On Saturday, January 18, 2025, the Hudson City Council held its annual retreat at City Hall from 8:30 AM to 12:43 PM. All seven council members were present. City Manager Tom Sheridan and staff presented on a wide range of topics including growth management, energy, education, infrastructure, parks, finance, and technology. Discussions focused on strategic planning and upcoming projects. No formal votes were taken, but consensus was reached on several items.
Growth Management: Council discussed changing the growth percentage from backward-looking (past permits) to forward-looking, involving Planning Commission. Council members expressed concerns about using a fixed percentage and preferring a model based on remaining developable land. No change was made; staff will prepare a subcommittee with Planning Commission to refine the approach.
Prairie State Energy: City Manager Sheridan reported that the coal plant contract runs to 2050, with emission reductions mandated by Illinois and federal regulations. The plant supplies 21% of the city's electric generation and 43% of base load. Council members noted the contract was signed by a previous council and there is no way to exit without substantial costs. The update satisfied council concerns; no action taken.
Council Continuing Education: Council member Bird proposed city-funded workshops and conferences. Council President Foster raised concerns about partisan funding and costs (potentially $50,000+ for all members). Consensus was against using taxpayer funds for personal benefit; instead, council will share articles and use free resources like the Mayors' Association. The Mayor will explore free options.
Outstanding Contracts: Council member Kowalski requested a list of all contracts between the city and organizations using city space (e.g., Friends of Hudson Parks). City Manager agreed to provide an Excel spreadsheet of current contracts.
HCTV/Streaming: Council member Sutton suggested replacing the HCTV app with a platform like YouTube Live for easier access on smart TVs. The current app has been unsupported for over a year. Discussion favored exploring YouTube; no formal decision, but HCTV will investigate.
Hines Hill Bridge: City Manager announced $13.705 million in federal funding, plus $2.8 million from the state and $75,000 from Norfolk Southern. Design begins in 2025, with construction from 2028-2030. A roundabout at Prospect and Hines Hill will be studied. The bridge will include bike lanes, sidewalks, and three lanes. Council praised the achievement and requested public renderings.
Inclusive Playground: Funding status: $450,000 from Summit County (equipment on-site), $660,000 from state grants, awaiting $800,000 from federal grant (Sykes). City's portion is $1.8 million for infrastructure. If grants fall short, equipment will be installed at other parks. Council discussed phasing and noted the need for ADA restrooms and parking.
Pickleball Court Lighting: Staff found a lower-cost option: light six of the twelve courts for $100,000 (using raised funds). Council supported this phased approach to test usage and neighbor impact. Proceed with installation.
2025 Budget Brief: Finance presented the draft budget document, to be mailed in February. Council requested adding public safety as a foundational element and using a representative home value for the property tax example. The document includes infrastructure priorities and a ten-year capital spending visualization.
Downtown Phase II: Staff proposed bringing in developers for input and then creating a plan through Planning Commission to memorialize uses (residential, public space). Council supported this approach to avoid past costly conflicts. The area includes wetland, so development will be limited to 40-60 homes and a public space.
YDC Property: City Manager reported negotiations with Summit County on the conservation easement. A consultant found no mandatory invasive species removal, reducing potential costs. The property remains for sale; staff are marketing it. Persantine: electric substation upgrades could cost over $10 million, which would be part of negotiations.
Visitor Center: The city is negotiating to take over operations from Destination Hudson by April 2025. Staff presented staffing options: volunteers (no cost), part-time manager plus interns ($50,000-$100,000/year), or relocating existing staff (disruptive). Council emphasized community engagement and event promotion over retail sales. A final agreement is expected soon.
Fiber to the Home: High-level design nearly complete; low-level design incremental. First customer connections expected by end of summer 2025. Staff are negotiating pole agreements with FirstEnergy and Windstream to reduce costs. Council will receive regular updates.
Downtown Wi-Fi: Proposal to expand Wi-Fi to the greens (clock tower, gazebo, etc.) for $25,000-$65,000. Council declined, stating it is a lower priority than other projects.
Fire/EMS Study: Scheduled for a January 28 workshop. The consultant will present options. Council directed that the Hines Hill bridge impact be included in the analysis.
Other Items: Senior center contract ends this year; band storage space is being sought; adaptive signals will be completed summer 2025; Norfolk Southern railroad purchase expected by June 2025; August 8 storm recovery studies are underway for Tinkers Creek and Brandywine Creek.
I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is a duly notice special meeting of Hudson City Council held in accordance with the Sunshine Laws of the State of Ohio, Section 121.22 in the City of Hudson Charter, Article 3, Section 3.02 for Saturday, January 17th, 2025. I do also want to note that we have all seven members of council present. We'll move on to item two discussion items. Item A, number 25005 for the 2025 council retreat. As such, I'd like to turn the special meeting over to Mr. Sheridan to start the presentation on the 2025 council retreat topics. Sheridan, the floor is yours. Thank you, Mayor. Uh just a couple of house cleaning items. Um this meeting is being recorded and videoed. The uh microphones are these little sticks kind of coming down from the ceiling here. And they test drive uh drove them with other meetings in here, and they said that they work really well. People at the day is can even be heard without their microphones, so that's a good thing. I didn't put a break in the time slots today, but obviously we can break at any time as we go through the categories of the different departments. Snacks, coffee, and water are all over there. If you need anything else, just uh raise your hand and ask. I'm sure we have it somewhere in the building. Um couple of other items is just the any litigation items are not on here. Uh council is there's gonna be a several litigation update. We got one yesterday from our one of our attorneys. And you'll have several of them on Tuesday night exactly session with March there. So that so with that, um anybody having any of the calls before we assume okay. Well, we'll just go ahead and get in the council and mayor items. Uh the first two items were brought by Dr. Jess, and she wanted to remember the first item was uh have a discussion on growth management. It's all terrible with Docs guess. Oh no, it was just a question about the percentages and uh are they too high. Well, when reserve at River Oaks came in, yeah, we were probably half of what we probably could have got to a maximum, so um we have some developments coming in in the future. I would recommend keeping it at the same level. Council in the legislation of growth management can a breach or decrease. So this why I brought it up, whether there was any thought decreasing it among council any percent. No, it's anybody got a thing. I thought I had in similar line was as time goes by, we have less and less space. So a generic percentage growth number may not be the best way to look at it, but percent of remaining space. I couldn't come up with the ban that would say like how you would legislate that, but at least the thinking of if we have a hundred acres of remaining space to be developed. We should be looking at ten percent of the remaining or twenty percent of the remaining as opposed to ten percent on top of what we have. Because if you look at filling space versus growth of population, if you're looking at ten percent of growth of the current population, you're gonna exponentially gobble up your remaining space. I don't know if that makes sense. Do you got it? It does. Um my concern with that you if you look at uh I was gonna call them more mature cities, that's probably the wrong way to describe it. But you look at like a soul and they went through a similar phase where lots of their old farmland converted to housing. They're now in a phase where a lot of their housing is converting to how higher density housing. You're seeing what was a home go down in a town home that can hold three or four units built place. They don't know if if remaining space fully captures it. It it might be more just occupancy permits or dwelling units or I but I like where you're heading. That's right where I was trying to go. I didn't know how because we only have so much space, and you don't want population density to be all of us sitting on top of each other. The math today would enable that straight line growth.