Calendar:
Open House for Spay/Neuter Clinic
Staff Resource: Capt. Tim Jayne, 704-336-7552 - tjayne@cmpd.org
The Police Department's Animal Control Division and the Humane Society of Charlotte are holding an open house at the new Gary T. deLisser Spay Neuter Clinic at the Animal Control facility at 8315 Byrum Drive. The open house will be on Wednesday, November 9, at 10:00 am. The new spay/neuter clinic provides surgeries for animals eligible for adoption from the Animal Control Division. The Humane Society of Charlotte funded the construction of the clinic and provides the veterinarians and staff who operate the facility.
Visitors to the open house will also be able to tour the new state of the art dog kennels which Council funded as part of its efforts to promote spay/neuter and animal adoption. The new runs provide more space for adoptable dogs to be seen by potential owners. The runs feature radiant heated floors, ventilation systems, and automatic pet watering.
This facility is a major component of the unique partnership between the City of Charlotte and the Humane Society of Charlotte. The goals of that partnership are to reduce animal overpopulation through the promotion of spay/neuter procedures, to find responsible homes for adoptable animals and reduce the number of animals that must be euthanized.
Open House for the South Corridor Light Rail and Infrastructure Projects Staff Resource: Julie Hill, 704-336-4098 - jehill@ci.charlotte.nc.us
City Council is invited to an open house for the South Corridor Light Rail and Infrastructure Projects on Tuesday, November 15, 2005. The open house will be held at the South Corridor Construction and Information Center, 4035 South Boulevard, from 3 - 8 pm. Limited parking is available on-site. Overflow parking is available at the Crosland Centre, corner of South Boulevard and Scaleybark Road, behind the Scaleybark Branch Library.
The open house will provide an opportunity for citizens to ask questions and get the latest information on light rail, roads, sidewalks, water and sewer construction, transit-oriented land use and economic development opportunities in the South Corridor. The following departments will be represented at the open house: CATS, Engineering & Property Management, Planning, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities, Economic Development and Corporate Communications.
Staff mailed nearly 30,000 invitations to residents, businesses and property owners along the corridor. This open house is a component of the larger communication strategy for the corridor that includes regular mailings, doorhangers, meetings, media notices, email notifications and other means. For an update on South Corridor activities, visit www.charlottefuture.com
Information Items
Business Attraction: 3-D Systems Corporation (Project Coventus) Staff Resource: Tom Flynn, 704-432-1396 - tflynn@ci.charlotte.nc.us
In September 2005, we informed City Council of the possible relocation to Charlotte of a high tech engineering and research company that would employ more than 150 people, "Project Coventus". This company is 3-D Systems Corporation of Valencia, California. City Council indicated an intent to approve a Business Investment Grant to the company should they select Charlotte. Executives of the company informed us today that they have selected to relocate to Rock Hill, South Carolina rather than Charlotte. This story was in today's Charlotte Observer.
The Chamber, Regional Partnership, UNC-Charlotte, NCDOC, County and City worked together to develop and present a very compelling proposal to the company, including a total incentive package valued at $7.4 million. The company cited a better incentive package from South Carolina and the significantly lower cost of land in Rock Hill as reasons for their decision.
McGill Rose Garden Partners with Java Rose Coffee Shop
Staff Resource: Timothy J. O'Brien, 704-336-3149 -- tobrien@ci.charlotte.nc.us
McGill Rose Garden is a City facility operated primarily by donations and volunteer workers. The Garden is located in the former Avant Fuel and Ice Company building at 940 Davidson Street. The City contributes approximately $52,000 in a combination of money, spraying and materials.
In an effort to become totally self-sufficient from City contributions, on May 1, 2005, the Garden received staff approval to enter into a six-month lease with the Rock Store Coffee House Corporation, doing business as Java Rose . The Java Rose offers coffee, light snacks and pastries from the historic facility. This venture has been successful and now they would like to renew the lease for another 6-month period. Included with the new lease, staff is approving them to provide bicycle rentals and host live music that will conform to the noise ordinance.
NCDOT Review of Subdivision Streets in the ETJ
Staff Resource: Danny Pleasant, 704-336-3879 - dpleasant@ci.charlotte.nc.us
As we notified you in the October 28 memo, City and NCDOT staffs spent Monday, October 31, and Wednesday, November 2, conducting intensive reviews of the backlog of subdivision plans and plats within Charlotte's ETJ. NCDOT must approve street designs within these subdivisions before they will accept the completed streets for maintenance. We are pleased to report that the group completed its review of all priority 1 final subdivision plats and priority 2 preliminary subdivision plans. City and NCDOT staffs will confirm resolution of their reviews of each plat/plan by Monday, November 7.
NCDOT staff focused their concern in 3 areas: pavement design, drainage structures/pipe alignment, and culverts. Reviewers found deficiencies in some of the plans. In those cases, NCDOT staff determined that their approval would be conditioned on the following:
1. All pavement designs must be corrected to meet minimum standards. For any street pavements in question, NCDOT staff will require coring/testing of the pavement. For streets that do not meet NCDOT's minimum pavement standards (as required in the City's Subdivision Ordinance), the City's Subdivision Administrator will have developers revise their plans and will require a 1.25 inch asphalt overlay.
2. Developers will be required to post a maintenance bond for all non-standard drainage structures/pipe alignments.
3. All culverts greater than 54 inches in diameter will be sent to NCDOT in Raleigh for approval by the appropriate drainage/structures group.
We asked NCDOT representatives to notify those developers who submitted plats/plans that they determined are deficient as soon as possible and to let them know of the conditions for record plat approval. We also discussed with the NCDOT Deputy Division Engineer the need for an expedited culvert review. He agreed to ask the Raleigh staff for a turnaround time quicker than their normal 40 business days.
City and NCDOT staffs are continuing to move forward with concurrent subdivision plan reviews. One of the first steps will be to address differences between the City's and NCDOT's standards. Both City ordinances and State statutes allow the application of the more restrictive standards.
Candidate Project List for North Carolina Transportation Improvement Program FY07-13 (NCTIP)
Staff Resource: Bill Finger, 704-336-3900 - wfinger@ci.charlotte.nc.us
The NC Board of Transportation plans to adopt a new NC Transportation Improvement Program (NCTIP) before July 2006. They have recently requested input from Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO's) on the Candidate Project List, which lists and prioritizes projects for additional funding.
At their meeting on Thursday, November 3, the Mecklenburg-Union Technical Coordinating Committee recommended the attached Candidate Project List for consideration by the MUMPO at their next meeting on Wednesday, November 16. It is an update of the last Candidate Project
List submitted in 2004. The most significant listing is in the Roadway category since these are the higher cost projects and relate to the Equity Formula. The priorities are only slightly changed from the 2004 submittal to adjust for projects previously funded and rankings resulting from the recently published MPO Long Range Transportation Plan. At your Dinner Meeting on
November 14, CDOT staff will present the proposed Candidate Project List and answer questions. You will be asked to direct your MPO representative vote as part of the agenda.
The proposed schedule is as follows:
- Nov 14 Dinner Briefing; Council will be asked to direct the vote of their MUMPO representative (Council member Mumford).
- Nov 16 MUMPO will vote on their Candidate Project List recommendation to NCDOT.
- Early 2006 Negotiations between MUMPO and NCDOT on potential for new projects to be included in the FY07-13 NCTIP as well as any scheduled revisions for existing projects.
- Spring 2006 Distribution of the "Draft" FY07-13 NCTIP and request for additional MUMPO response.
- June 2006 Adoption of the FY07-13 NCTIP by the NC Board of Transportation.
