HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-04-16 Transcription
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Wilburn:
ITEM 2
Wilburn:
Karr:
Robinson:
Wilburn:
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Before we proceed with Item 2 tonight, I would just ask and invite the
public to join me in just a brief moment of silence for the people who were
killed in Blacksburg, Virginia, at Virginia Tech. Certainly a very tragic
incident and we.. . our hearts go out to the folks at Blacksburg. So please
join me now just for a quick moment of silence. Thank you.
PROCLAMATIONS.
g) Arbor Day: April 27, 2007
(reads proclamation)
Here to accept the proclamation is City Forester, Terry Robinson.
(applause)
I'd like to take just a second to thank the Council and. . . for their support
over the years, and I hope their continued support in the future, and we
appreciate that and we'll keep doing the best we can...to get the work
done. Thank you.
Thank you.
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Council meeting of April 16, 2007.
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ITEM 2
Wilburn:
Karr:
Barnes:
Wilburn:
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PROCLAMATIONS.
b) Volunteer Appreciation Week: April 15-21, 2007
(reads proclamation)
Here to accept the proclamation is Lisa Barnes, Interim Director, Summer
of the Arts. (applause)
I'd just like to say real quickly on behalf of the Volunteer Administrators
Network, thank you to Mayor Wilburn and the City ofIowa City for
recognizing the important role that volunteers play in our community. As
a long-time volunteer and a long-time volunteer recruiter, many
organizations would not be able to exist or survive without the help of all
of our community members. Thank you.
Thank you.
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ITEM 2
Wilburn:
Karr:
Baird:
Wilburn:
Page 3
PROCLAMATIONS.
1) Week of the Young Child: April 22-28, 2007
(reads proclamation)
Here to accept the proclamation is Sara Baird, volunteer with the Johnson
County Board, (applause)
Good evening, I'm Sara Baird, um, here representing the Early Childhood
Professionals, young children and their families in Johnson County, on
behalf of the Johnson County Empowerment Board. As you know, the
Empowerment Board works to assist families of children from birth to age
5, through education and referrals to the many resources available in this
county. Thank you very much for this opportunity to spotlight young
children and their families, and to highlight the Empowerment Board's
role in our local area, On Saturday, April 28th, the Empowerment Board,
along with the Iowa City Community School District, the University of
Iowa, the Grant Wood AEA, the Neighborhood Centers of Johnson
County, 4-C's, the Iowa Children's Museum, and the United Way of
Johnson County will host the 2nd Annual Starting Smart event at the Iowa
Children's Museum, beginning with breakfast at 8:30 and throughout the
day, until 4:00 P.M. This year's focus is why music matters, We will
have hands-on activities, dynamic speakers and performers, and resource
tables to promote early learning through music, The armual event is a way
to recognize the importance of quality early childhood education, care, and
activities in building a stronger community, We invite all of you and the
public to join us on April 28th at the Iowa Children's Museum. For more
information about these area'resources for young children and their
families, or the event on April 28th, contact Johnson County
Empowerment at 339-6179. Thanks!
Thank you.
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ITEM 2
Wilburn:
Karr:
Shey:
Wilburn:
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PROCLAMATIONS.
e) Health Care Coverage for the Uninsured Week: April 23-29, 2007
(reads proclamation)
Here to accept the proclamation is Kathy Shey, Children's Outreach
Coordinator for VNA. (applause)
Thank you very much. In the State ofIowa, we have between 45,000 and
55,000 uninsured children. As the Outreach Coordinator for the Healthy
and Well Kids in Iowa insurance program, commonly referred to as
"Hawkeye," I want to thank you for proclaiming April 23'd to April 28th as
Cover the Uninsured Week in Iowa City. The City of Iowa City's
proclamation sends a message, not only to our community, but also to our
state and national leaders, as well, that we care about the health and
welfare of all of our people. Thank you.
Thank you.
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Council meeting of April 16, 2007.
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ITEM 2
Wilburn:
Karr:
Pentella:
Wilburn:
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PROCLAMATIONS.
c) Medical Laboratory Professionals Week: April 22-28, 2007
(reads proclamation)
Here to accept the proclamation is Michael Pentella from the University of
Iowa Hygienic Lab. (applause)
Thank you very much for this proclamation for National Medical
Laboratory Week in Iowa City. I'm very proud to accept this on behalf of
all the scientists in Iowa City, and throughout Iowa, in the over 140
laboratories throughout the state. In our area, both scientists at Mercy
Medical Center, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Cross
Laboratories, the Veteran's Administration Medical Center, and of course,
UHL, work behind the scenes to perform essential testing that is very
important for medical diagnoses, and we thank you.
Thank you.
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ITEM 3
Wilburn:
Burke:
Kelly:
Curry:
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OUTSTANDING STUDENT CITIZENSHIP AWARDS --
Longfellow Elementary.
Could the students from Longfellow Elementary please join me up front.
Well, good evening, and it's good to have you down here with us tonight.
Is anybody nervous? You are? (laughter) You know, I get nervous any
time. If you take anyone of those people out there and put them up here,
they'll start shaking too. It'll be fun! It'll be fun! Well, this is a great
treat for us because we get to hear about what you've been up to, and why
you think that you've been nominated to receive this recognition. We're
very proud to have you here tonight, and I think you can teach us adults a
lesson about citizenship here. So I'm going to pass the microphone. You
can read your statement and then just pass it on to the next person.
Urn, my name is Gretchen Burke and I'm a 5th grade student at
Longfellow Elementary. Urn, I think that being a good citizen means
helping other people in your neighborhood, city, or other places, and
giving your time to whoever might need help. In my neighborhood, I help
by babysitting, raking leaves, shoveling snow, and watching neighbor's
pets. One of my favorite things to do for the neighborhood is write a
weekly newspaper called the Pairview Press, with my friends Mary Kelly
and Emma Baxter. Each issue of the paper is about four pages long. We
write about current events, interesting book reviews, and interviews with
neighbors. We started the paper for fun and learned that the neighbors
really enjoy it. It also helps the neighbors get to know each other better
and helps plan neighborhood events. I like helping my friends and
neighbors and I have fun doing it. I think that people enjoy and can use
the help, and I know that I like to give it to them. Thank you. (applause)
Hi, I'm Mary Kelly and to me citizenship means to help other people
when they are in need. It's important to think about how other people feel
and how you would feel in their situation. I help by donating to the Red
Cross and last year's Katrina Relief. I also do Jump Rope for Heart and
this year I raised $100 for the cause. It's also fun to work in the
neighborhood. When I do these things, it makes me feel like somewhere
somebody is going to be helped because of me. That makes me feel so
great (unable to understand).. .to know that I'm helping families so they
don't have to suffer. That's what good citizenship means to me. Thanks
again for the honor. (applause)
Hi, my name is Darian. I have done several things in order to be here.
Here are some of the things I did in school for this. I do announcements,
Big Buddies and Pals. As an out of school commitment, I have is Girls'
Build, which is a Habitat for Humanity activity. Some other things I have
done, or I am doing, are things like Roots and Shoots, which is a
organization sponsored by Jane Goodall Institute. I was in Roots and
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Shots, a group last year and we tested water for research. Now r am
helping my mom to start a new Roots and Shoots group here. Last year I
also helped raise money for wells in Africa. Something I'm doing right
now that will take a little while is growing my hair out for Locks of Love.
r intend on keeping to all of these things, and r hope that you have leamed
from this, to stay involved with groups and helping out our community.
(applause)
Wilburn:
Well, it's very impressive, all three of you, acting locally and globally
here. We really appreciate your sharing that with us. It's important for us,
not only your peers, but the community to hear what you have to say. You
will each receive a Citizenship Award here. I'll read what it says, they'll
have your own name on them, for her outstanding qualities ofleadership
with Longfellow Elementary, as well as the community, and for her sense
of responsibility and helpfulness to others, we recognize you as an
Outstanding Student Citizen. Your community is proud of you. Presented
by the Iowa City City Council. There we go. Congratulations, and
congratulations, and congratulations. Goodjob, everybody! (applause)
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ITEM 4 CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS
PRESENTED OR AMENDED.
t) Correspondence
Bailey: Move adoption.
Champion: Move adoption.
Wilburn: It's been moved by Bailey, seconded by Champion. Discussion? We are
setting a public hearing on May I st on plans, specifications, form of
contract, for the construction project for the PCC pavement rehabilitation
project, on Benton Street. We're setting a public hearing on May 1st
regarding the City's Fiscal Year 208 Annual Action Plan. This is a sub-
part of the Iowa City's 2006 through 2010 Consolidated Plan, otherwise
known as City Steps. Any other discussion? Roll call. Item carries 7-0.
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ITEM 5 COMMUNITY COMMENT (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA).
Wilburn: This is reserved for items that do not appear on tonight's agenda. It's a
time for the public to come forward and share comments with the Council.
If you chose to speak to us, please state your name, sign your name for the
record, and please limit your comments to five minutes or less.
Holland: Good evening. My name is Del Holland, and I'm here as the Chair of the
Enviromnental Advocates, and in that role, we are the sponsor and the
fiscal agent of the Iowa City Bike Library, and I wanted to thank the City
Council for its continued support ofthe Bike Library. Particularly I'd like
to mention Dale Helling, Steve Atkins, and Officer Dave Harris, who've
been real flexible in meeting the needs ofthe Bike Library as we've grown
over the last few years. As you may know, last year was the third year of
operation ofthis program. It started the first year with a table sitting at the
Farmer's Market and we loaned out about a dozen bikes that year. The
next year, we got a little more organized after having that success and we
got out 84 bikes. Last year, with the use of the Wilson Building, and an
Americorp volunteer, Cody Gieselman, we got out 274 bicycles. Urn, so,
I think we've been really successful with that core mission of getting
people on bicycles, which of course eliminates car dependency and use of
fossil fuel, while at the same time, increasing health and parking spaces
for people downtown. Urn, but besides that, the Bicycle Library's been
involved in some other positive ways of advocacy in the community,
which I'd like to make sure get recognized too. They've sponsored a
roadside commuter breakfast the first Friday of every month in front of the
Bicycle Library to recognize and celebrate all those people commuting to
work by bicycle. They've operated a Ladies' Night, which is open shop
time in the Bike Library for women to come and learn about bicycle repair
and the culture of bicycles. They participate in the planning and activity
of Bike to Work Week, and have conducted bicycle activities at both the
Broadway and Pheasant Ridge neighborhood centers. We hope to
continue our relationship with the City and giving of this to the citizens of
Iowa City. Urn, and, urn, if any of you know anyone or have bicycles of
your own, which you think we might be able to put to a better use, you can
bring them down between 10:00 and I :00 on any Saturday during our
regular hours. Thank you very much.
Wilburn: Thank you.
Gustaveson: Good evening. My name is Craig Gustaveson. I'm President of the
Downtown Association. Urn, as many of you know, I'm here to talk about
the taxi stand issue, which is kind of, I wouldn't say maybe backfired on
everybody - some things we didn't anticipate. I would like to start off by
apologizing with the Downtown Association not taking a more pro-active
stand on this. One of my big pet peeves is having somebody come up,
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what I'm doing tonight, and complaining to you after the fact. So our
apologies for not paying more attention to this policy and coming to you
now to ask that we temporarily suspend it, because of some of the adverse
effects that it's having on our downtown businesses, and it's my
understanding that you've already put it on your work agenda for, for the
next time, so we'd appreciate that very much, and 1 want to thank Mr.
Atkins for suspending the policy of towing people in those parking places
at this time. I don't have to tell any of you about the importance of
parking downtown and the continuing issue, and when we eliminate
parking spaces that in my estimation weren't adequately marked and
zoned for the taxi stand, it puts another black eye on the downtown and all
of us, and I know all of you - I'm kind of preaching to the choir because
I'm sure a lot of you have gotten a lot of phone calls, as a lot of us have.
So, again, I would like to appreciate, give you our appreciation for putting
it on your work agenda. We would like to get together, not only with you,
but with the taxi companies, the Downtown Association, some of the bars
affected by this to review this issue and see if there's some type of
compromise that we can come to in the near future. Again, thank you very
much.
Wilburn: As you pointed out, we did put it on a work session. The towing has
stopped, but the ticketing will continue, pending what happens at the work
session. Okay, thank you.
Gustaveson: Thank you very much.
Cohen: Hello, I'm Leah Cohen with Bo James downtown. I also am here just to
kind of briefly talk to you a little bit about the taxi situation downtown and
where that's at, and basically what happens downtown with the taxis is
they come, they come more and more prevalent as the evening goes on.
When students go out 9, 10, 11 :00 at night and we're real happy to see so
many people using them. They are so busy, that most nights they shut off
their phones. You can't even call for a taxi because they are so busy
downtown, taking people from downtown home. So, in looking at, and
I've really paid close attention this last week to what's going on with the
taxi stands, and what's happening is they pull in a little earlier, a couple of
them, but basically people are just doing the same thing they've always
done. The signs don't look much difference, unless you pay a lot of
attention. They do have little flags up on them now, and again, I thank the
City for that and they're just ticketing instead of towing. I watched 12
cars get towed just on Washington Street one night just in a short period of
time. It was kind of a 4 and a 4 and 4 sort of thing. But, and to let you
know that I don't think they're being used by the taxis. The taxis like to
drive around when they don'thave business. They do not want to be
parked there, because they may. . . typically where taxis park downtown are
in front of the mall down by Active Endeavors or you know that area there
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Wilburn:
Carpenter:
Williams:
Page II
is where they park, or over in front of Sports Column area is typically on
that street, so that's where they park - those evidently are where the
masses of people are. So they tend to still want to be there, they don't
want to be in those taxi stands in the sides, so just to let you know that as
you think about it and have discussions on it in a couple weeks. Thank
you.
Thank you.
Good evening. I first want to thank Mayor Wilburn and the Council Men
and Women gathered here for giving our group a few minutes to speak,
and introduce ourselves and talk about an issue that we feel is important.
My name is Blake Carpenter and together with Jordan Pomerantz, we are
the Co-Presidents of the Roosevelt Institution and Roosevelt is a network
of student-run politically progressive think tanks on college campuses
across the country, and our chapter at the University ofIowa was founded
last fall, and has quickly grown in size fromjust a handful of people to
over 50 members today. Our membership is diverse and our interests are
varied, but we have a few beliefs in common. First and most importantly,
we believe that getting bogged down in partisanship and political
maneuvering hurts both sides of the aisle. We cannot solve our problems
only by turning to the ideological left or to the right, but instead by
looking forward and working together. We also believe that there is a
serious shortage of student voices in this country's market place of
political ideas. We believe that by working together to make sure that
student ideas are adequately represented, we can improve the quality of
debate in our nations' city councils, state congressional chambers, and the
U.S. Congress. We also believe that these debates would do well to
include the tempered idealism of our generations' best and brightest, and
we believe that by pooling our collective resources, which include some of
the world's most impressive libraries, most learned scholars, and most
passionate activists, we can begin having a positive impact on our
country's toughest problems that our generation will soon inherit. In sum,
we believe that students can and must make a difference. I want again to
thank you for allowing me to introduce the Roosevelt Institution, which
you will soon be hearing, seeing very often, and I would like to, and later
you will be hearing from another one of our members, Sean Williams,
who will present some of the research that our members have been
working on lately, and Ijust have a few packets of information on the
research that we've been working on. IfI could distribute them to the
Council. I thank you.
Hi. My name is Sean Williams. I'm a senior political science and
religious studies major here at Iowa. As an Iowa City native, I'm excited
to be able to speak to the Council, because it's my hometown council,
tonight, you know, to be involved on the local level where I'm from. I
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would like to briefly discuss why some of us at the Roosevelt Institute
have been working and lobbying in favor of the Urban Environmental
Accords. As Blake mentioned, the Roosevelt Institute is a student-run
think tank that researches and organizes students about political issues.
The issue of climate change is one that stands out for its (unable to
understand) young people. My guess is that most of the people in this
room are well aware of the problems of climate change, as well as its
devastating global impacts. So I just want to mention a couple pieces of
research that have been released in just the past couple of weeks that I
thought were particularly important. First, the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change released a report stating the climate change was not a
potential future problem, but something that was.. .it's effects are being
felt even today. It stated that observational evidence from all continents
and most oceans shows that most natural systems are being affected by
regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases. Secondly,
the report stated that the impact of climate change will disproportionately
affect the poorest countries of the world, who are less financially able to
prepare for rising sea levels, erosion, and natural disasters. Just today, the
United Nations Security Counsel emphasized the implications of global
warming on international security and stability. Janos Bogardi, head of
the U.N.'s...U.N. University's Institute for Environment and Human
Security, argued before the Counsel that erosion, flooding, (unable to
understand), and land degradation caused by global warming can create
migration and refuge crises, which help to produce political situations
such as the genocide in Darfur. Many of the worst effects of global
warming projected decades into the future and its consequences will be
disproportionately felt by my generation. As such, it makes sense that the
energy surrounding this issue is great among students. Even on campus at
Iowa, there are several student groups actively lobbying City government
and State government to take action on the issue, including PERG, UI
Environmental Coalition, and (unable to understand) in the world. Just
this Saturday, the Step It Up campaign organized 1,400 events in all 50
states. At one such event, our Mayor signed U.S. Mayor's Climate
Protection Agreement. We thought this was a fantastic step forward for
the City and I applaud him for taking action on this issue. In the Daily
Iowan today, Mayor Wilburn was quoted as saying, "If I put my name on
a pledge or agreement, I want it to mean something." We believe that the
Urban Environmental Accords are a perfect example of a way to translate
this sort of agreement into action. The Accords, which you have a copy of
here, were signed as part of the United Nation's World Environment Day
in San Francisco. They outline 21 recommendations that a city can
implement to make it greener. Examples of these recommendations range
from adopting and implementing a policy to increase the use of renewable
energy to meet 10% of the city's peak electric load within seven years, to
developing and implementing a policy which extends affordable public
transportation coverage, to within a half kilometer of all city residences
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within ten years. The Roosevelt Institute, as you can see in the packet we
passed out, is collecting signatures across the city, both on campus and
off, for the past few weeks. We've collected over 600 signatures from
local individuals in support of this piece oflegislation. The way it would
work is that the City would chose to implement some ofthese
recommendations each year, and by 2012, it would receive a grade from
one to four stars, based upon how well they've done in implementing the
recommendations. This rating system would be, have the effect of
basically enforcing it. It's a nonbinding resolution in and of itself, but it
outlines specific policy goals. We think that these goals are really quite
good because they are one, as I said, specific, they're reachable, and
they're actionable, and most importantly, they're tailored to local
governments. They're also flexible, so the City can implement which of
those goals best fit the local environment here, as opposed to just trying to
have one sort of treaty that reaches across the entire nation for a bunch of
different cities. Partisan bickering lobbyists' influence and threat of a
Bush veto may mar the possibility of cohesive national action on this
issue. The opportunity to take action on the local level is readily
available. These Accords have been adopted by cities ranging from San
Francisco to Austin, to Salt Lake City, and also other international cities
which are listed on the packet you have in front of you. Other cities,
including Tucson and Seattle, have signed on both to the Urban
Environmental Accords, as well as the Mayors' Climate Protection
Agreement that we, that the Mayor signed on to this weekend. I believe
that we should follow these cities' leads and make a serious attempt to put
our words into action on this issue. As such, I would like you to consider
adding the Urban Environmental Accords to your next work session.
Thanks for the opportunity to speak.
Wilburn: Thank you, and I encourage you to, and your group, to work with the
locals here, become aware of what their efforts are, and I encourage you
to, urn, you know, take a look at some of the past City Council meetings
and presentations to find out what the City has been doing that is
environmentally friendly and saving money...as well. Thank you.
Karr: Motion to accept correspondence.
Bailey: So moved.
Vanderhoef: Second.
Wilburn: Moved by Bailey, seconded by Vanderhoef to accept correspondence. All
those in favor say aye. Opposed same sign. Carries 7-0. Would anyone
else care to address the Council on an item that does not appear on
tonight's agenda?
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Kresowik:
Page 14
Hello everyone. Most of you know my name is Mark Kresowik. I'm an
organizer, currently paid organizer, for the Sierra Club, across the State of
Iowa, specifically on the global warming and clean energy campaign in
the Midwest. I also have the pleasure of sometimes residing at 2
Crestview Circle ofIowa City, as I move around the State quite a bit. I
want to express my personal and special thanks to Mayor Wilburn for
signing on to U.S. Conference of Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement
on Saturday. It certainly is a monumental step forward to the City, and I
certainly think it creates a huge opportunity for the City Council, and I
would encourage you to listen both to the fantastic voice ofthe Roosevelt
Institution, along with all the other environmental groups in the city of
Iowa City, in addition to a lot of the economic developers, as we look at
this issue as a chance to grow our economy. It's a chance to really move
our economy forward. Certainly, West Branch just receiving potentially
the manufacturing, a couple million dollar manufacturing facility from
Axion (can't hear), the largest wind developer in the world. Certainly, this
is an area of our economy that can grow quickly. By being leaders on this,
by putting policy in the ground, Iowa City can take over and maintain that
leadership that you've shown in so many other areas. With that in mind, I
simply encourage you to placing a discussion ofthe Urban Environmental
Accords, of the implementation of the U.S. Conference of Mayor's
Climate Protection Agreement, on your next or future work session to
discuss certain ways, a couple specific ways, to implement that, but I'd
recommend certainly putting together a review of zoning ordinances,
building codes, to see how our policy in the City currently promote
sustainability. As Ross said, a lot ofthings have been doing on, very good
things, and how we might be able to improve that, but also taking a look at
best practices from around the country, cities across the country have been
doing incredible things. Many of you are familiar with the leadership of
Des Moines, the Mayor of Des Moines, Frank Cownie, has done a lot of
things, including speaking before the U.S. Senate Committee, Boxer's
Committee, on global warming and clean energy, her Environment to
Public Works Committee. So there's a lot of opportunities for the City of
Iowa City to learn from other places and to implement more things. So,
certainly, that idea of doing a review. Joining the International Council
for Local Environmental Initiatives, the City decides, just $1,200, by
joining ICLE, as it's known, you actually get access to all their resources,
including the resources that will allow you to conduct a carbon audit, to
again, see where a lot of your energy use and your carbon emissions are
coming from to guide you in the process of reducing your emissions
further than the great steps you've already taken. So, with that in mind,
again, I would encourage you to put the implementation of that agreement
in the discussion of how we might be able to do that on your next and
future work sessions. So, thank you very much for your time, and thank
you again for your great leadership on this issue.
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Page IS
Wilburn:
Thank you. Anyone else care to address the Council on an item not on
tonight's agenda?
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ITEM 6
Wilburn:
Franklin:
Wilburn:
Franklin:
Page 16
PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS.
b) REZONING APPROXIMATELY 5.75 ACRES OF LAND
LOCATED ALONG A PORTION OF SOUTH GOVERNOR
AND BOWERY STREETS FROM NEIGHBORHOOD
STABILIZATION RESIDENTIAL (RNS-12) ZONE TO
MEDIUM DENSITY SINGLE FAMILY (RS-8) ZONE. (REZ07-
00002)
1. PUBLIC HEARING
This is a public hearing. (pounds gavel) Public hearing is open.
This is a rezoning that has been brought by the residents of the area. It is
to rezone 30 properties, 23 of those properties are single-family dwellings,
either owner-occupied or rented. There are four duplexes, one of which is
being...in the process of being converted to a single-family dwelling, and
three multi-family units. This next slide, I think, shows you best.
Lot of colors?
Lot of colors! (laughter) Let me just explain it a little. We're starting
with this rezoning at 416 S. Governor and the crosshatched means that that
is a single-family rental. The light, well, it's more yellow up there than it
is on my screen, urn, this yellow is a single-family, this which is a little bit
darker yellow, I hope you can see it, is duplexes. Then 433, this color
indicates a three-unit, and then the darker color, 529, is apartments that are
five units or more. On the Comprehensive Plan for this area indicates that
the proper land usage is at 8 to 16 dwelling units per acre. Currently, this
is at about 12 dwelling units per acre, in terms of the zoning, not in terms
of the density. So we would be looking at a zoning category, the request
to change this from RNS, which is residential neighborhood stabilization,
12 dwelling units per acre, to RS-8, which is residential single-family, 8
dwelling units per acre. The difference between those two zones is
basically in the ability to provide duplexes on other than comer lots. So
what would become nonconforming with this change in zoning, would be
the duplexes. Remember there are four of them - one of them is being
converted to a single-family so therefore the result is the three duplexes.
The people who own the three duplexes are supportive of this rezoning.
The Comprehensive Plan, as I said, indicates that the appropriate land
usage is residential at 8 to 16 dwelling units per acre, so the request is
within the parameters of the Comprehensive Plan. There's also language
in the Comp Plan about the preservation and integrity of the
neighborhoods and in this particular area, if you recall, in 2000, there was
a down zoning of this area from RM-12, that's a multi-family residential
zoning, to the RNS-12, which is neighborhood stabilization zoning. That
was because of both a public interest and a private interest in terms of
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#6
Bailey:
Franklin:
Bailey:
Franklin:
Elliott:
Franklin:
Elliott:
Franklin:
Elliott:
Franklin:
Elliott:
Franklin:
Page 17
changing this neighborhood and stabilizing it, and attempting to preserve
its single-family character. That has occurred in that the single-family
structures have been retained in this area. What has happened also is the
people within the neighborhood have invested in these properties and have
made conversions to single-family, owner occupancy. The Planning and
Zoning Commission recommended approval of this rezoning on a vote of
5 to 0, Smith was absent and Freerks recused herself because she is a
resident in the area. The staffalso, in a report dated March 1 '" has
recommended in favor of this rezoning. Are there any questions from the
Council?
Karin, I'm having a hard time seeing the duplexes. Could you point them
out?
Sure.
Thank you.
436,437,527 Governor, and then 817 Bowery, and let me go back a
minute. The rezoning is the shaded area, which includes the properties on
Governor and then these properties on Bowery. I should point out too that
when this area was down zoned from RM-12 to RNS-12, it was also made
a conservation district at that time. Anything else?
My question, Karin, you said earlier the major change is duplexes.
Yes, the...
Zero-lot lines would be okay, but not duplexes?
Zero-lot lines would be, well, duplexes and zero-lot lines need to be built
on the comer. In RS-8, you can have single-family, except on the comers
you can have zero-lot lines and duplexes. So, zero-lot lines and duplexes
would be restricted.
Okay, so it's both then.
Yes it is.
Okay.
There is one other thing relative to this. Because in the RS-8 zone you can
have development on smaller lots, if you have that is narrower lots, if you
access to an alley. A number of these properties that were nonconforming
as to lot size, will become conforming under the zoning that's proposed.
Anything else?
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Wilburn:
Correia:
Wilburn:
Greer:
Bentler:
Page 18
Any Council Members who wish to (unable to understand) Ex Parte
communications?
I had a brief conversation with Steve Long and Suzanne Butler before,
right as they were doing applications. Everything we discussed was all in
the public hearing from their (unable to hear).
Anyone else? Okay, we'll continue with the public hearing. If anyone
wishes to address the Council, please step forward, sign your name, state
your name for the record, please limit your comments to five minutes or
less.
Hi, my name is Martha Greer. I live at 530 S. Governor Street. I am one
of two formal applicants for this rezoning; however, this is truly been a
grassroots, neighborhood effort, as you can see from some of our newest
members of the neighborhood. Our neighborhood truly took the
stabilization rezoning that we were given several years ago and the
conservation status, as well as the neighborhood ordinance that was passed
several years ago, and have made an amazing revitalization happen in this
neighborhood. It's happened one property at a time, one person at a time,
and one neighbor at a time, and I think that what we're asking for with this
RS-8 is to move from simply stabilizing to truly preserving what we have
accomplished in our neighborhood. Suzanne has a great PowerPoint to
show you some of the changes that have happened, some ofthe changes
that are currently happening, through some great sweat equity and
neighborhood efforts, and so I think I will turn it over to Suzanne (TAPE
ENDS)
I'd like to start off with this one. This is one of the duplexes, urn, and it is
at 436 S. Governor. It is, some neighbors got together when this came on
the market and we bought it, and decided to do something about it. This is
what it used to look like, and we have since put a little sweat equity into it
and have made it into something else. It is still a duplex. It is still being
rented. We rent it out, so I'm not only an owner on the street, I'm also a
landlord, and by default, sort of. Certainly wasn't my intention. Urn, but
anyway, this is one of our projects on the street. Urn, people have been,
since the last rezoning, starting to do things to their homes, and take them
back to what they used to be. Urn, there were a lot of rentals on this street,
and people have started to buy them and fix them up a bit, and I thought I
would put some pictures in of some of the properties that are changing.
This is, and also on our block, we have some historical value, a lot of it
actually, but here's one property on our street that's right on the edge of
the zoning, that 416 area. This house has historic value in a very Iowa
City personal way. Irving Weber lived in this house, urn, grew up there as
a boy. There are a lot of other houses on this street with the Weber family
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apparently lived in, in several of the different houses, but he actually lived
in this one. This is a currently a single- family rental. They rent to people.
Urn, down the street, this is another house that has an Irving Weber
connection. His great-aunt, I believe, lived in this house, and its sister
house next door, urn, is the house that his grandparents lived in and this is
the house that I live in, urn, well, it looks different now, but this is what it
used to look like in 2003. My husband and I moved in and we decided to
do some things to it to change it back, and put a lot of work into it. Most
recently found in the basement a limestone pillar with "W.Weber, 1871,"
etched into it as part of our working, so maybe some of the story I hear
from the neighborhood is actually true factual. I think it is, but here's part
of our sweat equity. We thought we'd put some human faces in here so
you can see exactly what we were up to and turned it into. This is our
house as it stands today, and it also has, notice the trees. One thing about
the last rezoning, these are well over 150 year old oak trees that we have
in the yard. The last time this neighborhood was up for rezoning, these
were at jeopardy. This house was at jeopardy, and I thank everyone for
saving it, and the trees still stand. I know we lost a lot during the tornado,
trees, but we were about a block off of that tornado path and our trees
survived. Also, in our property we have a little grotto in the back yard that
used to be in the Iowa travel books, the little grotto that stood, and it's still
there. It.. . that's part of our renovation, phase three probably, is to try to
bring that back a little bit too. Urn, but I wanted to talk a little bit about
the neighborhood itself. Weare a group of people. I love living there.
We're close to downtown. It's a diverse housing area, and we do things
together as a neighborhood. I've really enjoyed meeting the people
around us and just interacting with people. We have a lot of fun. One
thing we undertook as sort of a neighborhood project was to, when this
house, which is on our street in the zoning situation, was owned by a non-
profit in town. We undertook a painting project when it needed a little
painting; got some neighbors together and friends and went to town and
painted it, gave it a new face lift there. So that's one of the projects we're
involved with. That's what it looks like today. This is another one of the
duplexes that was mentioned earlier. I want to talk about just the
neighborhood in general and what, there is a diverse housing stock in the
whole area. This is a rooming house, about two blocks off of the actual
zoning area, but I want to talk to. . . there is quite a group of different type
of housing in our neighborhood area. A sorority on Burlington is pretty
close. Single-family owner, urn, occupied - this is I think one ofthe
oldest houses on... this is in the zoning area, 1844 I believe. Apartment
complexes down the street from us, urn, some homes on Bowery. This is
a home on Bowery that's actually in the proposed rezoning. Our concerns
and why we want you to consider this rezoning, duplex, we're worried
about duplex additions on big lots that envelope a yard. They tend to
lower, among lowering property values for the neighbors, we've put a lot
of effort into our neighborhood, it also lowers our quality of life when a
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duplex takes up an entire, essentially is another house tacked on to another
house. This is an example of one not too far off in our neighborhood, of a
duplex on top of a house, essentially. Parking lots in backyards, um, when
you pave a backyard you lose trees, you lose yard and garden, and that's
what would have happened to the grotto, for one. They would have paved
it right down and those trees would have been gone. The safety of big lots
in the backyard and lower quality oflife for neighbors, so this is kind of an
example of a parking lot in the backyard. Since the P&Z meeting and the
zoning decision, people have been doing other things to their properties.
Pulling off siding and other projects have started up, so they're starting to
have more belief even in the neighborhood and owners are starting to do
different things, invest more even in their own properties. So, I just want
to end by saying, um, thank you for considering this rezoning application.
We do like this neighborhood. We think it's unique. We think it's a
model for other neighborhoods close to downtown to try to put some
sweat equity into your own neighborhood and turn it into a place you'd
like to live that's safe, with a lot of different people that live there. We
really enjoy that, and we're just asking for your help to keep the
momentum going. Thank you.
Wilburn:
Thank you. Anyone else care to address the Council at the public hearing?
(pounds gavel) Public hearing is closed.
2. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE (FIRST
CONSIDERATION)
O'Donnell: Move first consideration.
Wilburn: Moved by O'Donnell.
Bailey: Second.
Wilburn: Seconded by Bailey. Discussion?
Champion: Well, I applaud these neighbors for getting together and for preserving this
neighborhood, because I love the neighborhood. Thank you so much.
O'Donnell: You have a great house!
Vanderhoef: I remember when the first zoning, rezoning, was done and what it looked
like at that time, just in general, that whole southside area. So, when I
started reading the letters from the neighborhood, the narratives, you could
feel the excitement and the pride that's showing up in the folks that live
there and wrote those letters, and it was so different than what happened a
number of years ago with the other rezoning and actually, you ended up
with a member on the P&Z because of her activism in that neighborhood
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#6
Bailey:
Elliott:
Correia:
Elliott:
Wilburn:
Page 21
to get it all started. So, I applaud you. I think you're headed in the right
direction, and I'm going to support this.
I think it's really important to preserve our neighborhoods close to
downtown, especially tonight when we heard so much talk about
environmental moves that we can make in our community. I mean, living
closer and being able to walk to the largest employer in our area, I think, is
another way that we can support those environmental initiatives and it's a
beautiful neighborhood and the grotto is my favorite place in Iowa City, so
I'm glad you preserved it and I'm glad that it stays (unable to understand).
I also applaud that neighborhood. I regret that zero-lot line properties will
be eliminated, because we keep talking about affordable housing and
almost everything we do makes housing more expensive and tends to
eliminate more types of affordable housing, but that said, I regret that I
will be very supportive of this and I hope we can hold a celebration in the
grotto.
I don't think, Bob, there's an either or type ofa thing. I think, you know,
we've seen that there's diverse housing in this neighborhood and in the
surrounding area of this neighborhood, and I think that's what we have
been talking about wanting to see diversity of housing.
And you're eliminating some of that diversity. We are, I should say - not
you, but we are. But I'm supportive of this!
Roll call. Item carries 7-0.
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#8
Page 22
ITEM 8
INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS TO TAKE ADDITIONAL
ACTION FOR THE ISSUANCE OF NOT TO EXCEED $6,695,000
GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS.
a) PUBLIC HEARING
Wilburn:
This is a public hearing. (pounds gavel) Public hearing is open. (pounds
gavel) Public hearing is closed.
b) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION
Wilburn: (several talking at once) Did I miss 7? Oh! (several talking)
O'Donnell: Move the resolution.
Wilburn: Moved by O'Donnell.
Champion: Second.
Wilburn: Seconded by Champion. Discussion? Roll call. Item carries 7-0. I
accidentally hit the scroll button on that. That's why.
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#9
Page 23
ITEM 9
INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS TO TAKE ADDITIONAL
ACTION FOR THE AUTHORIZATION AND ISSUANCE OF NOT
TO EXCEED $700,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS.
a) PUBLIC HEARING
Wilburn:
This is a public hearing. (pounds gavel) Public hearing is open. (pounds
gavel) Public hearing is closed.
b) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION
Champion: Move the resolution.
Correia: Second.
Wilburn: Moved by Champion, seconded by Correia, and everybody else.
Discussion?
Bailey: I just want to point out that this, these proceeds are going to be used for
Fire Station #2, which we previously discussed tonight.
Wilburn: Roll call. Item carries 7-0.
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#10
Page 24
ITEM 10
INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS TO TAKE ADDITIONAL
ACTION FOR THE AUTHORIZATION AND ISSUANCE OF NOT
TO EXCEED $600,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS.
a) PUBLIC HEARING
Wilburn:
This is a public hearing. (pounds gavel) Public hearing is open. (pounds
gavel) Public hearing is closed.
b) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION
O'Donnell: Move the resolution.
Vanderhoef: Second.
Wilburn: Moved by O'Donnell, seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion?
Elliott: My... Steve, a quick question for you, just to confirm in my mind, the
work that we've done on the Sand Lake Recreation area is basically to
clean it up and make it eventually available for use. Weare not planning
any grandiose plans.
Atkins: That's correct.
Elliott: Good.
Wilburn: Roll call. Item carries 7-0.
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#11
ITEM 11
Wilburn:
Bailey:
Wilburn:
Correia:
Wilburn:
Correia:
Atkins:
Correia:
Atkins:
Correia:
Atkins:
Correia:
Atkins:
Correia:
Atkins:
Correia:
Atkins:
Page 25
INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS TO TAKE ADDITIONAL
ACTION FOR THE AUTHORIZATION AND ISSUANCE OF NOT
TO EXCEED $440,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS.
a) PUBLIC HEARING
This is a public hearing. (pounds gavel) Public hearing is open. Already
missed the softball game tonight, so I guess I'm not really in a big hurry.
(laughter) (pounds gavel) Public hearing is closed.
b) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION
Move the resolution.
Moved by Bailey.
Second.
Seconded by Correia. Discussion?
I just have a question. These, selling these bonds now, we have had these
in our FY08 budget. Is this going to be now offered in FY07, or is there
timing issues and it will be...
I'm not sure how to answer that.
Okay. Was it the $320,000 for the Housing Fellowship project.
$320,000 for the Housing Fellowship project was put together during this
fiscal year.
Right, but it was in our FY08. . .
Right.
.. . budget.
We will be selling the debt for that now.
Right.
Yeah.
Okay. So it's in FY07.
The actual.. .the actual bond sale will occur, I'm sure, before FY08 begins.
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#11
Correia:
Atkins:
Correia:
Bailey:
Elliott:
Wilburn:
Page 26
Right, okay.
Yeah.
Well, I think this is a great, I mean, both of the projects that we're
supporting with this sale, the tax credit project that the Housing
Fellowship was able to get from the Iowa Finance group, bringing in a
million dollars, over a million dollars into Iowa City and preserving 14
rental homes and additionally the targeted area housing we have program
that the City ofIowa City offers. I think are important parts of our overall
affordable housing goals for the City.
But I know that these are common approaches to doing affordable
housing, but I consider it a very innovative way to approach repairing
those houses and getting them on the tax rolls. So, I commend the
Housing Fellowship for doing this and moving forward with this, and I'm
glad the City is a partner.
The latter you said, about getting them on the tax rolls, is important to me.
Roll call. Item carries 7-0.
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#12
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ITEM 12
INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS TO TAKE ADDITIONAL
ACTION FOR THE AUTHORIZATION AND ISSUANCE OF NOT
TO EXCEED $435,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS.
a) PUBLIC HEARING
Wilburn:
This is a public hearing. (pounds gavel) Public hearing is open. This is
related to the Rec Center and other projects. (pounds gavel) Public
hearing is closed.
b) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION
Bailey: Move the resolution.
Vanderhoef: Second.
Wilburn: Moved by Bailey, seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion? Roll call. Item
carries 7-0.
Champion: Did you see the word public art in there? (laughter)
Elliott: Pardon? Pardon?
O'Donnell: Just a cheap shot! (laughter)
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#13 Page 28
ITEM 13A CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 8, "POLICE
REGULATIONS", CHAPTER 8, "POLICE CITIZENS REVIEW
BOARD", SECTION 6, ENTITLED "POLICE CHIEF'S REPORT
TO THE BOARD; CITY MANAGER'S REPORT TO THE
BOARD", TO CLARIFY LANGUAGE ON GRANTING
EXTENSIONS TO THE POLICE CHIEF FOR GOOD CAUSE.
(FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Vanderhoef: Move first consideration.
Champion: Second.
Wilburn: Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Champion. Discussion?
Bailey: I would just like to point out that this is a request brought forward by the,
by the Board, and typically they do grant these extensions, so it just brings
the ordinance into compliance with what's been already happening.
Wilburn: Roll call. Item carries 7-0.
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#13 Page 29
ITEM 13B CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING SUPPORT OF AN
APPLICATION FOR FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FROM THE
IOWA DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT'S
COMMUNITY ECONOMIC BETTERMENT ACCOUNT (CEBA)
FOR $400,000 AND A LOCAL MATCH OF A THREE-YEAR, NO
INTEREST $100,000 LOAN FOR FUNDS TO ASSIST PREP
SPORTS ONLINE.
Bailey: Move the resolution.
Wilburn: Moved by Bailey.
Champion: Second.
Wilburn: Seconded by Champion. Discussion?
Ford: Hi. Prep Sports Online, or PSO, is a young company, now based in
Sterling, Illinois, who's seeking to relocate their headquarters, and they're
looking at Iowa City to do that and in so doing, they're also applying to
the Iowa Department of Economic Development for a $400,000 grant to
which they need to have a local match, and that would be in the form of
the City ofIowa City's assistance with a $100,000 three-year, no interest
loan in order to do that. They're a young company, technology based.
They will, at the end of three years, employ 79 people with the kinds of
jobs in the kind of industry that we've been seeking to add to our
community. I could go on a little bit, but I think that touches on the basics
of it.
Correia: An application was in our info packet. I mean. . .
Ford: The CEBA application, the draft CEBA application was in your, in your
packet. That application has yet to be completed and approved by the
State. The resolution is worded such that the City Manager and the City
Attorney would, upon approval, allow and execute the City's agreement to
go forward.
Correia: Does the State require the loan, or the match to be at zero percent interest
loan? Are there...
Ford: To be a no interest loan - Joe, maybe you could...
Atkins: I don't believe the, I don't believe they do. We have to have a match.
(several talking at once)
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#13
Bailey:
Correia:
Franklin:
Correia:
Franklin:
Correia:
Franklin:
Correia:
Bailey:
Champion:
Page 30
Well, and on the earlier project, our match was actually road
improvements, on... to help the business, so we can do a match in any
way.
First when I was looking at it, and then I couldn't recall and didn't pull it
forward, but just in terms of thinking about our loan policies that we have
in our Affordable Housing program, is it matched... that type of, to offer
zero percent loans in the, when we do affordable housing loans, for non-
profits? I'm sorry. I should have.. . given you a heads up on the question,
but I didn't realize it was going to come on this agenda since it. . .
Okay, you're asking if this is analogous to the zero percent loans that we
have for housing projects?
I'm not asking if it's analogous. I was just wondering if it's, if we're in
line when we're, what our policies are for economic development loans,
and ifit's in line with other policies we have for loaning, in other...
Well, each type of program, whether it's affordable housing or economic
development, there are different criteria that we use to make a decision as
to whether the project is worthy of the local support, and so then you work
from the need in terms of the amount of money that's needed for the
match, and we usually do a collaboration with the City Manager, as to
how the City could best provide that local match, and still protect the
interests of the City, and so the criteria for economic development are
going to be very different than the criterion that we use for affordable
housing, obviously. Urn, but the decision to go with the $100,000 no
interest loan, urn, depends upon the circumstance of the particular project,
how much money is necessary, whether we can do TIF or not, because we
often use TIF as a match, with a rebate, but in this particular instance, the
headquarters would be in lease space, so the property tax component of it
doesn't really come into play. Does that answer your question?
So it's more, the decision's made case by case?
Yes, very much so. We have those guidelines that we use for when we
will provide assistance, but exactly what form that assistance takes is more
on a case-by-case basis.
Great, thank you.
And this loan is also secured by irrevocable letter of credit, so the... the
Committee felt very comfortable with this arrangement.
This company sounds really too good to be true, so we hope it is true.
(laughter)
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#13
Elliott:
Wilburn:
Correia:
Ford:
Bailey:
Wilburn:
Ladd:
Wilburn:
Ladd:
Wilburn:
Elliott:
Bailey:
Page 31
For the cost of this loan, we will have a large collection of new jobs that
are good jobs, and the types of jobs and positions that we're looking for in
Iowa City. It also is important to have these jobs available for other
recruitments, and it really does sound like a great idea, and they're
already, they're already functioning. But this is going to really get bigger.
They also already interact with some local business with some of our
schools.
Where are they going to be located, where are they leasing space?
They're looking at the space above the current Fin and Feather.
I also wanted to point out as we talk about these types of jobs, we talk a lot
about keeping young people in Iowa, and tech jobs tend towards younger
people. I mean, those are the people who are coming up and probably the
more qualified, so that's also an exciting component of this, this proposal.
Roll call. I'm sorry, go ahead. (unable to hear person in audience) Sure,
go ahead.
Urn, I would just like to...
Please state your name for the record.
Erin Ladd, Iowa City, 220 Hawkeye Court. Urn, I work in the online
industry of sports and I'd really like to hear more information about these
70 odd jobs they're referring to. The 79 jobs they're referring to is an
extreme amount of growth in industry, and it's very limited at the current
time. If you look through the web site for the company, they only offer
services to about 60 schools around the country, and this is a really small
amount for a growth of79 jobs. I'd really like to hear more about how
they're going to grow to a number that large. I work for a company that's
currently five people, and we've been together for ten years. They've
been together for three years and they expect this type of growth? I find
that very unrealistic. I'd like to hear more about that.
Well, thank you for your comment.
Well, if it doesn't happen, it doesn't cost us.
Business plan projects expansion into an enormous number of schools.
They don't have penetration very far into the south, and they're focused
very much on the Midwest, and so this is a business plan. These are their
proj ections. We based it upon that. The State will also make their
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decision based upon their business plan. Urn, and as Bob said, they don't
hit their goal and they're in default of our loan and we get our funding
back. Weare hopeful in partnering with this project that they will make
the goal. The projections seem realistic for the growth that they'd like to
see in their company. They will need that number of staff people to hit
those other numbers.
Wilburn:
It's also been a practice of this Council to... when economic development
assistance is given to look for performance indicators, and if the entity
does not perform, as it's already been said twice now, they do not receive
the assistance. (unable to hear person in audience)
Elliott:
We asked those very same questions. They were discussed, and the
information we got provided us with the facts, since it won't cost us if it
doesn't happen, provide us with the assumption that it's going to happen,
based on what information we've been provided.
Wilburn:
Roll call. Item carries 7-0. I've been asked to take a break. Let's come
back at 20 minutes after 8:00. (BREAK)
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#15
ITEM 15
Bailey:
Wilburn:
Correia:
Wilburn:
Bailey:
Wilburn:
Page 33
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORlZING THE MAYOR TO
SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A LICENSE
AGREEMENT FOR TEMPORARY USE OF PUBLIC RlGHT-OF-
WAY BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, LANDOWNER
MARC MOEN, AND TENANT GRAZE IOWA CITY, LLC D/B/A
GRAZE, FOR A SIDEWALK CAFE.
Move the resolution.
Moved by Bailey.
Second.
Seconded by Correia. Discussion?
Tried this restaurant on Friday night. I can recommend it, and I can't wait
until they have a cafe.
Roll call. Item carries 7-0.
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#18 Page 34
ITEM 18 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING
CLASSIFICATION/COMPENSATION PLANS FOR
CONFIDENTIAL/ADMINISTRATIVE EMPLOYEES AND
EXECUTIVE EMPLOYEES FOR FY08, FY09, AND FYI0.
Champion: Move the resolution.
Vanderhoef: Second.
Wilburn: Moved by Champion, seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion?
Bailey: So.. .1just want to understand this a little bit better. The increase each
year is about, what? 3%? 3...
Helling: It's the same as negotiated with AFSCME. I think it's 3, 3.25, 3.3, and
3.1.
Bailey: Okay.
Elliott: And I like the pay plan that has both merit and steps in it, but that's what
we have, so.. .1'11 go with it.
Helling: The steps are merit in administrative and confidentials.
Elliott: Yeah, but we usually give merit in addition, do we not?
Helling: Well, that's.. .as you go through the steps, are merit steps.
Elliott: So the step is based on merit?
Helling: Right.
Elliott: And merit alone?
Helling: The step is not guaranteed.
Elliott: Beginning to like it better already. (laughter)
Wilburn: Roll call. Item carries 7-0.
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ITEM 20
Wilburn:
Boothroy:
Page 35
AMENDING CITY CODE TITLE 7, ENTITLED FIRE
PREVENTION AND PROTECTION, AND TITLE 17, ENTITLED
BUILDING AND HOUSING TO ESTABLISH FIRE AND LIFE
SAFETY REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW AND EXISTING GROUP
A-2 OCCUPANCIES.
a) PUBLIC HEARING
This is... we'll hear from staff and then we'll have, then I'll entertain
public discussion. Yep, go ahead.
I'd like to make a few comments before we do our PowerPoint
presentation this afternoon, or this evening. Urn, before you, you have a
code amendment that deals with public health, safety in terms of fire
safety, for eating and drinking establishments. This particular amendment
amends the requirements for existing eating and drinking establishments,
and for new eating and drinking establishments, and I wanted to point this
out to you because during the public meetings that we've had - we've had
four public meetings - the issue, there has not been any issue with new
establishments. The focus of the discussion has been entirely with
retrofitting existing establishments with fire sprinklers and alarms, and
very specifically, the cost of those improvements as they impact those
particular businesses. So, Ijust kind of wanted to let you, to remind you
that the ordinance is a little bit broader than probably what the focus of the
discussion is going to be tonight. Urn, we obviously feel very strongly
about this. Urn, we're all here, the Fire Chief, the Fire Marshall, the
Deputy Fire Chief, the Senior Building Inspector, myself, to ask you to
consider this. We feel it's our responsibility as professionals in the area of
fire safety and life safety to bring this to your attention, to have this public
discussion, before the Council, but we've also had this public discussion at
four other meetings - two at the Board of Appeals, the second one is when
the Board recommended approval of the ordinance, and we had two public
meetings where we sent out letters to affected businesses. Actually, we
sent it out to all restaurants. This particular ordinance is only addressing
restaurant, eating and drinking establishments. That is, establishments that
have liquor permits, but we sent that out as a special invitation, a direct
mailing to everybody, and had two meetings at the Public Library. So,
we've made, I think, a concerted effort to get the information to the public.
We tried to be as transparent as possible with what we are proposing, and
we'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. I would also like to say
that we believe that these are the minimum requirements necessary to deal
with the life safety issues that we see in eating and drinking
establishments, and the concerns that we've raised with this proposed
amendment. While we recognize the importance of those standards and
we feel very strongly about them, we also recognize that there is an
economic impact on businesses and therefore, we recommended that there
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be a support program, an economic support program, so that a businesses
are more capable of bringing about these changes. It's our position, and
has been our position, that no business should be put out of business
because of the increased life safety standards. With that in mind, and that
discussion before the Board of Appeals, the Board of Appeals
recommended with regard to existing establishments, that it be applied,
that it be retroactively, but that the Council, I guess I should say, the
recommendation was contingent upon an economic support package that
would help businesses bring this about. So, we feel that package that we
put together addresses both of those issues. I think this public hearing is
to sort that out, figure out whether or not we're on the right track, find out
where you're all going with this, with these particular standards. This is a
public health issue because the sprinkler systems are the best means of
protecting the public in these types of establishments. It's the best means
of protecting people in the building where these establishments are
located. It's the best means of protecting neighbors in buildings that are
next door, particularly when you talk about the downtown and you've got
older buildings and the spread of fire can be quickly and catastrophic, and
can happen very fast, like in the Mondo's fire. It is a system that
historically is fail-safe and it protects our fire fighters when they're called
upon to enter these situations. Much like with the Mondo's fire, they were
up there within a few minutes, but the first thing they needed to do was to
enter those, that building while it was on fire and remove people, and with
the sprinkler system in place, the situation would have changed and their
lives, as well as the residents, would not have been at the same risk. So,
besides the public health and safety issue that we're dealing with, we're
also looking at the public welfare in the sense that with regard to
downtown in particular, these.. . many of these buildings are older
buildings, they're not built to present day standards, and if a fire was to get
loose, we would loose one building - possibly more - and it's a resource
that is not replaceable. It makes Iowa City unique, and it's something that
we should treasure and protect as we can. So, hopefully, what we've
proposed will help make this thing work for this community, that we can
go forward with this, and with that, 1'd like to turn the presentation over to
Roger to go through some of the specifics.
Jensen:
Good evening. You should have before you a handout, including the slide
presentation. I have 19 slides, that includes the title slide, and the last two
slides will be covered by Doug Boothroy, who will speak to the
recommended financial incentive package. Again, we're dealing with fire
and life safety issues in group A-2 occupancies. For definition purposes,
group A-2 occupancies include bars, restaurants, and night clubs, and in
particular, the group A-2 occupancies we will be talking about specifically
would be those with a State of Iowa Alcoholic Beverage Division license.
Those being identified as occupancies recommended for these fire and life
safety improvements. Naturally, when we look at the numbers of
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incidents in fire incident.s in these types of establishments, we can see that
the numbers are quite large. I apologize. These are not the most current
data, but it is the most current data that's available. This is from 94 to 98,
and you'll notice that there are 11,100 fires annually. Annually five
civilian deaths. 189 civilian injuries, and over $163 million in direct
property loss. Dating back in our country's history, looking at the five
deadliest nightclub fires, you can see that the numbers are potentially quite
tragic, in terms of the numbers oflives lost in these types of occupancies.
Looking locally at our incidents of fires, fortunately no lives lost in any of
these incidents, but you can see that only going back as far as 1988, we
have quite a history, quite a storied history in our city oflosses in A-2
occupancies. So, project goals that our group has put before us, both HIS
and Fire Department, include first of all, hopefully prevent fire ignition.
Failing that, we look to move towards managing the impact ofthat fire,
specifically minimize the fire-related injuries and prevent undue loss of
lives. Thirdly, minimize fire related damage to the building, its contents,
and its historical features and attributes. And lastly, minimize undue loss
of business operations due to fire related damage. City staff
recommendation includes three built-in fire protection features to
accomplish those goals. Number one, fire alarm equipment; number two,
fire sprinklers; and three, exits with openings to accommodate two-thirds
of the occupant load. We'll take those one at a time. Automatic fire
sprinklers, the recommendation is that in new and existing group A-2's,
again, with State of Iowa Alcoholic Beverage Division license, where one
ofthe following exists: 1. a fire area that exceeds 5,000 square feet; 2. a
fire area that's on a floor, other than the level of exit discharge; or 3. the
fire area or the group A-2 occupancy has an occupant load of 100 or more.
And I'll qualify that, in that in existing A-2's with Alcohol Beverage
Division license with an occupant load of 300 or greater, they would be
expected to comply within five years of adoption of (unable to hear).
Existing A-Z's with Alcohol Beverage Division license with an occupant
load smaller, 100 to 299, would not be required to upgrade until ten years
after adoption, unless... unless cumulative, permanent improvements are
made that exceed $25,000, or there's any change in business ownership, or
there's a change of occupancy to a new A-Z occupancy. Secondly,
emergency voice alarm systems; the recommendation is to require
emergency voice alarm systems in new group A-2's with State ofIowa
ABDL's and occupant loads of200 or more. Activation of alarms shall
additionally cause these things to happen: 1. illumination of the protected
premises to not less than 10 foot candles over the area of the room at
height of30 inches; and 2. all conflicting and confusing sounds and visual
distractions be made to automatically stop. Again, that would be a new
group A-2 occupancy. In existing, existing group A-2 occupancies, again,
with State ofIowa ABDL and occupant loads of 300 or more, this
requirement would be imposed. So, for new, the desire is to establish that
at an occupant load of200 or more; for existing, 300 or more. Main
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entrance, exit widths - this requirement would only apply to new group A-
2 occupancies, and in the new A-2 occupancies, they would be made to
accommodate not less than two-thirds of the total occupant load, and this
is based upon an existing chart in the International Building Code, which
we adopt locally. Now, a bit on the impact of this program. Who will it
affect, and what will it cost? We have done an analysis of all of the group
A-2's with Alcohol Beverage Division license in the city, and we've
identified 46 existing businesses that would be required to install
automatic fire sprinklers. We asked local sprinkler contractors for
estimates, as to above ground, retrofit costs for these existing businesses.
Estimates range from $2.31 a square foot, to a high of$5.78 per square
foot. Be mindful that that estimate does not include new underground
service, ifit's required. Some examples, the Airliner. The Airliner was
retrofit equipped with fire sprinklers, and so we can speak specifically to
their cost. That was done at a cost of $23,322 for a square foot price,
average,of$5.47. Additionally, the Airliner did require new underground
service to the center of Clinton Street, so they had to tear up the sidewalk,
the street, and that was done at a cost of$14,000. The Airliner protects
two stories and a basement for a total of 4,267 square foot. The second
example is the Sports Column. The Sports Column was also recently
protected with fire sprinklers. That was done for a total cost of $24,208.
It did not require replacement of the water service line. It was adequate to
supply the fire sprinklers, so that estimate, excuse me, that total cost per
square foot came in at $2.31. An estimate that we've, that's been shared
with us, is for One-Eyed Jake's. That fire sprinkler system, the estimate
that they received was for a cost of $46,848 for a per square foot average
of$4.88. Of note regarding the One-Eyed Jake's property is that the
estimate here is to protect three stores, as well as a basement and a
combustible attic space, for a total of9,600 square feet. Also of note
regarding One-Eyed Jake's, replacement ofthe underground supply line
would be required and is not included in this estimate. Regarding the
alarm equipment, who will it affect and what will it cost? We've
identified 19 existing businesses that would require emergency voice
alarm system. Again, we asked local fire alarm contractors to give us an
estimate ofthe cost. The cost, the estimates that they provided, they
indicated would protect most any Iowa City bar or nightclub. For standard
fire alarm equipment, they estimated a cost of $4,000 and installation at,
from $1,500 to $2,000. Voice alarm system upgrades, they estimated
between $2,000 to $2,500 more. So using the high end of those estimates,
you can see from this slide a total cost projected to be $8,500. You should
note as well (TAPE ENDS). Their estimate came in at $5,574. The City
staff proposals that you have before you tonight, urn, are proposals that
exist in other model codes. Though these codes are not adopted by the
City of Iowa City, these provisions are found in the 2006 additions of
or the Life Safety Code, also _, which is the Uniform Fire
Code. The Life Safety Code is adopted by the cities of Clinton, Council
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#20
Boothroy:
Page 39
Bluffs, and West Des Moines, Iowa. And included in these model codes
are fire sprinklers in assembly occupancies with occupancy loads of 100
or more; voice alarm systems in assembly occupancies with occupancy
loads of300 or more; exit widths to accommodate two-thirds of the
occupant load in assembly occupancies, and lastly, alarm and sprinkler
requirements that apply to both new, as well as existing occupancies.
With that, I'm going to turn the podium over to Doug Boothroy, who's
going to talk about incentives.
I just wanted to read through this so there wouldn't be any, so there isn't
any misunderstanding. First of all, businesses eligible, we came up with a
proposal that is a combination of loan and grant to help businesses to meet
these public safety requirements. They apply to existing A-2 occupancies
and we estimate that to be approximately 54 businesses. We selected five
years, that's the first benchmark, one of the benchmarks that we use for
implementation. We have, if you recall, for occupancies 300 or more,
they had five years, the larger occupancies had five years to come into
compliance. The smaller occupancies had ten years, and so we selected
five years as a way to manage this, for us, from the City's perspective, and
put that in as a date. Certainly it's an arbitrary date, but we felt that would
be a good one to work with. Basically, during the enrollment period, the
first five years after the effective date, people, or businesses, would need
to get their work and construction contracts approved by the City. This
really isn't anything unusual because any of this work has to be approved
by the City. They have to get permits from the City to do the work. We
review them. The Fire Department reviews them. So it would be
basically the way we typically conduct our process, and then the work
needs to be during that period of time, that first five years after the
adoption of the regulations, to... it needs to be started or at least a signed
contract with a construction company, even if it were to get started shortly
after the expiration of the 60 months. Um, we're talking about, as far as
the improvements, we're talking about what we're proposing in the code
amendment, which is sprinkler systems and service line upgrades if
they're necessary, and fire alarm equipment, etc. Um, in this, in regard to
the grant aspect of the program, came up with an amount equal to the
lesser of 50%, or $20,000, and we can talk about that if you have
questions later, but um, looking at the numbers, looking at the costs that
were involved, it was our feeling that the program shouldn't be completely
a grant program. It should be a combination of loan and grant, because
there is a benefit to the business, but there is also a benefit to the
community and we're really in a sense should be sharing this cost and
that's why we have both of these particular aspects to the financial
package. Um, the loan was, is not to exceed $20,000. We're looking at
no to low interest, very low. I think it depends on how we put that
program together, but there may be some minimal handling costs, mailing
costs and stuff like that, but not very much. A ten-year term on that,
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#20
Page 40
paperwork, the legal paperwork, would be required to be paid by the
property owner, and the lien, there would be a lien to, or something of that
nature, to secure the loan so that we can collect on it if there's any
problems. Change of ownership, the loan would be required to be paid in
full. Also I've added here a provision that we need to work out the
language on, but it's my feeling that there are some businesses that are not
very commercial in nature that are impacted by this ordinance and I put in
an economic hardship loan where, this would be available upon a finding
by the City, the City's determination that the improvement costs will result
in a severe hardship, presenting reasonable revenue that may cause a
business to close, and the whole idea is for us to be able to, if you approve
this, to have some kind of flexibility in tailoring the terms and the loan
amount and so forth to maintain the financial viability of the business. For
example, the (can't hear) is one ofthose that's impacted by this, and I
think, you know, this may be one of the types ofbusinesses that might
need that particular...on the hardship. Is that the end of it? Urn, I think
we're ready for any questions. We have plenty of experts here on fire
safety and these issues (noise on mic) of course there's...however you
want to do it. Either ask us or open to the public.
Vanderhoef: Before you sit down, did I understand you to say that a business would be
eligible both for a grant and a loan?
Boothroy: That's correct.
Vanderhoef: From the City?
Boothroy: That's correct. As it's proposed. And I want to reemphasize also that,
that this is basically the proposal that was before the Board of Appeals.
This is the type of package that they were interested in seeing going
forward. Obviously, you can change it or something, but this is what they
had in mind too.
Champion: So you're asking the taxpayers ofIowa City to put $20,000 into somebody
else's building.
Boothroy: We're asking the taxpayers ofIowa City to put up $20,000 to protect
themselves, as well as to protect the downtown, as well as to protect the
public health and safety. This is, this is as pure a public health safety issue
as there is around when you're talking about fire safety - it doesn't get any
straighter than this.
Bailey: But your terms...your 5-year and 10-year seem incongruent with the
concern for public safety. Can you address that, because ten years down
the road, that's a long time, if we have a public safety concern now. Can
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Boothroy:
Bailey:
Page 41
you talk a little bit about that? How you came up with those... with that
length of time?
Well, the reason there's...let me first say why five and ten. The five
applies to 300 or greater, which is your largest businesses which has the
largest number of people, and so we are recognizing by creating those two
differences that the larger businesses with the higher occupancies need to
work for compliance more quickly because they are at higher risk. Urn,
some of the smaller uses, that.. .you don't have that same kind of
congregation of people and the same kind of issues because there're less
than 200 in that particular occupancy. You know, we.. .I'll ask Roger to
address that, or Andy. I think that we believe that it's important to move
forward with something. We believe that we need to be able to move
forward by... in a way that gets us towards the goal that we want, but
understanding that this is difficult for some businesses, that this is
expensive, and therefore, in order to move us forward, we feel that we
need to work with people, give them time to comply. Ifwe were to adopt
this tomorrow, it takes a while to get contractors lined up, so the five year
kind of recognizes that it might take one to two years just to get people
employed to do the work, and to bring it about. The ten years recognizes
that with the smaller businesses, the risk is not as great, although it's still
there, and that it gives them more opportunity to absorb these economic
costs. These costs are not 100% funded by the City in this particular
proposal. So, there is a need to defray that. Some states have, like the
State of Washington for example, I was reading recently, they adopted
these requirements state-wide and they gave them something like eighteen
months to comply. The problem that they ran into was being able to get
that to happen, and it's important to get it to happen, and so now they're
looking at extending that period because it was too short. People couldn't
get the estimates together, they couldn't get contractors together, they
couldn't move forward on it, and so now they're looking at, you know,
making that a longer period of time, and trying to also come. . . the other
issue that came up with this, they...I think they jumped the gun a little bit
with eighteen months, but they didn't have a good financial package in
place and so now they're going back and trying to come up with other
financial incentives to help businesses, existing businesses I'm talking
about, you know, bring this about. So, we're looking at the end game
here, in terms of making this a reality, and we believe that if we went any
shorter it might not happen.
Roger, maybe you can talk about how you assess the risks, and ifthere are
other variables that we should be looking at, because I. . . looking at these
time frames, I understand large occupancy - need to get them online, in
compliance faster - are there other variables that should fall into that?
Just, I mean, beyond large occupancies?
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Jensen: One ofthe concerns we heard, time after time, as we presented our case
before the owners was the hardship, the economic hardship on the smaller
occupancies. They had less of an opportunity to recoup the cost for the
investment to put in these repairs, because when you spread it out over
cost per square foot, it's cheaper to do it in a larger establishment than it is
in some of the smaller establishments, when you look at cost per square
foot, and also, their ability to recover financially was more of an issue, and
that really drove our decision to provide for some of that differential.
Bailey: What about.. . okay, let's just put the economic aside. Public safety - this
is what motivated this, this compelling argument for public safety. So,
when, are there other variables besides occupancy that you looked at, that
you considered? I mean, what, I mean, these are unsprinkled buildings,
they're downtown, they're adjacent - I mean, what else did you consider?
Jensen: Some are above grade, some are below grade, making it more difficult to
egress the building in a timely fashion.
Bailey: But if you're below grade or above grade, and lower than the occupancy
level, you can still take ten years to roll this in, correct?
Jensen: Uh, for existing, yes, yes.
Champion: What.. .you said if somebody puts $25,000 investment in their business,
that requires a building permit. They'd be required to put in a sprinkler
system. $25,000 is a small amount of money. What do you see that
$25,000 doing? I mean, I put in windows in my house and it cost me that
much. Does that mean I have to put a sprinkler system in?
Jensen: But... we were trying to come up with a number that, well, we're talking
about permitted improvements. These are permitted...
Champion: Sure, I understand that.
Jensen: Okay. Vh, so painting, changing the decor, changing the booths, changing
the bar, all those kinds of upgrades would not be part ofthat $25,000. It
would be if you did plumbing or electrical work or whatever, and we, uh,
we looked at the number of what some of these costs were and we came
up with $25,000 as being what we thought would be reasonable. It's an
arbitrary number. But I just wanted to make sure you understand it.
There's a lot of work that can go on without permit that would not be
added to this number that we're talking about.
O'Donnell: Are we proposing this $20,000 no-interest loan. Is that what we're doing?
And that, but that could exceed a million dollars, if everybody was to do it
tomorrow.
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Jensen: You'll have to say that again. I'm sorry. I missed part...
O'Donnell: So this $20,000 no-interest loan to, ifI remember right, 56 or 65
businesses. Yeah, that's a huge figure.
Jensen: If everybody were to, well, it won't happen, but ifit were all to happen on
the same day. It's physically impossible for that to happen on the same
day. It just...
O'Donnell: Well, it's still a lot of money over a period of time.
Jensen: That's correct. It is a lot of money.
Vanderhoef: And that money. . .
Jensen: We can't even review the plans that quickly. So...if everybody came
down and...
O'Donnell: In our figures also, do we have any idea how many of the businesses are
going to require upgraded water lines from the street to the building? Do
we have any way of knowing.. .
Jensen: Yeah, we do have, we do know that. I can't give you exactly those
numbers, but I can give you some, some things that we looked at. We did
a, we looked at downtown, we looked at the water services downtown.
What we know is this, is that when we did the improvements ofIowa
Avenue, those service lines were all improved. Goodjob!
O'Donnell: We're talking approximately $15,000 to bring that line from the street in?
Is that. . .
Jensen: If it has to go all the way out to the street. Some of them, obviously,
won't. It all depends on where that, on where they have to go to pick up
that line. We looked at the Plaza, for example. It's...there are only two
businesses, Etc. and the one that is no longer in business right next to it. I
don't remember what it used to be called. That would require a...
Champion: The Siren.
Jensen: Huh? The Siren. Those two businesses don't have adequate service lines
to them. There are some, like where One-Eyed Jake is, and I
think...there's very few businesses, Mike, that are impacted, but there are
a few.
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O'Donnell: Okay. And my final question is, it says the Board of Appeals
recommended by unanimous vote to the proposed amendments to the
International Building Code and International Fire Code. So these are
amendments?
Jensen: That's correct.
O'Donnell: So, and is this, is this something.. .you said there's three other cities in the
State that have these?
Jensen: That's correct.
O'Donnell: They require this?
Jensen: Uh, Clinton, West Des Moines, and Council Bluffs. Actually, West Des
Moines was this winter in the paper because they were doing some kind of
a financial package, and when we're talking about West Des Moines,
we're talking about, if you're familiar with West Des Moines, it's the
valley junction area, which has the old historic buildings, not Jordan
Creek.
Vanderhoef: And they got an additional CDBG grant.
Jensen: They did get a grant.
Vanderhoef: Yes they did! And, and grant is for a situation where they put in all the
equipment and connection in one location, and then they are looking at
running it straight down the street, up and down the street, of. . .
Jensen: Some cases I thought they were running it through the, either in front of
the building or even possibly through the building.
Vanderhoef: But it has to go in, but the power and all of the generation system is going
in one. I was offered a copy of that, if we wanted to look at it, but while
you're still up there, you talked about a lien on the property to secure the
loan; however, many of these businesses are in rental buildings. So, uh, I
don't know how you can put a lien on that building ifthey don't own it.
Jensen: We would come up with some way to secure the loan, Dee. I would, you
know, there surely must be some way to do that. I...a lien is one way to
do that. Urn, I'm sure there are other ideas. I'm not that, I'm not able to
speak to all of those aspects of. . .
Vanderhoef: Well, I'm not either, but I'm noting that ownership is usually...
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Elliott:
Cohen:
Page 45
Before we ask, I'd sure like to hear from the operators and owners before
we ask more questions.
I'm Leah Cohen with Bo James, and I'd just like to point out some,
certainly some problems that I see with it myself. We've been talking a
long time on this, and this is where it's gotten down to. It started out this
big and now it's come to this point. Urn, first of all, I'd like to comment
on the fact and it's been brought up on several occasions that when we're
looking at downtown buildings and we're looking at life and safety issues,
all of us are for that, but we're, with this proposal, we're just looking at
places with alcohol. Now, I know that the alcohol stats that we show, I
don't know what the other stats are across the country, or in Iowa City.
Maybe they're much better than they are, or with the alcohol, but urn, the
buildings downtown are all connected, and that certainly gives a different
flavor to this whole thing than a building that's out on its own, and not
connected to any others, and I think that's been the biggest concern, is that
we are all connected downtown. Urn, if you look at, you know and what
we've talked about with there are some large bars, that there's no question.
We've talked about upper level, lower level, multi-level, large bars. That
seems to be where the danger is, in regards to capacity and what things
can go on. We're not addressing smaller, upper bars in this proposal. It's
addressing A-2 with liquor licenses. It's not addressing under 50 people
in a bar. So, for instance, a skybox is a bar that seats theoretically under
50 people. That does not mean whoever may not go over capacity and
have 80 people packed in there or whatever. It's not addressing those
sorts of issues in it, because it's a different.. . outside of the A-2, it's a
different code. With the, looking at...what we've talking about here with
the grant program and the other program, we're probably talking about $2
million just a rough estimate. Could almost build that fire station for that
kind of money, but urn, just in looking at this grant program, basically
what we're talking about doing is taking my tax dollars and your tax
dollars and giving it to, $20,000 to a union bar. I mean, it just, it just
blows my mind to just sit and look at that. We're taking and giving our
money for that. I have, by the way, Bo James is sprinklered on both
floors, which after my two fires I did on my own. I had to sleep at nights
with that, but that's what we're doing, and then we're giving out these
interest loans, or these no-interest loans to those same people, and if we're
looking at economic hardships, we can't say that, you know, for instance,
a bowling alley has an economic hardship and give them all that money,
interest free, and then that we won't give it to the union bar who comes up
with the same sort of financial statement. I mean, we really have to look
at what we're doing with this whole thing, and urn, I feel that there are a
couple real safety problems downtown with a couple of bars, and I think
five years is way too long. I think if we're going to look at anything with
a few of them, I think two years if probably plenty of time, that we really
need to get a couple problems taken care of before we really have a major
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thing happen in our community. So, those are just kind of giving you
some of the concerns that, you know, have been talked about. When the
Board of Appeals approved it, they were very, very adamant that this have
financing connected to it, that people cannot, and person after person
came, and told them, you know, on the financial of what this will do to
small businesses. So, they were pretty adamant that the only way really
they were approving this was with all these financial incentives. So...
Champion: Leah.. . can we carryon a conversation (unable to hear other comment). I
mean, I'm not saying that it's not a financial burden, and I'm not saying
whether I'm going to vote for this or not vote for it, but you did put yours
III on your own.
Cohen: Yes I did.
Champion: And do. . .
Cohen: My landlord didn't, and I have a (can't hear) on that lease with my
landlord, and most of these buildings are not owner-occupied buildings.
Most of these are not, downtown. I don't know. I think you'd probably
find about the same on the outskirts of downtown. So, again, you get into
the lien situation. You can't lien a building for something that a tenant
does. No one can lien my building for what I may do.
O'Donnell: Can I ask one question? Would your sprinkler system meet today's codes
that we're talking about?
Cohen: It does currently. It would not have met, and we changed some things in
here. They took out the voice system and all those sorts ofthings for my
size. Those are still required for the larger sizes. It would not have
otherwise, but yes, it does. As it sits today, but I just put a big, big
improvement in my system of $4,000 worth about two years ago. I don't
know what happened, but all of a sudden I wasn't up to code anymore,
so...I had to put another $4,000 into it, and remember we upkeep those
every year too, so it isn't just the cost of what these people are putting into
it, it's, you know, a thousand, two thousand upkeep every year on it.
Wilburn: Thank you.
O'Donnell: Thank you.
Huff: Hi, my name is Brad Huff and I'm the owner/manager of Colonial Lanes
here in Iowa City. I'm here tonight to give my 2-cents about the proposed
ordinance concerning retrofitting sprinkler systems in my pre-existing
building. Last Friday when I returned from running errands, I found a
message on my desk about this ordinance. This was the first that I had
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heard about it. This, in my case, would be extremely expensive. I have
not had time to inquire about an estimate, but I have consulted a friend
that does water main work, and he advised me that the cost to run the pipe
of sufficient size from the main, which is clear out by the highway, to the
entry point ofthe building, would be somewhere between $10,000 and
$15,000. Add the cost of the actual sprinkler system to this, and we would
have an amount that could cripple my business. Now, the gentleman over
here who spoke earlier about how much per square foot, I've got about a
30,000 square foot building. So I'm talking a minimum, you know, on the
low end, $75,000 plus the $15,000, and on a high end of$5.00 and
something. Not so good for me. Urn, I wonder what the desire for this
change is. Why now after all these years? For my business, it's 48 years.
We opened in 1959. The past dangers of fire are now gone, as the lanes
are now synthetic and no longer coated with flammable materials. Our
building sits on a concrete slab and is built of concrete blocks with a steel
roof decking. I remember the meeting we had with the Fire Department a
year or so ago, and I recall the lecture about the bar with the band, and I
can't even tell you whether it was White Snake or Great White or
whatever. I can't remember which, but this is the band that had the
pyrotechnic display that burned down the building and killed many
people. In my 35 years of employment at Colonial Lanes, we have never
used pyrotechnic devices, nor would we even consider using them. Not
even a sparkler! These devices have nothing to do with balls and sticks,
which is primarily what my patrons are concerned with. I'm aware of the
problems that you're having with some downtown establishments. Please
do not lump us in with them. Even though our rated occupancy is high,
we are never that full. Our concourse is spacious and our customers are
not wedged in like sardines. We do serve beer and liquor, but it is not our
primary function. We do not carry flammable liquors. Ifit is high enough
proof that it will burn, I do not want it. In closing, I ask that you please
not punish us for stunts that others have done, and that approval of this
ordinance could potentially endanger the survival of my bowling center.
A place that does give back to the community, whether it be a simple thing
like giving free passes to all the kids' school functions or non-alcohol
related entertainment or providing Big Brothers/Big Sisters the place to
hold their yearly fund raiser, a fund raiser that, I believe, raises about 80%
of their operating income for the year, or just a safe, comfortable place
where parents can drop their kids off while they go shopping. You know,
he mentioned earlier about, and I think Leah mentioned earlier about the
buildings side by side. We don't have neighbors. We're out there in the
middle of ourself, with nobody up above us. Nobody below us. We're on
one level, and there would be.. . there would not be that danger of fire
moving from place to place to place. So, anyway, thank you for your
time.
Bailey:
What's the occupancy of your. ..
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Huff:
Neades:
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Well, it's listed at 410, although I can't imagine it would ever be that high.
You know, on a league night when we're full with five people on a team,
twenty-four lanes, that's 124 people, plus you might have a handful of
wives or husbands watching, a couple people in the bar, and maybe ten
people on the miniature golf course. So, the thing that bothers me about it
is the square footage. You know, we've got a building, let's say that's this
big. Half of it is where the folks are. The other half is where the lanes
are. You know? But I guess, I don't whether that would have to be
sprinkled as well or not, but it's just a real, it's a real large area. Okay?
Thanks, folks. (several responding)
Hi there. I'm Rebecca Neades with the Iowa City Area Chamber of
Commerce and, urn, hold on a second here. . . we have been talking about
this issue for months. We've hosted meetings at the Chamber of
Commerce. We've tried to communicate with, very openly actually, with
our City staff, with you guys, and with our business community, to try and
come to a resolution on this issue, urn, that won't cripple the business
community and you've just heard a couple examples tonight, but I'd just
like to talk to you and make a couple points. I know that at least four of
you have owned or currently own a business, and if you can imagine,
certainly bars, restaurants, people with liquor licenses, most ofthe retail
are rental space in our community is a triple-net lease, which means that
you are responsible for all improvements. Of course, even if it's to the
building, it doesn't go with you when you leave, and so you're making
improvements on someone else's property and that's very normal,
common in Iowa City. Urn, the proposals that we're looking at tonight
and just some ofthe examples that were given, urn, it looked like the
Airliner is at about $37,000; Sports Column, $24,000; One-Eyed Jake's,
$46,000 - these aren't small amounts and these are just a couple key
businesses. If you look at what they will get back, or how much that is,
urn, compared to their annual budget, it's extreme. Some of these smaller
businesses, it's 30 to 40% of their annual budget, and so a no-interest loan
and a grant are wonderful things, and we're appreciative that the Board of
Adjustments said, you know, we won't even look at these things unless
there's incentive in for these businesses - there's some way to help them
with this. Urn, but it's still money that they have to payout. Granted,
over a nurnber of years, but if you were required to put sprinkler systems
in your home because you had small children, you know, people that
couldn't defend themselves in the case of a fire, you would still think of
that as a hard cost to you, even if you got to pay it back over the 20 years
that you paid off your home mortgage. So these are real costs. Um...a
few issues, the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, well first of all
it started with our Local Govemment Affairs Committee. We have a very
bottom to top system at the Chamber. We look at these issues at the
committee level, and then bring them to the Board's attention. Urn, so,
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both our Local Government Affairs Committee and then our Board of
Directors, urn, unanimously opposed making changes retroactively. They
felt that if you made, if you met standards when you started your business,
you had a business plan, you knew what to expect, urn, that was, you
know, those were reasonable costs. If you had to go back and change
them, that was a very dangerous precedent to set and that, you know, what
would stop the City from ten years from now saying, 'You know what?
We've learned a lot in the last ten years and I'm glad you guys all signed
on for these, but now it's really better to have foam instead of water,' or
it's really better, you know, to have this instead of that, and so going down
the road of retroactive changes, urn, the...our Board was extremely
opposed to. Urn, you'll hear the nurnber one issue from these businesses
is the cost and, I mean, truly that's the case. We're talking about large
sums of money, urn, and that's just really, urn, I don't think we understand
the full economic impact this is going to have on our community and how
much, you know, collectively all of these businesses are going to have to
pay, and you know, just to reiterate of course the Board of Adjustments
approved these changes, retroactively, but only with an incentive package.
They were very, urn, you know, concerned about that. So, urn, I just
thought I would point out a couple things on the slide show as well before
I sit down. The Union Station nightclub is the bar that we've, you know,
we've seen the video, we've talked about, it was tragic, urn, this
gentleman mentioned that even, you know, it was being discussed last
year, but that bar, if you saw the video you could see some very glaring
things that were wrong with it. It had insulation sticking out of the walls.
It had that fabric for the soundproofing hanging from the ceiling. I mean,
this was just. . . it was really a tinderbox, and if you looked at that building
very closely, none of our buildings that I've been in to, urn, bars,
restaurants have anywhere close to that kind of fire hazard feel about
them. So that's a very extreme case. Urn, then also we look at our local
history here, and this lists all the bars and restaurants that have had fires
with liquor licenses, but don't forget - we've had some fires downtown
that have been non-alcohol fires. You know, Domby's, that bike shop...
Champion: The old pipe shop...
Neades: Yeah, so, urn.. . although, urn, we're focusing on one segment right now,
urn, you know, you have to be an adult to go into those places, so I think
there's certainly the feeling that you're in a bar or a restaurant, urn, you
know that you've gone into a place and I'd just like us to keep in mind,
you know, my three points: please consider not making this retroactive;
please keep in mind the cost; and if you have to do it, some of it anyway,
urn, please consider that incentive package. So...
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Wilburn:
Neades:
Wilburn:
Neades:
Wilburn:
Neades:
Wilburn:
Bailey:
Neades:
Bailey:
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Rebecca, urn, did the Chamber discuss Iowa City, you all discussed
economic impact. Did you discuss fire prevention, and any
recommendations.. . given that, you know, that's our responsibility?
Yeab. Well, we really think that, you know, and we give kudos to the City
staff. I always think that it's City staffs', matter offact I don't hold it
against you guys. Thank you for bringing these issues forward, because
you have to. You're the ones watching out for us. If you don't bring them
to our attention, who will? But I think that there needs to. . . that's where
you come in, you're the balance between, you know, what their wish list is
and what, you know, the businesses concerns are. You're the ones that
have to bring those two perspectives together. In answer to your question,
urn, I think it was our Local Government Affairs Cornmittee that said, you
know, if you have to do this, do it for new building, or new businesses
coming on, so they can build it into their business plan. If you have to do
this, think about if someone does a major remodel, then requiring it
because, you know, they're in digging stuff up, you know, tearing down
walls, whatever. They know that it's coming. They can decide. Do it at
the practical time, and if you're going to do it, do it over a longer period of
time so people can adjust to those changes.
So you don't feel the five to ten years is long enough?
You know, I don't think we made a judgment on that. I just. . .
.. .just asking what you all discussed.
I think initially the time frame was a bit shorter, and urn, you know, I
would say communication with City staff was wonderful.
Thank you.
I just want to add on to that...I mean, we talked about the downtown
businesses and the buildings are connected. I mean, if you don't do it
retrofitting, probably the most vulnerable buildings won't necessarily be
protected, whether they're bars or stores, and so you didn't have any
discussion about public safety in our historic downtown?
No, I don't feel that unsafe when I walk in. I think if you look...
Well, I mean, I don't think any of us really feel unsafe, but the fact of the
matter is, and you grew up in Iowa City, you're younger than the Things
fire, but I remember the Things fire, and I remember the fire where Prairie
Lights is now. I mean, we were afraid that the blocks would go, and our
firefighters were in danger because of those kinds of fires. So you had no
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discussion about the concerns with downtown and preserving...I mean,
there is potential there. We've had fires there.
Neades: Yeah, I really think that we left that to City staff to be concerned about.
Their role was to bring the concerns forward. Our role was to look at it
through the eyes, or business owners, and whether they would survive it,
because they, they may not survive enough, you know, they may survive a
fire, but they might not survive this kind of retroactive change. So, that's
harsh, I know, but it's truly a big deal and I don't want to minimize...1
don't want to minimize fire safety at all, and I don't think one of us,
whether it be on the Alcohol Advisory Board or the Chamber of
Commerce said we don't believe in fire safety. I think what we said is this
needs to be a, our groups need to come together. We need to discuss
options and we need to really make sure that when we're here, in front of
you, that we convey some of the harsh realities of, of the costs of these
Issues.
Champion: You know, Rebecca, you bring up a good point. Ifwe enforce this for
new construction, or renovation, I'm trying to think of major renovations
like in the past ten years. I mean, the Jamaica Jerk, or whatever that was.
Hills Bank. Bremers. My store, which by the way has a sprinkler system.
Um...(several talking at once). No, but I'm saying that...(several talking
at once).. . and so, Joe's. Does your new...that would have been a major
renovation.
Neades: Picador.
Champion: The Picador.
Neades: But you know, they just did... they just bought the old Gappes place, did a
whole lot, and you required additional things be done. Well, that was less
than a year ago. If they had known this at that time, they probably would
have incorporated these changes at the same time they were...
Champion: That's what I'm saying. I can think ofa lot of businesses that have been
totally remodeled downtown in the last five to ten years. So, if the
ordinance read major renovation, I guess that's more than $25,000.
$25,000 seems like a small amount of money to me. Urn, but when you
tear down walls, you put in flooring, you do new ceilings - you do all this
stuff. Urn, we would have had a lot of buildings sprinkled by now, and I
think I talked about this when I first came on the City Council that we
were talking about fire safety, that a major renovation ought to have a
sprinkler system, because I'm a firm believer in commercial spaces, but
I'm not willing to financially cripple a business, like that bowling alley. I
can't imagine what that would cost, that huge expansive ceiling? Why,
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you'd have more pipe in there than... than the San Francisco Bridge has
cement. (laughter) I mean, it would just be...
Correia: Well, it also seems like part of what we're talking about, I mean, we're
talking about the issues of public safety. Then the issue with downtown
becomes the connectivity, the preserving of downtown, which is different
for businesses downtown than it is for at Colonial Lanes or Bob's Your
Uncle or Carlos O'Kelley's - that type of a thing and so I don't know how
we create a policy that, that has...
Bailey: Well, and that's what I was trying to ask about the safety assessment. It
seems like we have some more critical issues in connected buildings, but
I'm not sure that that's true. It just seems on the face of it that that would
be more of a concern, and so that's what I was trying to get at - what else
went into the consideration of, of where the risk is, the risk analysis?
Wilburn: Why don't we take a few more minutes of public comment. We can...!
mean the purpose, this is the first time we're seeing the presentation. We
can stir up some questions and continue on, but let's take a few more
minutes of public comment.
Mondanaro: I'm Jim Mondanaro, and I remember the Mondo's fire. (laughter) Um, I
disagree with you, and that's what makes this country great. We have the
ability to cuss and discuss, as I say. What I think that this staff has done is
move this downtown and you are, that is a real unfortunate thing, and I'm
hurting for you with what you're telling me tonight, but if we focus on
downtown, and what they put together here, this is a safety issue. That's
what this is. And what it really comes down to you on this Council is to
look at the monetary impact that it has, and whether or not you have the
ability to play the game the way that they're projecting it to be played.
Now, if a business has a problem paying back a $20,000 loan over a 10-
year period, with little or no interest, that's $2,000 a year. That's not a
very good business person if they can't pay $2,000 a year. (someone in
audience makes comment) Well, wait a minute. If! have two businesses
that are impacted by this, Micky's and Givanni's both, and I have bids that
are in the $30,000 range. So, by what I'm hearing this would cost me,
there would be a $15,000 grant, and a $15,000 low-interest loan. Is that
right? Is that what it is? No, for one. I like the way you clarify that.
Wilburn: I'm sorry. Jim, I want you to continue with your comments, but uh, this is
public discussion, but it's also an open meeting and your comments are
not being picked up, and so, go ahead, Jim. Go ahead.
Mondanaro: So, anyway, what I'm saying there is that of the $15,000 that I have to pay
out in Micky's, I can either pay for it or I can get the loan from the City
and pay it back over a ten year period. To me that's a public safety issue.
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There's never going to be a window, and if the people that are in the
restaurant and bar business can't see this as an opportunity to move
forward, to get their buildings up to snuff, because City is ready to get
behind this as well, then this window will close, and the time will come
where you're going to cripple your businesses even more because they
will pass legislation to make it happen, period. And a five to ten year
window, Regenia, in your case, I mean, time goes by. I mean, I'm 55 and
I'm telling you, it seems like I was just 35, and the window it goes too
quickly, and the one thing that I know is a constant in this world, and it's
the only constant, is that we're always dealing with change, and this is
what we're dealing with right now. We have a safety issue here, and what
it really comes down, simple to the point, does this Council and does this
City have the monetary means to do this as it's being put forward to you?
I am for it 110%, no ifs, ands, or buts. That's all I have to say.
Wilburn: Thank you.
Champion: I was going to ask you, Jim. Would you be in favor without the financial
incentives?
Mondanaro: It's a different animal. (laughter) That's what I'm saying. The way it...
Champion: It's a gift.
Mondanaro: This whole thing has flipped, and as Leah said earlier, you know, start out
how to tweak it, and one of the things I said, if you really want to make
this thing get a hook in it, you have to let the people that it's going to
affect have some kind of means to get the job done. But, I think what
they're looking at here, though, Connie, (TAPE ENDS) .. .now, it's
costing me a ton of money, but that's what I've chosen to do to play the
game. It's just that simple.
Bailey: So, are you building it to these suggested standards then?
Mondanaro: Absolutely! I mean, it's like I said to Tim Hennes earlier tonight, I said,
'I'm a team player!' I just didn't want to get kicked off the team!
(laughter)
Champion: You want to be the quarterback!
Mondanaro: When he tells me to do something, I listen. That's the way it is!
Woodson: I don't know how to follow that. Daryl Woodson, Sanctuary, urn, we all
kind of do what Tim says when he says it, and we've been doing that for
quite a while, and now the rules could be changing, which is, you know,
one of the problems, and I wonder if Jim would be so enthusiastic if we're
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Wilburn:
Woodson:
Wilburn:
Woodson:
Page 54
proposing a retrofit on handicapped accessibility in the buildings. (unable
to hear comment from audience)
I'm sorry. Can we address... this issue?
Yeah. Urn...
Let's just stay civil about this, and address the Council, please.
Right. But you know, we have a large issue here, which is a retrofit,
okay? We all built to code. Now, any time you're changing the rules, I
think you have to have a very, very high standard of necessity, and what
we are doing is we are proposing to protect from fires, businesses with an
alcoholic beverage license. That's all. We're not going to protect any of
the other buildings. We're not going to protect a restaurant that doesn't
serve alcohol. Now, within that category, and I think Councilperson
Bailey was trying to get to this, what are those places, with the 100 to 500
occupancies? You have places with dance floors, loud sound systems,
etc., etc., people packed in very tightly, or you have restaurants. People
sitting in booths, often two people sitting at a booth that will hold four.
You have a different kind of use. The use has not been addressed, and I
think that affects the danger and the safety, but what we are doing is
simply addressing the size of these uses within that, and I don't know how
one would, how one would make that differentiation. Maybe this is the
simple way to do it, is just to go on occupancy. But maybe you go with
places that have a dancing permit, for instance, and we consider that to be
a greater risk, where people are packed in tighter, into a space. Urn,
couple of things that I did have some real questions about. The, urn,
limited to 299 occupancy load would be required to retrofit within ten
years, unless one of the following occurs, which is cumulative, permanent
improvements in excess of $25,000 or whatever. Now, is that
improvements to the business space? Or is that improvements to the
building? A new roof on our building, we don't occupy all of it, is
$36,000. That'll have to be done this year. If this ordinance passed as
exists, on July 1 st, the contractor starting the roofing job, on August 1 sl that
seems to lose the ten years, but what is the penalty for that, and I'm sorry,
can I ask Doug...what is the change? If there is an improvement, or if
there is a change in business ownership, does that then mean the
requirement is immediate? It's not ten years anymore, apparently, but.. .so
then it's immediate. Okay. Any change in business ownership. For
instance, what if I decided to bring in an equity partner to help pay for
this. That would be a change in business ownership, but not a change in
business management or the style of business, but then that would trigger
an immediate requirement. An equity partner would be a lot cheaper than
borrowing the money that had to be paid back. You're also, I have a
question of are you regulating the business? Are you regulating the
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Dilkes:
Woodson:
Wilburn:
Woodson:
Wilburn:
Woodson:
Page 55
building? These are building improvements, but the business has a
responsibility. Not everybody owns or is on a triple-net lease, so then you
get into some contractual relationships between landlord and tenants, and
that same thing on the grant and loan program, if you are, as was
mentioned, if you're putting a lien on the building, for an improvement
that is required by a tenant ofthe building, um, there's.. .I'm not an
attorney, but I think there's some serious legal questions on that, and
again, change in ownership. If you brought in a minority partner into the
business, you know, say, I don't know, Leah's children are in the business,
on the business, but if she wanted to put them as a part owner of the
business, then that could change the ownership of the business and could
trigger immediate payment of the loans or immediate compliance with
these other things.
It's currently drafted very, very broadly to include any change in
ownership, so it would cover those things you're talking about.
Okay, well, I mean, yeah, but it's not spelled out in the ordinance
or. .. there wasn't any ordinance on the, on the.. . on the loan and grant
program, so.. . but (unable to hear person speaking in audience). Okay.
But, it's change in ownership - how much of a change in ownership? Is it
1O%? Is it 100%? Is it selling the business to somebody else? Yeah,
okay, well, that's my point.
I guess, if you're going to make points, I would recommend you make the
points, just as kind of condense your time.
Yeah, I'm sorry, I just have these questions that I haven't been able to...
You can just finish asking questions, but you just said, 'That's my point,'
so you knew or had a suspicion of what the answer was. I'm just
suggesting, in order to condense your time, go ahead and make your points
about the particular item that you agree or disagree with.
Those are really my questions, is, you know, is...these are not spelled out,
or haven't been spelled out so far, and then the simple thing that, you
know, I really think we need a very high standard if we're going to require
retrofitting. There must be, you know, a real high standard of public
safety, a real high standard of necessity, urn, I don't mean to make a
facetious argument, but we know that in automobiles, air bags, automatic
braking systems, and electronic stability control greatly increase the safety
in automobiles, and greatly reduce the number of injuries and deaths. But,
would you be in favor of saying that you can't re-license your automobile,
unless you have those systems installed? Or buy a new automobile. There
is sort of an implied contract when you purchase a car, or when you
purchase a business or establish a business or remodel a building that you
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have complied with all the rules and laws and standards of the time, and at
what point, and at what cost, and at what public good, and I purpose it
should be a very high standard, to require individuals to change that.
Thank you.
Wilburn:
Thank you. Okay. Urn, before I entertain first consideration of the
ordinance, urn, I guess I'll just kind of list the pleasure of the Council. Do
. you want to...
Bailey: I would like to defer and keep the public hearing open.
Elliott: I feel the same say. I'd like to keep the public hearing open, defer.
O'Donnell: I do too.
Wilburn: Continue public discussion, and keep it open. Okay. Someone make that
motion?
b) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Bailey: I so move.
Vanderhoef: Second.
Elliott: Second.
Wilburn: Moved by Bailey, seconded by Vanderhoef. Any other. . . further
discussion? I want to thank you all for coming down this evening.
Karr: This is 'til the next meeting, May 1.
Champion: There's a couple things I want, couple questions I'm going to have before
we discuss this again. Where do we get the $2 million? I'm not asking
for an immediate answer. Urn, but I guess that's a major question.
Atkins: $2 million, someone made that comment. How's financing going to be
put together?
Champion: Right.
Atkins: That's a better question.
Champion: Right. (several talking at once) Second time tonight.
O'Donnell: Should we put this on a work session, rather than...
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Atkins: If you're planning to defer, schedule it for a work session.
Bailey: Actually, I thought there was an agreement that the session would be held
so we could discuss this, more transparent, and so I would prefer. . . I mean,
I know that it takes a little bit more time if we could just direct, if we need
particular information from staff at that time, I think that might be...I
mean, get us there, because we'll talk about it at a work session and we'll
have the same questions, or the same discussion, as the public meeting.
So, why not have it all at the same time?
Champion: I think we need to have it all at the same time. I think people who are
going to be affected need to communicate with us, and need to
communicate with them. I like the format for this kind of discussion.
Um, it's going to upset a lot of people and it's a lot of money.
Elliott: I have many questions following the presentation and information tonight,
and those questions, I think, would have to be some directed to staff, some
directed to operators, some directed to owners, some directed to legal
counsel to see what the situation is.
Champion: And, you know, I'm not for this the way it's written, but I'm not against a
lot of this, and so, I mean, we need to have more discussion and come up
with alternatives on what's acceptable to us, or what's acceptable to me, is
all I can say. I can't say what is acceptable to you. So...
Bailey: So how do you want us to handle staff questions then?
Wilburn: Well, right away with, you know, some questions that came up this
evening, I mean, in the past, we've tried having people just putting them in
writing to submit to staff so that they can respond. You know, respond
thoroughly and thoughtfully, rather than question immediate, you know,
I'd rather have some thoughtful things going, so I would recommend, you
know, put it in writing, get it to Marian. She can get it out to staff. They
can gather the information, it can be presented similar to the way it was
tonight, and similar reaction and...
Vanderhoef: There's something that...
Wilburn: I would also recommend if, you know, each of the Council, you can
submit questions. The public, just like people do ordinarily on line or to
the, through the Clerk's office, the Council gets those and we can look at
your questions. Again, just an attempt to make it a thoughtful discussion,
as opposed to. . . if you know what your questions are, go ahead and put
them down and get them to us and we can, chances are some ofthe
questions you may have are questions that a Council Member may raise,
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and that will allow staff to give an answer, and a more thorough and
thoughtful answer, rather than.. .you know, any other direction.
Karr: Mr. Mayor, just to reiterate, to allow staff ample time then to respond, and
potentially include in your next week's packet, you know, again I
encourage you to get the questions to me as soon as possible so I can share
them with staff, so that staff will then have ample time to put them in the
next Thursday morning packet.
Wilburn: So by...mid day...
Karr: I don't know because I don't know what the questions are and how much
time staff needs, but I would think it would be advantageous to get them to
me this week, to allow most of next week for staff to research and does
that seem to make sense?
Atkins: The sooner you can get them, obviously, the quicker we can turn it around,
and quite frankly, our answer might provoke further questions.
Wilburn: Right.
Atkins: So...please...
Karr: And it doesn't mean you can't submit more than submission, but, I mean,
if you get your initial question...
Wilburn: Sure, sure. Okay, it's been moved and seconded to defer.
Karr: To continue the public discussion to May I.
Wilburn: Yes, continue public discussion, what she just said. All those in favor say
aye. Opposed same sign. Carries 7-0. Thank you staff for your
presentations.
Karr: Do we want to defer the ordinance to match up with the same thing?
Defer consideration of the ordinance til May I?
Bailey: Move consideration to May 1 st.
O'Donnell: Second.
Wilburn: Moved by Bailey, seconded by O'Donnell. All those in favor say aye.
Opposed same sign. Carries 7-0.
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#24
ITEM 24
Wilburn:
Elliott:
Wilburn:
Bailey:
Atkins:
Wilburn:
Atkins:
Elliott:
Atkins:
Wilburn:
Bailey:
Helling:
Bailey:
Atkins:
Bailey:
Atkins:
Bailey:
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CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION.
Bob?
Pass.
Regenia?
I have a couple of things. It was brought to my attention that Iowa City
sign coming in to Dubuque Street says "Wa," and so, and the particular
community member asked me how frequently we have to replace those
letters, and ifthere's anything that's a more cost effective way to welcome
people to our community.
We invested pretty heavily in that. It's sad, but we already ordered the
parts.
On the building, they put those little spikes to keep the birds from landing
down (unable to hear).
Maybe someone needs to be electrocuted.
I was going to say electrified.
And I said I think that would probably create a little liability on the part of
the City, and I didn't think that was a good idea. (several talking at once)
What's that?
Regenia, did you have any other items?
Yes, are we hearing any kind of City cleanup, there's a lot of trash out and
about, including tires on the wrong side of the streets, and yeah...
What we do annually is mainly downtown focus on...
This is allover town, it's just really a trashy year.
It has been a trashy year. (several talking at once) Many of our citizens
haven't been as tidy as they normally should be.
Urn, perhaps we could, I don't know...do some volunteer efforts or...
All our stream cleanups have gone very well, those have gone very well.
I've seen that. Perhaps we could clean up other areas. I want to thank the
Presidential Scholars for inviting me to their tea on Sunday afternoon. It
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was a great opportunity to hear some ukulele music and hear from them.
They had some particular issues that they wanted to talk about related to
Council, and then on a much more somber note, I was wondering, Mr.
Mayor, if you might send a letter to Biacksburg, Virginia. Weare a
community that experienced something very similar and I think
that. . . (several talking at once). . . I think we should reach out as a Council
and send our sympathies. Thank you.
Wilburn: Dee?
Vanderhoef: Nothing, thank you.
Wilburn: Mike?
O'Donnell: Just a couple quick things. It was great to see that West High champion
wrestling team tonight. Everyone of those kids looked like they could
throw Elliott anywhere they wanted.
Elliott: I resemble that remark! (laughter)
O'Donnell: Also, I had an opportunity Friday night, I mentioned earlier, to go see the
house on Bayard Street that Frantz's Construction reconstructed, and it's a
tremendous thing. Bob, you went and Marian I saw you. It's a
tremendous house. It fits into that neighborhood so well. I just
compliment everybody involved, because the contractor and the
neighborhood got together to come up with something that really worked.
It's really nice. I encourage everybody to go look at it.
Champion: Thank you. Nothing.
Correia: Well, I have something that was disturbing that was in the Daily Iowan. I
don't know ifit was in the paper version, but it was online about a
University recognized club, the College Republican, as part of a week of
activities they have this week, on Thursday in City Park, they're planning
a "catch an illegal immigrant" game. Urn, I think this is terribly offensive
event that's being planned, and being planned in our city park, and I think
it's an event that incites hatred and division in our community. I don't
think it's what our community is about. I certainly don't think it's what
the University ofIowa is about, and I don't know ifthere's any way we
can block such a game from happening.
Atkins: Sounds like a free speech issue to me.
Correia: Well, you know, I thought about that, but all of the conversations in the
public last week about the Don Imus incident talked about protected free
speech, but not necessarily using the public airways to allow such speech
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Atkins:
Dilkes:
Wilburn:
Dilkes:
Correia:
Wilburn:
Elliott:
Wilburn:
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to happen. This is a city park, funded park, where children may be
playing. It's at 5:00 P.M. in the afternoon. I just think that it's...
And, Amy, they may be doing something a lot of people agree with.
That's also sad.
As long as they've followed whatever process we have, a park is a public
forum and they, we cannot not allow that because of their viewpoint, and
frankly, free speech is supposed to do exactly what you've done here, it's
to respond to them, urn, and telling them why you disagree with it, but not
to tell them they can't say it.
And actually, they probably don't even have to preserve the public.. .it's a
public park and they can show up and...
You remember we went through the whole public assembly thing. We
have some requirements that kick in when you have a certain group, but it
may be you're right, that they don't have any...that....
Well, I think it's absolutely terrible and you know, if they are a University
sponsored organization, I would hope that this would be the type of event
that would be against the policies for organizing as a student, or
University recognized organization. So...
Agree with your sentiment. Urn, let's see. Ijust want to say
congratulations to the University ofIowa School of Music. They ended
their year-long centennial celebration, wonderful musical variety acts,
even including some that Bob might like. There was a good version of
Sing, Sing, Sing by Johnson County Landmark.
Oh, really?
You missed a treat. But, very well done, and congratulations to them!
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ITEM 25 REPORTS ON ITEMS FROM CITY STAFF.
Wilburn: City Manager?
Atkins: Nothing, sir.
Wilburn: City Attorney?
Dilkes: I just wanted to let you know that the Supreme Court is holding oral
argument on the Charter Amendment case next Tuesday, April 24th. So I
suspect they're on schedule to have an opinion out probably in June.
Wilburn: City Clerk?
Karr: Are we going to discuss schedule any more?
Elliott: They rush right along, don't they?
Karr: The May 15th meeting, or not? We'll probably be setting hearings the next
time is the only reason I bring it up.
Wilburn: Right.
Bailey: You brought it to our attention that the following week won't work, so
let's collapse and have them on Monday.
Champion: Oh, it won't.
Karr: Well, I have a Deputy. Julie can come to the meeting, if you'd like to do
it. I will be out of town that week.
Wilburn: And she's done some before?
Karr: And she's done some before.
Wilburn: So, looks like we're doubling up on May 14th?
Vanderhoef: Well, I am available that other weekend so.. .ifwe want Julie to do it.
(several talking at once)
Karr: It's up to you. It's your meeting! (laughter) Pretend it's your schedule.
(several talking at once) It's entirely up to you, whatever you prefer. I
just think you should decide. . . (several talking)
Wilburn: How about May 14th? (several talking at once) 5:30 again? 5:30 again?
Go ahead, Marian.
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Karr: You tentatively want to do 5:30 and see what the agenda looks like?
Vanderhoef: This is for May 4?
Wilburn: 14th. Monday, May 14th. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Moved by
O'Donnell.
Champion: Second.
Wilburn: Seconded by Champion. All those in favor say aye. Now we
do..... . (TAPE ENDS)
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