Consideration and Adoption of Ordinance No. 2020-19:  An Ordinance of the Flagstaff City Council authorizing the abandonment of a parking easement across real property located along the west side of Woodlands Village Boulevard north of McConnell Drive in exchange for a Flagstaff Urban Trails System easement; delegating authority, approving forms, and establishing an effective date

Approval of Ordinance 2020-19 will authorize the City to abandon its interest in an existing parking easement and record a FUTS easement on a parcel located on the northwest corner of Woodlands Village Boulevard and McConnell Drive.

The City will be receiving a FUTS easement at no cost to City, in exchange for abandoning its property interest in a parking easement. Financial impacts are limited to administrative costs associated with the easements, including the cost of preparing a legal description and recording fees. Expenses will be paid from the Neighborhood Open Space and FUTS bond, which allows for administrative costs of FUTS easement acquisition.

None

TRANSPORTATION & PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE
Deliver quality community assets and continue to advocate and implement a highly performing multi-model transportation system. 

No

In 2019 the City was approached by a property owner requesting that the City abandon its interest in a parking easement that benefits adjacent land owned by the City and planned for a future neighborhood park.
 
The parking easement was recorded 1995 and re-recorded in 1997 across parcels 1B, 1C, 1D, and 1E along the west side of Woodlands Village Boulevard between Forest Meadows Street and Highland Avenue (McConnell Drive). The easement allowed up to 61 parking spaces, which were presumably intended as additional parking for a planned commercial development to the south on Tract A of the Woodlands Village Unit Three subdivision. The Tract A site is now occupied by the Staples store, Your Pie restaurant, and other commercial businesses. Subsequent to the easement, a commercial development was built on Tract A, but the additional parking was never built on the adjoining easement.
 
During the process of development, Tract A was split into several parcels, and the City was given two parcels on the northwest side of Staples for a future park and open space. When the City obtained these parcels, it also inherited an interest in the parking easement. The City’s property interest in the parking easement is approximately 39% of the total easement area, or about 24 parking spaces. The City’s Parks and Recreation Division is now planning park improvements on the parcel.
 
The owner of parcel 1D, Westside Veterinary Clinic, has a site plan application before the City to construct a veterinary clinic on the site, which is located on the northwest corner of Woodlands Village and McConnell. They have asked the City to abandon its interest in the easement to allow the development to move forward. Several other parcel owners have already abandoned their interest in the parking easement.
 
In exchange for abandoning the parking easement, the City has requested a 20-foot FUTS easement across the westerly edge of the site for a future FUTS connection between Mountain Trail Apartments and the Woodlands Village/McConnell intersection and local businesses.
 
There is also an access easement across the south side of the parcel, corresponding to the short segment of street, called Highland Avenue, on the west leg of the Woodlands Village/McConnell intersection. This segment appears to be a public street, but in fact it is an access easement across a private parcel. The access easement will remain in place and is not affected by the abandonment of the parking easement or recording the FUTS easement. 

The parking easement on parcel 1D is not a suitable location for additional or overflow parking for the City’s planned westside park, so the parking easement does not have a significant benefit to the City. The access easement could potentially serve as secondary or maintenance access to the park, depending on site layout.
 
The new FUTS easement will allow a future pedestrian and bicycle connection between Mountain Trails Apartments and the Woodlands Village/McConnell intersection. There is already an informal path that makes this connection across the site, likely used by students walking or biking to the NAU campus along McConnell Drive. If no FUTS easement is granted then when the parcel develops this informal connection will be blocked, and residents of Mountain Trail will be required to go the long way around on Highland Mesa and Forest Meadows to make the same connection.  The trail also provides convenient access to the commercial area for apartment residents away from traffic.
 
Easements across two other parcels, including the Mountain Trail parcel, will be necessary to complete the trail connection. The acquisition of these parcels will be pursued separately.

There is also potential to extend the FUTS connection north in the future across the westerly edge of two other vacant land parcels, 1B and 1C, to complete the trail connection to Forest Meadows Street. This route is already used by residents of neighborhoods to the north, who are also likely commuting to the NAU campus. The parking easement also encumbers both of these parcels. When a development proposal for parcels 1B and 1C is reviewed, the City will work with the applicant on an extension of the trail and abandonment of the parking easement.
 
The FUTS easement is compatible with the site plan for the proposed vet clinic. The easement area is limited to the westerly 20-feet of the site, which remains undeveloped on the site plan. Parking for the clinic and a retaining wall are planned just east of the easement area. At the grantor’s request, the FUTS easement will be accessed only from the access road (versus through other areas of grantor’s property). The vet clinic has agreed to dedicate the easement.
 
City staff has ordered a legal description for the FUTS easement, and if feasible this will be attached to the staff summary prior to the July 7, 2020, council meeting.