At the Sept. 4 Auburn City Council meeting, the Council moved to take legal action against the apartment complex The Hub for not paying business license taxes. The Council also renewed the downtown parking valet service, among other matters.
The Hub, which provides housing chiefly for university students, has not paid the city their business license taxes since 2014. Penny Smith, the city's finance director, said at the Council meeting that the city has been trying to collect the taxes since The Hub was delinquent for their 2014 licenses. As the city had exhausted all other efforts, the next step is to take legal action against the apartment complex.
With the approval of legal action against The Hub, the city will try to collect one more time. If that is unsuccessful, they will put a lien on the property and the apartment complex’s business license will be withdrawn, said City Manager Jim Buston.
Ward 7 Councilman Gene Dulaney asked what would happen to the apartment complex residents if The Hub’s license were withdrawn.
“I would assume if we have to shut the business down, they would have to find another location,” Buston said.
Smith said shutting the business down is a last resort, and they likely wouldn’t reach that stage.
Linda Dean, a citizen present at the meeting, asked why the city waited four years to take legal action in collecting the taxes from The Hub.
Smith said the collection process and going back and forth with the business takes time. Buston said that the city tries to give the business owner every opportunity to remit what they owe the city.
“It has always been our position that what we try to do is to get compliance,” Buston said. “We understand sometimes there are some issues that happen, [so] instead of just lowering the hammer right away, we try to get compliance. In most cases it works. In some cases, as this one, it doesn’t.”
Renewed valet service
The Council also approved a contract with a new valet company, Park Inc., to provide downtown valet parking services on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Ward 3 Councilman Beth Witten said there had been some issues with the current valet company.
“Hopefully with the new company they’ll finesse their customer service a little bit,” Witten said.
Ward 2 Councilman Ron Anders asked if the city should consider re-evaluating the valet service in light of the new downtown parking ordinance, which limits metered parking to two hours and raises the fee per hour from 25 cents to $2.
Buston said the city did re-evaluate the service during the last contract period and reduced valet parking to Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Buston said they could extend the service in the future if there was demand for it.
Witten said she initially considered taking the position of doing away with the valet service entirely but has since changed her mind.
“I think what we have done [in regard to the new parking ordinance] has worked because students aren’t parking downtown, and we’re seeing more open spaces during lunch hour and the morning hours,” Witten said. “So hopefully more locals will start coming downtown, but I personally am not ready to walk away from the valet.”
Witten and Buston agreed that the city needed to advertise the valet service better.
“You actually can park in the valet on Thursday, Friday, Saturday when it’s operating for a longer time frame than just two hours,” Witten said. “So if you need to be downtown for longer than just two hours, you can utilize the valet, and actually, it’s more economical. So I think it’s a well-kept secret, and I hope more people learn about it because I think it’s a great service.”
Other business
The Council approved two development agreements for 227 Miller Townhomes, a five-lot townhouse subdivision, and The Avenue, a multi-family residential development. The agreements concern the installation of pedestrian lighting and sidewalks.
For the Miller Townhomes subdivision, the developer will pay for the sidewalk and lighting adjacent to his property, but the city will reimburse the developer to install sidewalks and lighting beyond his property line along Miller Avenue from Armstrong Street to Gay Street. For The Avenue development, however, the developer will pay the full cost of the sidewalks, including those that extend outside his property lines along North Gay Street.
Ward 2 City Council candidate Kelley Griswold, who will run off against Todd Scholl on Oct. 9, asked the Council for clarification on why the city was paying one developer for the sidewalk and lighting and asking the other developer to pay for the improvements.
Assistant City Manager Kevin Cowper said the city was reimbursing the Miller Townhomes developer due to the small size of the project.
“In that manner, we’ll have sidewalk and pedestrian lighting on the entire stretch of Miller from Armstrong to Gay Street,” Cowper said.
On the other hand, the city asked The Avenue developer to contribute to new sidewalks outside their property because it's a much bigger development.
Buston said it’s a much better deal for the city to reimburse the Miller Townhomes developer to install sidewalk outside of their property lines along Miller Avenue instead of bidding that section of the sidewalk out to another company.
The Lee County Special Olympics team came before the Council at the meeting, and Mayor Bill Ham commended them for their victories and medals won in the National Special Olympic Games in Seattle, Washington.
The city council also unanimously approved the following items:
- The purchase of two Dell data protection appliances for $123,000.
- A contract with Bearlander LLC to install landscaping and an irrigation system at Memorial Park Cemetery for $28,000.
- A renewal of tenant leases of the Boykin Community Center. The tenants are Auburn Day Care, Boys and Girls Club, Joyland and LRCOG Senior Center.
- Legal action to protect the city’s interest in the alley behind and to the west of 101-119 N. College St.
- An easement vacation of a sanitary sewer on South College Street to Talon Group.
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