compounds exist the same way. They can change from one crystal form to another without going into a liquid or a gas. You may have been taught in high school chemistry that in order for something to change it has to move to a liquid or a gas, but that's not the case. It can change crystal forms in a solid state. Before there were generic drugs, this was an academic pursuit that my husband studied as a Purdue pharmacy professor. But with the advent of generic drugs, they realized the reason the population was saying to the FDA some of these drugs don't work is that the generic company was marketing diamonds and the original company had graphite on the market. Suddenly, this became critically important to the pharmaceutical industry. Our idea originally was that we could teach short courses then he would be able to educate the pharmaceutical companies and then he would get to stay home more and we might make enough money to put all of our kids through college. We inadvertently created a market for the services. So we opened a lab in the fall of 1993 in the original incubator. And the company has just grown and grown since then. We now have 33 employees. We are hiring an average of one to two a month. We're requesting tax abatement on new equipment that we are going to be purchasing, because we have several opportunities that are going to force us to expand, possibly even double in the next year or two.

Councilor Cohen said where are you located?

Ms. Byrn said we are now in what's called Innovation Center. Purdue Research Foundation built this building as a graduation facility for companies, such as ours, that are either too big or too profitable to still be in an incubator. I would be happy to tour any of you even if you just dropped in tomorrow. The upstairs looks like a regular chemistry lab. The downstairs is all very high tech equipment.

Councilor Windler said are you in the same building with Stan (Mithoeffer)?

Ms. Bryn said I am catty-corner from Stan. I'm in the big, kind of square tan brick building.

Councilor Windler said I rent from the Purdue Research Foundation so once a month I have to make that trek.

Ms. Byrn said we consider our building much prettier than the incubator.

City Attorney Bauman said I should point out, when Mike [Brooks] did the seminar a little while back, he had a number of people in and we discussed the fact that we are now allowed to give abatements on research and development equipment. That is new. It facilitates these kinds of knowledge-based businesses, which were a priority of the City's Strategic Plan. Previously, if the machine didn't stamp a widget, the State wasn't interested in trying to encourage the development. Thank goodness, at last, that has been changed. That will become effective July 1. So we have here a couple of opportunities to be in right at the ground floor in terms of the State finally seeing the light in terms of encouraging these kinds of businesses and this kind of development.

Director Andrew said I would also like to point out that Mike [Brooks] has worked very diligently to get this law through working with our local legislators.

Mr. Brooks said this is the one that was passed in the fall mini-session.

Ms. Byrn said I'll give you my phone number in case you want to come and visit us, 463-0112.

Councilor Keen said I would just like to say one comment, I don't know if anyone saw the article in The Wall Street Journal a few days ago about this brain drain issue. One of the things that was very disturbing that I saw, one of the comments that was made that, if you are not interested in technology and that kind of thing, move to Wyoming or Indiana. I think that the types of businesses that these guys are promoting here is exactly what we need to promote here.

Ms. Bryn said we were able to bring two internationally known Ph.D. scientists here because of the quality of life because they wanted a minute and a half commute, they wanted to be able to go home and have lunch with their kids, they wanted to be able to go to the halloween parties, instead of an hour and forty-five minute commute.

Councilor Cohen said they will be interested in homes not apartments, right?

Councilor Windler said that is the spin-off of these economic developments, is hopefully they will buy homes, pay sales tax, income tax.

Mr. Brooks said if you have any questions for me, I will be out Monday morning, but I will be in the office Monday afternoon. My number is 742-0095.

Director Andrew said can I ask the Council a question? Do you want a presentation Monday night on the companies?

Councilor O'Callaghan said well, the only reason that it might be helpful is that people do tend to watch it and we get the information here. I think it's really nice for the community to get the information.

There being no further business at this time, Councilor O'Callaghan moved for adjournment. Motion was seconded by Councilor Sparby and the vote was AYE, the time being 5:35 p.m.

Office of the Clerk-TreasurerJudy Rhodes