Record of Meeting

Place:    Old City Hall 4th Floor Conf. Room      Project:       City of Bradford Master Plan
Date:    June 11, 2007                                     Client:        City of Bradford
Time:    2:30pm-4:00pm                                   MCF No.:    44506002

Attendees:

Cary Kaber, Foster Township Supervisor
Bob Sikes, Foster Township Supervisor
Jennifer Gorrell, Secretary/Treasurer, Foster Township
Denny Puko, PA Dept of Community & Econ. Development
Rick Esch, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford
Sara Andrews, City of Bradford OECD
Simon Tripp, Impact Economics
Roberta Sarraf, Zoning Consultant
Albert Filoni, MCF Architects
Ken Lee, MCF Architects
Amy Maceyko, MCF Architects

Purpose:    To inform Foster Township Supervisors about how the master planning process will work over the next year and to get their input on what they think are the most critical issues to be reviewed and examined in the process.

Items Discussed:

1. Mr. Filoni spoke about what the master plan is – it is more than a drawing or a book that will sit on the shelf.  We will spend time gathering information and we want to find out whom the councilmen think we should talk to.
- What are the priorities?
- How do the municipalities work together?  (It’s important that MCF work with everybody.)
- Who should be on the committees?

2. The Steering Committee will discuss options, establish priorities, make decisions, stand behind those decisions, and carry out the plans.  It will be a committee of about 20 people and there will be three sub-committees (Economic Development, Planning & Zoning, Downtown Strategy & Regional Business) to focus on more specific issues and report to the main steering committee.  There will also be a group of government officials and local CEOs that MCF and the consultants will personally brief twice during the master planning process.  Ms. Andrews reviewed the types of representatives desired for the committees and agreed to send the list to City Council so they can make recommendations on who should be invited to participate.

3. There is a plan to set up a website as a part of the project to keep the people of the area informed about what is happening and being discussed, as well as giving everyone the opportunity to send in comments.

4. Mr. Filoni stated that we want to ensure that the plan that will survive beyond current political careers.  A group will need to be established by all three municipalities upon the adoption of the plan to oversee implementation.  This group will work with the OECD and heed the priorities laid down in the master plan.  It still needs to be determined how members of this committee will be chosen (maybe a subset of the steering committee?).

5. There is a question about the name of this project.  Calling it the City of Bradford Master Plan is too narrow.  Maybe the Tuna Valley Master Plan?

6. Zoning – There is quite a bit of spot zoning and a number of businesses are grandfathered.  Township residents are more concerned about keeping out group homes than apartment or duplex zoning.  Also, there are no restrictions on trailer homes.

7. The area has had multi-municipal school district for 40-50 years.  No major complaints because it has been this way for a long time and recently elected school board is less antagonistic.

8. Mr. Filoni asked each Foster Township representative to describe what issues they think are most critical for review and discussion during this master plan process.  The group also talked about the relationship between the city and the township.
  a. Mr. Sikes thinks that 219 is not big enough to spurn any development, the area needs a 4 lane highway to get the area on the move.  He thinks that the benefits of oil and timber can only last so long.
  b. Mr. Kaber pointed out that transportation drives industry, but trucks don’t go south on 219.
  c. Foster Township residents seem to go to Wal-Mart for groceries, and only occasionally go to Tops.  The residents that they know never go downtown on a regular basis.  They used to go downtown for quality shopping, but clothing and shoe stores either don’t exist anymore or don’t have quality.  They do see a lot of traffic from the city to Wal-Mart. The commercial developer left after he brought Wal-Mart.
  d. Foster Township residents do come in to the city for recreation (swimming) and maybe movies.  Foster Township has two parks/soccer fields.  The township has trouble keeping people on their recreation board, but the supervisors hope to draw soccer players to Foster.  There is limited interest in the new baseball field - soccer is much bigger.
  e. There is an issue with vandalism in the parks - both in the city and foster township.
  f. The hospital in the city is important to the township.
  g. The township is doing $7 million of work to extend the sewage lines for more residential development.
  h. Mr. Kaber would like to see Fosterbrook full of retail.  He thinks the population can support retail there (big box stores) and downtown (small retailers, niche shops).  Mr. Tripp commented that a place needs an anchor to support the smaller stores.  We should consider what the anchor could be downtown - movie theater? (only one in McKean County), the Y?  Maybe think of the mall more like an entertainment center or try for a smaller version of Cabella’s.  Currently, the only outfitters are out of town.
  i. Both the city and the township are interested in figuring out how to present the area to chain family restaurants - they think they would do well here.  Eat’n’Park didn’t like the demographics, but Olean, NY has an Applebees that regularly has an hour-long wait.  Albert mentioned that Uniontown has a lot of new restaurants and retail that seems to be doing very well.  That might be a place to look to for information.
  j. Township supervisors do recognize the importance of the city of Bradford and the downtown to their survival.

9. Other downtown and regional issues were discussed.
  a. There doesn’t seem to be a parking problem downtown.  But trying to do any pedestrian streets downtown probably isn’t wise unless more people are downtown to walk on them - possibility to create 2nd floor apartments and condos.
  b. Mr. Tripp stated that primarily the area is just missing R&D, but there are still a variety of positives - energy, timber, manufacturing, etc.
  c. It was suggested that the beauty of the area could be used as a means of recruitment.  Of course it is also important that residents share the positive view of the region to encourage newcomers.
  d. The possibility of free wireless downtown to help businesses was discussed.
  e. There is hope that there are builders who would respond to the recommendations of some of the marketing studies to try new things.
  f. There are thoughts about raising the level of the water outside of flood season to make the waterway in town an attraction.

10. The township supervisors will receive the list of types needed for the committee and let us know if they think of anything else to tell us.


With no further items for discussion, the meeting was adjourned.  If there are any additions or corrections to these minutes, please notify the Architect.

Respectfully submitted,

MacLachlan, Cornelius & Filoni, Inc.

Amy P. Maceyko, AIA, LEED AP