City staff introduce draft 2027–2032 CIP; ask council to confirm near‑term priorities

City Manager Martin Yamamoto and City Engineer Dan Carmody presented the draft 2027–2032 Capital Improvement Plan to council and explained its role as a budgeting and funding tool. Carmody said the proposed six‑year programmed budget is about $165 million with a nonprogrammed (unfunded) list of roughly $79.5 million and asked council to confirm 2027–28 priorities.

Carmody outlined staff’s new approach: phase‑gating projects at 30% design to pursue grants, adding an 'unfunded' budget line to show projects without identified funding sources, and moving some items from programmed to nonprogrammed so they can be pursued when funds become available. For the 2027–28 biennium the presentation projected $17,370,000 of capital expenditures with an estimated $12,400,000 available; staff noted an anticipated roughly $5,000,000 of recoverable funding assumptions for some items and said a surface‑water rate study and bond counsel will inform options to reduce impacts on rate payers.

Council asked about individual items (examples included a $300,000 Penny Creek Natural Area master plan line and phase 1 design for a DRCC campus item estimated at $6,000,000). Staff said funding strategies may include grants, in‑lieu fees, impact‑fee updates, bonds and public‑private partnerships and that a municipal advisor has been engaged to develop financing scenarios.