August 29, 2007

 

Notice of Public Meeting

 

Section 7.62

 

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING OF THE

 

Fort Lowell Restoration Advisory Committee

 

            Pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.02, notice is hereby given to the members of the Fort Lowell Restoration Advisory Committee and to the general public that the Fort Lowell Restoration Advisory Committee will hold a meeting open to the public on Wednesday, August 29, 2007, at 5:00 p.m., at the San Pedro Chapel, 5230 East Fort Lowell Road, Tucson, Arizona 85712.  Public comment will be taken.  The Committee will discuss and may take action on the following matters.

 

AGENDA

 

 1. Call to order

a. Attendance & sign in

 

 2. Presentation: Open Public Meeting Law, by Neil Konigsberg, Pima County Attorney’s Office

 

 3. Introduction to Adkins Property Caretaker, José and Rócio Alvarez

 

 4. Review of meeting minutes

 

 5. Old business

 

 6. Work Plan: Project Status Reports

            a. COT, Environmental Clean Up Status Report

            b. COT, Project Status Update

            c. Pima County, Project Status Updates

 

 7. New business

a. Review of document, “Suggested Components of a Master Plan”

b. Discussion of Master Planning process

c. Schedule of Future Public Meetings/Events

 

 8. Call to the public

 

 9. Items for next meeting

 

10. Adjourn

 

Pursuant to Title II of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), Pima County does not discriminate on the basis of a disability regarding admission to public meetings. Persons with a disability may request a reasonable accommodation, such as a sign language interpreter, by contacting the ADA coordinator for Pima County Cultural Resources & Historic Preservation Office, Debra Rodriguez at 740-6598.  Requests should be made as early as possible to allow time to arrange the accommodation.

 

Dated this __22__ day of _August_ 2007

 

Fort Lowell Restoration Advisory Committee

 

Minutes of the Fort Lowell Restoration Advisory Committee Meeting

5425 E. Fort Lowell, Tucson, Arizona 85712

Residence of Ms. Peggy Sackheim

August 1, 2007           5:00pm

 

 

1)      Call to Order

a)      Committee Chair, Larry Hecker, called the meeting to order at 5:10pm.

 

2)      Introductions

a)      Everyone in attendance introduced themselves to the group. Each person was asked to sign in.

 

3)      In attendance: Fort Lowell Advisory Committee members, City of Tucson and Pima County staff, and others present

      Present:

Larry Hecker, Committee Chair

Elaine Hill, Committee Member

Frank McClure, Committee Member

Peggy Sackheim, Committee Member

Patsy Waters, Committee Member

Anne Woosley, Committee Member

Jonathan Mabry, City of Tucson

Marty McCune, City of Tucson

Simon Herbert, Pima County

Linda Mayro, Pima County

Loy Neff, Pima County

Debra Rodriguez, Pima County

Carl Ewing, Fort Lowell Historic Zone Advisory Board

Arthur Stables, Burns Wald-Hopkins Architects, Inc.                              

 

      Absent:

David Yubeta, Committee Member

 

4)      Project background and overview

Fort Lowell Advisory Committee handout material was provided to each committee member present. Information packet includes a CD of the Canoa Ranch Master Plan as a useful reference for the Ft. Lowell/ Adkins Steel project.

 

i)        Linda Mayro provided brief overview of 2004 Bond information, including the project specific IGA.

(1)    Voters approved 2004 Bonds for a total of $3 million dollars -  $2.5 million to Fort Lowell/Adkins Steel and $500K San Pedro Chapel projects.  Property acquisition resulted from a land parcel trade/purchase between City of Tucson and Property owner, as well as County bond funds.

ii)       Larry Hecker discussed IGA for the Adkins property.

(1)    IGA established between the City of Tucson and Pima County for a joint effort for Restoration & Rehabilitation plan of Adkins property.  Master Plan is necessary to complete restoration, rehabilitation and construction

(2)    Implementation of plan will be through a combination of Pima County’s Qualified Consultant List and Master Contract List of Pima County, and formal solicitation process to determine the company retained for the Master planning project.

(3)    Project Schedule/Timeline:  All present agreed that the official start date of the Master Planning begins today, August 1, 2007. It is to be noted, IGA stipulates that Master Plan is to be completed within 12 months from formation of Advisory Committee, with a 24 month completion timeframe for the adoption of the Master Plan and Restoration Plan.

 

5)      Advisory Committee purpose

a)      Committee to provide advice, input and commentary during project process. Also reaches out to public for comment and input.

b)      Collaboration between Fort Lowell Advisory Committee, City of Tucson, Pima County, and Public to achieve project goals, which include.

(1)     Determining overall project goals and interpretive theme.

(2)     Design & Adaptive reuse of facilities.

(3)     Scopes of Work for Master Plan and Restoration Plan.

c)      City and County staff participating roles

(1)    City of Tucson is to be involved in the day-to-day management operations of the project.  City of Tucson arranged for a caretaker to live at the Commissary to monitor the property.  Jonathan Mabry and Marty McCune are City of Tucson points of contact for the project.

(2)    Pima County will provide primary funding for the Fort Lowell preservation effort, with focus on Adkins property.  Loy Neff and Simon Herbert are co-project managers and points of contact for the project.

 

6)      Committee information packet review

a)      Simon Herbert provided a brief review of the Fort Lowell Advisory Committee Information Packet distributed to committee members. 

b)      Prior to the next meeting, each member of the Fort Lowell Advisory Committee is encouraged to review the information packet, in particular, the “Suggested Components of a Master Plan” document, which is based on the successful Canoa Ranch example.

c)      Flowchart explains the process and task sequence of the project.

 

7)      Work Plan – Project Updates

a)       Marty McCune provided review of Adkins property acquisition. Acquisition is complete.

i)        As stated previously, the City of Tucson acquired property by purchasing the land from Harry Adkins, the property owner.  Pima County has vested interest through conservation easement on property, as stipulated in IGA, which allows expenditure of public funds on the master planning and restoration project.  On-going baseline information gathering projects and emergency stabilization and repair project will provide background information and buy time for the planning effort. Information will be useful in the Master Planning process.  The Master Plan will also include input from the public through public meetings.  

ii)       Other opportunities will be available for public participation through public meetings. It was noted that the public can request agenda items for discussion at future meetings during the ‘call to the public’.

 

b)      City and County staff summary of the surface clean up, environmental clean up, security lighting and fencing

i)        Surface and Environmental cleanup was a collaborative effort between COT, Pima County and Harry Adkins, former property owner.

ii)       Environmental issues:  batteries, wells and underground storage tanks will be addressed individually.  Wells will be filled; battery and storage tanks are to be completely removed from site.  Lynne Birkinbine, City of Tucson Environmental Manager, will provide environmental clean up report at next meeting.  Additional environmental work to be done and is on-going. 

iii)     Bees are a concern in vacant buildings

c)      Simon Herbert reviewed status of Historic buildings

i)        Officer’s quarters need urgent care. Emergency stabilization will include a temporary protective structure over building #3.  The most vulnerable buildings will be given first priority in stabilization and repair efforts in on-going project (Burns Wald-Hopkins is Consultant).  An historic assessment and background research is being done to provide an overview how Fort Lowell fits into the history of southern Arizona.

ii)       Anne Woosley informed the group there are photos available at the Historical Society that may be helpful with the project.  She will follow up with information at the next meeting.

d)      Loy Neff reviewed status of Cultural Resources inventory/historical overview.

i)        Project is on-going (Desert Archaeology is Consultant) and will include baseline maps and GIS database for the overall Fort Lowell Historic Park. The mapping will include the prehistoric Hohokam site known as the Hardy Site, which underlies the entire property. A more detailed mapping and GIS database will be developed for the Adkins property. The Cultural Resources report will provide a cultural resources inventory and historic overview in a detailed report.

ii)       Draft products for both information gathering projects will be available for the Committee to use in the planning effort. Final products will be produced later.

       c)  Marty McCune and Jonathan Mabry discussed property maintenance and caretaker:

A highly recommended anthropology graduate student at the University of Arizona will   be the caretaker.  He and his wife (Jose and Rocio Alvarez) will reside in an apartment in the Commissary Building on the north side of Old Fort Lowell Road, across from the Adkins property and receive a reduced rental rate from the City in exchange for monitoring the Adkins property.

 

  1. Master Planning Process

a)      An architect from Burns Wald-Hopkins, Arthur Stables, provided building information.

                                                          (1)      Discussed inventory of structure and building assessment report. 

                                                          (2)      Provided information of the historic events affecting structures.

                                                          (3)      Draft reports of the information will be provided within the next few months.

                                                          (4)      There is a plan for areas not included in parcels – Commissary Building.

b)      The Fort Lowell Advisory Committee was asked to review the Master Plan example provided, outlined in the packet, prior to next meeting.

                                                          (1)      Questions and concerns will be discussed during the next meeting.

                                                          (2)      Should questions require answers prior to next meeting, Loy Neff is the point of contact for Pima County.

 

  1.  Schedule of future Advisory Committee meetings

a)      It was agreed that each meeting will be held the first Wednesday of each month.

                                                          (1)      San Pedro Chapel will be the venue for future meetings.

                                                          (2)      Meeting time:  5:00pm – 6:30pm.

                                                          (3)      Next meeting:  Due to schedule conflict, the meeting will be held Wednesday August 29th, 5:00pm, at the San Pedro Chapel.

                                                          (4)      Peggy Sackheim will arrange the schedule at the Chapel for future meetings.

 

  1.  Call to the public/audience

a)      No questions.

 

  1.  Items for next meeting (Agenda will be posted with meeting notice)

a)      Meet the Caretaker.

b)      Legal presentation by Pima County concerning the Open Public Meeting Law.

c)      Staff reports: On-going project updates.

                                                          (1)      Lynne Birkinbine will present a status report about the environmental clean up.

d)      Discussion of the “Suggested Components of a Master Plan” document.  Committee members were asked to review this document before the meeting.

e)      Future public Meetings.

 

  1.  Meeting adjourned 6:20pm

 

  1.  Advisory Committee toured project site immediately following meeting.