The City has an opportunity to extend the term of the Expanded North 27th Street tax increment district to the year 2044 by selling bonds to finance two projects in the downtown area. 

First, bond proceeds would finance the conversion of one-way to two-way streets at North 29th Street and North 30th Street between 6th Avenue North and Montana Avenue. The project will also include upgrading traffic and pedestrian signals, improvements to off-street parking, and landscaping. The purpose of the project is to facilitate pedestrian safety, improve traffic flow, improve public parking and enhance access to local businesses within the district.  
 

Second, proceeds would be used to upgrade the control gates at Park 1, Park 2 and Park 3   Currently, the City owned parking garages operate on Federal APD gate control equipment, which was last upgraded in phases from 2006-2008. In 2014, 3M, who purchased Federal APD, announced that they would be closing their parking manufacturing operation and would no longer support the Federal APD equipment.  During this time, the Parking Division was committed to completing a parking garage restoration project totaling just under one million.  The restoration project took precedence over any other capital project, so the gate control replacement had to be put on hold for the time being.  In order to maintain parking operations, the Parking Division has stockpiled various equipment parts that were purchased through places like Ebay and other municipalities in the event that the equipment would fail or be damaged.  The Parking Division has been able to operate this way since 2014, however the number of equipment replacement parts are deteriorating and locating them has become more difficult.  In addition to the equipment replacement challenges, the integrated central management software program has also become a critical concern. 
 
Early in 2019, the City Council approved Walker Consultants, a Parking Access and Revenue Control System (PARCS) consultant to assist the Parking Division with the selection of a PARCS vendor.  The RFP was advertised for a month before the proposal due date of November 14, 2019.  Four RFP’s were submitted and the nine member selection committee recommended Flash Parking as the PARCS provider.  

The annual debt payments for these improvements will be paid from the tax increment funds from the District.  A parameters resolution has been submitted for approval to set the limits for the principal amounts, the interest rates and the maturity of the bonds.

City Council may:

• Approve, or;
• Disapprove and cancel the projects and not extend the term of Expanded North 27th Street Tax Increment District   

During the negotiations the interest rate will be determined, which will drive the total cost of borrowing. The parameters authorized by this resolution limit the aggregate principal to $3.0 million with max interest rate of 5.00%. Sale of these bonds will result in the City entering into 2 contracts. One contract will be for the parking equipment and upgrades in the parking garages, which has gone through an RFP, but is not currently budgeted. The other contract will be for the one-way to two-way street conversion, which is also not a budgeted project. 

Staff recommends that City Council approve the resolution authorizing the issuance of the bonds through a negotiated sale and setting the bond parameters.

RESOLUTION authorizing the issuance of the bonds through a negotiated sale and setting the bond parameters. Staff recommends approval. (Action: approval or disapproval of staff recommendation.)

• Presented by: Andy Zoeller, Finance Director

Recommended Motion: I move to approve the Resolution authorizing the issuance of the bonds through a negotiated sale and setting the bond parameters, as recommended by staff.