HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-05-21 Transcription Page 1
Council Present: Cole, Mims, Salih(electronically),Teague,Taylor, Thomas,Throgmorton
Staff Present: Monroe,Andrew, Dilkes,Voparil, Matherly, Knoche, Havel, Seydell-
Johnson, Sitzman, Bockenstedt, Fleagle, Ralston, Hightshoe, Rackis
Others Present: Wu (UISG)
Status of Iowa City Police Department Substation OP2—5/9 Info Packet):
Throgmorton/ I'm gonna begin the Iowa City City Council work session for Tuesday, May 21st,
2019. And the first topic for tonight is status of Iowa City Police Department substation
in the South District. So....who's gonna do what?
Andrew/Uh, Chief Matherly's here. He can tee up the issue,but uh, I think all the information
that staff has to present is, uh, outlined in the memo and we'll leave it open to your
discussion.
Throgmorton/Hi, Chief,how ya doin'?
Matherly/ Good after...or good evening, uh, Mayor. Uh, Jody Matherly, Police Chief. And like
Simon said,uh, it's in your packet. We've.....it's been in the media. We certainly have
talked quite a bit about this. This is an item I've been looking at for the last two and a
half years, since my arrival here, and uh....we're of the opinion that it's time to shutter
those doors and move on.
Throgmorton/I love it! A concise statement! (laughter) One of the things I meant to say right at
the start is that....we all know that our, four of our last five meetings have gone on far too
long. So I'll take responsibility for that because I'm supposed to be running the meetings,
uh,but we need to do everything we can to make sure we're dealing with each topic
concisely and, you know, not letting ourselves go, uh, on and on and on about various
things and during the formal meeting, I'm gonna ask people to limit their comments to
not more than three minutes, instead of five. I think it'll make....if you have 40 people
speaking, you know,three times 40 is whatever and....five times 40's a lot more.
Matherly/Well if it's any consolation, a lot of the leg work's been done upfront and....and
particularly by that neighborhood, and when I say the neighborhood, the entire southeast
side, uh, they've combined forces for their....for their association now. So they're
speaking with a more, you know, solid, uh, unified voice, and they made it clear that,uh,
Police Department's doin'their job down there, but the brick and mortar structure really
doesn't stand for....for where we're headed and what we, uh, are aiming to....to reduce
crime, but also work with....with the community. So, um, you know,the....the status of
that thing sitting there, really not serving a great purpose for us. It's more utility than
anything. Uh, it's just time to....to shift gears and close that. That's our take.
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Cole/And I...I didn't catch for the memo,but is Parkview looking then to take over that space, is
that correct?
Matherly/Well it is their building now, so there are new landlords and kudos to them and
Southgate. Fantastic supporters of ours, and of the City's. Yes, urn, you know, they
would utilize that space in another way. We've met with their, uh, the person in charge,
the manager down there, and he said whatever you guys want. You wanna stay, you're
welcome to. We'll continue with this. If you wanna leave, we'll utilize the space. So
they're very flexible on it and very supportive, regardless of our actions.
Cole/Jim, did you want us to comment now or....
Throgmorton/ (mumbled) ask questions of Jody or....let's see if we need to probe anything with
him, and if not, then we can have some discussion (several talking)
Cole/Well I guess I would ask just one follow up question. Um, I was able to attend our former
community service officer Henri Harper's going away dinner last evening. Of course this
topic came up and we all know the fabulous work that Henri Harper did serving our
community, and in particular being in close proximity to our community's youth, so that
youth felt they had a place where they could go, where they could get to know various
members of the Police Department, and so,urn, what is the plan going to be sort of
moving forward to ensure that we have that constructive space that the Department can
operate out of so that we can have those continuing positive contacts with the youth. Will
they have a greater presence at other locations, and secondly,urn, I was very pleased that
we had the great feedback in terms of the neighborhood association. They did a lot of the
heavy lifting. Have there been any dissenting voices that you've heard,requesting that it
remain?
Matherly/Your first question, uh, you know I've always said we need to go to where the people
are. Um, I call 'em captive audiences. When I usually, and I've done this many times,
you open the doors. You have cookies and punch and invite the crowds and nobody
shows up to my parties. So we need to go to where those gatherings are, where the
children are gathering, where the events are, and where they're already there and havin'
fun and then we participate in that. So we need to be stronger at that, that's why we're
tryin'to work very closely with the schools because that's where the kids are and...and so
it's a good in for us, and we've done well in that area. Matter of fact if you look at the
annual report, our school visits have gone up ten-fold,uh, in the last couple years. Um,
and then the other question is...no (mumbled) anybody, you know, couple store owners.
It's kinda nice to have it down there. Uh, as you know we had the officer-involved
shooting and some of the comments in the paper was, 'Well this is why we probably want
more police presence,' and...and really the building doesn't stand for police presence.
Urn, you know we encourage our officers to....to be in all areas of the city. When you're
leaving a report, writing a report, don't forget to go to those ares where we may not
normally patrol....to.....so sit and write your report on the computer in your car. So, um,
no. Not a lot of dissent there. More support to close it than...than there are dissenters.
Much more.
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Teague/I've been to some of the South District meetings and I've seen....one of the, actually two
officers there at two different times, and I will tell you that the, um, presence of them and
their partas....participation in the meetin' was very much appreciated. Um, and one of
the officers talked about how they like to be on the ground,boots on the ground, and
interactin' with people. I actually passed by the park and I should of took a picture, um,
because officers were actually playing, uh,ball with, you know, some of the residents, uh,
within that community. And so I think that's very valuable and I appreciate you bringin'
this to Council. Um, I....I think I agree with you that the purpose has been met. Um, you
know it was a time where it was needed and it did, uh, you know, a positive thing within
that community. So I am supportive of what has been submitted.
Motherly/Thank you.
Thomas/I think one reason(clears throat) there isn't too much, at least from my point of view, to
say is that the....the memo is so thorough it really gave a full history of this issue and, uh,
also the participation of the South District. I think that is, um, I think a very exciting
development in the South District, that there's a strong neighborhood association. I....I
really....am very supportive of the idea of shared governance and you know how we can
promote...um, you know, grassroots activism in the neighborhoods. Uh, I'd like to go to
one of those South District neighborhood meetings, um.....
Motherly/I will tell you, Councilman, if every neighborhood had a association like that one,
we'd be in a much better place. They're organized,they're strong, they think things out,
they're fact-based. They're....they're awesome!
Throgmorton/I think Angie Jordan has taken a....really impressive leadership role in making
that happen.
Motherly/Uh, I agree. Uh, wonderful lady but.....but everybody (mumbled) associated down
there is just really good.
Mims/Yeah, I really don't have much to say(both talking)
Salih/I just have a question for the Chief.
Throgmorton/Go ahead, Maz.
Salih/Yeah, I remember, you know, you were speakin' at....this is for the Police Chief. Uh, you
were speaking before about even more, uh, substation on the west side, and now I'm
seeing this being closed. Are you still planning to do another one over there or....what
the deal here?
Motherly/You know I think every neighborhood is different, every scenario is different. A lot of
this is budget-driven. It's, you know, can we get space, what purpose would it serve. So
you'll never see me just say flat out across the board no to any ideas,but if a storefront or
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a mini-station or precinct or(laughs) whatever the word you wanna use fits right with the
right area for the right purpose at....at the right cost, uh, yeah,we would certainly look at
everything. It really is community driven and it's for the needs of the Police Department
and what we see down on the southside right now, we just don't need that building
anymore,but it doesn't mean to say that some similar situation wouldn't work somewhere
else, and we've talked about maybe a community centers,havin' a little officer there
where an officer can stop in, and with a computer and, I mean there's always ideas along
these lines, uh, to boost presence, to boost communication, and really collaboration with
a particular neighborhood. So,um....so yes, that could be a possibility. It'd be open for
discussion at any time for any neighborhood.
Salih/Okay, you mean like it open,but for now that neighborhood doesn't need this anymore,but
if still another neighborhood need it, the idea is still open, right?
Matherly/ Sure. Yeah, we're always open for conversations to approve things.
Salih/Okay! Thanks.
Throgmorton/I too support the recommendation that Jody has provided us with,but I'm
reminded of conversations that Pauline and I had with a cluster of African-American
mothers, uh, about a year and a half ago or thereabouts, maybe two years ago, and also
things we heard, Rockne and I heard, while on the Civil Rights Tour with Henri and the
50 or so other people who did that last June, and the gist of it is that, uh, we....we heard, I
think, over and over again that it's very important to find a....to have a place where youth
can learn useful skills, be supervised by people who look like them, and feel free to be
themselves, and I think Angie Jordan actually refers to something like that in the email
she sent to us,which appears as Item 6d in our formal meeting packet, where she says,
'I'm hopeful that space can be utilized by other community-enriching entities that
promote business development, community gathering space, fellowship, or anything that
can be open and used, or frequented by the public regularly. In other words, it seems to
me that we....we don't need this police substation,but we do need a space, uh, in the
South District, and maybe elsewhere,where people can be themselves and, uh, and...and
do the other things I've already mentioned.
Matherly/And, Mayor, I think you've got great partners down there at Parkview Church and...
and other services down there that would be more than willing participants in that area,
um, you know you always have to look at space and staffing and programming and things
of that nature,but, um, I don't think there's a business like that down there, particularly
Parkview Church, and I don't wanna speak for them,but their mission is community-
oriented (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Sure!
Matherly/ ...and um, I....I think those types of spaces and even with our involvement, it still
occurred,just without the huge billboard police sign and then the police cars. Urn, I, you
know I fully intend to continue down that road, using those types of spaces and....and I
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think there's partners down there that are willing to do that with us, and with the
southside district to improve things with our youth down there.
Throgmorton/Yeah, and on that point, I note that we recently received, um, I don't know, a press
release about the Boys and Girls Club opening a facility in Iowa City. I....I don't
remember the details about it at all,but that could be a big plus. Susan, I remember, I
don't know....six years ago or somethin' like that we were talking about possibility of the
Boys and Girls Club coming down here and maybe being a really,uh, productive asset in
terms of the stuff that we're talking about now.
Matherly/And we met with those folks and there's a presence down there now. They were at
Southeast Junior High. Urn, so yes,there....they are in our city limits and I think they
would like to expand, uh, and you know,they're national.....nationally known well
organized,uh, group.
Mims/ I would just say, I support the recommendation. Again I think, like John said, I think the
thoroughness of the....the memo and the participation of South District people, residents.
I....I think that makes it a no-brainer.
Taylor/I have to admit I was just a little leery of....of doing that, uh, and going on data, uh, not
to compare it with like our deer situation. You know, we went for many, many years, you
know,just in 10, uh, was decreased and....and, but now all of a sudden we waited years
and didn't do anything and it's rampant again, not that the crime would run rampant in
that area,but you know there's always that sort of fear. You mentioned the large billboard
(laughs) I found that too, if we did continue to leave it open,perhaps lessen the
appearances of police station, I mean it is gigantic. It just reads 'Police Station,'urn, so I
think if we could nego....uh, on the lines of what the Mayor was saying, negotiating
something with Parkview,that....that they would allow it to be more of a kind of a
community center and not necessarily a police presence but some place that the police
officers would still feel comfortable stopping in and, uh, chatting with the neighbors and
just see what's going on.
Matherly/Yeah, I'm fairly certain if we needed space down there for....at any given time for
those types of activities that, uh, there would probably be something available. Again,
not trying to speak for the....but their mission's pretty clear.
Throgmorton/I'd like to mention one other point about some data that's presented and make a
suggestion actually. Uh, at some point in your memo, you present trend data with regard
to various kinds of crimes, from 2008 through 2018. And....when I look at it, I see a
chart of what I wanna see is a graph,with the best fit trend line a....about the actual
trends in data, because it....I think it's misleading to say that there was....say a....I'll give
an example. A 2.3% drop in total crime between....between 2008 and 2018. The
question is the trend. And the trend is a matter of...the data point in between what...what
statisticians call a'best fit line' connecting those,uh, those data points, cause got the, all
the variation from year to year.
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Matherly/I agree, Mayor, and we....I had this canned several different ways when I first
authored it and....and....it morphed into this,to try to be a little more digestible but I...I
agree with you. Uh, and just know that if spikes happen consistently, the trends start to
spike, you know, we're well versed to be....have a good grasp on that and deal with those
issues, if and when they were to happen. Urn,but I don't anticipate that happening. Our
collaboration and....and, uh,team building down there's going to continue to be very
strong. Our data's gonna help us identify those that are committing violent crimes. We're
gonna deal with that, without havin' a negative impact on that neighborhood and that's
everything.
Throgmorton/Very good! Any other questions or observations?
Cole/No!
Throgmorton/Great! Thanks, Chief.
Matherly/All right. Thank you very much.
Throgmorton/Okay, so now we're gonna turn to finalizing the roadway design for the
McCollister Boulevard extension to Sycamore Street.
Finalize roadway design for the McCollister Boulevard extension to Sycamore Street:
Sitzman/I'm just gonna do a quick introduction(mumbled) slides, Jason. So just wanna remind
everyone that McCollister Boulevard is located in the form based code district that
Opticos is studying for us. So they have had a chance since we've engaged their services
now, uh, earlier this spring to take a look at roadway design through the, uh, South Di...
uh, South plan area, including McCollister, and they've made some suggestions that, uh,
Jason's gonna walk you through to improve the roadway design and, urn,hopefully set it
up to be an integral part of future neighborhoods there.
Throgmorton/Thanks, Danielle! Hi, Jason.
Havel/Hello! So as Danielle mentioned, basically what we're gonna kind of walk through is,
you know, about a year ago we had kind of talked about McCollister Boulevard, the
design that we were looking at, get some of your input on what you wanted to see as part
of that design, and we had gone through and kind of forwarded that design. We knew all
along that Opticos was, their input was going to be part of that process. So we're to that
point. We got some of that input. So we've kind of taken that, combined it a little bit
with what we had been planning to do, and come up with a proposal for what we're
looking to do, um, lookin'to get some buyin or comments about that, uh, so....we'll kinda
start off as a reminder....in the McCollister Boulevard extension this looks to extend
McCollister Boulevard from where it currently ends,just east of Covered Wagon, and
that would extend it to Sycamore. It will also include signalization of the McCollister
Boulevard and Gilbert Street intersection. As I had mentioned, it was about a year ago
we had talked a little bit about the design of the project and really kind of what came out
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of that was the focus on safety and some of the....the components that are listed here is
really looking at having the design speed, uh, be on the lower end,uh, with the 25-mile-
an-hour design speed. Also looking at narrowing up the travel lanes. We had proposed
10-foot travel lanes, and then also looking at an on-street bicycle facility. In this case we
were looking at buffered bicycle lanes, uh,there is, uh, mention of....on-street bicycle
facilities in the bicycle master plan so we're trying to incorporate that as well. So here's
kinda where we ended up with our design. Um, I will note that the text here matches the
drawing there. I know that the drawing's kinda hard to see, so I tried to just pull out those
numbers so it'd be a little easier to go through. Um, so just kinda looking at that, again,
looking at a 25-mile-an-hour design speed; 100-foot right-of-way, which is consistent
with the rest of the corridor, um, and so I think that's pretty standard for us; the 10-foot
travel lanes. We had proposed a five-foot bike lane with a one and a half foot buffer, and
that basically gives us a 17-foot path width,uh, of pavement, or a 30-foot....34-foot
back-to-back pavements. Um, we also had looked at a 10-foot sidewalk on one side and
a five-foot sidewalk on the other. That 10-foot sidewalk is another recommendation from
the bicycle master plan. And then that left us with about 22-feet on one side and 27-feet,
kinda that area between the sidewalk and the back of curb. So as we mentioned, Opticos
had come in and wanted to take a look at things, and....and we had asked them to do that
as well, so they kind of came in, looked at our design, and gave us some ideas for ways
that we might improve that, and when they did that, they had looked at kinda dividing the
corridor into three sections. That west section there, you can see, is what they call kinda
their'typical' section. That's, uh, an area that would look a lot like other streets in Iowa
City, um, kinda your typical city street. Uh, they also have a middle section. It's labeled
as 'MMH'here for missing middle housing section. Um, similar to the typical section,
but, uh, I think the biggest difference there is just the setbacks of the structures is a little
less. So they pull those towards the street. But otherwise the street design is very
similar, and then finally on the east end, they call it their'Main Street section.' Uh, that's
the area where they're looking at introducing some commercial or mixed-use
components,uh, and so their street design changes some to reflect that. So here I'm just
gonna kind of step through their three, urn,proposals and kind of where this came from is
in looking at our design, they had other locations around the country that they've dealt
with, uh,with a similar situation. One thing that we had told them is given where we're
at with the pro...with the project, where we're currently going through easement and
property acquisitions is that 100-foot right-of-way is what we wanted to stay with. They
said that was fine,they've done it other lo....other projects like that, uh, and so they
worked kinda within that constraint, uh, and so here's kinda what they had come up for
their typical section. They were looking at a 30-mile-an-hour, uh, design speed. My
guess, I haven't verified this, is that's probably a 25-mile-an-hour posted speed, um,but
would have to verify that,but that would be my guess. Again, the 100-foot right-of-way.
They were looking at 10 1/2-foot travel lanes, urn, and I guess one thing I would note too,
if you compare the drawing and what I have in the text, I've taken out the curb. So what
they call a 10....a 11-foot travel lane is actually 10 1/2-feet of actual lane width, and then
a six-inch curb. So,um, that would be one discrepancy. But I just tried to keep it
consistent, at least with the text that I had....had listed there. They look at doing a six-
foot bike lane, so not a buffered bike lane but a six-foot bike lane, and then seven and a
half feet of parking lane. That gives them a 25-foot half-width pavement. Um, the
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section that they proposed includes a median. So it would kind of be each side of the
median would be 25-feet of pavement. They include six-feet of sidewalk on both sides
and nine-foot, again, that area between the sidewalk and the back of curb, nine foot
consistent through this section. Their next section, the missing middle housing section,
again that's kind of the middle part of the corridor is what they were looking at. This is
almost identical to the typical, again the....really the change is what they(mumbled)
called for the setbacks, and let me go back real quick, would note that for the (noises on
mic)typical section, they call out that 20 to 30-feet as (noises on mic, talking in
background) so 20 to 30-feet for the typical section, and then for the missing middle, that
gets reduced to 15 to 20 (talking in background) so again, they're kinda pulling that closer
to the street(loud talking in background, from phone connection)
Throgmorton/Mazahir? Maz? You're coming in over the, um, microphone.
Salih/I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Yeah, I (unable to understand)
Throgmorton/ Sure! Jason?
Havel/Yep, so one thing I would note with that setback distance too,that is....would be sort of to
the building face. They do call for allowing, uh, porches or other type of, um, structures
within that area. And then finally what they call their Main Street section, and again, this
is the area that would have that mixed-use, some commercial uses, uh, I...I don't know
that we know exactly what that's gonna look like, but that's kinda what their thinking is.
They worked through that form based code, uh, so for that section, they're looking at a
25-mile-an-hour design speed. Again the 100-foot right-of-way, uh, 11-foot travel lanes,
six-foot bike lane. They call out 16-feet of parking, um, in this example, and they're
calling out, uh,back-in parking is an option. We've discussed that with them and they
feel that parallel parking is also an option that would work. So that's just what they had
shown, what they had included in another project and what they had, uh, given to us in
one of the displays. So that leaves us with a 33 1/2-foot pavement, so again, 67-foot
pavement, back of curb to back of curb; um, that 16 1/2-foot sidewalk is essentially from
the backofcurb to the building face in the example that they had given us. Um, and so
again, that would be no space between the curb and the sidewalk. So with that we kinda
took that recommendation and we had a conference call with them to kinda talk through
what we might end up with as far as a design for our project. Kinda where we landed is
we would be looking at doing it in two phases, um, again in this situation the....the
roadway design and....and hopefully construction is ahead of where they're going to be
with the....the form based code and....and the zoning and all of that, and so we were
looking for a way to incorporate a lot of this,but also be able to adjust it in the future to
accommodate what they might wanna include when development does occur. So what
we ended up with sort of our initial,um, design or what we would propose to do, uh,
again that right-of-way distance, the 100-foot, would stay the same. We'd be looking at
10 1/2-foot travel lanes. So again very similar to what we had proposed. A six-foot bike
lane, which is what they had proposed. That gives us a 17 1/2-foot half-width pavement.
Again, right in that range, that we were at initially and that they also had proposed. Uh,
we went to a 10-foot wide sidewalk and a six-foot sidewalk. Again, they had proposed
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two six-foot sidewalks, but we felt that with the bicycle master plan and what we
typically do with a wide sidewalk along arterials, that that was probably a better fit for us.
Urn, that gives us basically when the street is first constructed, 11 1/2-foot on one side
and 15 1/2-foot on the other side,between the sidewalk and the back of curb. Uh, and
what we would be looking at is in the future that area could be used for adding parking
when it's appropriate. The one big change I think from our design to what we're
proposing now is that we would include a median, that 20-foot median area there. That
would allow for not only the street trees on the outside,but also,urn, plantings along the
median as well. Another benefit is it would allow for the introduction of turn lanes, if
they were needed, depending on how that area ends up developing, urn, and again a 25-
mile-an-hour design speed for what we propose, initially. Then sort of what we call our
ultimate design or what the street would look like eventually when development does
occur. Again, a lot of the same stuff. Urn, the biggest difference here is we would be
looking at adding,uh, a seven and a half-foot parking lane. We would set it up so that the
storm sewer that is installed with the project would be able to be reused. So,um, there'd
be some improvements there,but a lot of it is really just gonna be kinda adding that
parking lane onto the outside of the street. We would set up street trees to fit in kind of
their final location so that, again, we're not having to remove,uh, improvements that
we've made and....and really just kind of build off of this. One thing I would note with
both the initial design and the ultimate design is that median section would really kind of
be in the middle. So it would be more or less from kind of the Covered Wagon
intersection to west of Sycamore,because we would have to transition out of that to
basically enter the roundabout, and so we'd have to work through that, uh, but I...I think
that's something we can certainly do. As far as impacts to what we have right now, we've
talked to the consultant and I think the biggest thing is since we're able to leave the storm
sewer more or less where it is now, and the right-of-way's not changing,the....the
impacts wouldn't be nearly as significant. So I think it's something that we can make
these changes, incorporate'em, um,without a whole lot of extra work. Unfortunately it
does have an impact on when we would be able to finalize things and get it bid, uh, so we
would be looking probably at 2020 construction. We may be able to start this fall but,uh,
we certainly probably would not get it done this year. So, finally what I have here is just
a comparison. There's a lot of numbers here. I think the biggest takeaway is just to kind
of show that we're kinda talkin' about the same thing,between Opticos and what we have
in our design, I mean we're right there, and I think with this comparison, the biggest
change you'll see, um, you know, whether it's the parking, is again if you're doing parallel
parking, we're all kinda talking the same width. Travel lane, we're talking the same
width. Uh, a lot of that stuff really I think the biggest change is probably the sidewalk,
um,but again that's us providing a little wider sidewalk than maybe they had proposed.
Urn,but again, a lot of that's very similar. We don't see it as a major change and so I
think we're....we're on the right track and I think it's somethin'that, uh, it'd be....I think
we've done a pretty good job of incorporating what they, uh, recommended,but also, urn,
end up with a pretty good project. So with that, that is all I had.
Throgmorton/So, Jason, I know one of the concerns that Opticos had initially with regard to the
original design, was that it appeared as though there would not be, I don't know what ya
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call 'em—curb cuts for north/south intersecting streets—uh,but I think you've had
conversations with Opticos about that. Could you describe what came out of that?
Havel/Yeah. So I....I think we've talked to them and I think there would probably be ongoing
discussions as far as are there locations that we know that we're gonna want intersections
now. Um, we certainly can accommodate those. Uh, there's nothing in the design that
if....if there needed to be something changed in the future we could do that. Um, you
know, the medians probably gonna be the hardest part, if there needed to be a change, but
I....I think there's ways that we can accommodate that and now that we're, you know,
they're onboard and we can have those conversations, I think it's easier to plan for that,
uh,moving forward.
Mims/Jason, the median is beautiful. Do you have any idea what that does to the scope of the
cost of the project to add that in?
Havel/It would go up, um, I don't know that it would be significant, um, you know, your
pavement width is going to be relatively similar. Urn, your....construction methods, you
know, again you're not really in a confined space. You're kind of in an open area. So that
should help to keep it, um, on the lower end,but there would be some increased costs. I
don't know what those numbers would be exactly at this point.
Mims/I guess when I look at this project, it's....turned out to me to be something very different
than what I anticipated when we were first talking about the extension of McCollister,
and you....you even, in your presentation, Jason, used the word 'arterial.' And (signs) I
mean when I look at Iowa City and I think about our street structure, and you look at
north/south, we've got....we've got Scott Boulevard. We've got First Avenue. We've got,
uh, Dodge and....and Governor. Uh, you got Dubuque Street, and you know they're all
various in terms of signalization and width and speed limit, etc.,but you have really a
number of different ways to get north/south,um, you know, at least on the east side of the
river, and you know, you got Melrose on the west side, etc. When I look at the east/west, I
that's not anywhere as near as easy to do in Iowa City. And my interpretation or,uh,
thought about what this was going to be when it was first presented was here we're gonna
put an arterial on the southside, almost like a loop around the south side of the city to
facilitate movement, you know, from east to west, west to east, whatever. And what I'm
seeing with Opticos coming in and looking at this is...and particularly if there's gonna be
numerous intersections within the north/south streets, we've got another(mumbled) we
have another res...residential street, at 25-miles-an-hour, with a bunch of curb cuts, with
the intersecting streets, and we're not any further ahead in terms of giving people an
efficient way to get across town. I mean you go west and McCollister is I think 35 miles
an hour with very few curb cuts. Um,west of Gilbert, and then you get further west and
it's 45 miles an hour, once you get west of old 218, with virtually no curb cuts, and I
thought from a year and a half or two years ago when we talked about this one of the
things we were talking about was minimal, um,minimal curb cuts, maybe even using
roundabouts, um....so for me, I'm not....I just don't support this at all. I don't feel like
we're getting an arterial street. I think we're just getting another residential street that is
gonna end up having multiple stop signs on it and is, I don't believe, is what people in
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this community want or expect for that southern route. They want a way to get places,
with more convenience, and to me this is gonna be just another residential street. So...
Thomas/Are there stop signs? I didn't hear you say there would be any stop signs.
Mims/With the amount of traffic on there, I'm just saying I'm assuming there ultimately will be
because when you take that stretch and if you've got those north/south, you're....you're
gonna have to do something, ultimately.
Havel/I think one difference,just to note too, is from a typical residential street as you would in
this case kinda have dedicated travel lanes, whereas a lot of times on residential streets,
you kinda have a shared middle area,but certainly it would have a different look than our
other arterials.
Throgmorton/ Susan, I think you're right that the, uh, design that's being recommended here does
differ from what you originally imagined, and I think that's exactly right and exactly how
it should be,because we need to be figuring out how to design a viable new
neighborhood down there that will be different from the standard, suburban neighborhood
in Iowa City, and....and the roadway design also needs to be different because the idea
of....of having all traffic directed toward arterials simply exacerbates problems rather
than having multiple ways of getting around and moving around within a place. Arterials
kinda force you to get on the arterial and just use it. So,the....but the bottom line is that
I'm really thrilled that the staff has had a....a very thoughtful conversation with Opticos
to make sure that the roadway design is compatible with the neighborhood design that
Opticos is developing for us, as we asked them to do. And likewise I'm glad that Opticos
has been engaged in dialogue with,uh, City staff to make sure that it fits with what the
City staff believe is necessary down there. So, yeah, I think you're right but it's what we
oughta be doin'.
Cole/I would just comment, I am fully supportive of this particular design. In my view I think
this represents the best of old and new. I think what we've seen historically in our
community is that in our older neighbors.....neighborhoods, we have a very well
developed grid system and that grid system did not facilitate traffic flow as well in terms
of speed,but what it did is it created people-friendly locations. After World War II,there
was a change in view on that, and the view was let's see how much we can get traffic
zooming throughout the community with arterials, and I think what we've seen with this
latest(mumbled) iteration is to see a blend of those two concepts. As I understand this,
this will be designed with modem standards, and it will allow adequate traffic flow,but it
will not be at a sufficient speed that will impair development of a people-friendly place,
and what I love about this is that I think that this bri...this brings elements of what we
love about some of our older neighborhoods and extends those into newer parts of to...
town, in particular the Main Street concept. I absolutely love that. Done right,
commercial is an asset, not a detriment. And I'm assuming that they will develop the
commercial component to it in a very contextual, um, neighborhood-friendly way. I also
am thrilled with the widening of the sidewalks. Uh, those can function as adequate
bicycling spaces as well. Urn, one thing I don't like, and it looks like the staff concurs,
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this notion of the back-in rear parking. I know there's counterintuitive data that suggests
that that's actually safer, but in this particular instance, I know that was tried in Cedar
Rapids and I think met with nearly universal condemnation, where you were backing in
at a 45-degree angle. It's my understanding staff concurs. You're not supportive of that
either, and instead of that 45-degree angle, um, have the traditional parallel parking,
which makes a lot of sense. So at least for my two cents, I think it's really fun to see
Council express what the policy preference is and then to come see that...within the
professional engineering standards. So I'm 100% supportive of where you are at this
particular point.
Thomas/I....I think it's interesting, urn,that this follows the discussion of the Police substation,
because you know one....one of the things that I had....had wanted to say and didn't, um,
and in a way I'm glad I didn't, is that one of the kind of lingering issues with the South
District is this....this concern and question about where can we generate gathering
spaces,places where the neighborhood can engage with one another, and I think this, the
design of McCollister, while, Susan, I....I think it does.....it will accommodate through
traffic. The question is, can it do more than simply accommodate through traffic, and I
think that it will, and in doing so will, one,prevent McCollister from becoming a barrier
for pedestrian flow north and south. This often happens with our arterials. And it will
provide a place where the neighborhood can gather together, and um, so I....to me it
transforms the concept of the arterial into a neighborhood thoroughfare center, uh, in a
very interesting way. I....I think the median is a better distribution of the green space
than I think our original section, which had a lot of green space on the edges, and I was
just also realizing that it,you know, on the, um.....Forest View project I had concerns
about the, uh, heat island affect of all this pavement. Well if we have three rows of trees,
uh, running through on McCollister, there's a very good chance we're going to have a full
canopy, depending on our tree selection, over that asphalt section. Uh, so I think it will
create a very beautiful,useful in multiple ways,um,both in terms of traffic flow and
creating that opportunity for the neighbors to encounter one another in kind of a retail
setting,which,um, you know, I think is something really to look forward to.
Teague/I like the missing middle and um, the commercial possibilities comin' over there. The
only question I have is...and the median, it looks awesome in concept. Um, I know Iowa
Avenue has a beautiful median, um, so there's, you know, great things about medians.
The only question I have is, if in the future we're gonna change it, and I understand it
may not cost a lot,but urn, if we're gonna change it,urn, I'd like to begin with the end in
mind, personally, um, where if you think there's going to be a great chance that we might
change the median, why not begin with the end in mind. That's why I back up my car
(laughs) oftentimes,because I know I need to leave straight out. Urn, so that....I think
that would be my only comment is that the median, if we're going to potentially not need
it in the future, maybe give that some more thought. If we....l know the neighborhood is
gonna develop, I mean it...it's a great place for,um, a lot of houses to really be built and
so that....that would be my comment there.
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Havel/Yeah, I think that's the intent. Just whether or not we'll be to a point where we know
where everything's gonna occur. So I think as much as possible we would set that up to
not have to redo in the future and provide those at the initial construction.
Teague/And I think it's also another thing if you wanna take it away in the future if you have
these, you know, the median in the middle and it's all beautiful. We know that the voices
of the community, um, would come out and say'don't take away my green space and my
trees,' and so I think if, um, for future Councilors, um, if you can think about that as well.
Taylor/I'm excited to see this area develop and I think I heard the word compatible. The
roadway design being compatible with the development occurring in the area, and I think
that's important. I mean we've been talking about the missing middle concept for a long
time and that, included with the Main Street concept, uh, and I think....we don't want it to
be a speedway, so I think the speed limits are....are adequate and appropriate, and we
don't wanna see it turn into a speedway.
Throgmorton/I think it's really important to understand (both talking) Maz, you wanted to say
something. Please go ahead.
Salih/Yeah, I just,uh, I do not know then what you guys said. I really agree with most of my
fellow Council Members....I really support this project and I am very excited and happy
about design that the staff proposed. Thanks!
Throgmorton/ Great, thanks, Maz. So what I was on the verge of saying is that it's really crucial
to understand that what we've asked Opticos to do is design a new neighborhood that
differs from the standard kind of neighborhoods that have been built in Iowa City over
the past 40 or 50 years. So a key part of that is this Main Street segment and I don't know
the details,but I think they're imagining that there'll be storefronts and two or three-story
buildings lining this parts....both sides of the street, uh, at that Main Street part, and if
you have an arterial flyin' through there with cars goin', you know, 30-miles-an-hour or
35-miles-an-hour, that will undermine the viability and attractiveness and appeal of that
part of this new neighborhood that's being developed. And there....there's going to be
other kinds of housing that will be this missing middle kind of housing. There'll be a mix
of single-family detached, some duplexes,probably some four-plexes,uh, that look kinda
like single-family houses,uh, and some apartment buildings,probably, I don't know the
details about that. So....I haven't seen their design yet. None of us have. Uh,but it's
really important to understand that that's what we have asked Opticos to produce for us,
and they're doin'it! And it's really crucial to make sure the roadway design is compatible
with what we've asked them to design for us.
Thomas/Yeah, I didn't mention the land use aspects cause we're really focusing on the roadway
design,but they are integral to one another and I think it's also the first time we've seen
that kind of urban design aspect to it, where you're going through a, you know, what I
sometimes think of as an intensity gradient, where as you head toward the center, the uses
intensify and the use of the thoroughfare changes, as it....as you go through those
different building types. So it's a, I think it's a very interesting, um....uh, introduction in
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terms of how we're imagining our thoroughfares, our streets, and our land uses to better
integrate.
Throgmorton/Okay, folks. Any other comments? Thanks, Jason.
Havel/Thank you.
Clarification of Agenda Items:
Throgmorton/Okay. Think that means we can move on to clarification of agenda items. Who
needs clarity? That's not a question(laughs) (several talking) Go ahead, Maz!
Salih/No, I'm okay!
5.d. Budgeted Positions-Neighborhood Services Division Resolution amending
budgeted positions in the Neighborhood Services Division of the Neighborhood and
Development Services Department by deleting one full-time Neighborhood Services
& Code Enforcement Specialist and adding one full-time Building Inspector
position.
Throgmorton/Okay. I'm gonna ask a question about Item 5d,budgeted positions, havin'to do ,
with Neighborhood Services. So,Tracy,maybe you can help with this? I think I know
the answer but I wanna ask and hear what you have to say. So....what effect would the
proposed conversion of one....one position to another have on our ability to enforce the
new exterior maintenance requirements related to rental conversions in core
neighborhoods?
Hightshoe/It wouldn't impact it. When we looked at the job description between the code
enforcement position and our....our building inspector, or housing inspector position,
they're essentially the same. It's just what we assign that....that person to do. So we did
want a person that was, that had the capability of writing specs and doing rehab projects,
but there still remains that enforcement. So half....since the position is half paid with
housing inspection and half paid with CDBG and Home funds, or federal funds,we'll....
that person will get hired and we'll still have to enforce,um, our nuisance complaints.
14.Moratorium on rental permits Ordinance amending Title 17 of the City Code (Building
and Housing) to establish a moratorium until March 7, 2020 on the issuance of new
rental permits for single-family and duplex units in RS-5, RS-8 and FINS-12 zones
within certain rental permit districts in the Rental Impact Area shown in Figure 17-
1 of the City Code. (Pass and Adopt)
Throgmorton/Okay, good. I'm relieved(laughs) Anybody else need clarification on any agenda
item? I'm hearing the clock tick so let's....maybe we could move on a little bit. Let's see
here, uh.....(mumbled) Well, I think I wanna mention Item 14,which,uh, refers to the
moratorium on rental permits, but we gotta memo from Geoff asking that we confirm our
goals for future actions. Yeah, so....the staff proposes three goals. Uh, I wanna tell you
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that when I read them, I thought they were incomplete. I think....my sense is that there
needs to be some clarification or elaboration on each of those, and I shared a....an email
with Eleanor and Geoff and copies to Simon and Sue Dulek and Ashley, uh, about this,
uh, so I could run through what I had in mind (several talking) y'all understand, and....
and then we'll see what the Council as a whole wants to do. So with regard to the staffs,
uh, the....the first goal recommended by the staff, it begins, 'Ensure older homes and
duplexes provide healthy and safe living environments for all occupants.' Actually that's
the whole thing(laughs) but older homes doesn't quite get it, for me. I mean there are a
lot of things that are older homes. So I think that means 'older single-family detached
structures.' So I'm just tryin' to be more....more clear, at least in my own mind, about
what....what that's referring to. So.....what I'm suggesting is that it be transformed to
'ensure older single-family detached structures and duplexes....provide healthy and safe
living environments for all occupants.' Is there any legal difficulty with that?
Dilkes/No, I don't think that changes the....the meaning.
Thomas/I'm not sure why'older' is in there, in the sense that the single-family and duplexes in
these neighborhoods are of variable age.
Throgmorton/Uh huh.
Thomas/Not all old (laughs)
Throgmorton/Uh, okay so maybe we need to delete the word, the adjective, 'older'too.
Thomas/I...I, seems to me it's...they vary in age.
Cole/I would agree.
Throgmorton/Okay, is there a majority support for the language I recommended with John's
correction...or modification?
Cole/Yes!
Throgmorton/Okay. All right.
Salih/Yes!
Throgmorton/Good. Thank you, Maz! The second one....l'11 just read the way it....it's currently
stated, 'Maintain neighborhood characteristics and housing options suitable for attracting
a diverse demographic in our older single-family neighborhoods.' I think the....the noun
'demographic'really does not capture what we're talking about. So I would recommend
changing it to read as follows, 'Maintain neighborhood characteristics and housing
options suitable for attracting a...healthy and sustainable balance of owner-occupants,
long-term renters, and short-term renters in our older single-family neighborhoods.'
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Teague/Will you read that one more time?
Throgmorton/ Sure! Maintain....excuse me, maintain neighborhood characteristics and housing
options suitable for attracting....uh.....a, urn, healthy and sustainable balance of owner-
occupants, long-term renters, and short-term renters in our older single-family
neighborhoods. So I'm suggesting deleting the words 'diverse demographic' and
substituting the words 'healthy and sustainable balance of owner-occupants, long-term
renters, and short-term renters.'
Teague/I don't know that....long-term or short-term, I don't know how we can determine that.
Or how that can be a part of our goal. Renters, yes,but to specify long or short-term.
Throgmorton/(mumbled) what do the rest of you think?
Thomas/It's an important distinction in my view, and I'm not sure what, um....you know, how
that will.....play out in terms of our....how we develop policy, but it is a,um....it is....it
is a critical factor in terms of how the stability of the neighborhood, uh.....is affected, you
know,the...it's....the....the short-term aspects of...of a, which is consis...makes up a large
percentage of the number of rental. In fact I, you know, I think we've talked about
wishing we had better,more....um, defined data but um, the...the information that I've
seen in Census.....2010 Census is the majority of residents, um, in....in these core
neighborhoods are short-term renters.
Teague/We can't require a landlord require a two or three-year lease, can we?
Throgmorton/No. No.
Dilkes/No.
Teague/ So I'm not sure how we can do it. So I mean(several talking) I'm just sayin'....go right
ahead!
Wu/Sorry, urn, yeah just to tag onto you I guess I would also like to k now,urn, stricter
definition between long and short-term renters. Urn, I k now a lot of students tend to
move every....every year or maybe they'll stay for only two years,but even though they
move every year, it's possible they might stay in the same neighborhood during each of
those moves. So...(mumbled) yeah, I would agree with, um, Councilor Teague that
staying long versus short-term without any further explanation is a bit broad.
Dilkes/I....I think therein lies the value of using the term diverse demographic. Um,this
discussion, I think, illustrates that issue. You....you get away from this kind of....detail
that requires definition, um,to be....understandable.
Mims/Well even the word'healthy' is so....vague, you know,how....one person might define
what is....what is healthy and....a healthy balan....healthy and sustainable balance versus
what somebody else would. Um, but I like your ideas, Jim, but I....I think again,
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particularly when you're talking about.....yeah, something that you're not trying to define
everything that we can't and maybe some things you try....being trying to define that
would end up in legal issues. I think the diverse demographic....is maybe very plain, but
I think it really gets at,uh, what it is, you know, without that more detail (both talking)
Throgmorton/It's also very vague. Diverse demographic, diverse in what sense?
Mims/I mean I think you....
Dilkes/I...I think you....I think when you're goal setting, and I think that, um, I mean it's a term
that we use often when we're talking about our neighborhoods, that we want diversity in
terms of....in terms of all sorts of things. Includes renter, owner-occupied,um,
affordable, you know, less affordable, I mean it...I think it....I think there's a lot of things
that can be included in that. But....if.....if you wanna focus on the balance of renters and
owner-occupied....I.....I think that really narrows the....the conversation. Maybe that's
what you wanna do, I don't know.
Taylor/Well I think a lot of times, uh, when you're talking short-term renters, you think of the
students, but as I was sifting here thinking, I know the University has a number of prof...
professors that come in maybe for one or two years and....and they are short-term too, so
it's not necessarily just....just students that are the....the short-term. Um,I'd like maybe
.....I....I agree with you, Susan, maybe healthy shouldn't be in there, but the sustainable
balance, a balance between those—the short-term and long-term.
Dilkes/I think it also kinda plays into the hands of the legislature, which is....I mean the
language that you suggested in terms of....this,that we're still talking about how many
owner-occupied and how many renters do we have, and I....I don't think
that's...necessarily the conversation that we wanna...(both talking) I think it's an aspect of
it but I....
Mims/I....I'm comfortable sticking with the diverse demographic. I think it....I think it is
broader and allows us to....to actually think about a lot more thing...a lot,think about it
more broadly in terms of how we do things, whether you're talking, you know, a mixture
in terms of the age of people who might be attracted to the neighborhood(both talking)
Dilkes/Think that's another very good example.
Mims/You know, the age of people, the socioeconomic, racial, student, non-student, um....you
know, owner-occupied, not, I....I just think we can think about it much more broadly
with just those two words of'diverse demographic,' in terms of doing it. So I'm....t'm
comfortable with the language(both talking)
Throgmorton/What do the rest of you think?
Cole/Actually I would agree,um, with Susan and Bruce in this context. I, um, I think what
we're all shooting for is sustainable blend of all different housing types and ownership
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structures, and...you know, residents in all of our neighborhoods, and this just gives us the
flexibility to achieve what our goals are, and while I certainly don't wanna consider the
legislature in every decision that we make, and unfortunately we are in a situation now—
virtually every decision we make seems to be reviewed by the legislature, um, I think if
we can avoid unnecessary review, urn,by this what seemingly is a super-city council, urn,
I think that would be a good thing. So this gives us the flexibility and I think that our
staff does have a fingertip feel of what we're trying to accomplish. Urn, I would say one
thing in connection with the long-term renters, I think for example Housing Fellowship in
my contact with, uh, Mary Ann Dennis is that one of their core attributes is long-term
rentals, and those are affordable options. So I think there's a variety of different ways
that I think we can emphasize that, as opposed to this unnecessary dichotomy between
renting and home ownership. I think we know...I think staff knows what we're trying to
achieve, and this gives them the flexibility to achieve that.
Throgmorton/Uh....well, how bout the rest of you?
Thomas/I, you know, I....I can understand why you're considering other options. It seemed a
little....um.....bureaucratic (laughs) for lack of a better word, you know,just didn't seem
to, you know, diverse demographic,um,but on the other hand it's the most open-ended,
so it....it does allow ways, different ways of interpreting it and understanding it, which
are....are consistent, I think, with what we're trying to achieve. Um....so I....I'm okay
with leaving it.
Teague/Might I suggest a different word, uh, other than diverse—inclusive demographic? I
don't know. Inclusivity is....is more of everything, but....I can live with diverse.
Cole/ I think it's pretty much six of one, half dozen of another(several talking)
Throgmorton/Well it...it's clear there's a majority, uh, sending my proposal down crashing to the
ground (laughter)
Cole/Wasn't your first one though, Jim! (several talking)
Throgmorton/Do you wanna....you don't have to, but did you wanna say anything?
Taylor/Well the more everyone's talking, I mean, I thought just leave it as, uh, the sustainable
part, I like that term—sustainable balance—uh,but as they're talking I think demographic
does get at, uh, what....what we really want to look at and...and try to avoid anything, as
Rockne said, any scrutiny, uh,by the State for anything.
Throgmorton/Okay, so we'll stick with diverse demographic. Uh, the third item on the staffs,
uh, recommended set of goals is....prevent the overburdening of City infrastructure and
operational resources. I don't have anything to recommend about that,but I wonder if
any of you have anything you wanna say.
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Teague/I did have a comment. I think that...this is gonna be somethin' that staff always looks at,
whatever is created. I think to have it written here, um....for me personally,just....um,
isn't....I don't think it's....it's the best thing to do is, as I said, if we're trying to, um,
decrease the work that we do for renters or....as far as like hirin' staff, um....is....is how I
read this—operational infrastructure. Urn, the rental permits, I mean that's where my
mind goes....when I look at this. Um....I think....we don't need number three. That's
just gonna be somethin'that we always consider, with whatever we create. To have it
spelled out just kinda....give me the impression that our, um.....landlords or, um,
whatever are, you know, could potentially be a burden and so we need to make sure that
we cite that and look at it. So I would recommend that number three not be included,
although it's going to be.....a part of everything that we do,whenever we're doing
anything.
Throgmorton/I wonder if I could ask the staff to elaborate a little bit about what it had in mind
with regard to preventing the overburdening of City infrastructure and operational
resources.
Monroe/I can explain just a bit. Um,part of the City infrastructure that we're concerned about
protecting is the fact that a lot of our utilities in those neighborhoods are....are capable
of, you know, servicing the single-family neighborhoods they were built for,but not
necessarily, um, an overburdening of our sewer system, of other water usage. Those
kinds of things are also included in this kind of statement. So....so yes, it...it speaks to
our organizational resources, the time, the staff that it takes to manage those things,but
also other, um, you know, other infrastructure that we need to be concerned about
maintaining within those....those neighborhoods and areas. So, um....that....that I think
is a part of what was intended there.
Dilkes/ I think another example would be the availability of parking (several talking)with our
streets,the size of our pedestrian ways—all those things that have been built for one
community and are being ov....overwhelmed. It was also a real focus of when we were
doing the earlier stuff about the number of police calls and those kinds of things, and
ways that we might....reduce those.
Teague/So then I might....thank you for that clarification, urn, I don't know if you wanted to
expound any more, so I might suggest leavin'the overburden of City infrastructure but
actually with some examples there,just two or three,um, but the operational resources—I
would recommend removin' that.
Cole/Along that line, Bruce, I had a really good discussion with Stan Laverman a couple months
ago in connection with another issue that we had raised with a duplex, uh, about a block
away from here, and it was a really good history lesson on the history of the conversion a
lo....of a lot of these single-family structures to renters, in particular after World War II,
um, with the GI Bill. We had a lot of Gis come back to the City of Iowa City. There was
not enough space for them, so they all sort of converted these single-family houses that
were not designed to carry six or seven detached apartments. And what Stan told me is,
especially as it applies to those particular rentals—not the newer structures—there was a
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real enforcement challenge because a lot of these houses were not designed to be rentals.
Originally they're built to be single-family homes. So I do think that in terms of
identifying what our goals are, urn, I...I think that is a factor that at least we need to
consider, I think that we could say it in a more positive, productive way. Instead of
saying 'prevent overburdening,'why don't we say'to enhance optimation of services to all
of our rental inspection,'you know, something along those lines, where it could be
framed in a more positive way, that's we're optimizing our scarce resources to ensure that
for our renters,that we do have adequate resources to ensure that there are health and
safety inspections, and another thing is it's my understanding the people that aren't
renting, own their own home,there is no....there are no inspections for them, correct,
Eleanor? Homeowners do not have that. So it is an issue that does face rentals. I would
at least like to leave it in, although maybe frame it in a way that we're optimizing City
resources and that that would be a goal.
Mims/I would just comment from a procedural standpoint, this is not....this is not an ordinance.
This is not even a resolution. Where we're reading this is in a staff memo. So to me,the
wording is....a little bit, urn.....the wording doesn't really matter from the standpoint as
long as staff is on the same page....we and the staff are on the same page as to really
what they're going to be doing. So....getting into wordsmithing of these....three goals
that staff has had in the past, I kinda see as a waste of our time, as long as we're on the
same page,because this....all they're doing is expressing to us what their goals were in
the past. If we want them to have totally different goals,then yes, we need to express
that. But to wordsmith...the goals they have, as long as they do express the same....I do
want them to take a look at....our City infrastructure, in terms of water and sewer in these
core areas and parking. I do want them to be thinking about how this relates to
operational resources in terms of staffing and does it mean do we....are they gonna
propose regulations that means we've gotta hire five more staff? I want them to be
thinking about those things. So from my perspective, if we basically agree with the
substance of these.....then I think we need to tell staff then that and....move on.
Taylor/I agree with Susan. I...I think that, uh,Ashley helped to clarify that and obviously staff
had given it some thought and they do have an understanding of what, uh, these
in...increase in rental areas,uh, affects City services, so, uh, I....I agree with Susan that
it's just an explanation of that.
Throgmorton/Okay, so I guess we're not gonna change item three (several talking) didn't hear
(several talking)
Wu/ ...question.
Throgmorton/ Sorry,Austin, go ahead!
Wu/Urn, for point one, I missed this the first time around,but um, in the specification for single-
family, detached homes, does that refer to the single-family homes that've been converted
into apartments, as well, or just those that are occupied by....that are still like
unconverted in like their single initial piece(mumbled)
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Throgmorton/Think it means all the structures (both talking)
Wu/ Okay!
Throgmorton/ ...in the core, those affected neighborhoods. Yeah. (noises in background) Uh, all
right, so....I was also gonna suggest two additional goals. So I wanna read them. See if
there's agreement about them or not. So...the fourth would be, 'Support the School
District's investments in Maim, Lincoln, and Longfellow Elementary Schools by enabling
families with children to live within walking distance of those schools.' (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Sure! And the gist of it is, support the School District's investments,but anyhow,
the longer version is 'support the School District's investments in Mann, Lincoln, and
Longfellow Elementary Schools by enabling families with children to live within walking
distance of those schools.'
Teague/ Is there an example of the incentive that you would suggest that a city can do?
Throgmorton/Well the rental cap ordinance.....was an effort to in part....support the School
District's investments. There's been ongoing dialogue with the School District about
whether to renovate and make additions to Mann, Longfellow, and Lincoln, and in fact
they did it. Now why did they do it? They did it because we had also committed
ourselves to doing everything we can to ensure that there was a healthy balance of owner-
occupants and renters. (several talking)
Dikes/ ....UniverCity program would bean example of....of a type of program that you could
do that would support that goal.
Cole/What I'm wondering though, Eleanor, though is that can we....and in terms of our goal,
distinguish between families with children and families without....or......(both talking)
Dilkes/Yeah, that's kinda the first thing that struck me when I....when I looked at it too. Um....
Andrew/And I would say that this one is a component of the first goal, to have a diverse
demographic within each neighborhood, that one of those goals is to have student-age
children.
Cole/And I think that was part of the concern, at least it was proffered on the regulation of
unrelated occupancy that we were distinguishing between familial types,um, and I think
that was at least the proffered concern of the legislature. So I would say that let's avoid
that at this point.
Throgmorton/Well then a condensed version of this, what I'm recommending, would be,
'Support the School District's investment in Mann, Lincoln, and Longfellow.'
Teague/Again I....I guess I don't know what that looks like, for an example.
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Mims/ I guess I again come back to the fact that, and I get what you're trying to say, Jim, and...
again, these are goals within a staff memo. You know? This is not a resolution. Um, and
I think the diverse demographics....it's.....certainly a part of that, I mean I understand
what you're trying to do is really call out that....considerable effort and investment that
the School District has done and we totally supported and encouraged through our
support of the bond referendum, um....but again, my concern is that we start going down
a path that's....causes usu more problems (laughs) in the end.
Cole/Well given especially that we seem to be getting a lot of letters lately, and a future, um....
uh, person with letterhead could be reviewing what we're stating, so, um, I....I would
think that we would, uh, staff knows what we're trying to accomplish, which is a diverse
demographic.
Thomas/It also doesn't apply to all. I'm just thinking say the Miller Orchard neighborhood, you
know, it's, um, the area affected is more than just the east side. It's the west side as well.
So in that regard, I....I think....you know, it may not be useful or helpful to....be,to try...
I understand, again(laughing) completely understand what you're....what you're trying to
get at. Um, but I don't know, I mean I think we all understand it and probably that's all
that's important.
Mims/And that staff does (several talking)
Thomas/Yeah, we meaning staff as well.
Throgmorton/Any other discussion, about that?
Taylor/Well I....we've been preaching the importance of neighborhood schools for a long time
and that that's what we'd like to see and we'd encouraged the School District to do that,
but I do kinda agree with John, although I'm a Longfellow grandparent and....and do
appreciate that neighborhood and that school and what they've done, um....I also live on
the west side and having lost Roosevelt, that is a concern. I don't think we need to single
out and start doing east side versus west side kind of demographics, but.....
Throgmorton/Okay. I get it. Another idea shot down! (laughter and several talking) I only
have one more arrow in my quill, or whatever you call it. (mumbled) Anyhow, the fifth
one would be, 'Increase the probability that downtown Iowa City will retain a health mix
of commercial venues appealing to both long-term and short-term residents.' I can read it
again if you want. So....
Mims/That....that assumes....that....there is a distinct difference in....the.....that assumes there's
a distinct difference between long-term and short-term residents in how and where they
wanna spend their money. And so basically, to me, it's saying students versus non-
students, and so...L...I don't wanna see that language in there.
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Cole/Without the short and long-term, do you object to that language, 'Support commercial
viability of our downtown?' What was the first part of the language?
Throgmorton/Well, so I'll get rid of those, long-term and short-term part. 'Increase the
probability that downtown Iowa City will retain a healthy mix of commercial venues.' So
what...what I'm sayin', I think....should be, is obvious to everybody here probably....
what's bought and sold in downtown largely depends on who goes downtown and that
largely depends on who lives near downtown.
Mims/ Ooh, I don't know! I don't know. You have an awful lot of people who don't live near
downtown that go down there a lot and spend a lot of money.
Throgmorton/Well yeah, I...I don't mean to exclude people who...who go down there. There are
a lot of visitors who go there, obviously there are a lot of tourists, lot of people who come
for ball games and other, uh....uh.....festivals and the like, but yeah,that's obviously true,
but....on the other hand, we've had long conversations about this kind of thing, Susan,
over the past seven years (laughs) you know, so....I know you know what I'm getting at
(both talking)
Mims/ ....well I mean I'm totally supportive of, you know,that we want to make sure our
downtown is a very viable....uh, downtown with a....a diverse mix of businesses, but....
again, I don't....I.....I don't think having that be successful is.....is or necessarily should
be related to this particular issue.
Teague/ I would agree.
Mikes/ I think to the extent it is, it's...it's incorporated into the diverse demographic goal,
because I mean I think that's what...and again, I think for the same reasons we didn't want
to limit it to long-term and short-term renting in number two, we wanna consider things
like age and racial diversity and all those things. This one suffers from the same
problems.
Cole/ I would agree. We just don't wanna encourage that there's certain people that we want or
don't want. I'm not saying that's what you're implying, Jim. I think your interpretation is
great,but that would just be my concern.
Teague/ I woulda replaced the...with ge...you know, long-term and short-term with generations.
You know, we...make sure that there's things for generations to do,but again I think, um,
as Councilor Taylor talked about, we don't want it to be west side versus,um, north side
or anything like that. I don't think we wanna get into, uh, identifyin' downtown
businesses where we hear all the time, you know, that we need to support other
businesses. It's not just downtown. So I think, um, you know, that diverse demographic,
you know, that kinda....you know, incorporates it for me.
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Throgmorton/ Okay, so what I'm hearing is that, uh, we....will retain the three goals
recommended by staff, with one slight modification to the first one. Any other discussion
about the three goals?
Wu/Uh, I wonder for the fifth proposal,urn, I agree with Councilor Mims' initial statement that
singling out long-term versus like shorter term residents probably isn't like the best move,
but I....I see where you're coming from insofar as, um, there could probably be a bit more
diversity in business options downtown, other than bars and restaurants. Uh, I think
there's something...I've heard (mumbled) the toilet paper index, where it basically can
you walk to a store from your house and buy toilet paper? Can you do that affordably or
not? Urn, so I guess like when I walk downtown it's just a bunch of bars,restaurants,
empty shop stalls, and I wonder if, um, it could be a goal to support, um, maybe like
broader diversity of businesses where people can conduct daily errands from walking
distance, so students don't need to bring their cars that often, cause I think that's part of
the reason that, um,people do so is they wanna go to Aldi or Walmart,places, you know,
they could buy stationary or maintenance supplies or that kind of thing. So, urn, I wonder
instead of singling out....the types of residents if it would be possible to say the diversity
of businesses or different functions that are available in downtown.
Mims/I'm not....I'm still not sure that relates to this....to this topic, I mean I think that's
important, and I talk all the time about the fact that there's hardly any place in Iowa City
now to buy sheets or socks or underwear, I mean, you know....but, and I totally agree
with what you're saying,but I don't see it as directly related to what we're trying to do
here, related to the moratorium.
Cole/I would concur, and I also think strategic ambiguity would be a good thing in this process,
as opposed to overly explicit instructions.
Teague/Yeah, cause I think we're trying to direct staff on something very specific, you know,
and.....doin'that is a little too much expansion, and there's other departments that can
certainly, I mean we have the,um...um, I think we have a consultant that is now lookin' at
our businesses throughout the city, so I would say let's go with the three that are, you
know,with the one change and go from there.
Thomas/ I think both points that Jim has raised are good for us to hear(several talking)urn,
when I think about this, it isn't simply about the diversity of the housing stock. It's also
important to consider that it's....it does have an impact on the diversity and demographic
of those who frequent the downtown. So, you know, if you have a more diverse...if...if
the neighborhoods within walking distance of the downtown are more diverse, that
should reflect on the diversity of the downtown. Uh, and the same with the schools. You
know we've invested tens of millions of dollars, uh, we would rather(laughs) it's good
public policy to have as many, you know, that....that the children who attend those
schools are within, you know,the whole goal was within walking distance of....of the
school itself. So, I think it's good to remind ourselves of that. Um, I don't know that it
needs to be in the staff memo.
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Cole/I know Jim didn't want us talkin' too much on any individual topic tonight but I do wanna
emphasize too that....we all wanna make sure that we treat our neighborhoods equally. I
totally get that,but we also need to remember too that as we review, in this particular
context more of the challenges of our inner-core neighborhoods, and each neighborhood
does have its own unique challenges, so I think as we continue engage in these
discussions, we also can't be afraid to identify the individual needs that each particular
neighborhood has and....and understand that maybe a focus in one area....one
neighborhood may need a little bit more of something, and maybe another neighborhood
doesn't need quite as much. So I think that's sorta something to think about, that, uh, we
can...we can have individual, tailored solutions, but that's enough talk for me.
Information Packet Discussion (May 9, May 16):
Throgmorton/Okay, folks, thanks for engaging in that discussion. I think staff has our guidance
with regard (several talking) Okay,uh, I....anything else on the agenda packet? I think
the answer's no, so I'm gonna move ahead to the information packets. The May 2nd
information packet, we need to provide guidance to the staff about policy regarding
vendor wages, which has to do with, uh, item....IP7 that was in the May...also in the May
16th information packet. So, uh....is any staff member gonna say anything about this or
should we just kinda dive into a discussion?
Monroe/No you can....you are free to discuss and ask questions if..as needed.
Teague/I guess my....my biggest....concern here is....um.....the risk it'll have for mom and pop
businesses and their ability to grow. Um, a part of....what's bein' proposed, I guess, is,
um, you know, Johnson County of course, we're very progressive with the 10.10,which is
great, and I support that, um,but when we're talkin' about vendors,um, out of our
community, um, you know, that will be able to, you know,bid on this, some of those
individuals, their businesses are, you know, tryin'to get to the next level and, you know,
gettin' a contract from the City can help them get there. You know, from any city,not just
our city. Um, and if we're talkin' about, you know, maybe....you know, narrowin' it only
to Johnson County residents or businesses, um, then I....I think that our businesses that
don't do 10.10, you know, some....another community could win that, you know,that bid.
I agree with the efforts that, um, that this program would (noises in background)provide
but there is a lot of vendors that we currently have, urn, I'm not opposed to maybe doin' a
questionnaire, you know, addin' a question to the already questionnaire that we have, and
then maybe comin'back and visiting this,uh,maybe within a year or six months, you
know, something like that. Let's...we can add the question: do they pay at least 10.10,
and then maybe we come back and look at this from the data that, you know,people, um,
I guess voluntarily answer and...and then maybe go from there. I...I certainly don't wanna
hinder any mom and pop businesses that, you know.....and the other thing is most City
contracts, they're bigger, well....potentially they could be bigger, um, businesses where
they have a lot of value, and so....the larger you value 'em, the higher you pay. 10.10
doesn't sound like....um, most people wouldn't do that, um, if you're, you know,have a
bunch oft-shirts that you're sellin', you're producin' thousands,tens of thousands of t-
shirts. So....I'm not certain....now food restaurants, somethin' like that, that might be a
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little bit different but, you know, the City I would imagine,um, that isn't a large part of
what we do or what we are thinkin' about here in this vendor,um,participation. So,that's
what....that would be my proposal is that we actually add it on the questionnaire. Do you
at least pay 10.10 per hour to your employees? And then we come back in about six
months or a year, whatever the case may be, and then look at that and move from there.
Throgmorton/ So, Bruce, the...the staff proposed five alternatives.
Teague/Yes! I know that.
Throgmorton/And you're suggesting that we do the second alternative, is that correct, that we
just survey vendors?
Teague/Yes!
Throgmorton/That's it, right? That's what you're(both talking)
Teague/For...yes, with...with the intent of corrin'back, of course. Survey, in...intent of maybe
givin' it some defined time, six months, nine months, a year, and then makin' a decision
after we have that data.
Throgmorton/Okay.
Mims/Which is basically what that says, I mean it's do the survey and then you use the
information.
Teague/Yes!
Throgmorton/ Okay,what do the rest of you think?
Taylor/I think it(both talking) Oh, Mazahir, go ahead! Go ahead...Maz!
Salih/Yeah, I...I really support the recommended option, number three (mumbled) that give a
competitive advantage for vendor(unable to understand) I see your point,but really I
think this is will encourage that(unable to understand) and this is will encourage the
businesses to be involved by paying$10.10 (unable to understand) we talking about just
creating a list of those businesses and use them as much as you can. Say for example, if
you wanna do something like say if you wanna buy(unable to understand) and there is no
place in your list you know that they paying$10.10 or not, you can just go ahead
because you look up your list there is nobody on your list(unable to understand)
supporting option number three.
Throgmorton/Okay, thanks, Maz. So there's a suggestion, folks, to support option three instead
of option two. Do the rest of you have opinions about how we should proceed?
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Mims/I would agree with Bruce on option two. I think we need to get some idea of what the
vendors are paying. If there's a questionnaire that's already going out and that can be
added to that, and then, you know, we look at that, and I think....cause I think we have to
be really cautious about....first get the data, and then im....implementing any policy, be
really cautious about how that impacts local businesses and our local preference, and I
think Bruce raises a really good point about you might have some businesses that are just
starting out and you wanna help 'em, you wanna support'em, but they might not quite be
at that point of....of paying some of those wages. So , um, I think starting with getting an
idea which of our vendors are actually doing it makes the most sense.
Taylor/ I think that kinda goes along with, I think there was a statement, or a question made,
whether,um, it could possibly shrink our vendor pool and...and make the costs of goods
and services actually go up, where some maybe, as Bruce had talked about, the newer
companies starting out perhaps their services are actually lower costs,uh, so that would
hinder us on that, and I admire the original intent of this proposal,but I think as staff
mentioned, it's hindered by a lot of factors, including that, uh, there is no really list of
company wage information out there and that we do,uh, deal, um, do business with a lot
of out of state vendors, and perhaps even some of those out of state, uh, states have, uh, a
better wage than....than Iowa. Course it doesn't take much to do better than 7.25 but, uh,
we would be dealing with that too and....and looking at that, but I think along with what
Bruce said with number two, I think number one(mumbled) goes along with that
because, uh, we should promote,uh, the advisory wage that the County has put out there,
but I would use the word 'strongly encourage local business'to....to comply with that
minimum wage.
Thomas/Well I....I can see where there would be certainly as a starting point ad....advantages in
having,uh,the survey as sort of a starting point, um......regardless of preferences beyond
that. I do,uh, like Mazahir like number three. I think the idea of,um, as we have in our
strategic plan of trying to promote the local economy, this seems to be consistent with
that. Uh, and when you join it with the existing preference for,um....local vendors, uh,
you know, it seems, first of all it means it's passed the scrutiny of the State, which always
seems to be an issue with us, is,uh, that that already seems to be okay. So if we build on
that, and between promoting local businesses and promoting a higher wage for those
businesses that are local, that would seem to me to be pointing all towards strengthening
our local economy.
Cole/Yeah and I think I....I strongly support three, and I think here's why. I think you're coming
from a very good place, Bruce,because you wanna make sure that we're not having
unintended consequences, and I totally understand that. But keep in mind where our
starting point is on this. Um, people that work full time at 10.10 are under the poverty
level,right, and I think if you're at 7.25, you are barely able to survive as a human being,
and so what we're trying to do is create a living wage for everyone. And I think we can
do that,uh, through our values, as Maz said, that we express in our purchasing decisions.
Um, that said, I don't mean to muddy the waters too much,um, we do have an equity
toolkit in place. I assume that this would go through that process in terms of reviewing
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whether there's any unintended consequences. Would we go through that process,
Simon?
Andrew/We could certainly go through that process. Uh, the Finance Department is one of the
departments that has been through the toolkit training, and so we could include that(both
talking)
Cole/ ....I know we've all talked a lot about social entrepreneurships, Center for Worker Justice
has done a lot with new emerging enterprises. I know we've all tried to make sure that
there's new business opportunities for groups that still haven't participated as much as we
would like to, um, so assuming it wasn't too much of a heavy lift, I do think that's
consistent with what I know that Kingsley had spent a lot of time on, in terms of trying to
make sure that when we do these policies there's no unintended consequences. So
certainly I think that would be a good idea,but I do think it's extremely important that we
communicate our values in terms of,um,having that living wage and the value of hard
work and the value of increasing your own life's station through that work, um, which can
be done through home small business ownership too, so I totally understand that and I
think you're coming from a very good place as far as that goes. But I would like to see us
do that,um, we're not talking about an increase to $15 an hour, and it's also important to
emphasize that we're not talking about a ban that they could not qualify for a City
contract. We're just expressing a preference. That would be one point score among
many, and I would....we have the local preference and hopefully maybe, you know, if we
have the equity toolkit, there may be a.....another point consideration that would come
out of that particular process. So I think we really need to put our money where our
mouth is, literally, and adopt number three.
Throgmorton/Well right now we're at three to three and I haven't said anything. So, does
anybody else have anything they want to say before I express a view? Okay, not hearing
anything, I'm going to support option three. But in the interim I think we should promote
the advisory minimum wage and encourage local businesses to comply voluntarily.
Teague/Can you say that last part again?
Throgmorton/In the interim...cause...cause staffs gonna have to develop...something (laughing)
to....to,uh....uh.....pursue the requirement, uh, for vendors to....well, pursuing the
preference policy approach. So I'm just sayin', assuming that's going to take a fair
amount of time—I don't know how much—we could simply promote, in the interim,
simply promote the advisory minimum wage and encourage local businesses to comply
voluntarily. (several talking)
Teague/ So I do have a quick question. The, so the, um....the toolkit that we referred to, what...
would that allow, um.....special exception on some level for like a....a smaller business
that is trying to get their feet off the ground, or.....cause the staff don't know that part, or
how will they know that part?
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Cole/(both talking) ...review it and we wouldn't necessarily have a pre-set exception, and then...
as I understand what our purpose of the toolkit was, is that if there's anything the City
does that unintentionally results in disproportionate impact on things that we
don't....we're not trying to do, but we're just blind to that, that we're systematically
reviewing that(noises in background) and so in terms of what we would do to address
things that come out of the equity toolkit, wouldn't we sort of wait until that process
occurs, I mean isn't that what we would,how that would work, Jim, or does anyone else
have any thoughts on that?
Andrew/Yeah, I think if we went through that process and we did find that there was gonna be
some disparate impact that we weren't expecting with the policy that we'd come back to
you and say(both talking) we found and, you know, this is a concern we have. Do you
still wanna move forward with this policy or can we incorporate something in the policy
that addresses that concern.
Salih/ (several talking) to your point, I would like to (unable to understand) many small
businesses are signing up for 10.10 an hour (mumbled)Worker Justice. Many of them
here in the downtown area. I think(unable to understand) 10.10 too.
Andrew/We probably should point out at this point that our local preference policy has not had
any awards based on that yet. Um, there are exceptions in there and the ability for the
other vendors to match the price for the local vendor,but um, I don't want to, um, have us
be overly optimistic of how often this would be used, given we can't use it on publicly-
bid contracts and....and many other limitations.
Teague/And I also understand number three is just, um, is just....a.....a point or (mumbled)
Okay. Yeah.
Throgmorton/ Okay, any other discussion about that point? Hearing none, we have probably five
minutes or so. We could proceed with regard to the next information packet,which is the
May 9th packet.
Teague/I say go for it!
Thomas/We're just talking general....the general packet(mumbled)
Throgmorton/Yeah, yeah so,uh, and we have five minutes to talk.
Thomas/Right. So, you know, I did include the, uh, an article on the,uh, this question of climate
change and,uh, and subsequent to that(laughs) Rockne and Mazahir have the...the, uh,
proposal as well, but I found....I found this article interesting in terms of, you know,
there....there is obviously, uh, you know,with the findings of the,um, what is the name
of that organization? The, uh.....anyway that came out with a new finding, the, uh, on
climate change,the um....I'm balking on the name of it, but in any event,you know, the
urgency that that....generated, and so I...in looking at the, you know,what was stated in
this article, it....it just struck me that, you know, clearly the City needs to be very
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strategic in terms of its implementation of the climate action plan and I liked what I saw
in that article in terms of being able to....translate....our action plan into a more.... you
know, more....make it more integral to our....our structure, our organizational structure,
uh, so that we can be confident that we choose to do makes the most sense,both
financially as well as achieving our climate action goals.
Throgmorton/ Okay. With regard to climate action, there is another information packet item that
directly addresses,urn, our current plan and what should be done differently, if anything.
We don't have time to discuss that right now, but I expect we will return to it right after
the formal meeting is adjourned. Or not immediately after,but during that period after
the formal meeting's adjourned. So, hold tight on that. Any other items in that
information packet?
Salih/You say you gonna come back for the rest of the work session agenda, right?
Throgmorton/Yes.
Salih/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ I think I wanna say something about IP#4, which is the links to the Minneapolis
2040 presentation slide show. Yeah, it was really instructive to see those. I wish I'd been
able to attend that particular event, but I couldn't, and uh, but....one thing that comes to
my mind has to do with....um.....well, one of the slides....advocated allowing multi-
family housing as a right in all residential neighborhoods throughout a city, in their case
Minneapolis. And I...I think the viability of this in Iowa City, of that kind of action in
Iowa City depends on what kind of multi-family housing would be permitted and where,
and that is a crucial question for Iowa City. So it's not the kind of thing I would want to
leap into, uh....um, willy nilly. Uh, but I do believe that the missing middle housing
concept is a crucial step toward providing greater variety of housing within residential
neighborhoods, without,uh,unduly undermining the existing character of....of
residential neighborhoods. So,uh, I, you know, we don't have time to go into that in
great detail, but just wanted to get that point out.
Mims/We're up for a complete review of the zoning code, aren't we, in the next....few years or
not? Thought I'd seen something(both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...several years (both talking)
Mims/ ....yeah(laughs) Danielle's like, 'No, I don't wanna do that!' (laughter and several
talking) Okay. All right. Thanks!
Throgmorton/Okay,well.....it's 20 till. I'm thinkin' we should take a break now. So we'll
adjourn the work session till right after the formal meeting and pick up (both talking)
Salih/ ....come back later.
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Throgmorton/Yeah and uh, look forward to hearing from you again shortly, Maz.
Salih/ Sure (mumbled)
(ADJOURN WORK SESSION)
(RECONVENE WORK SESSION)
Information Packet Discussion (cont.):
Throgmorton/We're gonna pick up, uh....with the May 9th packet, which we had just gotten into
and.....(several talking in background) Sorry, I'm trying to find my, where my notes
begin here. All right, yeah. So, uh, the....the May 9 packet, does anybody have anything
they wanna bring up on that? For that IP, or that information packet. Okay, I'm hearing
nothing. So, shall we turn to May 16? So, uh, Counc...uh, staff needs Council direction
on IP#8, which is...has to do with reviewing private housing investment programs, which
Tracy wrote a memo about. So, you're still here,Tracy. Anything(several talking and
laughing) Do you wanna (several talking) do you wanna walk us through it? How do
you wanna proceed?
Hightshoe/Um, I gave you a brief overview and then if you have questions about it, cause I know
it was...it was a long memo. It was about 17 pages. So I will condense.
Throgmorton/Hey, 17's nothin'! (laughter)
Hightshoe/Well Council asked staff to review the strategic plan, and specifically they're after
two items. The first was to evaluate existing strategies and consider additional actions to
address the need for reinvestment in the City's existing private housing stock. So that's
what this memo's for. The second item that we were looking at was to modify the
existing affordable housing action plan to include new strategies for affordable housing.
That will be in a second part, um, so that is coming. We've not....we've not written it all
out yet. So what I provided was a basic overview of all the programs that we have that
rehabilitate basically, or improve, urn, our current housing stock. So it's your CDBG and
Home, your GRIP program, Healthy Homes, historic preservation, UniverCity, South
District. So I outlined the basic programs for each of those, and then after outlining
those, and I can answer any questions if you have any specific questions about any of
those. I don't know how detailed or comprehensive you want me to be. (laughs) All
right, and then we recommended changes to those programs. A lot of the changes we
recommend either to get at the climate action plan or to increase our marketing efforts to
maybe special populations or to people who might need accessibility improvements. So,
like for CDBG owner-occupied housing rehab, you guys allocate 235,000 for us to
improve the housing stock in Iowa City. And then we even have....we even go further,
that we have targeted neighborhoods, and if you're in those targeted neighborhoods,
which looks at different factors, such as age of housing, the percentage of households that
have lower incomes that live there, we provide half of the project costs as a grant. So if
you're in one of those targeted rehabs, you get half of it off as a grant. Um, so what
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we're looking for the owner-occupied housing rehab is to do the same program, and we
are hiring a consultant right now to go through our City STEPS plan, and they're gonna
be looking at those targeted neighborhoods, to see if we need to tweak those, urn,but
that's coming this summer. We're still going to keep the programs. So if we tweak a
couple neighborhoods, it's still the same program. Urn,but we're also gonna increase our
accessibility,just so that we can try to get seniors who want to age in place, that they
know about our programs, cause we've always been able to improve accessibility
improvements, like raised toilets, wider entries, ramps, stuff like that. So make sure
we.....we make sure we advertise to that demographic. We're also gonna increase
eligible activities to include tree planting, landscaping, and storm water improvements
that you can't do under the federal programs. With Home we're gonna see more changes.
So right now we do a set-aside of 90,000 in our Home set-aside. That's for owner-
occupied housing rehab. We're gonna open that up to....to rehab, um, sorry, rental rehab.
For any landlord of a single-family or a duplex property in those targeted neighborhoods
and they would get the same benefit as, um, a home owner. So if you're in those areas
and you're willing to do the compliance period, then we provide half off as a, um, as a
grant. Um, we still put a lien on the property to make sure they....they rent at the right
levels to the right income, the right rent to the right income levels, for a period of five,
10, 15 years, depending on the amount of loan or assistance we provide. So that's
(mumbled) and that's....that's trying to target people where they live. So if you're low to
moderate-income and you're living in these areas, to provide more assistance—whether
you're owner-occupied or rental. GRIP program, we're not gonna change that much
because GRIP is the program that we have that allows the flexibility. So if you barely,
urn, exceed the income threshold, or you wanna do a project that's not eligible, such as
additions, you need to finish your basement cause you have a growing family, you wanna
add a garage—things like that aren't eligible under federal programs. So we'll keep the
GRIP program just to provide that flexibility. The UniverCity will continue on. We'll
probably budget for one home a year. Um, the South District Home Ownership program,
we're gonna talk about that in your next agenda, but we were hoping to....if that program
stays, if we're allowed to proceed,um, increase the geographic areas to our targeted
neighborhoods. So that....we're not just looking at the South District. We're targeting
any targeted neighborhood that we identify. Healthy Homes, that was just a funding shift.
Um, that will get 75....we wanna allocate 75,000, but instead of applying through the
Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County with money that we provide to the Housing
Trust...Trust Fund, that we were going to....of that affordable housing fund and that set-
aside, we'd just reserve that for Healthy Homes and iE...if you remember right, Healthy
Homes is that program where if you have a child with asthma, you have a child under 18
that has asthma, we provide up to 7,500 in rehabilitation that improves indoor air quality,
and at the same time we partner with the College of Nursing for them to come in and
provide....asthma education on-site. And then historic preservation, we just started that
program, so it's probably too new for us to tweak yet. Urn, we'll get more (mumbled)but
that's basically to.....to improve historic properties, the exterior architectural features. So
those are basically the changes, and those basically get at improving the housing stock
that we have right now. And we just wanted your direction,because I think with the
Home,the owner-occupied, increasing that to allow rentals, we have to put that in your
annual action plan that'll come for you in June, or come before you in June. So....if
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you're agreeable to these changes, we will....we will write those in like a
recommendation to you when we present that to you.
Mims/ I like that change of actually making it available to landlords, like you're saying, trying to
address people where they live, whether they own or whether they rent,but then with the
restrictions on income of who's doing the renting. So, basically....my.....my assumption
is in doing that that landlords aren't all of a sudden going to be able to jack up rent, based
on improvement that they've been able to make in the property due to the money they got.
Hightshoe/Um, we'd probably put some restriction there because in some areas...the rent that
they're currently charging is below the fair market rent. So if that's the case, we'd look at
it and basically say you have to keep that same rent and maybe allow 1 to 2% increase
each year during that compliance period. They can't just get our improvements, have half
a percent grant, and then up the rent(both talking)
Mims/ ....yeah! (laughs)
Thomas/Yeah, I'm....I'm very pleased with the, uh, changes, you know in terms of rental
eligibility, the accessibility, trying to fold in the, um, climate related issues. Uh, on that
matter, uh, one aspect of climate action that I've just become more aware of is....is this
question of urban heat island effect. And,um, in fact in a number of my conditions that
I'd developed for Forest View kind of related to that....that issue. But one....one
expansion on my understanding of that has to do with the notion of cool roofs. I'm not
sure if staff is familiar with that,but it's, uh,basically you know most of our roofing is in
dark colors and so it tends to absorb heat. And, uh,the cool roof concept is using....uh,
lighter colors that reflect the heat back into the atmosphere, and they have dramatic, uh,
impacts in terms of the....the temperature difference, which also has the benefit of, um,
reducing the use of air conditioning, which is also a climate action concern is the use of
refrigerants. So you may, you k now, staff may have been aware of that as one
possible...
Hightshoe/We're getting more active in what we recommend to home owners, to educate them.
Um,with the inclusion of Brenda...Nations, our Sustainability Coordinator, into our
department now, we're using....we're utilizing her more to talk about rehab and energy
efficiency appliances, landscaping, and I forgot to mention it,but we did start partnering
with Green Iowa AmeriCorps. So if you're an applicant to GRIP, CDBG, Home, or
occupied, or even our UniverCity program, you're going through their free home energy
audit, and if they need weatherization they include that,but they're also gonna start
advising us like, okay, this house needs a tree, and if we need to put a tree that cools the
house, cools the air conditioning unit, they're making more recommendations, so we've
made it mandatory, um, that if you're applying to us and you want to proceed with a rehab
project, you have to go through that energy audit. It's free. It's just....it's just scheduling
with the home owner.
Thomas/ I mean what....what I love is the idea that, okay, we....we can do something which will
be beneficial to the residents, and....further our climate action goals, which as we know,
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the timeframe (laughs) issues are....are becoming more concerning. Uh, so, anyway, I
wasn't aw...didn't know, cause I didn't see that listed as a potential feature,just wanted to
mention it. It's much less expensive than green roofs, so it's....seems like a really
sensible approach.
Mims/I don't wanna get into a detailed discussion, but I just.....I find that concept interesting
with....we have almost equal lengths of winter and summer, and so I would think the
dark roof would be great in the winter, yet the light roof would be great in the summer.
So....I won't go any further than that. (laughs)
Thomas/Yeah, there....there are nuances that I didn't want to get into, urn (both talking and
laughing)
Mims/We can talk later! (laughs)
Throgmorton/ Sounds like an entrepreneurial opportunity to me! (several talking and laughing)
Okay, uh, I think you're hearing support for what you're recommending. I...I'm really
pleased to see the energy audit requirements. It's just perfect! All right, uh, okay, we can
move ahead to.....probably the next item. Let's see.
Cole/1P9, right?
Throgmorton/Yeah, I'm tryin' to get there.
Mims/Yep!
Throgmorton/Yeah, IP#9, the South District Home Investment program update, and again, staff
needs direction on this. Before, uh, you say anything,Tracy, I wanna note that....at least
I received from Simon, emails from two, uh, Commissioners on the Housing and
Community Development Commission urging us to refer this to the HCDC for further
review,and we....after you say some things we might consider doing that. Yeah.
Hightshoe/You want me to go ahead with the update?
Throgmorton/Yeah!
Hightshoe/ Okay! Um,back in fiscal year 19, we approved, or HCDC recommended a project,
the City Council approved it, subject to a...um, equity review. Urn, we used the toolkit to
review this program. We did the toolkit, we did the review, we came back, we spoke to
Council about it, and at that time,urn, you had some provisions. So basically the South
District program functions like the UniverCity program,but in a different neighborhood.
Urn, you buy a duplex or you buy a house, you renovate it. Well you buy a house that has
a rental permit, you renovate it, and then you sell it as...well,home ownership.
UniverCity, there was a goal of affordable ownership,but it wasn't one of the main
overriding goals of the program. There's always been concerns since we started
UniverCity back in 2011 about affordability, so we were hoping with the South District
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program that we....we touch on affordability, we provide home ownerships to a much
larger group of people, urn, with wider levels of incomes. So some of the priorities that
Council established was to try to avoid displacement with all of our programs. I just
wanna repeat that. We try to avoid displacement when we can. Um (mumbled) CDBG
and Home funds for acquisition,um, sometimes displacement does happen. Urn, when
our non-profits go out to buy a house, there sometimes are tenants in it and we have to
provide federal location. So like the UniverCity program, if those....if tenants are
displaced, there's no relocation benefits. Under the South District program, because of
the presence of federal funds, any tenant would be...would have option for relocation.
But we pursued it as we....we mailed out letters to I think 23 property owners of
duplexes in the Taylor and Davis Street. Five said they were interested,um, three
wanted,well were more interest....two just wanted information, urn, then we worked
with those three property owners and their tenants. Urn, we notified the tenants, we had
discussions with them, and I outlined then in the memo, um, two tenants were not
interested either in buying their unit or moving or accepting relocation benefits. One
tenant basically said yes, she's moving that summer so....was okay with her, but then the
other side of the duplex, they won't respond. We finally sent a certified letter and we got
not a response. So due to the difficulty in trying to acquire property for this program, we
came up with three options for Council to consider, and so that's what we wanted to
discuss with you tonight for one of those three options. So the first one was to expand
the properties we're looking at to anything listed for sale. So we would not go out and
encourage owners to sell,but for properties already listed on the market, we would look
at duplex properties anywhere in that broader neighborhood, and I put a map of that
neighborhood in your....in the memo. Um, so for example if we can buy a duplex
property for 180,000, that's 90,000 per unit. We'd spend about 25 to 40,000 on
rehabilitating that unit, and then you guys provide an additional 60,000 per unit, either in
rehab or downpayment assistance. So then we could even provide 25 to 30 in
downpayment. So somebody might be able to own a rehabilitated home for about
60,000,have a mortgage about 60,000. We would provide, um.....financial counseling.
We'd provide home maintenance classes. We've worked on finding partners that have
(mumbled) Horizon to find those,um....to find those partners. Um, but while we
have tried to minimize displacement, it is possible that we would have to displace. So
I....1 don't wanna misrepresent that, um, if the properties are listed for sale, tenants might
be displaced because there's no guarantee that the next owner will renew their lease. If
we bought it, we'd allow them to finish off their lease and then we would non-renew it
and provide relocation benefits. Urn, so that's how we would recomm....if you're gonna
choose that method, that's how we'd recommend proceeding. The second option was to
expand the program in that same broader neighborhood to single-family homes. Um, that
we can buy for I think $165,000 or less. Um, same concept as a duplex,but the price
point will be a bit higher because instead of like buying it for 90,000, we're buying it for
165,000. So, urn, and you can't share costs, like when you replace a roof for a single-
family home, you're not sharing that with two households. It's just.....so the rehab costs
are a little bit higher, and then third....is just, if you don't wanna proceed with the
program, we will just reallocate the funds and find a different program. Um, to be
honest, if relocation isn't possible,then that would....that's the option I would encourage
you to (mumbled) because I don't know how we could....proceed with a program, even
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the larger neighborhood, if we negate all possibilities of relocation. It...we've just found
it too difficult. So....but those are the options.
Throgmorton/Okay. Thanks! Any questions for Tracy?
Mims/I guess I do have one quick, I mean would you...would you see options....one and two
together as....as a possibility (both talking)
Hightshoe/We could.
Mims/ Okay, so just kind of depending upon what you found,maybe it would be a duplex,
maybe it would be single-family home.
Hightshoe/Yeah, we only have enough money for....well it's 100,000, so whether it's a single-
family. We....we were planning to buy two duplexes. So....we would just have to adjust
the money if it's a single-family.
Mims/Okay.
Taylor/How long do we have to be able to use the federal funds? What's the deadline for us
using that?
Hightshoe/Home suspended the commitment deadline, so we're not rushed to spend the money.
Once we identify a property, then the top...the clock starts ticking about how long we
have to rehab it and move the project forward. We don't wanna hold on to the money
forever,um, we want timely expenditure. So if it's not a project that would proceed, we'd
look to see how we could reallocate the money.
Teague/And to date there's no one that, from the South....from those streets, that have actually
said yes. Except for the one that's moving away.
Hightshoe/Yes.
Mims/ So no purchase has been made.
Hightshoe/Nope.
Teague/And no interest has been shared...
Hightshoe/No cause we just stopped with the Davis and Taylor Street, after we sent...we did a
survey. We went down Taylor Street and Davis Street. We picked up the 23 homes we'd
be most interested in and that was most likely to convert to home ownership or it'd be
desirable, you know, like how each would have their own entrance.
Teague/ Sure.
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Hightshoe/ Single-story, urn, so we notified 23 prop....property owners. So we went through
that whole...we went through that process and then since we're having difficulty we
decided before we proceeded we'd come back to Council, get your direction, um....and
I...I know staff(talking in background) Staff did talk about going back to HCDC,but
if....if the Council does not wanna.....if....if relocation is not a possibility no matter
what, I don't see what....what direction we could provide HCDC for different input. Urn,
out of the social equity toolkit, we did provide....everything that was on there, you know,
with the whole maintenance, the financial education, the downpayment assistance, the
rehab. I don't know what else we could do. So staff was talking about if we take it back
to HCDC,we would probably recommend if HCDC wants to proceed with a different
project altogether different, we....we'd do that and we'd present a different project, if...if
that's the direction you wanted to go.
Throgmorton/Maybe we'll come back to that in a second. Maz, did you wanna say something?
Salih/No, actually I don't have question for her but I wanna say lot on this. You want me to talk
now or this is time for question only?
Throgmorton/Uh,right....well....right now just questions. Is anybody else who wants to ask
Tracy any questions? Okay, so I think Council Members need to kinda weigh in here.
Maz, do you want to express a view?
Salih/ Sure! (unable to understand) and also we said (unable to understand) to participate in this
project, and the Council (unable to understand) if the tenant indicated they are not
interesting purchasing or relocating from their unit, the City will not proceed with
indicating with this property they choose. And I think because we want to avoid it
displacement of any current resident (unable to understand) Now the staff is proposing to
defy the program requirement by allowing displacing residents? Not interested in
purchasing their unit, this modification is outlined in two and three of the staff memo.
...and option one included by the implication in option two. Displacing residents has
been specifically suggested by the Council and has been and continues to be opposed by
community members. (unable to understand) substantial destruction of the family life
without regard to the number of years the family has been living in that area or in the
home. The Council, I think the Council should either choose option three of the
recommendation by the staff, is continue the program and reallocate funds, or send the
program back to the HCDC for further review and recommendation. Modification of the
program could include removing the element of (unable to understand) on Taylor and
Davis Street. That would empower residents to choose, you know, the opportunity
(unable to understand) in the city. (unable to understand) I really don't support it.
(unable to understand, noises on phone)
Throgmorton/ Okay. Thanks. Any other Council Members?
Teague/ So I guess I go back to what was the original purpose, uh, for this, and the original
purpose was to, my understandin', was to have,um, in the South District individuals that
live in the South District to, um, essentially that are renting to become owners, within the
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South District and remain in the district, to kinda, you know, show positive efforts
towards, urn, you know, property ownership and whatever else might come with that.
And so.....the City, I feel, has given us options that are not....that are really reality
options. It's not like....these are negative options. I think they're reality options. Um,
I...you know, I agree with Maz that number three is the option that the community, the
individuals that, you know, submitted this, uh, initially to the Council, is the only one that
we probably should consider, urn, because the community brought this and said we would
like, you know, the South District to have this home investment program, without
displacin' anyone, and the optimal option would be to find a duplex where people side-
by-side wanted to remain there and become, urn, home owners. So....I.....I guess I'm
gonna, you know, go with Maz and say number three would be the only option, but
number one and number two, urn, is.....is a reality option that the City has presented, and
not somethin'that I feel is negative. It's just....these other.....these are the realities.
People will get displaced if they're (laughs) you know, urn, if....if.....if we can find the
locations where people wanna remain. So I see it as reality options. I don't see it as
negative, and....and suggesting that, you know, um, displacement is what we want to do.
It's just reality option. So I would....I guess HCDC has stated, you know,two individuals
have said bring it back to us. I think we take it back to them and see what they....what
they want to offer. I....I, it's not a big rush to the finish line.
Hightshoe/No, it's not. We're just struggling how...how do we improve the housing stock in this
neighborhood....
Teague/ Sure!
Hightshoe/So we're struggling, urn, we'll....we'll brainstorm, I mean if you send it back to
HCDC will brainstorm. My concern was just for some of the landlords how do we....we
can't force them to enter a rental rehabilitation program. So if I could convert this more
to a rental rehab program, I just don't know if we're going to get any private landlords. I
mean we have difficulty trying to get our non-profit landlords to....to comply with all the
federal rules. Private landlords, even the thought of income certification, annual
reporting, um,they....they just.....they just(both talking)
Teague/I go back to the purpose, and the purpose is to try to foster some home ownerships over
there, and so I say let's take a little time, let's take it back to HCDC, and then....we get
response from staff, uh, people start puttin' their heads together. I don't think that we
need to, you know....debate this....in....in detail tonight on any level.
Cole/That....that's what I feel too, is I know that staff is operating in good faith in terms of
exploring all these options, and there's been a few bumps in the road, but one of the
things that's really great about the progress you've been able to make in affordable
housing issues is we have so many talented and smart people in our non-profit sector,
community leaders, so the....the challenges are daunting, but I'm very confident that if
we give ourselves a little bit more time, I think we will come up with a solution, and if
we don't, and it turns out to be so intractable that maybe we do just figure out a way that
we can reallocate the funds and....and accomplish similar goals,but I think we can. I
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think we can,urn,just refer it one more time, get more feedback from the community,
and um,hopefully find a solution that is going to work, urn, so I think that makes more
sense—to give us a little more time—so I'm supporting option three.
Taylor/Tracy,we keep talking about taking it back to HCDC. Can you refresh my memory? I
thought it came from NDS originally. I don't believe the idea came from HCDC so I'm a
little confused on that.
Hightshoe/The City applied just as a regular applicant through the regular funding round, so
HCDC did review the project,just as they review all others and make a funding
recommendation to you to proceed.
Taylor/Thank you.
Throgmorton/Any other thoughts, folks?
Teague/Rockne, if you do support number three, it wouldn't go back to HCDC.
Cole/I know,but you had said at the end of that recommendation, is my recollection. Yeah (both
talking)
Teague/Yeah, so I would support HCDC right now. Urn....
Hightshoe/Is there guidance on do we wanna keep that neighborhood? Do we wanna expand
neighborhoods? Do you wanna just....is there any guidance to give HCDC?
Teague/Again I think the program was, you know, targeted for the South District to have....
Purchase,home owner....
Hightshoe/(both talking) ...establish a balance between rental and owner-occupied,just like
UniverCity?
Teague/ Sure!
Hightshoe/Neighborhood stabilization, cause we do get more nuisance complaints from....from
that specific area. Urn....
Teague/Sure!
Hightshoe/And basically to reinvest in the housing stock. So that was our goals,um....
Teague/Sure!
Taylor/And I believe that we came up with,or you came up with that neighborhood because
there are a number of duplexes in there and the majority of'em are rentals, and I....I was
extremely in favor of this program when you first talked about it,uh,because I think even
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Council Woman Salih has talked about the UniverCity program being too costly, and
those homes are going more for 195 to 210,000, which,uh,not a lot of the lower income
families can....can afford that. So I think we don't wanna lose sight of that, uh, that fact,
and I would be in favor of broadening throughout the neighborhood to...to find, continue
to find some homes,but not if it involved displacing anybody.
Throgmorton/I think the original purpose was a good one and we oughta stick with it,but we
have clearly encountered roadblocks,if you will, uh, reality as Bruce puts it, and, I....I
don't have a solution to that. I don't think anybody does at the moment,but that for me is
good reason to ask HCDC and the staff to rethink it some and say,well, okay, what must
we do given the facts on the ground that we have encountered, and uh,there may be no
good solution, and if that's the case, okay, we'll reallocate the....the money. But, uh, in
the short run I think we oughta refer it to HCDC and ask'em to weigh in.
Andrew/To be clear,what we're asking HCDC to weigh in on, are we,uh, married to that goal
that it is for a home ownership program? We're not asking them just in terms of how to,
uh,help the private building stock in that neighborhood,but it's for a transition from
rental to...to home ownership.
Throgmorton/I...I(both talking) I think transition to home ownership(both talking)
Andrew/Okay!
Throgmorton/But if they conclude the reality is so hard(laughs)that this doesn't make any
sense,then we should begin thinking about doing things differently.
Dilkes/And I just suggest that there's one more clarification that's needed. Is it...is it transition to
home ownership in the South District, within the South District,to stabilize that
neighborhood?
Teague/Yes,within the South District(both talking)
Throgmorton/South District is a very big area(several talking)
Teague/ ...those streets (several talking)
Hightshoe/ ...might be easier to find a single-family home where the renter....it's either vacant
or...that you're only with one, you know, you're not looking at a property owner and two
tenants. You're looking at one. It's just the affordability wouldn't....the lower level
affordability won't be there.
Teague/I did recall us sayin'that if you couldn't, you know,on Taylor and Davis,that you can
spread out within,you know, a little block....I don't know if we ever identified that block.
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Hightshoe/Yeah, the broader neighborhood was in the memo,but it's basically from the highway,
Broadway to Sycamore, down....it's the older neighborhood. It doesn't extend to the
newer homes. So it is a larger neighborhood.
Teague/I would agree with Jim, or Mayor....Mayor Throgmorton,just a....you know, have 'em
stick with the original but I think some of those....you know, realities(laughs)are just
gonna,um,maybe be a part of the solution, urn
Mims/The challenge here, and I think, you know, Bruce, you said the reality, and I....I think the
challenge is how....what is the greater good in the long run, and if, you know, if you...if
you have willing sellers, and you have properties that would be good, really good
candidates to....become owner-occupied,urn, I guess before I continue let me ask you
this,Tracy. Given that you didn't get any further than you did, I'm assuming there was
no reaching out to people in that neighborhood about purchasing? So you don't really
know who might, I mean the people in the buildings weren't interested or at least not
(both talking)
Hightshoe/ two duplexes that we were down to.
Mims/Yeah.
Hightshoe/Urn,none of'em were interested in purchasing. Um,the purpose of the program
wasn't necessarily that only you could buy your own property. That's great if they could,
but it was to....you know,the properties that we sell don't hit the MLS listing. So we
market it basically to the neighborhood. So we market(both talking)
Mims/So you didn't even bother to do that, because you didn't....okay!
Hightshoe/No, we don't wanna....let's just say we don't wanna market a program we can't find
any properties.
Mims/Right.
Hightshoe/So....
Mims/So I, I mean I guess what I struggle with this is I....I certainly understand the concern
about dislocating people who do not want to be dislocated. And that can be for, you
know, a lot of reasons. Urn, some very,very important; some...they may be just as good
after they've relocated, I mean,just....you have to look at every circumstance,every
individual case, I think, in terms of that. But the challenge is if....if we feel....that....it
would really benefit,in the long run,that it would really benefit a neighborhood that
liked this to....try and transition some of these properties to home ownership. I think
Bruce has hit on the reality that....you have to accept there may be some dislocation of
people who do not choose to do so. It's not their choice,that you would tell them that
their, you know, lease is not going to be renewed and here's financial assistance, and
certainly hopefully,uh,every effort would be made to....and could be a requirement
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potentially to relocate them within that same neighborhood so you're not looking at
changing schools and those kinds of things. So I think what we have to face the fact of is
if we are 100%unwilling to....do relocation where people don't agree,we are not going
to make any progress or not any substantial progress on moving the needle of the rental
versus the home ownership, in terms of....and so then I think you have to look at what is
the long-term greater good....to the neighborhood and everybody living in that
neighborhood. If you can't find another way,besides this one,to increase that home
ownership,then....we're not gonna see any improvement and I would argue in the long-
term that's not in the best...interest of the residents, of the overall residents, in the
neighborhood.
Cole/You bring up some super valid points. I think we're all coming at this discussion from a
point of good faith,but I think in terms of approaching the housing stock, I think it just,it
could be too....it's too high a price to pay if we have a situation where we have a family
adamantly opposed....leaving their apartment and all of a sudden another family maybe
has a little bit more money is able to then move in. That's what we don't want, cause
that's gentrification, that's the dark side of gentrification, and that's what we wanna avoid.
What we wanna try to do is lift the residents that are there, um,but I think you bring up
some valid points,but I think it's just too high a price to pay if it leads to that worst-case
scenario.
Throgmorton/Okay,we run the risk of having a really extended conversation about this,because
it's complicated and....you know, competing values are at stake.
Cole/Yep!
Throgmorton/So...um, I would encourage us to send it to HCDC and let them have this kind of
conversation,uh, as our, you know,just delegate it to them,urn, and see what they are
able to come up with, or not, and if they can't generate anything that they think would be
viable,then okay! Uh,then we are in a different situation. We gotta figure out...(several
talking)wanna do.
Thomas/I certainly support that, I mean it....what....what I was seeing was,at least for myself,
was this idea that, you k now, we'd initially explore the transition to owner occupancy is
something of value to the neighborhood, but we're running into friction on that. Other
values that....that seem to me would promote stability in the neighborhood would be
encouraging reinvestment, improving the affordability of the rentals, you know, there are
other ways I think we can help the neighborhood, short of....encouraging and trying to
promote a transition to own....home ownership,but I agree that it's HCDC, let's...let's see
what they have to think about it.
Throgmorton/Okay, let's just proceed that way.
Hightshoe/So displacement of any form, even at HCDC, is....if anything involves somebody has
to move, it's out.
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Thomas/For me, yeah, I...I (both talking)
Throgmorton/...it's involuntary (several talking) People....yeah.
Hightshoe/ If somebody's willing to move and accept relocation,that's okay. (several talking)
Well, okay,when you say displacement, if you non-renew a lease,but if you're non-
renewing a lease and the person's okay with that and....I wouldn't turn it down. I'd take
the relocation benefit(laughs)um....cause you get moving expenses, advisory services,
and the cost of(both talking)
Teague/I think what I heard from the people that....from the individuals that presented this,no
displacement, at all. If the individual that was livin'there didn't wanna purchase,then go
to (both talking)
Hightshoe/Purchase that unit or(both talking)
Teague/Purchase that unit or....or a different unit, you know,but...well, if you had a house or,
let's say the person, you found a duplex. One was empty. (both talking)
Hightshoe/ ...scenario is a single-family home. (both talking)
Teague/Yes!
Hightshoe/So you're sayin'that only if that tenant can move in there, that's the only situation
you'd(both talking)
Teague/I kinda see it as a pilot program,in a way,where this is what they're wantin'just from
the start. So no displacement,um,that's what the community has requested.
Mims/I would look at it as no involuntary displacement. Why...why would you deny the person
the opportunity, if you come to them and say,this is what we are interested in doing.
Would you be interested and willing to move. We'll give you relocation money. We'll
give you this various counseling on these different things. Why would you not let
somebody take....(both talking)
Teague/I hear what you're sayin'totally, and it's a part of the reality of what could potentially
happen,but I think as this was presented was let's try to....trial this and I think it was the
people, you know, it was the community or whoever brought it, I think do it the way that
they asked.
Cole/ HCDC's gonna weigh in so weal have full opportunity(mumbled)
Throgmorton/Yeah, let's...we have other topics to discuss for the evening's over.
Teague/Thank you! (laughs)
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Throgmorton/Thank you,Tracy. Speaking of other topics (both talking)
Salih/ (unable to understand)
Throgmorton/Hi, yes, Maz?
Salih/ I just wanna tell you that I was fasting all day and I didn't even eat or anything. I'm gonna
go right now, if you don't mind.
Throgmorton/ Sure. Food's good, yeah!
Salih/(laughs) I'm gonna eat, because I been long time. (unable to understand) about the
(unable to understand)
Cole/Yes, I will.
Salih/(unable to understand)
Throgmorton/Okay. Enjoy dinner, Maz. (several talking)
Salih/Thank you so much. Good night. Bye-bye!
Throgmorton/Okay, I wanna mention IP#3, in the same information packet. This is pending
work session topics. Uh, with regard to the pending list, I think we need at some point to
discuss the possibility of proposing a local option sales tax, partly in order to fund
repaving existing streets. Uh, becoming increasingly conscious of just how dreadful the
condition of many of our streets, uh, is or are(laughs) whichever the verb is, uh, and I
think we need to do something about that. So I would see, ask whether there's interest in
putting that on our pending work session list.
Thomas/ Sure, I would support that.
Throgmorton/ Okay, I hear a majority in favor of having it on the list.
Teague/I just assume that comes with like in August,but I'm fine(several talking)
Mims/It'll be a major strategizing(several talking) effort.
Teague/Okay. (several talking)
Throgmorton/And actually that's in a sense already on our pending list, but I'm bein' a little more
specific because the....the current pending list does, uh, review all alternative revenue
sources. So I'm sayin'let's really focus on this. Okay,uh, do you folks have other topics
or items?
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Thomas/One, I don't know if it's'a work session topic, but I'll....I'll try to insert it here anyway.
Uh, and it has to do with that recent bicycle death on old 218. Urn, you know that's, I
believe in terms of....who's jurisdiction is it in, it's actually Johnson County,but it
certainly affects Iowa City in that it's a section of roadway that many bicyclists use,who,
uh,who live in Iowa City, and....and so my feeling was,um, I...I wanted to ask you, uh,
if it would be appropriate, if you would support the idea of sending a letter to the
Supervisors, uh, encouraging....the Board to,um, address the safety of old 218. Uh,
from what I understand it's, you know, it's been something that....has been raised as a
concern for some time and so I....you know it was a tragedy,um,perhaps a tragedy can
lead to....uh, advancing safety along that stretch of highway. It's, you know,the
fairgrounds is right there(clears throat) so there's a major destination,uh,along that
stretch(clears throat)and, you know,that's where we have our....our major bicycle
events and yet it's not easy or safe to get to by bicycle. Uh, so....it seemed to me
perhaps,you know, Mayor, if you would be interested in....you always seem to be the
(laughs)the recipient of these requests for writing a letter(several talking)
Throgmorton/ I'd be happy to delegate that to one of our staff(several talking)
Thomas/I....I could take a stab at it,you know,but....
Throgmorton/Yeah,why don't you do that? That'd be good. I mean I would ask staff to draft
such a letter,uh,but you could try it if you want.
Thomas/Okay, I'll give it a shot.
Throgmorton/I would say, I've thought about riding my bike....riding my bike on old highway
218, goin'to the fairgrounds, and I thought,no,this is nuts! This is really a bad idea,
don't do it. And I've ridden my bike in the grass,trying to avoid being on that road.
Thomas/Well it's a four-lane road,uh, with very low volumes, which may lend itself to a road
diet.
Throgmorton/Okay, so you're gonna draft a letter(both talking) All right, good deal! I wanna
mention IP#4, which is a report that comes from, uh, a web site called Route 50, and the
article's titled'Roads Suffer When States Focus on Expansion Over Repair,' and what I
wanna mention is it should be read in relationship to the next IP item,which is IP#5,uh,
concerning a public information meeting concerning, um, a....a widening of Interstate 80
in the Iowa City area. I'm not exactly sure what the boundaries of this widening are
because the sentence was incoherent to....to my reading, at least in terms of the press
release about the widening. But I'm wondering whether you want the Council to express
a view about the proposed widening of I-80,much as we did last August with regard to
future widening of I-380, and also I wanna know whether anybody on the Council would
like to attend...what's the date of the meeting? The....June 5th public information
meeting about that proposed widening, and possibly share Iowa City's view during that
meeting.
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Cole/What time will it take place on June 5th?
Taylor/5:00(several talking)
Cole/And where?
Throgmorton/West Branch. (several talking)
Mims/I think I'll be out of town. So....
Cole/I would love to attend that. (mumbled)
Throgmorton/5 to 6:30,West Branch,June 5th.
Cole/Yeah.
Mims/Well I'm also wondering if part of...I mean if part of their expansion,um, I think there's
been a number of fatalities near that West Branch exist, and I think that may....partially
relate to some of this in terms of that expansion. I mean it looks to me when you read...I
understand your thought about that first sentence. There...(laughs)use a phrase,but
basically what it is is they're starting....approximately 1.5 miles west of Hoover...Herbert
Hoover Highway. So they're starting right where it's....the three lanes end now, and
basically continuing east to, uh, east of the West Branch,uh, at Charles Avenue. So
basically they're gonna extend the three lanes from where it is now to east of the West
Branch Avenue,West Branch exit. Urn, I can't tell you off the top of my head how many
fatalities there have been, but that is....my understanding is that is one of the...most
dangerous, um, entrance/exit ramps on Interstate 80 in the state, I believe. There....there
have been quite a few fatalities, cause they've even had articles about....what is
happening here and part of it has to do I think with the elevation changes in the road and
the speed of some of the trucks coming through there, and people...the visibility, so I
wouldn't be surprised if safety of that, as well as continuing that three lanes.
Throgmorton/(mumbled) ..but here we are talking about speed again. So how come the road's
not posted at 55-miles-an-hour? I....I cannot understand that. Seems like such an
obvious thing to do.
Cole/Well and I think that's where we can gather more information and express our views in
general, and you're right, Susan. Safety is a component of it,but if....essentially it's still
this overly one mode of transportation focus that we continue to have in this country, in
this state, and I think that there is a lot of evidence that widening roads and adding
additional lanes does not solve the problem. Because it only facilitates that. So,urn, we
may be a candle in the wind. I'm not expecting necessarily us to change everyone's mind
there,urn,but I do think even when we're a candle on the wind in some issues that we
have to at least express that, and look at the empirical evidence, cause I've cited the
empirical evidence on road diets. I'm gonna cite it there in support of my position that if
there is contrary evidence that says this is more safe,maybe we could reconsider,because
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it's certainly not worth human life,but I think it'd be good to at least weigh in on that
topic.
Mims/Yeah, I'd rather have them change the speed limit west of us, instead of spending$400
million on a new interchange. (several talking) Jim and I voted against that one!
Throgmorton/Uh.....well what do the rest of you think? Do you want Iowa City to weigh in, or
at least have someone attend the meeting, learn what they are actually proposing...that's a
better idea, learn what they're actually proposing(both talking)
Cole/Okay!
Throgmorton/ ...come back to us and tell us....
Cole/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ ....and then we can judge afterwards.
Mims/Try and really get their rationale for it.
Cole/Yeah, okay! (mumbled)
Throgmorton/All right, any other items, IP items on that,uh, information packet?
Cole/The only thing I wanted to bring up for pending work session topics, and IP6. I did attach,
as many of you know,there was a recent resolution from various community members. I
did attach that,not to suggest that I agree with every claim that's made in that in terms of
solutions. In part I thought there was a little bit of an overly critical view of the role that
staff has made in terms of the progress, or lack thereof,that we've made. I do wanna
make clear to the public that any failure on the part of progress that we made rests at this
table and not with staff. I think staff has done a terrific job and if there is any criticism it
should be directed our way in terms of progress or....in terms of whether we have made
adequate progress on climate change. I know we have a lot of work session topics on the
agenda. I do think there are some that we could possibly clean up,urn, in terms of maybe
removing them. I don't necessarily wanna cull the list now,urn,but you know climate
change is one of these issues that has evolved from sort of 25 years ago a totally fringe
issue to now we're seeing climate carbon levels that we haven't had in three million years.
Not to the level where the dinosaurs but, you know,pretty close, and it is really urgent,
and I think we all struggle with the question of, well,what authority do we have? We
lack a lot of regulatory tools, that's true, and I think part of the problem that I see is that
individuals and cities and states throughout the nation, and throughout the world, have
always said that very thing,that—well we can't really do much in our little corner; it's
someone else's problem. So....I think I do agree with where they're coming from, that
with the capacity that we do have, are we maximizing the authority both,urn, in terms of
rhetoric and policy and action that we do have. We can't decide that all tonight. Urn,but
I would like us to continue that conversation. Our budget sort of input session is four
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months off into the future. Urn, I'm hopeful that we can have....I know that Maz left
early, but she was very much in support of this as well, and I do think the residents,
especially in light of the climate emergency that was declared in, um, October of 2018,
um....is very significant and we don't wanna be too alarmist, but we also don't wanna put
our head in the sand either. So I'm asking for,urn, I know Maz isn't still here,but she did
support putting it on a work session. So, um, do we have any support for further
discussion on this issue? So staff and other communities can have an opportunity to
weigh in on this issue?
Mims/I think it's something that's good to....kind of bring back up and discuss, I think just kind
of review for ourselves what the climate action plan is, what,you know,who's....we've
got some volunteers working on some things now. Um, like you said, things are
continually changing. People are continually, you know,pointing out more and more
urgent issues. So, without going further, yes, I would support(mumbled)
Throgmorton/I do too,but there are a few things I wanna say as well. So,uh,the first is,
constructive criticism is a good thing. Related to that,being pushed to do better is a good
thing. So I, uh, appreciate and,uh, I mean....eagerly accept criticism and, uh,being
pushed. I think it's crucial that both of those occur, especially on a topic as important as
climate change. Uh, so I agree that we need to look carefully at it and I support the idea
of having a work session focused on where we are now and what....what we might
wanna do•differently. But there are a few....I think three key principles I wanna bring up
as we do that,uh....the first has to do with the advocacy of declaring a climate
emergency. Urn, I think we're goin'in a very bad direction,uh, fairly quickly,but if we
declare a climate emergency, we need to be very clear about what an effective response to
that "emergency" would be. Cause, you know, an emergency's defined as a serious,
unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action. So....(laughs)
immediate action be? Uh, and....and then....I think actually whether we need to do much
more with regard to our own climate action would be a great topic for candidates to City
Council to debate. Are we doin' enough? Do we need to do more? If so,what? You
know, so there's that. And second I think,just....to state a....a.....a basic idea, our actions
need to be rooted in facts as well as values, and a lot of what we get is values, without
any real clear understanding what the facts are. For example,we might want to tighten
energy efficiency standards and require say solar technologies for new buildings. But
unless I'm mistaken, the State won't let us! The State has preempted the ability to
regulate energy efficiency. Maybe there's some gaps and holes that we could fill
differently,but we gotta know the facts about that. And third, obvious thing,we gotta be
very conscious that the State legislature could easily preempt our power to take specific
climate actions and we don't want that to happen. So...just because we're gettin'pushed,
uh,by people who are being very vigorous in their advocacy does not mean we should do
exactly what they advocate(mumbled)
Cole/That's the purpose of the work session.
Throgmorton/Yeah. Okay.
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Monroe/Do you have any timeframe...in mind for when you'd like to schedule a work session?
Is that just something that we'd work....work forward, you know, it can happen before the
budget but...
Throgmorton/ I think before the election, cause I think it really should be a topic of discussion
in....in debate, if you will, among Council candidates.
Monroe/Okay.
Cole/Do you think it would be possible to do it before the budget review input session or not?
Throgmorton/Uh, I don't know, when's that gonna occur?
Cole/That'd be in August.
Monroe/Well we typically do it in August. It might go as late as early September,that first
meeting,but urn, you know we can put together a work session that includes an overview
from staff as far as what,urn, what has been going on,you know,maybe going back to
the memo that we put in the packet a couple weeks ago. So(mumbled) didn't talk about
it at all,urn, so some of that. I know there's upcoming projects and programs that, you
know, we can introduce and....and make you aware of that are coming up. Urn, it'll allow
for Council discussion of what....what else you want us to be doing,uh,we could have
an overview of what,urn, what may be possible, you know, if there are limitations by the
State that we're aware of, urn,that would hinder some....you know, frequently....
(mumbled)brought up ideas, um,that we....we'd be prevented from doing,then we can
let you know.
Cole/My preference would be,just speaking for myself, it would be before that sort of budget
input session that we would do. That would be my preference. Does anyone else weigh
in on that?
Thomas/Well it does seem like it,this topic has budget implications, so I would(both talking)
Cole/ ...so that we can direct that and then(both talking)
Andrew/ It makes sense to do it that way. If you do it in the reverse order, if there's somethin'
that you're really sold on in the climate discussion and we already had the preliminary
budget discussion(mumbled) and there's no set timeframe on the preliminary budget
discussion too, so that can be easily(mumbled)
Throgmorton/One of the criticisms has been that we are counting....carbon emission reductions
achieved by Mid American and by the University of Iowa. I think that criticism is
completely unfounded and inappropriate,but....if we set them aside,their emissions, and
ask how much....of the remaining emissions,what are we doin'to bring those emissions
down, step-by-step, year-by-year,that would provide a lot of focus for us and it would be
really helpful to do that kind of thing, cause it's so easy to get buried in a lengthy list of
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actions, small actions,without having any idea how much they're gonna help us bring our
carbon emissions down, and I don't wanna get buried in a morass of detail. I wanna
know of....of that remaining packet, or package of emissions, what do we need to focus
on? How can we bring those emissions down? Where....where do we have discretion
and flexibility? Where do we not? Where are our hands tied? Those are the kinds of
things I wanna know.
Monroe/ Okay!
Throgmorton/Okay, anything else on that information packet? All right, if not then the last thing
we have to do is the Council updates on assigned boards and commissions, and I don't
know if anybody wants to say anything or not.
Council Updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees:
Mims/I'll just mention quickly, we've had, urn, for the Access Center,had like a four-hour
meeting last week on branding. So they've brought in Meld,um, who, they're doing,they
spent four hours with us going through just what our vision is of the Access Center,the
services we provide,vision,who we're gonna be serving,how we see the Access Center
working in the community, um, afterwards doing a survey of all the Steering Committee
members,they'll be coming back to us in early June with another, a two-hour session, so
they're looking...trying to come up with ideas for us of names, logo,branding, all that sort
of stuff. So...it was a really good session!
Throgmorton/Anybody else wanna say anything? Uh,hearing nothing, I think we're done.
Thanks everybody!
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