The Common Council of the City of West Lafayette, Indiana met in the Council Chambers at City Hall on June 5, 2000 at the hour of 7:30 PM.

Mayor Margerum, who presided, called the meeting to order.

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes called the roll:

PRESENT: COHEN, KEEN, MILLS, O'CALLAGHAN, SATTERLY, SPARBY, WINDLER

The Pledge of Allegiance was repeated.

ALSO PRESENT: City Attorney Bauman, Fire Chief Ford, WWTU Director Darter, Director of Development Andrew, Street Commissioner Downey, Parks Superintendent Payne, and Police Chief Marvin.

Councilor Sparby moved to approve the minutes of the April 27, 2000 Pre-Council Meeting and the May 1, 2000 Common Council Meeting as distributed. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen and passed viva-voce.

Street and Sanitation: Councilor Satterly presented this report.

A contract has been awarded to Keiser and Keiser for street resurfacing. Work is expected to begin on August 1 and is to be completed by August 18. Sidewalk and curb replacement specifications were released in May. Bids are expected in June. Area where the work will take place includes Salisbury from Stadium to Meridian. On the Brown Street Levee road work, Brown and Roebuck is now open. The South River Road railroad bridge replacement is underway, completion is expected by the end of July. Wood Street is to open in June, but Williams Street is to close. Village sidewalk work is underway, expect lane closures from time-to-time on Northwestern and/or Columbia. The Street Department has been installing stop signs at all of the signalized intersections, if you've noticed. These stop signs are folded and, in the case of a power failure, the Police Department can open them up so as to have stop sign control at those intersections if the signals are not working.

Councilor Sparby said I wonder if I could ask Mr. Downey on the street resurfacing, what street's will that involve?

Street Commissioner Downey said Oak Lane, which is a horseshoe off of Robinson Street; Stadium Street from Salisbury to Grant; Ravinia from Forest Hill to Leslie; Hayes from Forest Hill to Leslie; Forest Hill from Grant to Ravinia; Clayton from Kent Avenue to Ashland; Kent Avenue from Salisbury to Henderson; Salisbury Street and Lindberg, intersection only; an alley behind Chauncey Hill Mall; Devon Street from Cambridge; and Barlow Street from Devon to Manchester. And some work on Brown Street because, under the renovation down there, the east end of it from Tapawingo to the river and then from Roebuck out to River Road was not included. So there will be some work there.

Councilor Sparby said they are going to do all of that between August 1 and August 18?

Street Commissioner Downey said that's what the contractor says.

Councilor Sparby said OK, it seems pretty aggressive. Thank you.

Planning and Zoning: Councilor Mills gave this report.

The New Chauncey Neighborhood Association has finished their rezoning study and will be presenting their proposal to the APC staff this month in June.

Public Safety: Councilor Keen presented this report.

Purdue Relations: Councilor Windler presented this report.

Parks and Recreation: Councilor O'Callaghan presented this report.

Mayor Margerum said Bill Moffatt, who is the former director of Purdue Bands, has written an official West Lafayette anthem. That was presented at the opening of the swimming pool and also at Along the Heritage Trail, which is a program done by fifth graders and the choral group sang it. So we will promise you that you will get to hear again and hopefully, Mr. Moffatt will be here this fall and we will be able to thank him for that officially. He offered to do this and I think it's very nice to have our own City anthem. So you will be hearing it soon. If anybody wants to use it, it's free to use for any group that wants to sing it. It is fairly simple. I would like to thank him again.

Department of Development: Councilor O'Callaghan presented this report.

The Redevelopment Commission will meet June 9 at noon in the Board of Works Room.

Personnel: Councilor Cohen presented this report.

Mayor Margerum said I would like to thank Councilor Cohen, Councilor Sparby, Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes, and Human Resources Coordinator Foster who worked with the departmental representatives. I especially wanted to thank Bob Molter and Jeff Richards, Fire Department; Kevin Flynn and Jason Dombkowski, Police Department; David Cortner and Jason Hitchcock, Street and Sanitation Department; Mike O'Connor and Mike Steele, Wastewater Treatment Utility. I am also sorry to report that Mike Steele passed away this week and we would like to extend our sympathy to the family. It was certainly an untimely death. Also serving on the committee were Tom James, Parks Department; and office and clerical, Tam Holder. We have presented to the employees, after several discussions, a 3.5% increase for 2001 and 3.5% in 2002. We have some other issues involving overtime and comp time which we will be discussing with them over the next few months. But I informed them of that today and that will be our offer. That will be what the employees will be getting next year. I want to thank everybody that participated and especially Larry Cuculic in City Attorney Bauman's office, who served as the chairperson and was able to move the process along nicely.

Budget and Finance: No report.

Wastewater Treatment Utility: Councilor Satterly presented this report.

REPORT OF THE APC REPRESENTATIVE: Councilor Mills presented this report.

The Area Plan Commission passed NUZO Amendment Number 17 which added and revised footnotes dealing with selling and installing auto parts in different business and industrial zones. As the NUZO is becoming acted upon more and more they are finding that they have to tweak it here and there. This will be an ongoing process to change it and make it a little bit more usable. We will be continuing those in the months to come.

The second item was a rezoning, Z1924 - Hee Suk McAlister, which we will talk about a little bit later, not the rezoning, but this is part of the annexation. This was a request to be rezoned from R1 to R3 on the northeast corner of McCormick and Lindberg. That was sent to the County Commissioners with no recommendation because the vote was split 7-5. That will come before the County Commissioners apparently on June 19. That's a rezone that would involve 196 apartments out there on McCormick and Lindberg. There was one other that was within our City area. That was Z1947 - Alan White, which is also right out there on the southeast corner of Lindberg and McCormick. It is one single-family lot that was rezoned from R1 to R3. That is in the same area that Blackbird Farms is now. That was rezoned unanimously.

There are two others, both of those are in the County, but on the west side of town. They concern us as a City because it's close to our borders. Right Angle Homes off of Morehouse Road and Jefferson Commons subdivision, which is off of U. S. 52. Both of those passed.

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: No reports.

Mayor Margerum said at this time I would like to present the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting which has been awarded to the City of West Lafayette, Indiana by the Government Finance Officer's Association of the United States and Canada for it's comprehensive annual fiscal report. The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting. It's attainment represents a significant accomplishment by government and it's management. An award of financial reporting achievement has been awarded to the individual, department, or agency designated by the government as primarily responsible for preparing the award-winning CAFR. This is been presented to Judy Rhodes, Clerk-Treasurer.

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes said thank you. This is a joint project, really. The Mayor and I jointly prepare the CAFR and we're very proud to be able to provide the highest level of public disclosure of City finances to our citizens. This is the third year we've won this award and we're looking forward to doing it again this year.

FINANCIAL REPORT: Councilor Sparby moved that the financial report be approved as distributed. Motion was seconded by Councilor Satterly and passed viva-voce.

Ordinance No. 11-00 An Additional Appropriation (Mayor, Kalberer Road Improvement Fund) (Prepared by the Clerk-Treasurer) Councilor Sparby read the ordinance and moved that Ordinance No. 11-00 be passed on second and final reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

Mayor Margerum opened the public hearing. The additional appropriation for the General Fund for Public Relations is for funding the Stars and Stripes celebration and then for the Kalberer Road Improvement Fund.

Hearing no comments, Mayor Margerum closed the public hearing.

Ordinance No. 11-00 passed second and final reading, 7-0.

Ordinance No. 13-00 An Ordinance to Amend the West Lafayette City Code on Wastewater Treatment (Prepared by the City Attorney) Councilor Sparby read the ordinance and moved that Ordinance No. 13-00 be passed on second and final reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

There was no discussion.

Ordinance No. 13-00 passed second and final reading, 7-0.

Ordinance No. 15-00 An Ordinance to Vacate Utility Easement (DeSilva) (Prepared by Paul J. Couts, C&S Engineering) Councilor Sparby read the ordinance and moved that Ordinance No. 15-00 be passed on second and final reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

Mayor Margerum opened the public hearing. She said this is a utility easement that is not presently being used by any of the utilities nor are there plans to do so.

Hearing no comments. Mayor Margerum closed the public hearing.

Ordinance No. 15-00 passed second and final reading, 7-0.

Ordinance No. 14-00 An Ordinance to Annex Certain Lands into the City of West Lafayette (McAlister) (Prepared by the City Attorney) Councilor Sparby read the ordinance and moved that Ordinance No. 14-00 be passed on first reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

Jim Schrier (Reiling, Teder & Schrier) said Mr. Teder, who normally handles these matters is not here tonight, so I am filling in for him. First of all I would like to point out that neither our firm nor Mr. Teder are a part of the development group that's the petitioners. Contrary to what the Journal and Courier may have reported, Mr. Teder is not one of the developers. We are simply the attorneys. I am here tonight with Alan White. Alan is a representative of the petitioners. We are asking that you consider this annexation favorably. Certainly, this is a first step in any further development of this property. But the annexation, which is consensual by those parties involved, we believe is something that should be favorably acted upon. We have brought again the map, which shows an aerial view of the area in question, the east and north part of the intersection of Lindberg and McCormick. If you have any questions, certainly feel free to direct them to myself or Mr. White. I know there has been a lot of discussion in the pre-meeting, but we would be glad to answer any other questions tonight.

Councilor Windler said did you first go to the County about developing this before you came to the City?

Alan White (developer) said no sir, we did not. We have the alternative to go to the County, but voluntarily elected to come to the City and ask for a voluntary annexation and to work with them on West Lafayette utilities.

Mr. Schrier said I might add that the density requirements, I believe, are much more stringent in the City and they'll be less than they would be in the County. But we still elected to come into the City. Certainly it is to our advantage to have, we believe, City services. We also believe it's to the City's advantage to extend those services to that area. Speaking with fire and police coverage, they've indicated that they can certainly service that area without any additional manpower over what they currently have.

Councilor Keen said one question I asked last Thursday and I didn't get a real clear answer to it and I didn't know if maybe somebody may have put some thought to it between then and now. I didn't know if you knew approximately what kind of assessed value this is going to add to the City should it be voted favorably?

Mr. White said we are not real sure of the assessed value. I think what came out of the meeting is we gave an approximate cost estimate of a per unit cost estimate, but I think it was referred to at that time maybe Mr. Andrew or somebody could come up with the approximate assessed value.

City Attorney Bauman said I'm not sure we can give you a much better approximation than what we did Thursday until there is an actual design of the project, but I think around $8,000 to $10,000 a unit on an assessed value would be a ballpark.

Councilor Keen said there are going to be 196 units?

Mr. White said actually, roughly no more than 15 units per acre is the R3W density that West Lafayette allows and that comes out to be, I believe, 198. I think everybody's been saying 196, but I think it's 198.

Councilor Cohen said what would have been the density had you gone through the County?

Mr. White said the County would have allowed us up to 18 units an acre depending on the square footage. But I think Mr. King's project allows for 18 per acre next to us.

Councilor Sparby said Mr. White, at the Pre-Council meeting you indicated you thought you might be able to bring us an architect's drawing. Were you able to do that?

Mr. White said I just happen to have one here. Although we are still in the preliminary design phase, the basic concept, since we are trying to meet West Lafayette code, is to do approximately 11 buildings with 18 units per building. To meet the code, we would be required that the second floor elevation would be no more than 14 feet tall. So on our elevation there what you are looking at is basically a 2-1/2 story building with the lower level recessed below grade and the two upper levels above that. The second floor does not exceed 14 feet in height.

Councilor Sparby said what is the external construction? Is it wood?

Mr. White said there will be, where the red is that you see right now, is planned for brick. Where the lighter colored squares on the columns going up will be a masonry-type flat surface. There is actually a new product that we've been introduced to. It will look like what a shake shingle would look like only it's a very dense, vinyl siding that's much heavier than a typical vinyl siding. That's one of the products we've been introduced to that we think we will probably go with.

Mayor Margerum said I should emphasize, I know you probably know it, but the annexation is a different process than the rezoning. I think it helps to know what's being planned for it. The annexation is what we are looking at and then the rezoning will evidently be heard by the Commissioners on the 19th. So you do need the information from both, but what you are being asked is to either vote for or against the annexation.

Councilor Sparby said if your rezoning is denied, will you withdraw your request for annexation?

Mr. White said yes, we are basically representing the landowners who we have an option with. I think it has been made clear that if the R3 zoning does not pass, then we would not be buying the land and then, therefore, the individuals would probably withdraw the request since there would be no development.

Councilor Satterly said so your proposed access is off of McCormick?

Mr. White said off of McCormick, yes.

Councilor O'Callaghan said Mr. White, I think it might be helpful to reiterate that you are thinking about a mix of maybe 60/40 students and families.

Mr. White said yes. Our approximate target mix is probably 60% to 65% student market, 30% to 35% working market, Purdue employees, State Farm employees. There are a lot of businesses in that general area. I think Blackbird Farms is pretty similar to what we would be compared to as far as the apartments. They seem to have an approximately 60% to 65% student ratio as compared to other renters.

Councilor O'Callaghan said Mr. Teder indicated at Pre-Council that with McCormick being the access, he didn't anticipate a lot of increased traffic on Lindberg. That it would be more going toward campus on McCormick.

Mr. White said we had our sketch-plan review meeting this morning with the Area Plan Commission and the County Highway was there as well. If our subdivision is approved as is, they would actually put a no vehicular access restriction on Lindberg as well as McCormick up to our site of entry coming from the intersection of Lindberg and McCormick.

Councilor O'Callaghan said that might be helpful for the residents of Blackbird Farms to understand that we're not thinking of dumping a lot more traffic.

Mr. White said I'll show you real quickly, cause you can see it. The horseshoe drive that is currently gravel is the target area for the main entrance. As on the petition, that is currently the Bogan property and that's where we will have our main entrance off of.

Councilor Satterly said there will be no entrance off of Lindberg?

Mr. White said that is correct. I would have had to answer that a little different before the meeting this morning. But I've been told that is correct. There will not be.

Councilor Sparby said what is your anticipated completion date of the project?

Mr. White said we would anticipate having units ready by August of 2001.

Councilor Windler said the portion that is below Lindberg Road, there are no planned changes for that? It's just coming into the City.

Mr. White said right. Mr. Simmons is the property owner. He is here this evening. It is a separate one-acre parcel that has been there since Blackbird Farms has developed around him. We agreed to work with Mr. Simmons and help him along with his rezoning and annexation so he can conform to that corner with the rest of the anticipated growth out there. But it is not part of our development plan, no.

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes said I would just like to make one request, that the petition be filed with my office, please.

Mayor Margerum opened the meeting for discussion from the floor. If you would give your name and address before you speak.

James Williams, 2241 Sandpiper Court North, said I am president of the Blackbird Farms Homeowners Association. We've brought a group with us here. We all have the same mind. To save time for the Council, we are only going to speak with one voice. Just because an architect draws an attractive building does not make something a good plan. Let me give you some background on this proposal here. This proposed development has failed twice to win a positive recommendation from the Area Plan Commission. There are some serious concerns associated with this project. The petitioner has tried to compare his proposal favorably to Blackbird Farms apartments and the argument has been offered up that the development is justifiable because you are building apartments next to apartments. The Blackbird Farms apartments are a low to moderate density planned development occupied by working families, single professionals, and a small handful of graduate students. The manager of Blackbird has said they don't like to rent to undergraduates and they don't rent to undergraduates. The petitioner's proposal is a high-density undergraduate student housing. The petitioner's proposal would place at least 20% more units on 60% less land than the Blackbird apartment complex. They have offered to voluntarily reduce the density of the development, which sounds very accommodating and conciliatory. But the truth is that the density of the proposed development is still three times the density of current apartment usage in this area. Traditional land use in this portion of the township is low density, single-family homes. This proposal is five times the density of the predominate current usage and represents a major change in land use patterns without the benefit of long range planning. The decision making tools available to the Area Plan Commission staff recommend that high density housing, such as this, not be built adjacent to moderate or low density usage. If this annexation is approved, the difference in density under City code as compared to County regulation is insignificant. This will still be a high density apartment complex adjacent to low and moderate density usages. Plain and simple, the petitioner asks for annexation for two reasons: to facilitate approval of their rezone request before the County Commissioners and to gain reliable sewer service. Turn down this annexation petition. Let the rezone request stand before the Commissioners on its own merits without the tinsel and garland of the pending annexation. Annexation of this property now will serve to encourage more development of this type in the future. Developers will first go through the County Commissioners to get high density zoning, then come to the City for utility hookups. As a result, developers gain high density zoning and reliable sewer service, the fourth district voters and taxpayers get more traffic, higher crime, and decreased property values. What does the City get? The City gets sewer treatment capacity that could be used to promote planned growth on the north side eaten up by apartments to the west. The City will also get disproportionately more police and fire runs. The future of development to the west of the City is at stake here. Prudent action at this time will mean the City still has a voice in how this area will look in the future. The City was unable to stop the Willowbrook complex. When it is occupied, students will outnumber the Blackbird Farms homeowners by more than five to one. The Lindberg/McCormick corridor does not need more of the same. This Council adopted the resolution calling for the Wabash Township Growth and Development Plan. I ask you to show courage in vision and support the principle behind that resolution, which is to curb unbridled, opportunistic development. Please do not undermine that resolution prematurely by catering into annexation petitions such as this. I urge you to heed the voters and taxpayers of the fourth district. Support us in our efforts to seek opportunities for using the land in ways that enhance our community. Follow a prudent vision for growth on the west side and adopt the following course of action. Since it is foreseeable that this area of the township will be annexed eventually, tell the developers that the vision this City has for the area is not one of high density apartment complexes. Turn down this petition please. Then draft a new, enlarged, aggressive annexation plan. Include all properties zoned R1 to the west, southwest, and north of the Lindberg/McCormick intersection. Rezone requests for this area would then have to go through this Council. The City would thus be able to shape the future of its western edge and be better able to protect the interest of the voters and taxpayers of the fourth district. Thank you.

Councilor Keen said I have one question. I'm not sure who to address it too. A while back we had adopted some type of a resolution or ordinance dealing with a study for the western part in that area out there as far as coming up with some type of overall plan for that area. I was just wondering how this development would fit within that plan that I'm not even sure has been developed yet. Has anybody been talking back and forth between the two groups to find out how they fit together, if at all?

Mayor Margerum said the resolution that this Council passed was to request the Area Plan Commission to do a study of the whole western area. The County Commissioners also passed that same one. The Area Plan Commission is putting that on to their schedule. I don't know whether they've given you a time table [referring to Councilor Mills].

Councilor Mills said I think it is going to be fall.

Councilor Keen said so we really don't know how that would fit within what they are doing.

City Attorney Bauman said correct me if I'm wrong, that's the study you referred to Mr. Williams.

Mr. Williams said yes it was.

Councilor Windler said I think what we are dealing with here is more with a problem of where we are going to house students in the future. That is what is really driving the market for apartment development, for rental units, for converting houses into multi-family rental units down in the New Chauncey Neighborhood Association. When we passed the resolution on the land use plan, I mentioned at the time that we ought to take into account where we want students to live in the future. I've been fairly vocal about that again. I will say that maybe there is something the City needs to do, in conjunction with the County and Purdue University in figuring out where do we want apartment developments completed at. Where do we want to put students for the next five or ten years? How many more students does Purdue want to bring in? That is the real crux of the problem. Whether or not we build an apartment complex on the west side or north the side, or we convert some more houses, or don't convert houses, that's not dealing with the problem that we have. The problem is we have a large number of students. We need to house them and we need to figure out where we want to house them, when they are going to be arriving here in West Lafayette. We can't get that information unless we talk with Purdue and work with the County and even the City of Lafayette. I'm not calling for a committee or anything like that, but I'm thinking this is a problem the City needs to look at before we have more incidences like this where we just have, I won't call it random development, but maybe unplanned development, on the part of apartment complexes.

Councilor O'Callaghan said Mr. White, what would it do to your time table for the Council to wait until after the Commissioners have a chance to vote on the rezone? So that would be the vote June 19. So it would be a first reading at the next Council meeting.

Mr. White said from what I understand, I don't think that it would do a lot with the annexation proceeding. But if I'm right, this takes approximately eight to nine months for the annexation to take place. I think that was brought up the other night. I don't think moving this to another month is going to hurt or help anyone. We have a long timeframe ahead of us for the annexation process to be completed.

Councilor Windler said we do get two votes on this, so if we approved it this evening, we would still have a chance to find out how the County Commissioners react to the development that is before them right now, the rezoning, before we make that second and final vote.

Councilor O'Callaghan said I was thinking about Mr. Williams point about annexation affecting the Commissioner's vote. If it doesn't make that much difference to the process, then it might be advantageous to wait until after the vote on the rezone for us to consider the annexation.

Mr. White said if I may, I have a little rebuttal on the points made. We didn't make this decision to speed up our development. Anyone who is here knows the last thing that if we wanted a speedy development would be to do what we have done and that's to come in front of the City voluntarily to choose to go West Lafayette utilities, to choose to be annexed. This process started for us in January and at the APC meeting in February there were other petitions for R3 zoning. Wabash Township had several people there voicing concerns. We were there in our first reading and we left that meeting taking those concerns to heart and I think they were good concerns, fire protection, police protection, things of that nature, roadways. We took those back and thought what would be the best way to attack those and the best way to eliminate several of those problems, as well as, I believe, to help the City of West Lafayette, is to bring our project into West Lafayette. The other projects were further out Lindberg where we are going to be on the newly improved Lindberg. We felt we would enhance it by allowing West Lafayette police and West Lafayette fire protection and we addressed the concerns of density by lowing our density, knowing full well we'd have to do that to come into the City. One point that was made the other night is American Suburban Utilities has an easement right through the middle of our development and we have a letter early on in the project that says they have capacity to handle our project. We could have elected to stay in the County. We could have gone in front of Area Plan in March for our vote and already have the County Commissioner's meeting over with, but we elected to pull back for a couple months and try to work with the City to go this avenue based on those facts. That is the reason that we are here tonight.

Councilor Sparby said I think Councilor O'Callaghan has made some good points. I think we have a responsibility to let the citizens of our fourth district know that we hear and understand their concerns. Therefore I would like to make a motion that we table this ordinance until the July meeting and the result of the Area Plan Commission's vote. Motion was seconded by Councilor Satterly.

Mayor Margerum said I believe that is not a debatable motion.

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes said actually her motion really is to postpone to a specific time. She doesn't want to table it, just postpone it. That is debatable.

Mayor Margerum said is there any further discussion on that motion to postpone?

Councilor Windler said I would like to reiterate that this is only the first of two votes and that the second vote will take place after the Commissioner's meeting when they've had a chance to have their say. And as far as unduly influencing the Commissioner's meeting, I think that a call from the Mayor to the County Commissioners saying that maybe our second vote, that we are watching their reaction to see how to handle this situation. A little intergovernment cooperation could alleviate that fear that they are going to have some sort of added, extra edge by having this vote before us. I don't see any problem with going forward with this annexation at this time, because the second vote will not take place until after the County Commissioner's meeting.

Councilor Mills said I'd like to comment though we do still send a message by voting tonight to the Commissioners. I guess I feel I would prefer the development to come into the City and be built to City standards, but I would hate for the Commissioners to vote based on what we do tonight. So I'd prefer to wait until after the Commissioners vote on the rezone and then we vote on the annexation.

Mr. White said I do believe the Commissioners have the same information. They do know we have a secondary utility access in American Suburban so I'm not sure that annexation or no annexation, I think it's more the Area Plan report was based on the 1980 Land Use Plan, which the reason they recommended it remain agricultural was because there weren't utilities in the area. And again, we do have two options instead of one. One would only be available if we were annexed.

Councilor O'Callaghan said one point I would like to make, Mr. White, is that we really do appreciate your wanting to come into the City and the voluntary annexation and that voluntarily decreasing the density and we wish another development would have been less dense, as well. So we don't really want to sent the message that we are punishing you for doing it right, but I think that this might be a reasonable thing for us to do tonight.

There was no further discussion.

The motion to postpone consideration of Ordinance No.14-00 until the July 10 meeting passed, 6-1.

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 Sparby read the ordinance by title only and moved that Ordinance No. 16-00 be passed on first and only reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

Councilor Mills said this is the amendments I mentioned in the discussion from the APC that deal with use by auto and home supply stores in the business and industrial zones. So it is just footnote amendments and language amendments to that ordinance. It passed APC 11-1.

There was no discussion.

Ordinance No. 16-00 passed first and only reading, 7-0.

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 Sparby read the ordinance in part and moved that Ordinance No. 17-00 be passed on first reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

City Attorney Bauman said this is a redraft of an ordinance that has been worked on by Ellen Clawson in our office and Chief Dan Marvin to try to bring the West Lafayette City Code up-to-date. We have taken several ideas from codes from other cities and put them together. I think there were some questions raised at Pre-Council. This may be, because of the length of it, might be something that if the Council's interested in going forward, if it were approved on first reading, you might want to have a work session on to discuss some of those details.

Councilor Sparby said might it be more advantageous just to refer it to committee before we vote on the ordinance itself to get the issues resolved?

City Attorney Bauman said I'm asking for some guidance. If the Council in general is not interested in updating the ordinance, then I don't know that it's worth bothering to refer it to committee or to do further work on it.

Councilor Sparby said I think there is a definite interest in seeing the ordinance established.

Councilor Keen said I think there definitely is interest there.

Mayor Margerum said it seems to me that it includes everyone on the Council so maybe we could just go through it if we don't have too long of an agenda next time and go through it section by section because it can always be, if we haven't completed the work, then it can always be carried over to another month.

City Attorney Bauman said however you do it, after you go through it, you're probably going to be looking at some time to present a redraft to address any issues that might be raised in a work session.

Councilor O'Callaghan said Mr. Bauman, were you thinking of first reading now and a work session fairly soon and then be able to present a redraft at the next Council meeting? Is that the timeframe that you were anticipating?

City Attorney Bauman said I wouldn't presume to tell the Council when they should do it.

Councilor O'Callaghan said well, that seems like a reasonable timeframe for me in that this kind of thing happens more in the summer than at any other time. So it seems like it would be helpful to have the first reading tonight and then be able to have some changes on it so we could vote on it at the next meeting. There certainly are some problems with the old ordinance. I think Chief Marvin indicated that there wasn't much teeth in it for him to address anybody that's not doing things properly. The old ordinance doesn't have any real penalties, no fees, no time restrictions. So this is much better than the old ordinance.

City Attorney Bauman said well certainly if we don't proceed with first reading tonight, we are likely to be pretty well over with the summer season when we get into August.

Councilor O'Callaghan said I don't think there were major problems expressed at the Pre-Council meeting. That's my perception. It might be something that could be resolved fairly quickly if we go ahead and pass it on first reading tonight.

Mayor Margerum said I might mention that basically it's going to require a license. That's basically what it is and the requirements for a license and the violations.

City Attorney Bauman said licensing both of the vendor and any individual peddlers. That would include background check, photo IDs. Again, not only to try to avoid fraud, but also to try to deter situations which might create public safety problems.

Mayor Margerum said do you want to set a special Council meeting or do you want to handle it at the next Pre-Council meeting to review it?

Councilor Sparby said my druthers would be to have a separate meeting just to address this.

Councilor Keen said refer it to committee.

Councilor Sparby said it wouldn't necessarily have to be a Council meeting, it could just be a committee meeting that would involve any member of the Council who wished to attend.

Councilor O'Callaghan said and still consider it for first reading tonight? And the meeting in between can then, maybe, get it cleaned up in time for the next vote.

Mayor Margerum said if you could give us some preferred dates, then I'll have Nicki get hold of you and try to set a date for those of you who are interested. So give me your preference within the next couple weeks. In view of that, are you ready to vote on the first reading.

Councilor Sparby said call the question.

Ordinance No. 17-00 passed first reading, 7-0.

Mayor Margerum said why don't those of you who are interested in reviewing it jot down some preferred dates and then we will get back to you and try to arrange a time.

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) Councilor Sparby read the resolution by title only and moved that Resolution No. 15-00 be passed on first and only reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

Mike Brooks, Greater Lafayette Progress, Inc. said you've got two resolutions before you. I'll speak to both of them at one time so you don't have to see me twice. I've been doing economic development for a long time. The opportunity that I see here tonight is of great interest to me and I hope to you because this is a real opportunity to see us as a community grow in the area of high technology and research and development. There's been a lot of talk across the state. There's a lot of talk locally. Here are two companies that are actually doing the things that I think we all get every excited very quickly about. Of interest to you, the State statute to allow research and development equipment and laboratory equipment was passed by the State Legislature this past fall. It is now eligible, as of July 1, with an installation date after that date. So as of July 1, which this equipment will be installed after that date, it is eligible under the State statute. Again, I think about the strategic plan of West Lafayette. I believe both of the these companies clearly fit, a very nice fit with what it is that West Lafayette is looking for. The average wage of these jobs is higher than the average wage of our community. We'll have an opportunity, not just to retain college graduates, which we talk a lot about the exodus of college graduates out of the community, we actually will have the opportunity to recruit college graduates to our area with these companies. I would recommend that you actually pass each of these resolutions approving the five-year abatement that has been requested by each of these companies. I want to point out that under the State statute there is the option of either a five- or a ten-year abatement. Each of these companies have come before you tonight requesting a five-year abatement. I think what would be appropriate is for each of the two companies to make their presentation. If at any point you have any questions of me, I will be more than happy to try to answer them.

Dave Monahan, president of OptoLynx, Inc., said this is Jeannie Cox who will be helping me show you some things about our company. We started in May of 1999 spinning off some technology from Purdue University. This technology is in the fiber optics industry. What you see over here is not the starship Enterprise, that's actually one of the products that we make. This product is on a three-inch wafer and there's 15,000 of these. So we get very, very high volumes for very small densities. That is one thing about high technology. It doesn't take a lot to make a large revenue. The clean room that we are installing has equipment like you'll see here. This is approximately a million dollar piece of equipment called a molecular beam epitaxy machine. This is one of our significant competitive advantages. Right now there are two of these machines at Purdue University. We'll be putting one in our facility for manufacturing. Some of the other pieces of equipment that you see here include what's called an aligner, which is about $400,000, and another piece, an etcher, that's in the $100,000 range. So this is a fairly significant investment with a few pieces of equipment that can result in a significant revenue for us and a significant revenue base for the City. Our projections for revenue are we will exceed $50 million by year three. We've been told that our revenue projections are very conservative given the fiber optic market, so we expect that we will exceed those projections. Our employment projections are greater than 35 employees by year three. Those employees are typically at least a bachelor's degree. Half of our employment base right now are Ph.Ds in EE. Of those we did recruit one from Colorado and the other was going to North Carolina, we kept him here. So we intend to and will continuously be recruiting from Purdue University and from other universities in the area. The expected salary for these employees, as you would expect for professional employees, tend to be higher than what you see on average in the university or actually for the area here. We expect to have a successful future and appreciate your considering our resolution for a tax abatement. Thank you.

Mayor Margerum said thank you. This is a very exciting prospect and certainly in line, as Mike mentioned, with our Strategic Plan. Are there any questions for Mr. Monahan? This is based on the recommendations from the Economic Development Commission. I believe there is another step to go yet or is this it?

City Attorney Bauman said yes, to let some of the new members of the Council know. Under State statute, this process involves a preliminary or declaratory resolution and then subsequently if that's approved, there will be a public hearing and it must be approved again by what's called a confirming resolution. I would anticipate that that would occur at the July meeting if it's approved this evening. Again, that's simply the steps that the State law call for.

Councilor O'Callaghan said I'm just so excited that we got that legislation. I shouldn't say we, I had nothing to do with it. That legislation was passed to allow for this high-tech kind of equipment because previously that wasn't, it was just manufacturing type jobs and jobs that were not what we were trying to entice here to West Lafayette. The more-than-a-living wage included here, I'm just really excited about this. And what a timely way to take advantage of it on July 1.

Mayor Margerum said in fact, one was turned down that we had granted previously because that law had not been in effect. We thank our legislators and a lot of cities had lobbied for it, too. A lot of Economic Development directors.

There was no further discussion.

Resolution No. 15-00 passed first and only reading, 7-0.

Mayor Margerum said the Council meeting will be on July 10. So you might want to note that because of the holiday we moved it back a week.

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 Sparby read the resolution by title only and moved that Resolution No. 16-00 be passed on first and only reading and vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

Sally Byrn, president of SSCI, Inc., said SSCI does work in mostly the pharmaceutical industry, although we have been getting more and more companies, such as SIA and other kinds of companies coming to find out the same kinds of information. The information we are able to provide is whether there are more than one crystal form and which one is the most stable. In order to do that, we need a lot of very high-tech kinds of equipment. The tax abatement that we are asking for is specifically to purchase that so that we can continue growing and expanding. We have 38 employees as of this morning. Eleven of those are Ph.Ds. Some of those we have been able to bring from the east coast who wanted to live here, wanted to have a few minute commute, could go home for lunch with their kids, see the halloween party, instead of the hour and forty-five minute commute they had in New Jersey. We think that it's going very well here. We would disagree with the New York Times article. That's what we're working toward, so we're not seen that way. Are there any questions?

Mayor Margerum said maybe as a result of our activity tonight, we can say Indiana has turned a corner led by the two of you. I think many of you saw the labs for SSCI when we went through the Innovation Center, the incubator. Then they moved into the Innovation Center and now they are expanding even more. I think the strategy of the company fits in very nicely with PRF and with the City's strategy also.

Ms. Byrn said we would invite any of you to drop in if you would like to visit. We believe that our building is truly beautiful.

Councilor Sparby said I know you are one of the prides of PRF, that they always like to bring people to see you as an example of how successful this venture has been.

Ms. Byrn said when we started, the university was not encouraging entrepreneurship at all. Our goal was to prove that this was not only going to be good for industry, but it was going to be good for the university. One of things that we deal with all the time is potential conflict of interest. We are determined that we are going to be able prove that this can be managed. Not that there is never any conflict of interest, but that it can be managed. It can be disclosed. We have worked very, very hard to be the light that's guiding, showing that it can be done, and it can be done successfully for everybody.

There was no discussion.

Resolution No. 16-00 passed first and only reading, 7-0.

Councilor Sparby said I would like to make two comments on two entirely different veins. One of them is Wednesday night starts the NBA playoffs. Many of us know, Josh [Development Director Andrew] in particular knows, there is a West Lafayette native who is intricately involved with the Pacers. He's been with them, I believe 30 years now, as the trainer, David Craig. He is a graduate of West Lafayette High School. So, go Pacers! And then on a sad note, I would like to acknowledge that since our last meeting the passing of our former Clerk-Treasurer, Peggy Owens. All of us who knew her and worked with her through various activities had a lot of respect and admiration for her. She will be greatly missed.

Mayor Margerum said yes, thank you for that. I know that the family had asked that any contributions be sent to St. Lukes Hospital in Chicago, which is doing a lot of research on cancer and Peggy participated in much of that. Thank you for mentioning that.

There being no further business at this time, Councilor Sparby moved for adjournment. Motion was seconded by Councilor Windler and passed viva-voce. The time being 8:40 P.M.

Office of the Clerk-TreasurerJudy Rhodes