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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-06-02 TranscriptionJune 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 1 June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session 6:30 P.M. Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Hayek, O'Donnell, Wilburn (arrived at 6:55 P.M.), Wright Staff: Lombardo, Dilkes, Helling, Ackerson, Karr, Davidson, O'Malley, Miklo, Ralston, Butler, Fosse, Jordan, Yapp Other: Jeff Morrow Plannine and Zonine Items: Bailey/ Okay, how about let's get started. Um, Planning and Zoning items, a, e, h, i and J~ Davidson/ Good evening, Madame Mayor, Members of Council, and City Manager Lombazdo. Uh, as the Mayor indicated, we have P&Z items a, e, h, i and j this evening. a) CONSIDER A MOTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR JUNE 17 ON AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 15, LAND SUBDIVISIONS BY REPEALING TITLE IS IN ITS ENTIRETY AND REPLACING IT WITH A NEW TITLE 15, LAND SUBDIVISIONS. Davidson/ Item a is setting a hearing on the, uh, the subdivision regulations. Uh, and obviously since we're just setting a hearing, we're not going to really spend any time on this tonight. However, I did want to emphasize, you know, subdivision regulations, along with the Comprehensive Plan and the Zoning Ordinance, can sort of cause eyes to glaze over, and I...I do want to emphasize how important this is. Um, you know, starting with the Comprehensive Plan which is sort of the broad overall vision, narrowing that down through the subdivision regulations into what uses are appropriate for what parcels of property. All right, this is the final focus -how property is subdivided, and basically, how the community is designed and...and how, uh, land is platted, buildings are placed on lots. I mean, it's very, very important because you know basically this is...this is how the City is developed, and so you know the notion of whether or not we have 8-foot sidewalks along arterial streets so that pedestrians and bicyclists who want to be on the sidewalk and not on the street. I mean, this is where it happens - is in the subdivision regulations. So... Bailey/ When we redid the Zoning Code, we had a couple of meetings that were separate, just...listening and discussing. Do you anticipate that kind of interest or...how is this coming to us, to what degree? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 2 Davidson/ We had anticipated having, uh, Associate Planner Karen Howard who is the one who's been the point person in our office, uh, come to the work session on the 16`h, uh, and have an item on the agenda for you to have as much or little discussion as you would like and have her answer any questions prior to the hearing, which of course will be at the formal meeting the next night. Bailey/ And...but we had some public meetings that were specifically only discussing the new Zoning Code. This was back when we redid the Zoning Code, and do we... Davidson/ We've had a lot of meetings. Are you talking about on our end? Bailey/ No, I'm talking about on Council end. When we redid the Zoning Code, we had a couple of Council meetings that were specifically zoning... for the Zoning Code revision. Do we anticipate that need here? I know that you've had a lot of meetings. Um... Davidson/ We had not anticipated that need, but...but by all means, we want to do... Correia/ In our packet this week, because we...we're just setting the public hearing so there's no information in our packet today, so...for, so that, I mean, I would like, so that I have more time than just waiting until the next packet, before the next meeting, for this packet if we could have the report, staff report, from April 25`h, um... Davidson/ Shoot to get that to you this week, Amy. Correia/ (several talking) so that we have some extra time to be able to look at... Davidson/ Will there be a problem with that? Okay. (several talking) Okay, we'll try and get that to you this week... Correia/ And so then...in terms of the new Title 15, will that, can that be in our infill packet this week, as well? Davidson/ ...we'll get you.... Coneia/ And then the presentation at the work session, could that be a presentation, versus just a Q&A? Davidson/ Yeah, absolutely, we intend to have Karen present, and hit the highlights. Correia/ Okay, okay. Davidson/ You know, highlight what some of the concerns have been. There have been a lot, you know, as you imagine there's a varied cross section of the community that has different perspectives about this, so we'll try and... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 3 Bailey/ This may take multiple meetings and we may just continue the public hearing, and (mumbled) first consideration, but I just wanted to give people a heads up, for those of you who weren't here when we redid the Zoning Code. It was many meetings, in fact, six week's worth -not solid at all. (laughter and several commenting) Yes. We were allowed to sleep at home! But, okay, that's helpful. Thanks. e) APPROVING VACATION OF THE NORTHTOWNE PARKWAY RIGHT-OF- WAY AND PARTIAL RELEASE OF PUBLIC ACCESS EASEMENT WITHIN HIGHLANDER DEVELOPMENT, THIRD ADDITION IOWA CITY, IOWA. (VAC08-000021 Davidson/ Great, thanks. Moving on then to Item e, which is consideration of a vacation of the Northtowne Parkway right-of--way, partial release of public access easement within Highlander Subdivision, Third Edition. Uh, there is where Northtowne Parkway is currently located. This is an existing platted street which is stubbed at the property line. To orient you, here is Iowa Highway 1, here's the interchange of Interstate 80, and uh, Northgate Drive...element that we used to call the Highlander is right here, just to orient you a little bit more. This is a vacation that was requested by Southgate Development Company, the property owner. Uh, and basically what we're doing here, what is proposed, is an exchange ofright-of--way, uh, for the dedication of a comparable right-of--way, which would be located, okay, there's an aerial of the existing subdivision, and you can see Northtowne Pazkway clearly right there, uh, what is proposed then...let's see. That's the existing...there....this is the current property line right now. There would be a new street stubbed into the property line, and where that is located is right there. Okay, so it's part of this parcel of property right here. We have put on this aerial the future Oakdale Boulevard extension. It would also go in this direction, over to...across the Iowa River and connect up at Dubuque Street with, what as of next year, will be an intersection with Dubuque Street. I think you're aware Coralville and the County are putting that through from its existing, uh, terminus at...in the vicinity of Gold's Gym in Coralville. Anyway, that street will continue across, uh, north Coralville and Iowa City, and eventually extend through here, catching the comer of this pazcel right here, uh, and then extending over Interstate 80. That's actually supposed to be shown over Interstate 80, uh, and then to intersect with Scott Boulevard at some point in the future. That could be 10, 20, 30 years into the future. We do have an existing, uh, agreement between Iowa City, Coralville, and Johnson County, however, for this alignment. Um, when we consider any vacation - I think you're aware that we consider the impact on pedestrian and vehicular access, and circulation, impact on emergency, uh, and utility vehicle access and circulation, impact on adjacent properties, desirability ofright-of--way for access of circulation, uh, location of utilities and other easements, potential use of the property for another public use, and any other relevant factors. We have considered all of those. Uh, the basic issue here is that at the time that prior to this alignment being identified, we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 4 thought this would be a good location for Northtowne Parkway...there. Um, it is now looking that as Oakdale comes across here, it will begin to be elevated, significantly, to get it across the Interstate, meaning that it would be very difficult to tie this road into it because of the elevation difference. If we move it back here to where the new location is proposed, the road will have flattened out to where we can have a nice intersection so that we do have secondary access to this subdivision, uh, via Oakdale Boulevard, and that's basically what's proposed. Um, our recommendation to approve is subject to retention of various easements, dedication of the new right-of--way, and an agreement that when this property develops, the developer would be required to construct it at that time. It's basically the same deal that we've had down here. Um, now we are at the present time, and this could change...well, we'll let you know for sure tomorrow. There is a property owner here who is currently, uh, has a disagreement with, uh, the development company over how, if this is vacated, uh, this will eventually coordinate with the property lot 12 here where the Mercy Ambulatory Surgical Center is located. We have told them they need to get that resolved, and until they get it resolved...if they don't have it resolved by the meeting tomorrow, we will recommend deferral to the 17`h because we don't want to have this vacated with it being in limbo, in terms of the impact on the adjacent property owner, and again, that's standard thing we would evaluate in the course of a decision like this. So we'll let you know for sure. We are recommending approval, once that's worked out between the owner of lot 12 and the developer. Correia/ What do they need to do to work that out? Davidson/ They need to work out how this...what will then be a private parcel... Correia/ Okay. Davidson/ ...uh, provides access to the ambulatory surgical center -it's an access issue. Correia/ Okay. Davidson/ One that we thought was resolved, but apparently is not resolved, and we've told them they need to get it resolved. It's strictly between the two of them. Hayek/ Be some sort of shared entryway or something? Davidson/ Well, it's basically where access will be provided to the ambulatory surgical center, uh, it's off of, I believe, two points off of this street. Not because...they have very little frontage. It's kind of apie-shaped lot, and they have very little frontage on Northgate, uh, Parkway, and so that's why the access needs to come off of here. Hayek/ Uh-huh. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 5 Bailey/ Okay. Davidson/ Any questions? Dilkes/ We're going to have to defer this regardless, because we're not ready to proceed with the disposition, in light of this little glitch, and so, um, even if we have an agreement by tomorrow night, we' 11 have to defer it. Correia/ So...so would we just continue the public... Dilkes/ You can open and close the public hearing, or you can defer...open it and continue it to the date that you defer the rest of the resolution to. Bailey/ So, will you all make a note of that and let's open and then continue (mumbled). h) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE PRELIMINARY PLAT OF GALWAY HILLS SUBDIVISION PARTS 10 & 11 IOWA CITY, IOWA. (SUB06-00003) i) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE FINAL PLATS OF GALWAY HILLS SUBDIVISION PARTS 10 & 11, IOWA CITY, IOWA. (SUB08-000061 Davidson/ 17`h is (mumbled)...any other questions about that? Items h and i we'll take together then. Um, these are the preliminary and final plats of Galway Hills Subdivision, Parts 10 and 11. Uh, this is an item that has received a lot of discussion, and we anticipate receiving a lot of input tomorrow evening at your meeting. Uh, hopefully you've had a chance to review the Planning and Zoning Commission minutes, and...and particularly the minutes which we'll be circulating, uh, of the...when P&Z made their actual decision. Uh, because there's a lot of nuances of this that I haven't been part of, because I wasn't in attendance at the P&Z meetings, I've asked Senior Planner Bob Miklo to present this item. Miklo/ Like to start off with a little history or background on the Galway Hills Subdivision. Um, the subdivision started in 1990 when this area, Galway Hills Part 1, was...was rezoned. At the time of that rezoning, uh, there were two things that the Planning and Zoning Commission, and eventually the City Council, insisted upon. They wanted to see a concept plan that showed how the entire, uh, property would develop, uh, in relationship to West High and the other neighborhoods in the area, and they also wanted to see that six acres of open space be dedicated along Willow Creek to allow the continuation of the Willow Creek trail, and the trail is currently in place as a temporary trail, with the idea that it would become permanent with this subdivision. Um, in terms of the concept plan that was, uh, submitted at the time of Part 1, this is...this is pretty much it. It has evolved a little bit over the years, uh, but it, uh, basically followed This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 6 the pattern of having these series of collector streets, uh, Galway Drive, Donegal and Tipperary, uh, in the western part of the subdivision, and Dublin Drive, Tipperary, and Shannon in the east part of the subdivision, uh, that these collector streets would provide, uh, access to the development from Melrose Avenue and eventually to the south from...from Rohret Road. Um, the streets were also designed to be circuitous, so that there wasn't a, uh, straight shot anywhere through the neighborhood between Melrose and Rohret, but that there are several turns and curves throughout the street network to discourage through traffic from using this as...as a shortcut. Um, we feel that this design is necessary to circulate traffic within, uh, Galway Hills, and also Walden Hills, which is the subdivision to the south, but also to make it easier and more efficient for the City to provide services, uh, trash and recycling collection, uh, police and fire protection, and, um, public transit, uh, as well as school bus service. This is identified as a route that the transit service would like to, uh, use for a west side loop, um, so we feel this is really essential, um, for, uh, the larger neighborhood. Um, this, uh, concept plan that you see is also included in the Comprehensive Plan. It's specifically referred to in the, uh, Southwest District Plan. The plat itself, if you're considering the preliminary plat, pretty much is truthful to the Comprehensive Plan and the Concept Plan. It includes Dublin Drive extending from its current terminus to Tipperary, which would circle back around to where it currently ends here, and then that would intersect with Shannon Drive, which then goes through the Walden Hills subdivision to provide access to Rohret Road. Um, Shannon Drive was built by the developer of Walden Hills to this point...got a photo of that, um...actually this is where Shannon Drive ends at the south end of Galway Hills. So it would go up into Galway, uh, Tipperary will come across here, and then curve back around and it will eventually work its way to...to Dublin Drive. This is, uh, looking west back towards Tipperary, uh, this is looking from Tipperary back east, uh, West High campus is here, uh, the intersection with Shannon Drive will be in this vicinity, and this is from, um, Dublin Drive looking to the south. So the Walden Hills subdivision which will connect this...this development will connect to, is off here on the horizon. Back to the plat itself, it includes 51 single-family, uh, house lots, uh, plus outlots C and D, which will become part of the storm water management facility over here in the western part of the subdivision. It also includes outlot A and B, which are those, uh, open spaces that will allow for the continuation of Wi11ow...Willow Creek. Some of the earlier subdivisions, uh, included an additional outlot, um, to the west that will become park land. At the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, uh, well, there were actually two meetings where this was discussed, there was quite a bit of concern on the part of the...the neighborhood, the Galway Hills neighborhood, about traffic on Dublin Drive. Um, they were, uh, they are fearful that this will overburden Dublin Drive. Our transportation planners did look at, uh, the area and did some traffic counts and...and did some projections, uh, based on what's anticipated in terms of the traffic from 51 residential lots. That's roughly 370 trips per day is what they're anticipating. Uh, there are approximately 600 to 800 vehicle trips per day, currently, using Dublin Drive. There are also, um, 600 trips a day that use Shannon Drive to go to Rohret Road. Some of that traffic, some of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 7 those 600 vehicle trips per day will, uh, want to go to the north and will likely use this, but some of that will be offset by, uh, folks from Galway wanting to go to the south and using Shannon Drive. So...um, the transportation planners project that there would be roughly 1,500 to 1,800 vehicle trips day on Dublin Drive, and that is a concern to the neighborhood. In terms of our, um, policies, a collector street is considered to be overburdened when it carves 2,500 or more vehicle trips per day, and from our projections that will not...not be the case here. Um, as I, uh, noted, traffic calming has been designed into the subdivision to discourage people from using it as a shortcut through the neighborhood. Mormon Trek Boulevard will remain as the arterial street through the area, and then eventually there should be another connection west of 218 for the neighborhoods in that, uh, area. Um, so essentially we find that this plan does comply with the Comprehensive Plan. It does comply with the Concept Plan that was developed, um, 18, 20 years ago when this subdivision started. Staff is recommending approval. The, uh, Planning and Zoning Commission concurred with that recommendation and is also recommending approval. Um, the minutes that you received tonight, I think that the Commission did a good job of outlining their reasons for recommending this, despite neighborhood opposition, uh, and just to sum those up from what we heard from the Planning and Zoning Commission, um, that this does comply with the Comprehensive Plan. It does also comply with our Subdivision and Zoning regulations, uh, the level of traffic projected for this street is not unusual for a collector street. Uh, traffic calming has been, uh, built in to the design of the street, and the connection will improve access to the entire development and also Walden Hills for the fire department, the police department, other City vehicles. It will also make it easier for the City to provide bus service, uh, in this part of the city. Um, Ann Freerks, the Chair of the Commission is here if you have any questions about the Commission's perspective, but at this point we are recommending approval, um, the next items on your agenda are the final plat, which breaks it down into Part 10, and...or 11, and both of those plats are in order for approval, as well. The legal papers and construction drawings are in order, so again, we're recommending approval. Be happy to try and answer any questions. Bailey/ Any questions? Wright/ What kind of traffic calming, other than the turns is there, or is that it? Miklo/ Um, on Shannon Drive itself, there are some neck-downs at key intersections, um...there are bump-outs like you would see for a pedestrian crossing so that the street actually narrows at the intersections. Um, and then there are the turns and curves in the street. Correia/ And is there, there's pazking on both sides -people parking... Miklo/ Pazking would be allowed on both sides (several talking)...we've heard from the neighborhood that there might be some private covenants about people parking, but that's something the City doesn't enforce. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 8 Davidson/ And I also wanted to add that we've indicated that, you know, should....worse case scenario happen and...still have the traffic calming program, where if you meet certain thresholds in terms of speed and/or volume, which we don't think they're going to meet, but if they do, uh, these would be streets that would be eligible for the traffic calming program. Champion/ Would you say basically (unable to hear) Bailey/ Is your mic on, Connie? Champion/ Oh, no. (several talking and laughing) Most of the traffic on the street is going to be from the neighborhood itself, you don't anticipate it being used as a... Miklo/ A good portion of it. Our counts amounted to, as I said, 600 to 800 vehicle trips per day in this area. We're anticipating 371 from this area. There may be...there will be likely folks from Walden Hills that will...that are going to West High or places to the north that will use this street, um... Champion/ Well, I consider that neighborhood. Correia/ And the plan, the 51 lots, that has been part of the concept from the very beginning. I mean, it's not a new thing. Miklo/ ...number of lots was not determined, but...it was known that it would be residential, RS-5. These are fairly generous lots for an RS-5 zone, so it's not as dense as it could be, but... Correia/ Okay. And then the other question I had...can you go back to the photo, aerial photo? You mentioned the Willow Creek Trail and you said that's a temporary trail. Is that...will... Miklo/ Yeah, it was built temporary, I believe, from this point on, knowing that this subdivision was not complete and that we weren't going to improve or upgrade the open space until it's actually dedicated to the City, um... Correia/ So, as part of .. Miklo/ Um, I believe that, well, as part of this...maybe it shows on the...yeah, the temporary trail would be removed and it would be constructed as a permanent trail in that open space. Correia/ In what fashion, I mean, when would it be completed, as a permanent trail? When the whole... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 9 Miklo/ That's something we can check with Parks and Rec, and see. I do know that we're requiring the removal of the temporary trail as part of this subdivision, um... Bailey/ And there was talk about vehicular trail conflict, and it looks like that trail was crossing some street. Miklo/ Yes, the trail will cross Shannon Drive. Bailey/ Okay. Correia/ Because I'd want to...I mean, I would like to see the trail constructed sooner rather than later. I mean, I don't know how long it's going to take to...to build out the 51 lots, but I wouldn't want to have that be gone until the end. Wright/ You mean take out the... Correia/ If you're taking out the temporary trail, that means there's no trail in that area until the permanent trail's put in. Davidson/ One issue there, Amy, is that if we terminate the trail currently at Shannon Drive. I mean, at least take it to Shannon Drive. Correia/ Right. Davidson/ I mean, taking it any further to the west basically gets you into the embankment of Highway 218. Now I think you know your Capital Improvement Plan has a project for putting it underneath 218, and eventually taking it all the way up to the County Farm. Correia/ Is that in funded or unfunded? Davidson/ It's not in funded. (several talking) But that's a project that for example, the transportation enhancement funds that are considered at JCCOG, that's an available project for that sort of thing, but that's a reason for terminating at Shannon Drive, rather than extending it basically up to an embankment, where it would be a dead end. Miklo/ Currently I believe the temporary trail goes through here. There will be a sidewalk. Correia/ Okay. Miklo/ That will connect it to Tipperazy. Yes, so that....the, uh, residents of Galway Hills will have access to the trail. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 10 Correia/ Okay. Davidson/ Yeah, you can get through there right now. Igo through there all the time on my bike. Correia/ Right, okay. Hayek/ Are stop signs, uh, used at all along Tipperary, where it intersects with these other streets? Davidson/ Well, traffic control of two local streets is typically uncontrolled. The right- of-way, the standard right-of--way rule applies. If a subsequent follow-up traffic study showed that according to the warrants we have for either stop or yield signs that one was justified, then we would install it. Hayek/ Okay. So you don't do it now, you wait and see if it's necessary? Bailey/ And then, another discussion point from the public was the fact that the street goes through the middle of a future city park? Is that...talk a little bit about that and how that's going to be addressed. That's unusual, isn't it? Somewhat? Through the middle of a park? Miklo/ I'm trying to think of other parks where we have streets through, um... Bailey/ I don't know that we do. Miklo/ Well, and the idea of this...this would be a...this would be the trail system (several talking). This section of Shannon Drive was built, um, at, um, by the developer of Walden Hills...something they would have rather not have done. They would have probably liked to stop the street here, but knowing we want connectivity among neighborhoods, we did require it be brought to this point. So the only way to avoid that crossing...you'dhaue to cross at some point. There's just no other option if we're going to have connectivity in this neighborhood. It has to cross the open space. Uh, the neighborhood had asked if it could be moved closer to the, uh, to the, uh, West High boundaries so it didn't cross in their section of the park. IJh, given the expense that went into this and...our traffic projections, we just don't see that as a reasonable thing to do, um, or a feasible alternative. Correia/ Huh...so can you show the pazk? Miklo/ Park area, uh, would basically be here. This part is already slated to be dedicated, uh, once this subdivision fills out and...this area here, and I'll show you on the aerial, is approximately this piece inhere. And then of course it continues, uh, to the east. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 11 Correia/ Okay. Bailey/ Thanks, Bob. And will you be there tomorrow night? (unable to hear) Davidson/ One of us will be here for sure... Bailey/ Okay. j) CONSIDER A LETTER TO THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT RECOMMENDING APPROVAL OF A CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT FOR AGUDAS ACHIM CONGREGATION TO ESTABLISH A CEMETERY ON 4.12-ACRES OF PROPERTY LOCATED SOUTH OF CINDER ROAD AND WEST OF PRAIRIE DU CHIEN ROAD. (CU08-00001) Davidson/ ...to answer questions. iJh, the final item then...is Item j. And this is, uh, a recommended letter of approval, uh, to Johnson County on their conditional use permit for expansion of the Jewish cemetery on Linder Road. There we go...um, this is an existing cemetery that currently is located right there, and this would be a slightly over four acre expansion of that, uh, cemetery. This is within the growth area of the City so it does require concurrence by the City Council, uh, if you were to oppose this, it would require afour-fifths majority of the County Board of Adjustment to have it proceed. Uh, the design is here, uh, again, to orient you -Linder Road is across the top, over here is Prairie Du Chien Road, uh, this is the existing cemetery. This would be the expansion area. Um, a couple of positive things about this, uh, we feel this is an appropriate land use, uh, so close to Interstate 80, uh, the occupants of the cemetery should not be bothered by the traffic noise from Interstate 80, as a residential use would. iJh, it also will create additional parking area. There will be a small parking area constructed right down here, about seven spaces, but all of these access drives can also provide parking. Right now when there is awell-attended burial in this cemetery, the traffic does cue up here on Linder Road, which...I don't think it's a huge deal, but...but it will hopefully get much of that traffic off of Linder Road and onto the cemetery property. So our recommendation is approval, subject to compliance with the submitted plan. Any questions? Council Appointments: Bailey/ Okay, next we have Council appointments. This is for Planning and Zoning. We have one applicant. Champion/ Who seemed very qualified. Bailey/ Yes, but, uh, may have a conflict. Champion/ That's what I'm wondering. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 12 Bailey/ Do you want to speak to that, Eleanor? Dilkes/ Um... Champion/ ...wondering about that. Dilkes/ ...he's obviously going to have conflicts that come up because when we have an issue with, for instance, the one that we just, um, dealt with is a County matter, and that he's going to have to recuse himself on. I'm...there is a doctrine called "incapability of offices" and I haven't quite satisfied myself that...that, uh, he could serve in this position. I think it's likely that he probably could. I mean, he's not prevented from being appointed. Um, but I'd like to give you a final answer on that tomorrow night. And, uh, but he clearly is going to have some conflicts, and I'm a little concerned that he didn't identify that...that...he noted that he wouldn't be aware of any conflicts of interest, and that just maybe because he's a fairly new employee at the County, but we have a lot of dealings with the County on land use issues. I think there are some potential issues there. Bailey/ Okay. So you'll let us know tomorrow night. Karr/ I just wanted to note also we had another resignation today that we passed out and will be adding it late to your agenda for the Planning and Zoning. Bob Brooks has resigned, so you will...we will be announcing tomorrow night another vacancy on the Board or Commission, with the deadline for application as July 9`h, so if that enters into any of your... Dilkes/ What you might want to do is decide tonight whether, you know, if I tell you I don't think there's any problem appointing anyone, to do that, or you think that (mumbled, coughing) as they arise would be too much of a problem. Champion/ I don't have any problems with it. Most of the stuff with the County is stuff like this, where we send a letter of approval or we deny it. He'll just have to recuse himself. Just like people here have to recuse themselves for things. Bailey/ Anybody have any problems with appointing him... Wright/ If it clears Eleanor, I think it looks fine. Bailey/ As long as he understands, you know, when he has to back off, I mean, and that's really clear on this Commission so...I don't have any problems. Okay. Hayek/ I've worked with him on a professional basis on one or two matters, and he's good to work with, good personality, very professional. Bailey/ Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 13 Agenda Items: Bailey/ All right, agenda items? ITEM 15. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR TEMPORARY USE OF PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, LANDOWNER PRODIGY ENTERPRISES L L C AND TENANT CAFFREY, INC. D/B/A DC'S. FOR A SIDEWALK CAFE. Correia/ I had a question about the...sidewalk cafe for DC's? Is that, I thought that was a bar, not a restaurant. Is that a restaurant? Dilkes/ Well, how do you define baz and restaurant? Correia/ Well (several talking) Dilkes/ Never mind! There's...um, (several talking) that was factitious. We have, um, well, why don't you pull out the code for me. Um, we have...in the sidewalk cafe, uh, ordinance it says that sidewalk cafes will only be granted to restaurants, and they have to be primarily in the business of serving food, and we have a number of criteria that, um, they have to meet in order to be a restaurant, but I still think the Council would have discretion to conclude that something wasn't a restaurant. They meet that...those specific criteria. Correia/ So they serve food? Dilkes/ Um, they have a kitchen, they have a menu, they have, um... Correia/ Do we have a percent of sales from food? No? Dilkes/ We don't require that. And the way I think staff was looking at it, it was akin to 808, for instance, has a sidewalk cafe, um...Vito's perhaps, places that tend to have a lot of...I haven't been there so I can't...I can't... Correia/ I'm not sure about that location. Dilkes/ But I think...I think what staff, from the staff perspective what was decided is that, if...you know these things only run for a year. If in a year, um, Council makes the determination that they're not primarily in the business of selling food, then uh, you do not renew that sidewalk cafe. Bailey/ Well, I also had a question about, um, they're not in compliance with the number of required restrooms, so we could go ahead and grant a sidewalk cafe? With the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 14 exception, and found these to be in compliance with City Code, with the exception of the number of required restrooms? Is what the resolution... Dilkes/ Where does it say that? Bailey/ One, two...third paragraph, it's Item 15. I don't think I've ever seen that, that's why I had a question. Correia/ Yeah, the third paragraph. Dilkes/ I'm sorry, where are you, Regenia? Hayek/ Third "whereas." Bailey/ Yeah, the third "whereas." City staff has reviewed the application, blab, blab, blah, blah, with the exception of the number of required restrooms. Dilkes/ I don't know what that's about. I don't look at the restroom... Correia/ It says down below, upon determination of the Building Official that the proposed sidewalk cafe has sufficient restrooms, it would be authorized. Bailey/ So they're...they're going to come up to that, okay. Karr/ I believe they're acknowledging at the present time they do not have them, but that the conclusion is that the Building Department would not grant them the agreement without the restrooms being in place. Bailey/ Okay. Karr/ They're acknowledging that currently they do not. Bailey/ So... Karr/ And then additionally, we have a definition of restaurant that we use in the section of the code to define, um, the restaurant status for such things, and basically it prepares meals on the premises, has a food service menu, has an employee who's primary duty is preparation of food, has a kitchen separate from the bar, operates the restaurant service at least 60% of the time -they have met each of those criteria. Champion/ And you have to have your kitchen open to use the sidewalk cafe too, so...(several responding). Bailey/ So when the kitchen closes, the sidewalk cafe... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 15 Karr/ ...with the exception they both close at midnight. Wilburn/ I'm having a flashback. Coneia/ Oh, the sidewalk cafe closes, they all close at midnight. Karr/ Yeah. Bailey/ Okay, other questions about Item 15? Wilburn/ And just for the record, I was having a flashback to the, uh, initial alcohol ordinance discussion several years ago. Bailey/ Hm. Champion/ Wow! Many, many times! Wilburn/ Yeah. Champion/ Um... Bailey/ Other agenda items? Champion/ Well, I just want to ask a question. So if we approve this, they can't do it until they've added the bathrooms? Is that the whole thing? Bailey/ Right. Dilkes/ The way the resolution (unable to hear) restroom requirements. Champion/ I don't think we should approve it until they have the bathrooms (several responding) `cause I don't think (unable to hear, laughter). Dilkes/ Well, the building official, well, that's up to you. It says, "Upon determination by the City Building Official that the proposed sidewalk cafe has sufficient restrooms." Correia/ I'd rather wait... Dilkes/ You're authorized to execute the agreement. So, the agreement won't be executed by the Mayor and the City Clerk until that inclusion has been reached. Correia/ I'd rather not have a vote on it. Saying we're approving it, even with these, even though it's in the resolution just because I think it's confusing. Hayek/ To whom? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 16 Correia/ The...to everybody. Wilburn/ There've been other things in the past that we've approved subject to...(several talking). There've been other examples of...that's as best I can get...of items where subject to, uh, an inspection, that they've been approved by Council and if they didn't comply they just didn't get it. Correia/ I guess even though when you read the item, Item I5, and the comments, it doesn't say anything about pending approval of building official. Bailey/ Now therefore it be resolved...(several talking)...the resolve part. Correia/ No, I know. In the, on the item itself - I'm talking about on the agenda, the agenda item. I mean, I don't... Dilkes/ Well, I think then that you need to be prepared in the future to take, um, criticism because we're holding up one of these agreements for any number of building official items, like the anchored fencing and the... Champion/ Oh, you're right! Yes, yes! It's just that we don't really like this place, that's what it's all about! (laughter) Dilkes/ Well, you know, so address that issue head on, but I think to hold it up for...because the building official still has to count the number of restrooms before the Mayor signs. Champion/ Understand. (several talking, laughter) Karr/ We certainly can revise the comment if you like. I think especially with new ones, which is what we're talking about here, what they're doing is getting the sense of Council on whether they can go ahead and order the supplies and the other things, ahead of time, some indication, and this, again, knowing full well they cannot get it without the restrooms, but they could go ahead and order the fencing and order the other...and the additional restroom cost, as well. Champion/ Yes. Karr/ ...without outdoor service they don't have to invest the cost. Bailey/ Well, and I don't need to remind you, you can vote against this. Correia/ No, so...I meant to walk down by there tonight and I didn't. Do we have a picture of the plan? It seems, doesn't seem there's a lot of space there, before there's planters. Is it...how many seats will there be in the sidewalk cafe? (several talking) Yeah, the picture. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 17 Bailey/ I'm sure it'll comply with that, those requirements... Correia/ No, I was wondering how it would...yeah, sure. Dilkes/ Let me just tell you that the way Code reads, that if you determine...that the primary function is not service of food, it's within your discretion to vote against it. I mean, there should be some reasonable basis for determining that, but even if they meet these, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven criteria, the way it reads is their primary function is the service of food to customers, and they meet the following criteria. Bailey/ Okay. Other discussion? Other agenda items? ITEM 4. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. g1 Correspondence. 3 Brian Flynn: Blackstone Restaurant outdoor service area Correia/ Yes...I had a couple...um, one was in the, uh, correspondence, about the Blackstone patio. Champion/ Yes. Correia/ What's up with that? I mean, we have sidewalk cafes downtown and upstairs on the second and third floor there are residential, which seems as close as 80 feet. I: this something different? Dilkes/ This is an outdoor, you can step in, Marian, if you have more information. This is an outdoor service area, meaning it's on their property. It's not a sidewalk cafe, which is on public right-of--way. Correia/ Okay. So... Dilkes/ The regulations in the Code for outdoor service areas say that it can't be within ten feet of a residential area. And so in order to... Correia/ The Iowa Code? Dilkes/ No, our City Code. Correia/ City Code, oh, so maybe we can change that! Dilkes/ You could make a Code amendment, you could consider a Code amendment. Correia/ I would be interested in (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 18 Champion/ ...logical to me at all. Correia/ It seems like a very nice seating area, I mean, I've been to the restaurant; it's a very nice restaurant. Um, I would be interested in reworking that to allow this outdoor service area. O'Donnell/ I would too. Champion/ Yeah, I certainly would. It's...it doesn't seem logical to me that you can't use it. Bailey/ How did we come up with the 100 feet? What's the origin of that? Forever? Karr/ I think it goes back, um, as the historian, I think it goes back a little bit to when we explored use of private property. We were especially concerned of existing areas, especially the north side, where the residential areas came right up to, uh, commercial properties, so it was a real concern to protect that residential nature of it, uh, and there was a concern for noise. So I think, um, that's where the 100 feet came from. I don't personally think we were thinking of necessarily new development in new areas. I think we were considering more of new developments in older neighborhoods. Champion/ Oh, sure. Right. Karr/ Okay, is my recollection of how that came about. Correia/ So could we have... Dilkes/ There'd have to be some thought given to...(several talking)...change the ordinance (several talking) eliminate... Correia/ ...by special exception of the Council, or...no? Okay. Or something. Dilkes/ I don't think that's something we can decide here. You'd have to refer it back to staff and ask (unable to hear). Bailey/ So, are there four people who are interested in looking at something that would address this issue? Hayek/ Yes. O'DonnelU I am. Wright/Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 19 Champion/ I am. Bailey/ Okay, all right. Hayek/ Subject to a discussion of what that might open up. Bailey/ The huge impact and what can of worms we're opening up in other places, yes. Okay. Other agenda items? ITEM 4. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. g) Correspondence. 8 Rav Wombacher: Lack of reimbursement for property damaee fcopv of the May 8 2008 letter to which Mr. Wombacher is responding is included in Council packed Hayek/ Uh, in the correspondence, there are a number of pieces regarding Ray Wombacher. Bailey/ Yeah, let's talk about that. Hayek/ I'm just curious what the next step, if any, is. This is a very disgruntled individual and a little bit frustrated. Correia/ I saw that the City adjusted the fee up to $17.50 an hour, which that seemed fair to me. Helling/ Yeah, there isn't really a formal step beyond where he's gone. Uh, the issue really is that, uh, we do, you know, take out mailboxes from time to time, particularly snow removal, and we have some criteria for what we will allow, uh, and having no control over how much money somebody puts in their mailbox. You know, we still try to maintain control over what we will allow in terms of replacement. Uh, the real issue here, I think, is if the policy's $10.00 an hour for labor, he's asking for $35.00 and was offered $17.50. Bailey/ And how did we arrive at the policy of $10.00 an hour? Helling/ Um, I don't really know exactly how that policy...it's been a policy that's been in place for quite some time. I think that's why, uh, they were willing to take a look and possibly raise the, uh, hourly amount, because it's been $10.00 for some time. Coneia/ When...when we chazge back for labor, like for sidewalks, what do we charge? Helling/ We usually, um, we construct a sidewalk or repair a sidewalk... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of Juue 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 20 Correia/ Right, or the sidewalk, or the snow... Helling/ ...contract that out, and it would be the contractor's (mumbled). Bailey/ And when we do snow removal, it's the same thing, right? (several talking) But it's a...substantiallyrnore than $17.50 an hour. Helling/ I would say in most cases, yes. Bailey/ (unable to hear) Champion/ A lot more. But you're not just paying for labor when you're paying for snow removal. You're paying for heavy trucks, heavy snow plows. Bailey/ No, when we do sidewalks. Champion/ But, no, I'm saying it's not "just." Correia/ But that goes into the labor cost, doesn't it? Bailey/ No, I was talking about when we shovel, Connie, if you don't shovel your walk and if we come by and shovel your walk, we will assess you at much more than $17.50 an hour. Champion/ But that 17.50, what I'm saying, it doesn't just cover removing the snow. It requires a truck, snow blower, whatever. You have to pay for all the heavy equipment that goes along with snow, getting rid of snow. That's why it's more per hour. Like if somebody's mowing my yard, they might have $1001awn mower. They're not going to charge me $500 an hour. O'Donnell/ We also have $50.00 administration fee, don't we, on that? Champion/ iJh-huh. Bailey/ Matt, did you want to... Hayek/ Well... Wilburn/ And you also get into the issue of, um, I mean, I would speculate the administrative fee would help add to that, but you don't want to get into a situation where market rate is what you're chazging because this is in response to a complaint. It's just like where we've got, uh, and have had in the past situations where, uh, someone they...take the pazking ticket because that's what it would take for them to pay for being in a ramp. You don't want to have...if there's a...a going rate for having a service come and, you know, then the City being a service provider, as opposed to implementing a penalty for not shoveling the walk. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 21 Bailey/ But back...back to this. What...did you... Hayek/ I'm...no, I'm not proposing anything. I'm just pointing it out. I think it's good we had this discussion. I mean, clearly some effort was made to communicate and negotiate with this individual. Um, I'm not sure one instance warrants massive change of policy. Bailey/ Although I think $10.00 an hour, we might want to look at that. Wright/ Yeah, minimum wage is creeping up towards that. Bailey/ That's not even, yeah, that's not even a living wage (mumbled). Helling/ We'll, uh, we'll take a look at the policy. Bailey/ That's good. Okay, other agenda items? ITEM 8. AUTHORIZING THE CONVEYANCE OF PROPERTY KNOWN AS THE PENINSULA NEIGHBORHOOD, PHASE 2A, IN IOWA CITY, IOWA TO PENINSULA DEVELOPMENT COMPANY. Correia/ Well, I wanted to refer briefly to the Peninsula. Hayek/ Number 8? Correia/ Um, although I don't know if it requires you being up here... Davidson/ ...above my head? Correia/ Okay. I mean, the...what I wanted to bring up was the...the revenue from selling the land. This is City-owned land, going for high-end housing, um... Champion/ It's not all high-end housing. Correia/ In this neighborhood it's higher priced housing. It's the larger lots. Davidson/ In this particular area, there's actually a mix of large and small lots. I think what Connie might have been referring to was in Part 1. Correia/ Yeah, I'm not talking about Part 1. I'm just talking about... Champion/ But the money is based on the whole unit, not just this. Correia/ No, the proceeds...(several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 22 Bailey/ Let's just let Amy make her point and then you can argue with her. Champion/ Okay! (laughter) Correia/ But I mean, the proceeds from this sale are for this part...whatever part it is, Part 3? Davidson/ Part 2A. Correia/ 2A...Part 2A, um, that's going for...what are the estimated price points of the homes that will be built in Par[ 2A? Davidson/ Um, you know I'm...I'm not certain they have price points down. I know the multi-family building in Part 1, they actually have units as ]ow as $130,000 or $140,000, uh, in there. Correia/ We've already... Davidson/ Some of these will easily be over half a million dollars, I'm sure. Correia/ Okay, okay, and we've already received money for the sale of Part 1 and 2, that have gone into just general. Davidson/ Yes, right. And then the total that we will receive for this, if you approve it, is $270,000. Coneia/ Because I'm interested in those dollars being put into our affordable housing. That affordable housing trust fund that we established about a year ago, um, when we received proceeds from the sale of...of some right-of--way in Hutchinson azea. I think we have documented affordable housing needs that we know we will need increased resources to address. I think this, um, makes sense because this is public land, um, and uh, we're selling it for $270,000 and some of these homes will be sold for over a half million dollars, um, and so, whatever other price points there are. WrighU I think that's an interesting point. I wonder, was this money earmarked for anything? Davidson/ Checked with Kevin O'Malley on that after it came up at our last meeting, and it does go into the General Fund. Isn't that correct, Kevin? Cotreia/ Well, I will propose that. Champion/ Well, I'm not against it, but I'm not willing to obligate that until we go through another budget session. Um, I think we can talk about a compromise on This represents only a reasonably acwrate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 23 that, but I don't think that decision has to be made, but we can put it into a separate little column (mumbled). Correia/ Well, I mean that sepazate column could be into this "affordable housing" column. Obviously this is discretionary. It can be moved at any time. Champion/ Oh, I'm not going to move it out of there once it goes in there. Correia/ But I mean, I think this is an opportunity to do something innovative. It's using, um, you know, this public land, um, for a public good purpose. So...I'll propose it tomorrow and... Wilburn/ I'd like to take a look at it. The Peninsula was an opportunity that came up. It's, in some ways, served as a demonstration project for some concepts that the City wanted to try and encourage and model. Um, so I'd like to take a look at it in...in that spirit that it was an opportunity. Here's perhaps another opportunity to address, but a definite issue. Lombardo/ And I think there's an opportunity to really look at...at more holistic sense in...and, I guess, set some goals in terms of what we want to achieve, and then talk about how to fund it as we move forward. It gets difficult when you start sequestering funds and say it's going to go for "X" purpose when...when you don't know specifically what you're trying to accomplish out of that. Bailey/ And that's my concern. I don't think it's a bad idea, although I'm...I don't totally agree with every point of your reasoning. Um, but sequestering it at this point before we have the plan, when we could simply take it later, when we do have a plan. That's a little bit of my discomfort. I mean, I'm... Champion/ That's what I'm saying. I'm willing to put it into a separate column, that's not designated, until we decide... Correia/ What would the separate column be? I mean, I think....(several talking)...I mean, going through a couple of budget cycles, whatever ends up happening is then, there ends up being... Bailey/ This is going to be a very different budget cycle, I can (mumbled). Correia/ Okay. Bailey/ Well, we'll talk about it tomorrow night. Hayek/ Yeah, but let me add. I...I have a couple of comments, that you know we have a number of pressing, uh, budgetary needs and that's always the case. There's a memo in our packet about the, uh, the ration essentially of expenditures, uh, to revenue, uh, over recent periods of time. Um, and we haven't decided...we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 24 haven't had...we haven't met on the affordable housing issue as a Council and decided what we want to do, and whether we want to spend money to get there or look at other ways or what our approach will be, um, and so I'm not necessarily opposed to it, but I...I don't like the idea of just sequestering funds without having had a discussion of...of these other issues here. So... WrighU We can just put a little asterisk by that line. Bailey/ (mumbled) sequestered, all right. Hayek/ Whafd you say? Bailey/ Isn't that what you get in the Hall of Fame, steroid use? (several talking and laughing) Okay, other agenda items? Correia/ Well, I wanted to...oh, never mind. That's on our agenda actually. Bailey/ Okay. We're going to do Burlington Street at 7:30. We're going to take a little break. Burlineton Street Median (IP2 of 5/29 Info Pkt): Davidson/ Uh, the next item on your agenda is a presentation on the Burlington Street landscape median project. This is a presentation that we have owed you since January CIP discussion, and we appreciate your patience as we finally got time to make the presentation. Um, this is, uh, a project that was sort of commenced about three years ago when, uh, the Comprehensive Plan was amended by the City Council at that time, which included five of you, uh, to basically expand downtown, south of Burlington Street. Uh, I believe the Hieronymus Square property was the first property that was rezoned to CB-10. There was other property considered directly to the east, which was subsequently withdrawn, and then of course the, uh, the St. Pat's Church property was considered for CB-10 zoning. The bottom line is, the Comprehensive Plan was amended for downtown to expand, uh, to the south, across Burlington Street, basically to the blocks bordered by Gilbert on the east, uh, Clinton on the west, Court and Burlington Street. Um, at that time then, the City Council had concern about the notion of Burlington Street being a bamer, uh, to the expansion of downtown and how can we, how could we tie the two sides together, uh, what could we do about pedestrian safety, specially for those north-south movements, uh, we did have a fatality related to a jaywalking maneuver, uh, on the corridor during that time, which gave even heightened interest to pedestrian safety. Uh, it was related to an impaired motorist so it wasn't strictly just a function of the jaywalking, but it was, nevertheless, something that of course caught our attention. Uh, the other thing that the City Council at that time expressed was a desire to try and beautify the corridor, if we could. Uh, we were given instructions though that we were not to consider a major reconstruction of the corridor, but basically what was desired This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 25 was to see if we could make some improvements within the existing curb lines. You're all aware it's a very constrained corridor in terms of where the existing buildings are located. Most of those buildings are very successful businesses, and there was not a desire to do an urban renewal type project, where we would look at the whole right-of--way, maybe even expand the whole right-of--way, and build a whole new corridor that could do everything that we wanted it to do. What we tried to do was prioritize some things that were important to us in terms of pedestrian safety and aesthetics, and develop a project accordingly. Um, I want to introduce Jeff Morrow who's going to actually make the presentation, uh, along with Kent Ralston, Associate, uh, or Assistant Transportation Planner with JCCOG. Um, what we want to do this evening is...is refresh everybody's memory, uh, about what the project actually is. Uh, it is included in the funded years of your CIP, and basically there's two things right now driving, actually implementing any part of this. One is the University Recreation Center projecC, well, not exactly sure what they're calling it, but the one that's under construction at the intersection with Madison Street and Burlington. Um, that is we are actually in negotiations right now with the University on constructing the first section of the median, which would be from the river through the Madison Street intersection. The University is very interested in the project. They were part of the committee that developed the plan that you're going to see presented this...this evening. They're very concerned about channelizing pedestrians into that facility. They know there's going to be a lot of north-south movements. They don't want a wave of, uh, pedestrians trying to get across the street. They want it channelized and as safe as possible was basically what the motivation is there. Uh, the other thing that I think bears mentioning at the beginning of the presentation is that this is Iowa Highway 1. It's under the State's jurisdiction - the portion of Burlington Street that we're talking about, and by the way, from the river to Gilbert Street is the terminus of this corridor that we're talking about. Um, and DOT worked with us on the development of this plan. They really like this plan. They think it's a very context-appropriate solution for a State highway in a major urban area, in Iowa, and they are very supportive of the project. They are our partners, they're working with us, we have a very good relationship with them, but when it comes right down to it, they will, they have to approve whatever we do on Burlington Street. Um, so if we end up with a model that's not what you see tonight and we decide to go a different direction, we will have to bring them into the discussions, as well. Um, there are two specific concerns that...that several of you have raised that we want to address specifically tonight. Uh, one is bicycle accommodation in the corridor, and Kent is going to do that specifically. The other is emergency vehicle, uh, access in the corridor, which is a concern raised by the Fire Chief. His vehicles do use that center lane, uh, right now when they're trying to get through, particularly during peak traffic periods, and Jeff is going to address that specifically, as well. We do also want to emphasize, and Jeff's got some pictures in the presentation here to show you, that this is a tested concept. I mean, this is something that worked very well in other places. Fleur Drive in Des Moines, Lincoln Way in Ames are two examples of really very nice median, uh, landscape median treatments that are within easy This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 26 distance for us to go and take a look at it and we have done that. Uh, what we ultimately want to do tonight after you've heard the presentation is answer any questions you have, and obviously make sure that there is still a majority of the Council that wants to move forward with the project that we've outlined, and...and like I say, we're...we're negotiating with the University on a cost- sharing model for this first phase, between the river and Madison Street. The second phase would likely be, uh, the Clinton Street intersection where, again, we've had some real concerns about pedestrian crossings, much higher crash rate there than we've been comfortable with. We feel this will bring that down. We would coordinate that with the Hieronymus Square project once that got up and going. So, we need to know from you tonight if you want us to continue negotiating with the University on the first phase. If not, what's the direction you would like us to go. Basically that's what we hope to get from you this evening. So with that, I'll hand it off to Jeff. Morrow/ I'm a....my name is Jeff Morrow. I'm a Traffic Engineer with Anderson- Bogert Engineers, and I've been involved in this project for the last couple years. What I'll try to do is, uh, bring you all up to speed with kind of where I left off about late 2006, early 2007. Um, this project has quite a bit of history, as Jeff indicated, uh, starting back in the early 90's, some planning efforts, identified a boulevard concept for Burlington Street, which would connotate some sort of a median. Uh, since 2000, as Jeff mentioned, there was some...a pedestrian fatality, which kind of brought this up to the forefront on the front burner, um, and brought maybe kind of a sense of urgency, you know, we really need to get something done from a safety perspective. Uh, we did some things with the signal timings and pedestrian crossing enhancements in 2005. Uh, and then the median concept study was done in 2006, and again, as Jeff mentioned, this dovetails right in with the plans that the University has, plus all the other redevelopment, uh, items along the corridor. This is the corridor, um, it's, uh, this is actually a fairly open part of the corridor. You can see that there's, um, you know, pretty highly developed all the way up to the edges, uh, you have buildings along here, you have five roadway lanes, you have sidewalks on both sides, and just a little bit of room for snow storage, and I'm sure this winter that wasn't an overabundance of snow storage. Uh, even temporarily if you truck it away or whatever. Uh, it's a tight corridor, highly developed, carries about 20,000 to 25,000 vehicles a day, which is a pretty good number for afive-lane roadway, uh, and you have a lot of desire lines of travel for pedestrians to go back and forth across the corridor, and particularly with this, the typical age of people you see down there, they just kind of go line of sight. If they see it, that's how they walk. So you can go out there any day and see people standing in the middle, waiting for traffic to clear, and then going the rest of the way. So our study focused primarily on pedestrian safety and aesthetics. Those were the two main things. Gotta work, we want to get the pedestrians over to those intersections where we just added these nice improvements to get them safely across, and it has to look nice. Uh, can't be a barrier between the north and south sides. Uh, some of the other issues that come along with that though are capacity, private property This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. Jane 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 27 access, access for emergency vehicles, and so forth. This is the corridor, as Jeff said, from the river right here, all the way past Capitol, all the way over to Gilbert Street was the terminus. Having medians between each of the major intersections, each major intersection would have full access with left-turn bays, and the center parts would be, um, a full median with planters. So these intermediate alleys and driveways would be to right-in, right-out only. As Jeff said, this first phase starts at the river and goes up through the Madison intersection. I think you have this... Wright/ Would you mind going back just a second. Morrow/ Sure. Wright/ Thank you. Thank you, sorry. Morrow/ Yep, no problem. Again, keeping all the same lanes that were out there. One of the conditions was that we work with what we have, we're not going to widen the roadway. Again, there's not an abundance of space out there. So how do you take a roadway and add a median in it and not, you know, majorly screw up traffic operations and so forth. Well, we shave a foot off of each of these lanes. They're 12-foot lanes now; we take a foot off of each one, and we can get afive-foot median. This says four, but the ultimate recommendation was to get an extra six inches off of here, and get it out to a five-foot median. In the narrow part, uh, we would have a barrier that's formidable enough to discourage pedestrians from crossing mid-block. Um, and then here where we don't need all five lanes, we would develop that median so it's wide enough and tall enough to have some significant plantings. Again, the concept of having something that's formidable but you can still see through it so you don't have that division between north- south, is we looked at some open type architectures on the median barrier, and we went through a lot of different iterations, but this is essentially what we came up with. In the narrow parts of the median, some open concrete structures with a mixture of some sort of open railing, whether that's a cable or some sort of decorative railing. It could, that could be determined, and then some lower plantings, and as we develop some of the wider parts of the median, actually get into raised planters that could support some trees, that might have some sort of backlit decorative feature on the median, as well, that could highlight it at night. This superimposes the median, kind of a before and after picture, of what the median might look like at, uh, Madison, uh, again, would have some raised planters up here, kind of a narrower part through here. You can see that the alleys and driveways along here would be restricted to right-in, right-out. You would no longer be able to make a left into some of these driveways or make a left out at some of those driveways. This is a similar type of rendering at the other end of Burlington, at Gilbert, you know, looking down the corridor to the west. Uh, again, kind of using some plantings to soften the comdor, add some greenery, but not be so dominating that it splits the corridor. Uh, this is an example in St. Louis on an urban roadway. This is heavily vegetated. Also with a raised, uh, area in the middle. This might be overdoing it a little bit, because we, again, kind of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 28 wanted to maintain that line of sight so maybe something more like this, uh, in Minneapolis where you actually can see. It's formidable enough that you're not likely to try and cut across there. It's going to push you to the intersections where it's easier to cross. You know, at the same time, there's some college kids there. If a really determined one wants to cross, they're going to. Um, this should handle the majority of those people. This is a guided by a steering committee, and it's amulti-jurisdictional corridor so Iowa DOT is heavily involved, uh, University of Iowa, of course, is a big player. They've got their Rec Center. They also have a lot of students that use that area, in addition to just general public. And we also worked with the Downtown Association. DOT and U of I were both very interested, positively in the safety aspects and being able to get pedestrians back and forth, across this very busy roadway. Downtown Association, of course, their concern is their constituents and we did talk to several of the businesses up and down the corridor, and said, `Hey, we're considering this. What's your take on this?' Um, of course, concerned about, uh, you know, their access -right-in, right-out -versus full access, and uh, some of those things we'd have to work with, like I know Kum & Go had a few issues of how they get their trucks in (coughing, unable to hear) access would work, but generally it was positive. Um, and our recommendations came down to, um, to go ahead and build the median, narrow up the lanes, uh, you do have some considerations with capacity, uh, those were some of the things that we looked at during the study, and unfortunately, it's such a subtle capacity difference when you're talking about narrowing lanes, that there's not really a good formula or engineering calculation you can say, `Yep, it's going to be great,' or `Nope, it's not going to work.' Um, what we had to look at is yes, narrowing the lanes might reduce capacity 2 or 3%, but at the same time you're going to gain by not having so many mid-block turns, you're not going to have, you know, some of the pedestrians crossing mid-block and so forth, so you're going to gain some things back. We felt it would come out in the wash, capacity wise. Today if you go out and drive that corridor, sometimes during the rush hour, it breaks down today. We don't expect it to be any different when we're done. Um, from time to time it will break down. This was a safety and aesthetic project. It's not a capacity improvement, but again we don't expect it to have a huge capacity detriment. Um, but again, we're going to be taking up that center lane, that, you know, I'm sure you're aware sometimes when it's very congested, those vehicles need to get through on that center turn lane -how do they do that when they've got congested traffic -how do you get a fire truck or an ambulance down that comdor? Uh, there are some technologies that you can use to turn all the signals green in the direction the emergency vehicle is traveling. iJh, there's some other things that we could work with the emergency administration to try and make (coughing, unable to hear) situation work. With the bikeway accommodations, uh, I'll go ahead and turn it over to, uh, Kent, uh, to go over that part of the presentation. Ralston/ Good evening, Council. Um, my name is Kent Ralston, as Jeff had indicated. I'd also like to introduce Kris Ackerson, another Assistant Transportation Planner with JCCOG. We've been working, uh, in tandem on this project. Um, for the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 29 for the purposes of this presentation, I'd like to first, uh, just start out by addressing the Burlington Street corridor specifically, and then move on to, um, some of the current tools we're using, uh, here in Iowa City, and then move on to some new tools that we maybe able to employ, uh, but that we're not currently using. Um, the Burlington Street corridor, as Jeff had mentioned, there's about 22,000 to 25,000 vehicles per day, which all of you know is pretty heavy traffic at times. Um, and as far as bike and pedestrian accommodations are concerned, there's really a limited amount ofright-of--way available, unfortunately. There's about 60 foot or so of pavement, uh, curb to curb, as Jeff had indicated, and there's somewhere around an 80-foot right-of--way, um, and when you look at that 60-foot of, uh, travel lane pavement, a couple of five-foot wide sidewalks, that really doesn't leave a lot of room. Again, as Jeff indicated, for snow storage and so forth. Um, and in fact, there's really no space available at all for widening the travel lanes, uh, for bicycle accommodations, unfortunately, and uh, without reducing that, uh, minimal amount of space available for sidewalks that currently exists. Um, staff does feel that the median project benefits bikes and peds, uh, in several ways. Uh, the first of which is minimizing the left-hand turning traffic, um, on...throughout the corridor, and then it may also decrease vehicle speeds, uh, a little bit, uh, given that canopy as Jeff had shown on some of his images, given that canopy. There won't likely be a big effect, but it just, closing things in a little bit tends to slow people down just a hair, which would also be good for, uh, bikes and pedestrians, uh, both of which are advantageous then, um, throughout the corridor. Uh, there's also a couple of measures the City is currently taking, um, to make sure that bikes and peds are more comfortable within the comdor. We've got the count-down pedestrian signals, as I'm sure most of you have seen, um, this is something that's present at all the major intersections throughout the comdor now. Uh, for those of you who've not seen them, instead of just getting the red hand, uh, signaling that you shouldn't be crossing the street, it actually gives you acount-down timer and shows you exactly how much time you have available, and I think this is especially helpful for elderly individuals, people with mobility issues, or a lot of the visitors we have to Iowa City. Um, another thing we have is our high-visibility crosswalks, our continental crosswalks as we call them, and the idea behind the continental crosswalk is just get more pavement, or excuse me, more paint on the pavement at an intersection, uh, which makes it more visible and that helps motorists and bicycles and pedestrians alike. Um, staff does realize that even with the median project, should the Council chose to move forward with that, uh, and the measures that we have on the ground, that, uh, the corridor will likely continue to be avoided by many bicyclists, um, and uh, in response to that instead of enhancing Burlington Street, which has about 25,000 cars a day during peak periods, um, we would actually recommend enhancing the parallel comdors, uh, which would be Court Street to the south, which has about 3,400 vehicles a day on it, and/or, um, College Street to the north, which has closer to 5,000 vehicles on it a day. So a lot less traffic on those comdors, given that there's not a lot of space to do a lot with bike accommodations that we haven't already done in the Burlington corridor, um, that would be the staff recommendation -just kind of move to those This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 30 parallel corridors and see if we can do there. Um, now what I'd like to do is just quick show you some of the tools we're using, some which will be applicable to the Burlington Street corridor -some that won't, uh, but just to give you an idea of what we're currently doing, and then again, some new ideas, and just to generate some ideas to what can be done on those parallel corridors. Uh, the first one is the wide travel lane. This is kind of our new arterial street design. Uh, 14- foot wide curb lanes. Again, this won't work for the specific project, but just to keep in mind, again, some of the things we are doing. Um, and the idea behind the 14-foot wide curb lane is just that bicycle and a motor vehicle can co-habitate the sazne lane, and when that vehicle overtakes the bicycle, they don't actually have to pass into on-coming traffic. Uh, we also use share-the-road signs. I believe these are used presently on College Street, but not Court or Burlington, uh, is my understanding. Um, and the idea behind ashare-the-road sign is that, uh, the motor vehicle then realizes that bicycles are legally allowed to be on the street, and should give them the space, uh, that they need, and then conversely, it's just to let bicyclists know that if they are allowed on the street, which they are, that they should be following the rules of the road, as well. And that's something we could use on Burlington Street, or those parallel corridors, uh, and with a little education behind those, I think they can be pretty effective. Uh, striped shoulders aze just that, they're just a striped shoulder that demarcates a lane that a bicycle can use. Um, this image from Camp Cardinal Boulevard also has the wide sidewalk, uh, so in this instance, a bicyclist can either chose to ride in the street, if they're comfortable, or ride on the wide sidewalk if they prefer that. Um, we do have a few bike lanes in town, limited in use, but this by Melrose Avenue is one of the bike lanes we have. Uh, you can see the gentleman riding down the bike lane there, um, they would have to be five-foot wide or greater by ASTOW standards, um, and then they also have pavement markings associated with them, as well as signage that indicates that, uh, that specific lane is for bicyclists only, or in this case, buses so they can stop at the bus stops. Um, now on to some new tools that we could use, uh, throughout the comdor possibly. Again, the expanded use of bike lanes, since we don't use a lot of them currently, uh, Chicago's been doing some different things with bike lanes in conjunction with on-street parking. Uh, Madison, Wisconsin and Portland are, uh, also trying some new things that help, uh, bicyclists get from that bike lane, which is usually on the right side of the road, over to the left side of the road if they have to make aleft- hand turn. That's one of the conflicts that's, uh, more dangerous when you use a bike lane, I suppose. Um, another new tool, and this is something that JCCOG staff, uh, would like to recommend using on the parallel corridors, either College Street, again, or Court Street, is a "Sharrow", which is a shazed-lane arrow. Um, the idea behind the "Sharrow" is, is that it not only gives a preferred route for bicyclists, it shows that there is indeed a preferred route, and when you use this in conjunction with some, uh, way-finding signs, that can be really helpful, uh, the actual...if you can see the Chevron along with a bike symbol, and that doesn't necessarily demarcate a certain lane that a bicyclist has to use, but it kind of gives you the idea of where you should be riding along the street, um, and can be pretty helpful. And then [he last new tool that we should likely be using more of, and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 31 that would be very helpful, um, is some way-finding signage. We currently use some different way-finding signage on our trails, but not a lot on our roads, specifically tailored to bicyclists. Um, they usually, um, show either distance, direction, or destinations, and way-finding signage, uh, works really well with the, uh, the shared lane arrow, or the "Sharrow." It can work with bike lanes, and it can even work with a striped shoulder, um, so it's something that we could use more of isway-finding signage, as well. So what I want to leave you with, uh, quickly is just that there's not usually a silver bullet when applying these tools to any given comdor, which is the case here with our Burlington Street corridor as well, um, but there are some different tools that we can use, and uh, and uh, staff can definitely take a look at the combination of tools that we may need to, uh, to work out our issues here. Davidson/ iJh, thank you, Kent and Jeff. At this point, I'd like to open it up and just see if there are any questions for either Kent or Jeff or myself, before you have a general discussion. Bailey/ Questions? Davidson/ Basically we tried to present the concept. Is there anything you felt like we missed, or... Champion/ Can you go back to that picture of the kind of sculptured median? Davidson/ What was it, Connie, you're looking for? Champion/ The little sculpture type of median with the concrete. Davidson/ (several talking) Oh, yeah, sure, I know what you're talking about. Wright/ The wavy median. Champion/ Yeah. Davidson/ Yeah, and I do want to emphasize, even prior to finding it... Champion/ There it is! Davidson/ ...there we go, that this is concept. Okay? Champion/ I understand. Davidson/ Just to, nothing (mumbled). Champion/ I like that idea because it doesn't require a lot of maintenance, and we seem to have trouble maintaining our medians. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 32 Davidson/ Uh, Terry Trueblood was part of our steering committee (laughter). His folks would be the one to maintain these, so if...you had a lot of input. Uh, clearly when we came to delineating specific plants and that, a lot of...you know, we don't want to have City employees out in the middle of the street, 45,000 vehicles a day, uh, any more than we need to. So, that was something that got a lot of thought, Connie. Champion/ Well, I like the idea, I like the fact it's not all closed in, uh, it does leave some space in case somebody does need to stop in the middle of the street -those young people. Um, I just... Davidson/ Yeah, that was clearly something that we felt like we had to do, Connie, was that if somebody does jaywalk across the street, we don't want them to be out there stranded and not be able to... Champion/ Right! Davidson/ ...so you could get across this. Champion/ This is a much better concept...I like this. It's good. Davidson/ Other comments, or questions? Wright/ What would the speed limit be posted through here, Jeff? You anticipate still at 25? Davidson/ Yes. Yeah, and that's under DOT jurisdiction. If...if we felt like there was reason to alter it, you can, I believe, in a business zone, go down to 20, I believe, if you have a traffic study that justifies that, but, uh, we would assume it would stay at 25. Hayek/ The right-of--way's 80 feet and the road is 60, so you've got 10 on either side, and that includes the sidewalk? Davidson/ Yeah, that's everything. Hayek/ Is there anything that can be done with what is essentially now a "snow dumping" territory up and down the street? Davidson/ What's been done with it right now, Matt, is to generally pave it. To put brick pavers in, because it becomes such a no-man land maintenance wise, otherwise, so...primarily up and down the corridor, it's just paved in order to provide a surface that, uh, if you do have a bike and a pedestrian meet, uh, I ride my bike on the sidewalk when I'm on Burlington Street. If I meet a pedestrian, it is nice to have that extra space to get around them, since it is so constrained, you know, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 33 when you're up against the Mill or some places like that, where the buildings come right out to the right-of--way. Hayek/ Is there room in that 10 feet for delineated bike and pedestrian routes? Bailey/ Yeah, that's what I was wondering. Davidson/ Kent, you have any thoughts about that? Bailey/ How wide is the sidewalk right now? (several talking) You're going to have to... Davidson/ Well, in the constrained areas like in front of the Mill, I believe it's 10 feet. Ralston/ It's about 10 feet on either side, uh, and I say about because the center lane of the road may not go right down the middle of the right-of--way. To answer your question, you've got light poles and other utilities within that snow storage area, so ifd be kind of hard to use that, to its fullest extent, to separate between bicycles and pedestrians, and then you've also go the fact that, uh, it's nice to have a little bit of a buffer between the pedestrians and the 25,000 vehicles a day. It's a matter of comfort. Correia/ I mean, it seems like what we, what we would need to do would be to establish alternative bike routes around Burlington, both College and Iowa, or to Washington or whatever, and Court down to Madison. (several talking) Wilburn/ We had talked about... Correia/ I think once you get...once you get down to Madison, it's a wider sidewalk, and then there's the link-up. Isn't that, the sidewalk in front of the library on that Burlington (several talking)...there's more space there than, on that sidewalk, than all the way up... Champion/ Yeah, there is. Correia/ ...to the east. So I mean, I think getting folks to Madison might be the best... Wright/ That's the stick part, yeah. Correia/ Right. Ralston/ We've actually got more of a comprehensive study going on as part of the Central Planning District's plan, which is part of Jeff's department, and we do have some more though behind some of these other roads, but just specifically tonight we just covered the Burlington Street corridor. But that would be our recommendation, is to find alternate routes, than channeling folks onto the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 34 busiest, most congested comdor in Iowa City, basically, or throughout the urban area. Davidson/ You're absolutely right, Amy. Eventually we need to channelize pedestrians, bicyclists, motor vehicles, emergency vehicles, everything, to Iowa Avenue, Burlington Street or Benton Street. Uh, you know, once you get further north then there are some specific pedestrian and bike bridges, but you know, for crossing the downtown, we've got to eventually channelize people to one of those bridges. Bailey/ So, you mentioned these parallel corridors, and you mentioned enhancement, but what are you thinking about? Are you thinking bike lanes? Are you thinking...you haven't gotten that far? Ralston/ Well, we have...we haven't really presented this to anyone else except for you folks tonight. Um, I think JCCOG's staff s feeling up to this point is to use, uh, the "Shan•ow" on either Court, College or both, along with some way-finding signage. And I think that would be a good compromise on those streets. They're such low traffic, I think, and if you're out there today you see a lot of bicyclists using both those corridors. So even without that, uh, extra help, it's already a more comfortable route, I think, for a lot of folks, including myself, and I think if we can embellish that just a little bit with, uh, the paint markings and signage and things, I think it'll help bicyclists realize that's where they could, you know, that might be a preferred route, as well as letting motorists know that, uh, that is a preferred route for bicyclists, and they...they don't like to share their space. They may find somewhere else to go. Davidson/ Kent, is there also some thought...I can remember you talking about this and I can't remember what the...the culmination of it was, but the bike lanes that formerly existed on Market and Jefferson, or at least on Market. I'm not sure they were on Jefferson. They might have been. Bailey/ They were. Davidson/ IJh, is there any thought to putting those back, or trying to do something with... Ralston/ (several talking) again, we haven't presented this to anyone, as we haven't gotten through the Central Business District plan just yet. Um, but I think JCCOG staff would like to see some combination of either "Sharrows" or actual formalized bike lanes on Jefferson and Market, because they're such nice one- way comdors. They're plenty wide for, uh, an actual formal bike lane, and then once we get into the busier campus azea, we maybe able to kind of dash some of that off and then let folks chose the appropriate place to go. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 35 Correia/ Because Market Street is a way to get, I mean, that's...to get all the way down from the east to the... Ralston/ I think the way we see it is kind ofJefferson-Market Street more serving the north side, of course, and then more of the College-Court Street kind of serving the south side more. For their east-west. Wright/ The problem with any of these, uh, corridors for bicycles is getting across, getting through downtown and getting across the river. Market Street's really not particularly good at this point either because you get that craziness at the University pedestrian bridge. Um... Correia/ Yeah, but if you go once the, along by the river to the, to Iowa Ave through the, you know, you go down on the other, on the river side, and...what? Bailey/ Down on Madison (several talking) Correia/ You go down the hill, yeah, well, behind the IME, you get on the side, get on the trail, you go under that railroad bridge, then you're on Iowa Ave on the other side, right at the river, then those are wider sidewalks if you're going to the hospital area. Champion/ How do you get across, um, the highway then? Correia/ There's the bridge, there's an underpass (several talking) there's the over, there's the overpass. Champion/ East to west. Correia/ You have to go over on that (several talking) Bailey/ The challenge is we're always asking bicyclists to drive farther. Wright/ Yeah, I'm not comfortable with bicyclists having to take a back seat - no pun intended. Correia/ Guess it depends on where you're going. Champion/ Well, I think you better realize that you have to take the back seat because you're a lot smaller and you don't want anyone to get hit by a caz. Wright/ No, but it would be nice to have planning that took bicyclists into account. Champion/ Well, I agree, I totally agree, but I think I need... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 36 Davidson/ ...presentation tonight. The point I was trying to make is if we were doing an urban renewal project, and widening the right-of--way, and starting over with Burlington, we would clearly try and do a much better job accommodating bicycles on Burlington Street. Since we don't have that luxury, we're considering the items that Kent is talking about, and I think, you know, clearly we need to investigate these ideas further in terms of enhancing bicycle accommodation in the downtown area, but to pick up on what Michael was alluding to - no mode of transportation is ever going to, without friction, get through the downtown area in Iowa City, whether that be bus, motor vehicle, pedestrian, runner, whatever - um, there's just too much competition for a very limited amount of space, and quite frankly as a planner, having everybody slowed down is the way to accommodate all that mass safely. It's gotta be slow. Every mode of transportation needs to be relatively slow through the downtown. Bailey/ So you think this would actually slow down rather than speed up, traffic a little bit...with the canopy and the narrower lanes? Davidson/ Additional friction of having those lanes closed in, the median there, uh, you know, we don't think it's going to be a marked change, but that it will be somewhat of a reduction. Bailey/ And you looked at the median width and couldn't accommodate median width and getting bike...bike lanes have to be how big? Five feet. Ralston/ ...a formal bike lane. You could do a striped shoulder, uh... Bailey/ How big? Ralston/ You can go as narrow as you want to, but then you can't actually call it a bike lane by ASTOW. Bailey/ Sure. Morrow/ Plus we have trucks and buses and emergency equipment that needs to use that, and we're already squishing the lanes down a bit, so we really don't want Zo narrow them any more. Bailey/ No, I meant did you, did you look at narrowing the median. This is an effective sized median. I mean, otherwise it's kind of not, or... Morrow/ Yeah, the problem is to get something wide enough to support trees, it needs to be about 10 to 12 feet wide, and you could go with a narrower, uh, concrete portion. Where it's thin you could go down as narrow as three feet, but then you'd want to have this pedestrian refuge area, and if you think of how many pedestrians you can store in the width of a yard stick, basically, that's not very many, and you got, you know, 25,000 vehicles a day going by ya, that's why we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 37 originally drew this concept at four feet, and one of the recommendations after the whole committee looked at it was to try and go to five feet. You sacrifice an extra six inches on those outside lanes to get the extra foot in the median. O'DonnelU I like this design also. The two concerns Ihave -the first is (noise on mic) emergency vehicles, uh, you know, I really don't know how you can address that, urn, the second is I also like the trees, but I wonder how wise we are dropping leaves into the street, if it gets wet, I mean, and 8,000...25,000 cars a day, did you say? Davidson/ Yeah, and that's all gotta take the type of tree into consideration, and make sure we don't end up with something that results in a slick pavement with...with wet leaves and that sort of thing. Yeah. With respect to the emergency vehicle preemption, Jeff had a lot more stuff in here, and in the interest of time, I had him take a lot of it out and say we would just discuss it with you, but the bottom line is we believe there is an emergency vehicle preemption system that will work in this corridor and allow emergency vehicles basically clear out the traffic and allow the emergency vehicles to proceed, and there's a couple different systems. We didn't go into detail. There's basically a transponder on the emergency vehicle. You can also use these things on transit vehicles. They do in big cities, but basically it cycles the signal such that it provides a green corridor for the emergency (mumbled). Morrow/ ...helps, you know, if the emergency vehicle is coming up behind a bunch of traffic that's stacked up in the through lane, well it turns that signal green so those cars can move forward and get out of the way and let the emergency (mumbled). Davidson/ So, what we need to know is, I mean, in a lot of ways, this is a frustrating discussion because we can't do everything that we would like to do, and we've expressed that as honestly as we can to you. What we've shown you is that we have a couple of priorities that we think we can make some improvements, but ultimately the seven of you, you need to tell us if those are the right priorities, and if they're not, please tell us what the priorities are, um, and then I guess, specifically, do you want us to continue negotiating with the University on Phase 1 of this, uh, which you know, quite frankly you could do Phase 1 through the Madison Street intersection and never do the rest of it. Uh, I think between the river and Madison Street it's particularly appropriate because you don't have the alleys and that sort of thing, the access to businesses that you do for the corridor. So if you could address those two things specifically for us, we'd appreciate it. Correia/ So what's the cost-sharing with the University on this? Davidson/ We're working on that. Correia/ Oh. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 38 Davidson/ I mean, we're hoping to get something, Amy, that's at least close to 50/50. That's what we did on Iowa Avenue project, and the University considered that to be a good deal for them. Correia/ Yeah, and what about the Grand Avenue roundabout, what was that? Davidson/ Rick, do you recall, Grand Avenue roundabout cost sharing? Correia/ I think it was almost (noise on mic; several talking) Davidson/ We're going to shot for that (several talking) Bailey/ Pardon me, Mike, I didn't... O'Donnell/ I said I'm interested in going forward with this. Correia/ Remind me how we're paying for it. Davidson/ Uh, it is a mixture right now of... Bailey/ ...budget... Davidson/ ...general, thank you, Madame Mayor. Bailey/ And then you can just read it off... Correia/ Oh...State grants, general obligation bonds, water user fees, GO bonds, and... Davidson/ Yeah, while we were in there, constructing, we would do some utility improvements at the same time. That's why you have the water revenue in there. Correia/ Waste water user fee and road use tax. Davidson/ And hopefully we can squeeze the University for some money down in their part. Correia/ The State grants - do we have those? Davidson/ No. Correia/ So those are... Davidson/ Could be STP, they could be, uh, transportation enhancement funds, or they could be special grants, uh... Correia/ Set to begin fiscal year 10? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 39 Davidson/ Uh, yeah, it's actually...it's implemented in a couple of different years. We...we'd coordinate with the Hieronymus Square project. Champion/ When is the, uh, Rec Center going to be done? Davidson/ It's atwo-year construction project, and they started this year. Correia/ Yeah, I saw the sign the other day. Davidson/ So 2010 is when we would actually implement that portion, Connie. Champion/ Okay. Bailey/ Ross, you were going to say something? Wilburn/ When we had originally discussed this, I had said that, uh, I would be supportive, um, as long as we put an equal amount of energy and time into those alternative routes for bicycle, one south of, one north of, um, Burlington, given the constraints (mumbled) knock down buildings to get those routes. Champion/ That shouldn't be a complicated thing. It's just a matter of signage and...l like all that stuff painted on the road. Correia/ Yes, but we actually have to commit to do it, and we have to have it done. Bailey/ Other comments? Wright/ For the...you always know what I'm going to come back to. Uh, the stretch between, um, Madison and Highway 6, so this is going to kick in west of, or to the east of the bridge, correct? Davidson/ Yes. WrighU (both talking)...bridge is over. Um, now, that's probably one of the most messy areas, for lack of a better, but it's always relatively wide. Is there any way you, we can get a bike lane in there for folks? There is traffic across the river. Davidson/ There is more room down at that end (several talking). It's a matter of, you know, with the bike lanes you like to have it be a system. Wright/ Yeah. Davidson/ ...one little piece, um, and I guess, Kent, correct me if I'm wrong -isn't that really the issue, is having it be part of a system? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 40 Ralston/ Yeah, that's really the issue, and the only thing we have to think about then is when you end the bike lane, you're dumping folks off, kind of in a no-man's land. That you're not taking care of them once you've actually released them from the bike lanes. (several talking) Bailey/ Well, what about using what Amy was saying, that the...right along there, east of the river, from Madison to the river, there's wide sidewalks. Is that what you're talking about, right by the library? Wright/ Yeah, basically Burlington in front of the library. Bailey/ Right, right, and so it goes...do the sidewalks narrow up, to get onto the bridge, right? Wright/ Yeah, and typically...I'mthinking, Imean Iactually have staff who commute from U Heights on bicycles. Bailey/ Right. Wright/ And that's, that's really the only logical way for them to get to work. Bailey/ Right. Wright/ Um, there tend to be people on the sidewalks, so it's difficult for bicyclists, and so they do tend to take the road. Correia/ But it's wider...on the bridge. Bailey/ It's not wide on the bridge. (several talking) Wright/ East of the bridge it is wider. Davidson/ Then it widens out. Wright/ But I do see the point about a bike lane to nowhere though. Champion/ Yeah, there really isn't any other good way to get across the river From that direction. Wright/ No, there's not. Bailey/ Other questions? So, are we prepared to move ahead on this? Hayek/ I think we need to. I mean, I don't want to have, when University opens up that center, um, that will significantly impact pedestrian traffic, at least, and I would... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 41 Davidson/ University opens up according to the schedule we're proposing now...the median would be completed. It would be installed at the time they open their doors. Hayek/ But, but... Davidson/ A portion down at Madison Street. Hayek/ Your thoughts, Mike and Ross, on...on not giving up on a workable, viable, bike friendly alternate route. Ralston/ And in the scheme of things, if it's the Council's wish, um, JCCOG could probably catch up pretty quick, and we've already done some preliminary investigations. I think in the time frame that we have, I think we could probably come up with something that fits the Council's wish. Pavement markings and signage and things that are pretty easy in the scheme of things. Hayek/ And I think...did you mention you're essentially doing this right now in terms of the Central...the downtown district, and you're not... Ralston/ We actually have a couple of projects going on that kind of leads up to this project, and we have, um, in the JCCOG work program, we have a specific, uh, east-west bicycle access, uh, project, and we're also working with the urban planners on the actual Central Planning District plan, which will be a more broad... Hayek/ Right. Ralston/ ...investigation, so yeah, we kind of have a couple things going on...on the burner. Bailey/ Will we include on this Burlington Street, I mean, I know signage is a big deal for us, but will we include share the road signs at some point? I mean, because people will continue to use Burlington Street regardless...I mean, brave bicyclists will. Ralston/ We can. L..I'm not, yeah, we'd have to do a little investigation as the effectiveness on Burlington Street, but I think that's certainly something we could do. Davidson/ Yeah, what we do with those signs, Regenia, is we move them around, because any warning sign, the yellow signs, tend to get to be part of the scenery if you leave them up in one place very long, uh, so what we do is...is it annually we rotate those? We basically put them on a new corridor. We do an entire corridor, I think we do two or three a year. We move them off of one corridor. It's This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 42 something we have the sign crew do in the winter when they're typically not as busy. Bailey/ Okay. Champion/ Can you just refresh my memory, and maybe you don't remember, but the entrance to that new Rec Center, is that going to be on the corner, or in the middle of the...great, thank you. Bailey/ Okay, so...yes? Proceed. Wright/ With reservations on my part. Champion/ Well, we all have those reservations, but we can't change... Bailey/ Well, the cost of, uh, doing it the way we would want to do it, I don't think we're prepared for that. Okay, thank you. All right. Uh, ECICOG solid waste plan. ECICOG Solid Waste Plan: ITEM 21. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST TO THE ADOPTION OF THE EAST CENTRAL IOWA COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENT'S UPDATED REGIONAL COMPREHENSIVE INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR 2008-2014. Jordan/ Good evening, Council, I'm Jennifer Jordan. I'm the Recycling Coordinator at the Landfill, and I'd just like to point out that it still doesn't get me anywhere near the Landfill on my bicycle, but (laughter) that's a ways, so I think we're a ways off. Bailey/ That's another discussion, I think! (laughter) Jordan/ Yes! Probably a whole other set of Comprehensive Plans. Um, well, speaking of Comprehensive Plans, the ECICOG Regional Comprehensive Integrated and Solid Waste Management plan, um, 2008 to 2012, um, is up for an update. Um, Comprehensive Solid Waste plans are, um, required and approved by the Department of Natural Resources. The plans are updated every three years. As I just mentioned, this is a 2008 to 2012 plan, so this is actually on a four-year schedule at the moment, because there was a change of rules in the past couple of years. So, it's in a bit of a transition. Um, this covers the Landfill service area of Johnson County and the cities or Kalona and Riverside, which is a bit random with the two cities added in, but that's the DNR, the way they lay out the service area for the plan. Um, since we, since the Landfill is owned by the City rather than the County, and we are not part of a 28E agreement with the other communities in Johnson County, each city within the County has to sign on and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 43 adopt the plan, um, in order for the DNR to approve it. So, um, that's basically what I'm looking for tonight, um, but I will give you a little bit of background about the plan and answer any questions that you might have. Uh, the majority of the plan consists of reporting requirements. If you've had a chance to look at it, it's about 90 pages. I think a third to a half of it are just that, the reporting requirements that, uh, my counterparts at ECICOG do that section of Um, and those are the reporting requirements for the waste reduction activities that have basically occurred since the last plan update. Um, the remainder of the plan are the goals set out by the service area, the Landfill service area. Um, those were set forth by a task force of about 20 people over the past couple of years from various areas of the community, um, Councils across the County, um, Dee Vanderhoef was actually on the planning committee. She's not with us tonight, obviously, but there was some Council input on that, uh, we had private haulers, City staff, local businesses, University representatives and we actually had a couple of students on the task force. So I think we had overall pretty good representation, um, of the goals set forth for the Landfill. Um, we had two planning sessions late in 2007, September, October, in which we basically examined the past goals and looked at the progress and kind of figured out where we were, where we wanted to be, and where we thought we could go. Uh, and we gathered a lot of input for...for feasible goals and then timelines over the next three to four years then. Um, the...the goals are relatively broad, which is in some ways nice because it gives us a lot of flexibility to look at the goals and say, `Well, we like this aspect so we're going to move forward with this, and kind of put the other stuff aside,' um, so that's both a good thing and a bad thing. We can pick and choose a little bit, but some of the more important things may not have as much, uh, clout I guess. Um, but basically the goals that are...I think they're lofty but realistic, quite frankly, um, some of the things that we've been looking at doing, some of the things that we are already doing and expanding, such as the compost program and expanding that to include food waste, that's kind of a no-brainer on that we already have a great program running. It's just another step to expand that. Um, I'll just actually just run through the ten goals quickly. Um, and if you have a copy of the plan, they're on page 48 for Johnson County. The first goal is to promote a significant, excuse me, significant unifying goal to the public that...to exceed the 50% waste reduction goal by 20...or 2011. Right now we're at 37%. We've been hovering around there for the past three or four years, uh, maybe even a little bit longer. The waste reduction goal is...was set in 1989 by the Department of Natural Resources. I touched on that briefly before so I won't bore you with it. Um, but basically it takes into account not only recycling and waste reduction activities, but population growth, economic factors, and the main thing is really the tonnage at the Landfill. So those are the things that go into that goal. Um, the second goal is as a function of the Comprehensive Plan, establish a local committee to evaluate progress towards goals. This is basically something that we haven't done before, but I think it will be really valuable in keeping us on track and moving to reaching these goals, excuse me. In the past, I think had this, uh, function been implemented, we would have been able to stay on track with the Comprehensive Plan a little bit better, and I think that with this is place we won't This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 44 just necessarily shelve it until the next time it's time to update the plan, so I'm very, feel very good about that. Um, the third goal is to promote and expand waste reduction and recycling education activities. Um, a couple key points on this one. East Side Recycling Center falls right in line with that, obviously, um, and another, two other big things that we wanted to focus on were event recycling, which has increased significantly in the last couple of years and continues to do so, um, and actually this weekend will be the premiere rollout event for our event composting. So, check that out at Arts Fest this weekend. I'm personally a little bit nervous about it, but we realize it's our first one, it's a learning experience, and we'll see how it goes. Um, we're also looking at doing that for Jazz Fest. Correia/ One of the things I was wondering about, and I went to the, um, Irving Weber Days at the park, is that we don't have comprehensive recycling opportunities in our city parks, and they were handing out free water, but there is no place to recycle any water bottles, um, and it seems Iike...I would be interested in a policy that in any City location, City you know location where there are garbage cans, that right next to every single garbage cans there would be recycling, because I think we do education and we want people to recycle, and then when you have the opportunity to recycle, they have to carry it around with them. And only the most die-hard recyclers are going to take a bottle home from the park. Jordan/ Yeah, we've moved towards that in a couple different ways, um, the soccer, or excuse me, the softball diamonds have a couple of recycling bins, and we've had a couple of events request the mobile recycling bins, which are just the ones we use for Jazz and Arts Fest, the blue bins with the plastic bags, um, we'll also be using those for, um, the picnic Friday across the street, um, so we've kind of tried to address that with a couple of different options. The major issue with the permanent recycling, well, there's two major issues with the permanent recycling facilities. They tend to end up trash anyway. People just throw whatever in. Correia/ And that's what I'm wondering if there's, if that's where we concentrate our education efforts, that we always have a garbage and a recycling, and you know, especially in youth parks where I think our young people, there are a lot of young people who are very interested in recycling and environmental clubs, for them to start developing the education campaign, some sort of signs or whatever that youth and their parents could, you know, really clue in on. It's hard when a recycling container is not right next to a garbage container, certainly some people don't pay attention and I think that's going to be a problem anywhere. Bailey/ I thought we generally had a policy too, and we sponsored Irving Weber Days this year, as well, that if we sponsored an event, that they, um, they had a recycling plan, and there wasn't one -you're right -there wasn't one in the park, and I think that we're just not communicating that aspect of it. Correia/ And even at the pool. Do we have a recycling container at the City Park pool? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 45 Jordan/ Not to my knowledge. Correia/ Because we sell a lot of plastic drink, you know, I mean I think that we should have in all of our facilities recycling right next to a garbage, you know, every gazbage can so that... Jordan/ We really focused on specific events for the mobile recycling containers. Um, obviously because they're mobile, but also because it's, it seems to be a way to reach a lot of people at the same time with education, but I think what you were saying earlier, the consistency of having those at every, or at least most trash cans. Con-eia/ I think more over time, and even on the Ped Mall, the recycling containers aren't right next to a gazbage can, and I just think... Champion/ I think you're right. They need to be right next (several talking) Correia/ ...I'll put it here, and I think they do a nice job of...0'Hare Airport, the City of Chicago, they have a whole little line, and there's garbage, there's paper, there's the, you know, plastic. It's just all right there, so you don't have to go looking for anything. Jordan/ I think consistency would at least reduce the contamination issues. I've actually looked in those at O'Hare, and they're not always the cleanest, but, I probably shouldn't confess that I look in recycling bins. (laughter and several talking) Lombardo/ Jennifer, to what extent, um, do we have the ability to mandate, or have mandatory recycling? Do, is it allowable under Iowa law? Can a local govenunent say you shall recycle... Jordan/ Um, actually there's a task force in progress as we speak looking at that to make a recommendation by the end of the yeaz to the Governor. Um, specifically curbside recycling, um, but that would effect, I mean, that would effect the City obviously in numerous ways, um, I don't think it would necessarily focus specifically on events or public locations, but I think it would focus more on private recycling. Wright/ But even if the, uh, the Governor's task force rejected that idea, um, there's nothing to prevent us from doing that locally, is there, to have mandatory curbside recycling? Dilkes/ It's a Home Rule issue, and whether there's any....anything about the requirements in the State Code that would conflict with our regulations, so we'd just have to look at that. I don't know...I'm not familiar with... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 46 Bailey/ Let's back up a minute. Why would we require citizens to do that, which we have the capacity to do and aren't? I mean, we're not...we're not asking or encouraging recycling on our properties yet. Correia/ I think we should start...right. Champion/ Oh, it's also unenforceable. How do you know somebody's recycling? Correia/ I mean, I think one of the things you can do as a city would be to say right now everybody gets two large garbage cans. I mean, I think, I mean, I recycle most anything, everything I can, and I really rarely have more than one large garbage can. Champion/ Oh, I fill up my Jeep every week. I couldn't possibly use that little thing the City gives me. Correia/ No, no, no, not for the recycling. I'm talking about the garbage. Champion/ Oh, garbage! Correia/ ...encourages recycling when you say you can only have one 25-gallon of garbage. Jordan/ Yeah, and that's actually one of the goals, uh, is addressed within one of the goals and I'm not sure which one it falls under, but that was definitely one of them too, across the county, to evaluate the feasibility, and the success in some cases of communities that have gone to spay-as-you-throw system, which technically Iowa City has apay-as-you-throw system because anything over your two basic containers, you have to pay extra for, but a lot of communities have gone from two to one, and even smaller, different sizes within that and paying different amounts within that. So that is something we definitely want to... Bailey/ We also have an informal policy, actually, at certain times of the year that we don't ask people to pay, and we don't assess. Wright/ That's more often than not anymore. Bailey/ It is. Jordan/ I lost you there. Run that by me again. Bailey/ People put out more bags and they might not tag them and we tend to pick them up because policy was, what, you're going to leave garbage on the curb? I mean, there's a sanitary, sort of sanitation question. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 47 Jordan/ And those all fall under this goal in recycling education activities, I think that, you know, Rummage in the Ramp partially addresses that, or starts to, um, but that's, you know, and Rummage in the Ramp I had to mention under another one too, to... Correia/ Are you doing that again? Jordan/ We are. Correia/ When is that? Jordan/ July 24`h through August 2nd Correia/ ...asking you about it... Champion/ That was very successful. Jordan/ I'm hoping to have a press, or excuse me, a web site out by the end of the week. Um, okay, so back to education and, uh, recycling activities. The Eastside Recycling Center event recycling, and we're also looking at reaching out to businesses. Businesses currently produce about 75% of the trash in Johnson County. So, while we can talk in-depth about curbside recycling or event recycling, a lot of it is still coming from businesses. So that's, uh, a major portion we want to reach out to in the community. Um, goal four is expanding the use of the Iowa City Landfill's regional collection center for hazardous waste. We are actually one of the top areas in the state for regional collection center use, and 4% of the population uses us. So, and part of that was from all the mobile collections that we've done the past few years, so we definitely have a lot of room for improvement there. Um, I have, I may have five and six switched around so bear with me a minute. Um, investigate new landfill policies to enhance efficiency and environmental protection. Um, a couple things we had to look at, and are looking at the feasibility of using, or building a materials recovery facility to get even more recycling out of the waste stream, and also durables and reusable materials, compostables. The EPA recently estimated that something like 70% of what goes into landfills in the United States is either recyclable, durable, or compostable. So, there's a huge potential out there for keeping more out of landfills. (coughing) Excuse me. Um, another thing that falls under that one are looking at bans. We're actually investigating a ban right now on electronic waste with upcoming FCC change, so you'll be hearing about that probably in the near future. Thank you very much. Thanks. And then also looking at a corrugated cardboard band...ban, excuse me, um, that is something that other counties in our Comprehensive Plan area have looked at, and it's really increased their recycling rates and reduced what's going to the landfill. Um, moving on, actually...excuse me. (coughing) Along those lines, continuing to support a regional approach to recycling. This mainly focuses on the fact that we work with the other five counties in our planning area to do contracts that are broad-based, specifically for This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 CiTy Council Work Session Page 48 appliances and for electronic waste, and I think for tires, simply because, um, for a contractor knowing that they're getting the tires from six counties, or the appliances from six counties, we get a better rate on it, so that's all organized through, um, through ECICOG, and that's been very successful for us. We've actually seen our cost for recycling electronics specifically go down in the last couple of years. So, um, gets us much closer to being in the black than being in the red for that. Um, number seven, develop strategies to increase recycling among multi-family households. Um, a couple of these are in progress; we're always looking at expanding and increasing these, the drop-off recycling facilities. Um, Rummage in the Ramp, that was one of the key...one of the key focus groups was, um, multi-family housing, and we're actually looking for Rummage in the Ramp this year looking at setting up some sort of collection system, as well. So, we just put that out to the group this morning and we have several groups who are interested in organizing some sort of collection. So that's kind of exciting. Um, number eight, review and evaluate waste and recycling collection programs. Something that's come up pretty consistently over the past few years, and before my time, I'm sure, is looking at recycling downtown, and the main issue with that is how would we do that. So looking, we want to look at the feasibility of, um, expanding a collection system or providing that, and working with the University to...to be able to provide recycling downtown, um, we've had many questions from the public about picking up e-waste curbside for recycling, which we currently do but it's for an additional fee. Um, that's something we want to evaluate, and also another major one that I think you'll probably be hearing something about here in the next year or so is looking at a single-stream recycling system, and I think I've spoken to this a little bit in the past, and right now everything gets sorted by the homeowner, um, if we move to a single-stream or even adual-stream, um, in the single-stream you put everything in one container and it's sorted at a facility. So, uh, recycling rates in other communities have increased between 25 and 50% with that system. So, City Carton is a great resource for that, and I actually had a conversation with them this morning. They're interested in talking with us because they are in the process of looking at expanding and updating their facilities here in Iowa City (coughing, unable to hear) three-year plan so they want to know what we're thinking, as much as we want to know what they're thinking as possible. Um, number nine is a big one -construction and demolition waste, um, about 6% of what's in Iowa City Landfill is construction, demolition waste. So we're always looking...it doesn't sound like a whole lot, but it's 10,000 tons a year roughly. So we're always looking at ways to...to keep that out and to find another use for it. We work with the Restore on that obviously. We also do our wood chipping, so that takes care of some of it, but there are some materials that just don't have a home other than the Landfill right now. Um, and finally number ten, and I spoke to this a little bit earlier -expand composting in Johnson County. That's already in progress, so, um, those are kind of the quick and dirty goals set out. Um, if you have specific questions on any of those, I can...it's been a while since I've looked at the details of them, but I can attempt to answer. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 49 Bailey/ Questions? Correia/ I was wondering if...if this is at a point where we could add something that specifically says, you know, the City, meaning City facilities becoming recycle, you know. Offering recycling to customers, or... Jordan/ I think that probably falls within one of the other goals. The issue at this point with changing a lot of the details is that each community has to adopt it, and then the other five counties have to adopt it too, so that's the exactly the reason we did leave them relatively broad, especially...I think that would fall under, um, evaluating waste and recycling collection programs. Um, but we can look at things that are more of interest to specific communities. Correia/ Okay, because I mean I'm interested in... Bailey/ And who will end up being on your local committee, Jetm? Jordan/ We had talked about the initia120 task force...there're obviously some people who are more interested than others in being on that, but it would probably end up being, um, myself, probably another Landfill staff, um... Bailey/ You have some interested people though, right. Jordan/ Yeah, and we had a pretty good, um, cross-section, I think, from the County, of people who are interested, a couple of other communities. Coralville had a couple people from city staff who were at the meeting, so there was a pretty good representation. Bailey/ Other questions or comments? Wright/ One of the things that I...I think we need to beef up a little bit in Iowa City is, well, where established multi-family (several talking) Bailey/ It's on our pending list to talk about, and I think there's a ]ot of interest with this group. Wright/ I've been approached by probably four or five people in the last six weeks about that. Champion/ We've been approached for years. It's just (several talking) Wright/ ...drop-off sites don't work if you don't have a car. It's hard to take it on the bus. Jordan/ That's probably the most frequent question that I get too, is when are we going to do this. The single-stream, which we are working on currently, um, looking at the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 50 feasibility of that, that's...to me, that's a precursor to the multi-family because we, it just makes sense logistically to have one bin in an apartment, rather than five or six. So, that's definitely (several talking) Wright/ ...have a recycling dumpster or something. Bailey/ So, what's the timeline looking at the single-stream? I mean, what do you think? Jordan/ Um, we just extended into our final year of our contract with City Carton in our current system. So we're set definitely through June 30`h doing things the way that we are. That's not to say that we couldn't say tomorrow to the community, to our residents, that you can mix it and then we'll stand at the curb and still take it to City Carton, um, and they...because they have to receive it sorted at this point. Um, but L .. Correia/ So the contract goes to June 30, 2009? Jordan/ Right. We just signed a new contract for the fiscal year. Um... Champion/ Well, they would need more time anyway, if they do a different facility, if they're going to sort all that for us. Jordan/ Potentially the Cedar Rapids' facility already has that capability, and last time I talked with them they were only at 30% capacity, so it's a definite possibility, but that of course brings in transportation cost and issues. So it's moving up very quickly on my radar, and I don't have a good answer as far as six months to a year, two years...but... Bailey/ We're not looking at five years. We're looking at more something (both talking) Jordan/ I'm basically working on getting the composting amendment in place and that will be my next major project. So... Hayek/ When I get my monthly City utility bill, what line item is paying for recycling efforts the City carries out? Excluding other sources of...is it all out of refuse? Jordan/ There's actually a recycling line. Bailey/ There is a recycling... Jordan/ There's a recycling line for three...(several talking)...yeah, there's a recycling line that I think is at 3.60 and then the refuse line, which subsidizes some of the recycling, um, is at 10.40, 11? Hayek/ So it's part, the actual recycling line item, and then some portion of the refuse? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 51 Jordan/ Right, and that would be more for, um, probably like bulky pickup on the curb, um, the electronics that do get picked up, yard waste, that type of thing would be covered, I would think, through refuse rather than through the recycling fund. Hayek/ You know, we've got mandatory garbage pickup. We don't have mandatory recycling. I think that's kind of (mumbled) (male)/ (mumbled) recyclables in your trash. Wright/ I think every major city in California has mandatory recycling. Correia/ Um, the other thing with multi-family recycling, because I think we have to look at some how impacting our apartment code to require apartments to have, I mean, if we require that they have garbage pickup, we have to go in and require that they have, um, recycling. So, I mean... Jordan/ There are many facets, and most of them are difficult to deal with. Um, another major issue is the private haulers and (mumbled). But, none of which are insurmountable, certainly. I think that, you know, we have been talking about this in Iowa City for 15 years and it's...if there's a time to do it, it's now! (laughter and several talking) Hayek/ In the meantime, 17 billion pizza boxes have gone to the Landfill! (laughter) Jordan/ Exactly, and if you think about the economies of the Landfill itself. We're looking at spending $7 to 8 million in the next Landfill cell. If we could reduce the size of that necessary cell in the future, then that's a lot of money we have to spend on other programs. So... Bailey/ Other questions about this plan? I mean, we'll have opportunities to talk about other green initiatives, but I mean, hearing multi-family and single-stream loud and clear, which is...both on our pending list to talk about more. Jordan/ And those are both very clearly defined inhere that those are major projects coming up. Bailey/ Uh-huh. Other questions or comments for Jenn? Jordan/ Will you have further questions tomorrow night? Bailey/ Um, do we need Jenn here tomorrow night? Champion/ I don't think so, but I wanted to ask you something about -you mentioned, um, business, commercial, um, tremendous amount of cardboard comes out of businesses, and if they don't recycle it, what happens? Does it all go to the Landfill then? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 52 Jordan/ Yes. Correia/ Some have, well, my office has a dumpster for cardboard, and it gets recycled. Bailey/ Are there some cardboard dumpsters in some of our alleys? (several responding) So some businesses do. Jordan/ The last count I did there were about 200 dumpsters in downtown alleys and five or six of them were cardboard. It's a pretty insignificant amount. Bailey/ So more cardboard is probably coming in. O'Donnell/ Now are there any in apartment buildings? Because I don't remember seeing a... Jordan/ I would think that the cardboard recycling downtown would be specifically paid for by the businesses. I don't think that there's any residential recycling downtown, that's...(several talking). No, I would find that very hard to believe, but again, that was under one of the goals, looking at corrugated cardboard ban. So... Champion/ Did Cedar Rapids try that and it didn't work, or do they do that? Jordan/ They do it, and they have a pretty good success rate. They still see, I think, 1 to 2% of what's in the landfill is cardboard, compared to maybe 8, 9, 10% that we see. And it's, the thing is it's a valuable commodity, so to put a ban on it is, I personally wouldn't see that as a hardship, but I could understand how others would. So... Bailey/ Okay, and we don't need to see, we'd love to see you tomorrow night, but you don't need to be there. Champion/ No. Jordan/ Thank you. Bailey/ Thanks. Wright/ If you want to come just to (several talking) Thanks for staying so late with us! Debt Policy (IP3): Bailey/ Okay, debt policy. ...Dale, Kevin... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 53 Helling/ We're going to give you some information, um, on debt policy. If you'll recall, around our budget discussions, um, one of the recommendations we made is look at your debt policy. Um, what's happened over time is the what you limit your debt to 25% of your total levy, your debt service is 25% of the debt levy. What's happened over time is that the rollback has restricted your levy to some extent, um, and has resulted in the City, over a period of years, uh, using debt to finance more and more of the not only capitol improvements, but also capitol outlay in terms of things like, uh, fire engineers, that sort of thing that we used to be able to pay for with cash, and so the end result of that is that if you maintain that policy of 25%, um, it will have an effect in future years in terms of how much you can...how much of your debt, uh, you can use to finance capitol improvements. tJh, the information that you got indicates what happens with at least eight other cities in Iowa, um, that...that are comparable in some fashion or another. They either have a AAA or AA bond rating, and as you can see, Iowa City is the only one that attaches the, um, or limits the debt levy based on a percentage of your total levy. The rest, um, all base theirs on a percent of their allowable debt. Um, as we indicated to you before, our allowable debt keeps growing because there's no restriction, there's no rollback on the actual valuations. It's totally on the taxable valuations on a residential property. So, the end result is that maintaining the current debt policy, um, will result in a significant reduction in the out years in terms of your ability to finance, uh, capitol improvement program through debt. Correia/ I mean, it looks like both Cedar Rapids and Ames have AAA bond ratings, and, you know, with all three of us on a continuum of least to most restrictive, so I mean, I think that when we've had conversations in the past it's been all about we wanted to make sure we protected our AAA bond rating, which I agree with, but it appears that changing this policy to anything in between is not by itself going to have that negative effect. It's going to be all of our, um, all of those other financial policies and protections that we have in place, I mean, I would be interested in reevaluating our current policy, um, making sure that we protect the AAA bond rating. Helling/ If I could add one thing just to give you a perspective. We right now are a little under 50%, abou148%, of our allowable debt. And if you can see even the, uh, the lowest restricted amount is, uh, Sioux City and that's...they're at 70%, so we're well below any of these others. Lombardo/ And I'm going to guess that this policy was probably adopted at a point in time where you were trying to achieve specific goals, um, the fact that you, even if you went to the most, or least restrictive policy, doesn't necessarily mean that you want to run up your debt. It's not a license to run up your debt, but certainly with all that we need to focus on and do, we may want that flexibility and so I guess what we're asking is, um, some indication of your willingness to reexamine the debt policy, and have us work internally and come back with specific proposals of how to handle that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 54 Wright/ I think we need to do that. Correia/ Yeah, I do too. Bailey/ ...there's a consensus that we need to do that. Comments, questions? Wilburn/ I think the... Champion/ We should be very careful. Bailey/ Okay. Champion/ I just...I think it does allow us to...we have gone above our own policy a couple years when certain things have come up, um, that we try to get it back down. For instance, when the Library referendum passed. My only concern, and I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but my concern is I also view this as kind of a management of people's property taxes, and I just think we're taxing people about the limit, and when we have the (mumbled) levy, that's going to jump, um, people's property taxes in these economic times. I don't know, maybe we have to stop replacing things so often, or maybe really thing about increasing the debt levy. I'm not willing, I don't want to do it. I'm not saying we shouldn't do it. I would not vote for it. Bailey/ Changing the debt levy policy? Okay. Wright/ But that shouldn't have any effect on people's property taxes. Champion/ Oh, it sure will! Bailey/ Debt service. Wright/ Oh, debt service, you're right, you're right, Connie. Correia/ I mean, the thing is that we're constrained because of the rollback, so I mean there is sort of a balancing act that people's, the rollback goes down so that there's a break on some level, but the public demand for service, I mean, we're talking about things like streets, and equipment for fire protection, and things that the community wants, and... Champion/ I don't think it's ever hurt government to be constrained a little bit. Correia/ ...and things like the median project, I mean, that are... Bailey/ I'm not sure we...I'm not sure we wouldn't come up with a policy that constrains us. It just wouldn't constrain us to this degree in this specific way. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 55 Lombardo/ Well, and there's an artificial constraint, you know, in that with the rollback provisions, the 25% is no longer, um, allowing us to carry the same debt load. That 25% is effectively less today than it was "X" number of years ago because of the rollback provisions. Bailey/ Right, because it's the (several talking) O'Donnell/I'd be willing to look at this also, but I...and I agree with everybody else. We just need to be very careful about the AAA bond rating, because that can cost a great... Champion/ And debt, we need to be careful about debt. O'Donnell/ Absolutely. Bailey/ Well, and would it be, I mean, so would you (coughing) to step, you know, on this end of...and the most, would you be reluctant to take a step towards the least in this chart, which would still put us... Wright/ Move a box to the left? Bailey/ Box to the left, or something like that, I guess, is what I'm saying. I'm not saying be over there with Cedar Rapids. They're having challenges that I don't even want to deal with, um... Lombardo/ I guess at this point, give us the creative license to look at several options. I think we know that you don't want to just lift the floodgates and see where, you know, what happens. Um, but, you know, there are different ways to approach it, and I think we have some good guidelines through GFOA of how to approach a comprehensive debt management policy, and I guess, you know, give us the flexibility to look at that, and come back with something and then bounce it off you and say is this...and we can also then enumerate, you know, what it would mean in terms of our borrowing capacity in terms of real dollars. Bailey/ And do you think this will be something we'll have before we go into the budget cycle? Lombardo/ Oh, yeah, I...we could come up with this in a relatively short time. Bailey/ Okay, so we may see it this summer. Lombardo/ Oh, absolutely. Hayek/ Do you link a discussion of our debt policy with, um, the issues of declining General Fund balances and structural deficits and some of these concerns that are starting to percolate up? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 56 Lombardo/ Well, they're all inextricably linked, because where you constrain yourself here causes other issues here, and...and so they are, but you know, not necessarily lock step. Hayek/ I mean, my personal perspective is I don't know what the perfect debt policy should be, and I would echo the consent that you guys do some creative licensing and come up with some alternatives, um, but I am concerned about that other issue. Lombardo/ The perfect policy is at the discretion of the Finance Director and City Manager right now (laughter and several talking) Champion/ We like you, but not that much! (laughter) Wilbutn/ I think an important thing is to be methodical, and be thoughtful into what you want to change your policy to, as opposed to looking at a line continuum and saying arbitrarily well, let's go 5% here, and then four years down the road, well, now we'll go another 5%. Just to put some thought into, uh, what those conditions, uh, surrounding where we're at and what's causing the constraints, because that's going to be the justification to, among the justification, to again take a look at what we're planning on doing, do we do what we said, okay, they still get AAA, because there's reasons that everything below Ames, uh, that they've got less than a AAA bond rating, and so I think it's just that being... Champion/ I appreciate that. I think what's really effected this now is our Library referendum, which was a big hunk, and so I think any time we even talk about raising this maximum that it should also be tied up with what the voters have approved. Bailey/ And...and I just wanted, that's a good example because I think it should also be tied up with our vision and what we're doing in the future. What will this enable us to do for the community. It's not necessarily about constraints, it's about...it's about what comes next and what are we going to be able to do, if you know, when we change this policy. Okay. So you have what you need, right? Any other...okay, let's go on to the third quarter budget update. Third Quarter Budeet Uudate (IP#3): Helling/ History on that too. Um, originally we talked about doing an analysis at the end of the third quarter, but timing, waiting for Michael to get here and so forth was we pushed it back. We end the third quarter, then we do our budget amendments, uh, by the first of May. Uh, we went through that process, so we really don't have a third quarter analysis. What we have is where we are today, with the budget amendments approved and in place, and so what you're receiving now is just a projection. This is a form that you're familiar with. A projection based on This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 57 the, our current and latest, uh, figures on where our revenues, or receipts and where our expenses are projected to go, and the bottom line in terms of our, uh, our, um, funding balance, or year-end fund balance. Um, I think that probably at this point in time, the better picture will be after the end of fiscal year, which is what, 28 days away. So I would anticipate that once those figures are together you'll want to look at this again, and have a better picture of what our projections would be before you start your (mumbled). Champion/ I think so. Lombardo/ And I bounced a, I shot Kevin a copy of a spreadsheet, and um, looking at a different way to maybe give us a little more information to look at at one time. My only concern and use of reserves is prudent at times, and as long as you have kind of a place you're trying to go with it, and you can see that at some point things stabilize. In looking at this one hand-out, I don't see that happening, and so my initial concern is, do we have a plan, and as we work towards really evaluating the end of this year's, um, numbers and heading into budget that we at least, you know, take a further look at that and maybe come up with a strategy for having that abate, or...or you know, come to a sense of stasis at some point in the near future. I wouldn't want to see it continue, you know, into the future without any kind of plan for how to stop that from happening. Champion/ Well, that's a huge jump, or a dive. That can't happen. Wright/ I'm sorry, what... Champion/ The dive of...from 41 to 27%, down to 16 in 2014? That's disastrous. Wright/ Well, we knew that was going to happen. (several talking) Champion/ Well, I didn't vote for doing it that way. (several talking) Lombardo/ A big chunk of that is the Fire Station. Another chunk of that is the, um, employee benefit catch up (several talking) Bailey/ Okay, other...questions? Comments? So this will continue to be something obviously that we'll discuss as we go into the (mumbled). Okay. Metro Coalition update. Mr. Wilburn. Metrouolitan Coalition Update/Process: Wilburn/ Was it last week? Earlier this week, last week...the Metro Coalition, uh, got together to, um, review the status of the final allotment of bills that had gone through the session, and relative to the positions that the Metro Coalition had taken. We, um, did an evaluation of, uh, where we came from and whether (coughing, unable to hear) to operate as a coalition. Um, the group decided that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 58 we would like to continue as a coalition, that we would like to retain the Anderson firm to, um, serve as lobbyists, but also recognize that, um, some of the other (mumbled) that are collected are, um, there are going to be other expenditures that we can use that will be beneficial for coming up with an action plan for the next session, um, for example there's some activities that were, um, administrative activities that we are having the lobbyists do that are not lobbying activities, but need to be done. Um, and then, um, let's see...um, there's a request by, uh, the Coalition, the members, to have us participate by having, by sending a voting member to a strategic planning session, um, June 30`h, July 15`, or July 2"d, uh, here in Iowa City, and um, they also, um, before that strategic planning session, would like to have input from our city, uh, related to where we think the - as a group -the Coalition should spend its time, its efforts. They'd like to know what our interests, priorities are related to the legislature for the coming year, um, and uh, again, expectations from the Coalition, um, any suggested interim plans between now and the next session that we as a group think the Coalition should take, and if we could categorize our interests, priorities into a set of proactive priorities that we should be taking. Things that you might list on a flyer, that here's what we'd like to see (mumbled) about, um, defensive positions, um, any areas or potential bills that we as a group think maybe on the horizon that, um, the Coalition should definitely be prepared to, um, lobby, work against, and any influential area, topics, which our group, our community, thinks that we would have expertise, in terms of shaping conversation with the legislature or the Govemor's office. Um, again, some of those potential areas of interest, and this is what they're wanting to hear back from us, in terms of prioritization the alternative revenue franchise fee, um, increasing money for brown, the old State Historic Tax Credit, lifting the cap; um, the Time 21 Transportation Infrastructure; liquor license enforcement; um, looking at the, uh, role of the Coalition and the cities -should we be focusing our effort on just the legislature. Should we be trying to take more of a proactive, interactive, uh, almost expertise type stance with the Governor's office, um, and there...they also have some sustainability issues. So, I guess they're looking for, um, really us to project ahead when we have our meeting with the legislative, um, our local legislation, in terms of our priorities, but I think they're...in order (noise on mic)...be more effective and perhaps proactive on some particular issues. We're trying to get some bills going, but it needs to happen a lot sooner rather than later. Bailey/ And we thought that this wouldn't necessarily be something we would take on tonight, but in the next...sort of introduce the idea, put something in the packet, and then the next work session talk about maybe our priorities, and um, our specific area of interest from this list, and thought that these would also be reflected in, um, our legislative priorities that we develop later and... Wilburn/ Right. Correia/ I would be interested in having something written from the last session, forme to be able to have more of an understanding and...and be able to provide better This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 59 feedback going into the next session of what were the pieces of legislation the lobbyists tracked, what, I mean, what were they, what was the outcome. Bailey/ We have a... Wilburn/ Do you still have that color-coded one? Bailey/ ...we have a table, so we can provide that. Okay. Um, yeah. Wilburn/ We can add that, and these areas of interest, just forward it all to the Council to, for the next work session (mumbled) Lombardo/ It occurs to me too. I was just, um, talking with Dale. You know, I don't know when the last time we asked departments to examine all state requirements and how they affect our bottom line, but I'll put something out tomorrow and ask them to take a look at it in time for the next...(several talking) Bailey/ Additionally, one of the things that we also should talk about, um, and wouldn't have to be decided by this planning session, but something that we should think about functionally is if we're in agreement that we continue to participate with the Metro Coalition. As you all know, the legislative session is very dynamic Um, I don't know how many calls you got, and...or how often, but I know that Ross was contacted a lot by our lobbyists about where does Iowa City weigh in on this, and going into ameeting -where aze you on this -and we have to develop some process to be responsive, and um, one of the ways that that could happen, although this isn't the only way, is to empower our Coalition and alternate to respond to that with accountability either reporting or permission, depending upon what cycle we're in with work sessions and meetings, and that would enable us to be more responsive and more supportive to the Coalition, as well as our lobbyists. So that will be something we'll also, we can talk about at the next work session, but as we move into this arrangement, again, we need to really decide how it functionally works for Iowa City. Wilburn/ And it's easier to have something tangible, like you're talking about, in a defensive position. Cleaz example was the collective bargaining, uh, legislation that came up, and that was something that quickly we were able to provide information through staff and discussions and held a meeting with the Lieutenant Governor, um, and that came together very quickly and was very effective, uh, and heazd some good feedback that (noise on mic) that was amongst...because the nine of the top ten cities had this unified position, that, um, was one of the key factors in the Governor's decision to, um, to veto that. But if you're going to try and do something rather than just react, if you want to try and put something out there that's going to be helpful for the bigger cities, that's going to take more work on our part in just trying to decide what is that, and what it might look like, so that we can try and sell it to the partners in the Coalition. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 60 Bailey/ And part of it too is deciding on process and priorities is also making sure that all of us are aware, because we all encounter our legislators, I mean, it seems to me in talking to the other Coalition members that we must have a much closer relationship, or a much more casual, I guess you know, we see them a lot more, than many other communities, and so I think it would enable us to be a stronger voice, um, at ]east with our own delegation, if...if we were really much more looped in and had a process on this side that kept us sort of apprised of what's going on, but it'd happen so quickly that it's important to be responsive. Wilburn/ But already there's a conversation about some other groups that the Coalition can partner with, um, other, um, groups of interest that do lobbying at the State House, and uh, I know, um, Senator Bolkum and there was another representative that wants to meet with the Coalition. Bailey/ Tyler Olsen. Wilburn/ Okay, um, about projecting ahead on some issues to...to see where we can work in this next session already, so it's starting to...I think there is some recognition as to what the group is about, and I think there's some folks in the legislation that see some potential for trying to work together to either craft legislation or having (mumbled) Governor's office. But again, it will take some work to get there, and it's a relationship that we haven't necessarily...as thoroughly done and as comprehensively done in the past. Bailey/ So, um, Michael or Dale, they also came to the...do you have anything to add? Lombardo/ I'm, you know, I'm curious to explore those partnerships. I think there's...there could be a lot of (mumbled), but all in all I was impressed that the group came together and I commend them for pursuing it. (mumbled) Bailey/ So is there a consensus that we want to continue our involvement in the Coalition? Champion/ Oh, absolutely! Bailey/ Okay. So, for the next work session we'll address some of these issues, and also start thinking about what process would make...I mean, part of it is functional, but part of it is also comfort level, because you know we are empowering somebody to speak for us, and how much information will you need and to feel comfortable about that, and...and be up to speed, and what do you want that to look like. That wouldn't necessarily have to be the model, um, if you have other ideas, we can talk about those, and that doesn't necessarily have to be decided right away, but we can revisit it if people azen't ready. Okay? Hayek/ And I would add to the discussions about continuing the Coalition, and having Iowa City's interests represented with some sort of lobby effort in Des Moines, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 61 whether part of or separate from the Coalition, is that maybe more structured interaction with our own delegation on issues that matter to us. I think it's ironic we on the one hand probably know on a personal level our local delegation better than most city councilors know theirs, just by virtue of the size of the community and that sort of thing. On the other hand, at least, like on the issue of collective bargaining, I'm not aware of any member of the delegation speaking to any of us about that issue, whether you're for or against it, um, and that's an issue that greatly affects municipalities. Um, and I don't know what that says about the relationship we have with our delegation, but that may be one area we want to look at. Bailey/ Could have said more about the legislation than the relationship, but yeah, I think that's a good point. Hayek/ It could of...it could of. Wilburn/ Another example in terms of defensive rather than proactive, I mean, a lot of the bills are...are, uh, it was going to be a smaller array of bills that the Coalition was going to take a position of, register for or against or no position, um, but because we and the other cities weren't able to have as thorough a discussion about any particular bill proactively, like I said, there's a lot of them we took no position on, and even, um, when the smoking ban came up, we weren't able to, we didn't take a position, uh, that was a situation where there wasn't, uh, there wasn't, uh, I think we had...we had quorum, but two of the major cities that were in favor of a smoking ban, weren't on the conference call, and so um, it failed in terms of taking a position, and there was a range of, uh (coughing) one of the bigger ones that, uh, didn't want to, uh, Davenport didn't want to see casinos exempted. They said everything or nothing, and so they weren't willing to take a position at all. And so that's where, I mean, that prep work going into a legislation, uh, the legislative season would be helpful, in terms of trying to be able to register positions, and then in the end hopefully have a bigger impact. Champion/ On the other hand, Ross, that Coalition got started really late in the process. (several talking) Whatever you got done was pretty spectacular, and it's a learning experience. It should be a lot smoother this year. Wilburn/ Yeah, and in fact, formally it didn't start until a couple days after the session started... Champion/ Right! Wilburn/ ...and, and at that point you're already behind because they've already met in caucus and...yeah. Bailey/ It says a lot about the group, and the lobbyists, that we were able to have the success that we did this year. And you've done a great job of chairing it so... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 62 Wilburn/ Well thanks! Bailey/ ...which is like this group, only (mumbled). Okay. So, next work session, um, we'll continue to talk about it, and we'll focus on our azeas of interest, and I'll get that information to Marian so it's provided, perhaps even by the end of the packet this week. Okay. Council Time• Bailey/ I just had a question. Eleanor, um, about the update on smoking. Is it still in (mumbled) do you think at the next work session you'll be able to tell us what to expect? Dilkes/ Yeah, I'm going to send out, my hope is to send out a memo, both to department directors and to you all this week,.which summarizes the act and also answers a bunch of questions that I've gotten about it. Now, that's going to be about, um, the regulations that apply to City property, um, and um, and then I think we'll put it on the next work session to talk about what, um, what are the major areas where you're still going to have some decisions to make about whether you want to make them non-smoking. Um, there's going to be some park areas, I think some parking ramps aren't covered, etc. Um, and you are going to have the discretion to...to cover those if you chose to. The big unknown is that the proposed rules, they're going through the rule making process, Department of Public Health, and they just came out today and there's a review process that they have to go through, so we're not going to have some final answers for a while. Bailey/ Right. Isn't that a 30-day...well... Dilkes/ They're doing, they're going through this emergency process. I think they're supposed to have review done within, by the end of the month, but then there's still a public comment period. I mean...the likelihood that we're going to have all our sigrrage in place and all that by the first of July is...is, it's unlikely because we're not exactly clear what we have to sign at this point, so...but I thought I'd give you the memo and tell you what I know right now. (mumbled) Karr/ And on another note, your next formal meeting will have all the renewals of cigarette licenses, and there's a ]ot of those cigarette licensees waiting to see what that impact is. Probably what they're doing is going to renew it, wait to see how it impacts them, and then we may have another procedure, a number of refunds after that. Schedule of Pending Discussion Items: Bailey/ Okay. Do other Members have Council Time? All right, pending discussion items. You've heard just a couple that will go on our next work session, um, also This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 63 the old bus depot site, we'll be talking about that and Michael's up to speed on that and so, um, I think that'll be on the next work session, just sort of a little teaser there. Correia/ I have one thing which I forgot. Sorry. Bailey/ Okay. Go ahead. Correia/ I, um, have friends that live out in the Peninsula neighborhood and they were very excited about the buses coming through, starting there, and um, a bus rider said, shared that one of the bus drivers said that the, this route is tentative? A tentative route, or a temporary route, and I said I wasn't under the understanding that we approved it to be a temporary route, so I just was wanting to confirm that... O'Donnell/ I didn't understand it to be temporary. Correia/ Yeah, the Peninsula route. Runs to the Peninsula. (several talking) Okay, yeah. Bailey/ I don't think any of us understood... Correia/ No, no, so I mean that was communicated to a rider by a driver, that it was a temporary route. So...I said I'm assuming that it's permanent, but I would just make sure. Wright/ ...some confusion with the, uh, subsidized taxi...that was discussed at the same time. Upcoming Community Events/Council Invitations: Bailey/ We'll find out. Okay. Um, upcoming community events, Council invitations. Do we have community events upcoming that we need... Correia/ Arts Fest...Thursday. Bailey/ You think we should come? (several talking) Expect to see you all at 4:00 on Thursday. (several talking and laughing) Under the table is...(several talking)...you really said that? (several talking) Hayek/ We...I don't think the City was present at the Memorial Day, uh... Bailey/ I got no calls and I was waiting, yeah. Hayek/ I know, Ross, you spoke at that a year ago, and... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 64 Wilburn/ A guy, someone bumped into me at, I wasn't even sure who he was -are you going to be there Monday, and I said, um, have you talked to Regenia. Well, I think someone talked to her, and I said, would you like me to mention something to her. No, no; they got a hold of her, yeah, we heard back... Bailey/ I asked Marian, and I checked my, or my email...no. Wilburn/ Sometimes they...in the fall there's a, uh, event that somebody theoretically had invited me to and never did, and so... Hayek/ Well, there's, the Johnson County Military Fairs Commission and they, uh, are, they're not the most organized group. A lot of World War II vets and I think in years past, they've had an assumption that, you know, Ernie would be there, and speak at that, and probably that communication has broken down a little bit, um, but I think we ought to make a priority of both Memorial Day and then the military, the Veterans' Day dinner ball, putting that on our calendar. (several talking) Karr/ If I could just make a note, and...and substantiate what Ross said and just to note what Regenia said, as well. There are a number of assumptions made and cleazly they may put an asterisk by there and say I'm waiting for more information, but without more information coming from either an email, a letter or from my office, um, they may make other arrangements, and this isn't the first time, and it's very disappointing to us internally, as well as it is to the public, but again, I hesitate to say to make an assumption and circle it without touching base with just somebody. Bailey/ Well, and that's the reason we have this on this is so that we can be a little bit more proactive, which you are. Live and learn, and so we'll just make sure that (several talking) Hayek/ I think this is a group whose organization is such that we're going to have to contact them and say... Bailey/ And that's fine, we can do that, and we've got to be thinking about where else we need presence. Wilburn/ (coughing) the night before that I bumped into...no, no, I think they got a hold... Bailey/ People all have my cell phone number, you can give those out in those cases, I mean, when I'm done with this I'll change my cell phone number. Wilburn/ Well, and you know, it's helpful to know which group, because I remember one year doing three Memorial Day things, and another year doing one, and it's just hard to keep up with. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 65 Bailey/ So, don't hesitate to call me, to call Mike if things, and don't hesitate to provide them with, I mean, Marian will get a hold of me or however, or if it's the last minute and you feel that we need a presence there, step in. I mean, that's not a problem either. Okay? Thanks for bringing that...anything else that we should be thinking about? I'm volunteering at ICARE breakfast and I hope to see all of you at some of the Arts at some time this weekend. You're missing Arts Fest? Well, we'll have a good presence there, I'm sure. Karr/ The Youth Advisory Commission is going to have, um, participating in Global Village, on Saturday morning. Bailey/ Egypt this year, right? Karr/ They're doing Egypt. Bailey/ Toilet paper mummies. Karr/ Toilet paper mummies and sugar cube pyramids. Correia/ Sugar cube what? Karr/ Pyramids. Correia/ Pyramids, oh, nice. Discussion of Meeting Schedule: Bailey/ Okay, so stop by and thank them for this. Okay. Um, meeting schedule. Michael, you have something here. Lombardo/ I'm anxious to get you guys together for a Council retreat, um, pulling together some ideas of format and all, but like to do it as soon as we can and thinking about July dates, um (mumbled)... Bailey/ Let's take a deep breath, and Marian, do you have some suggested dates? Karr/ Um, I have the July schedule that, um, many of you provided earlier, um, are we looking for a block of six hours, eight hours? Lombardo/ It depends on what we want to accomplish. My thoughts would be to...to kind of discuss priorities, uh, some of the big issues things that you want me to focus on for the year, and so, you know, if...if there was, yeah, it would be a day, six to eight hours. I'm looking at facilitators this week, getting some ideas together for...we might use to help us through that process. Got a couple people in mind, but I'm going to see their availability. Um... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 66 Karr/ Saturday the 12`h is open, if anyone's interested in a Saturday versus a work day, for a block of time. Lombardo/ I've seen it done where two days, in the afternoons, but that gets really hard to try and juggle it. I think one day if we could get... Bailey/ Spend a lot of time catching up on the second... O'Donnell/ I'm okay with Saturday the 12`h WrighU Saturday the 12`h would be good. Wilburn/ I just found out this week I'm going to be in, I'm going to be in Denver for a work conference. Bailey/ Okay. Karr/ On the 12`h, Ross? Wilburn/ On the 12`h. I, uh, I wouldn't be back until later that afternoon. Bailey/ Is there another date that... Kan-/ Um, that's the only weekend day that I had available. Uh, other than that, then I go the 10`h or the 11`h. When do you leave, Ross? Wilburn/ The 9`h, that's the other, I know I gave you RAGBRAI week, but I just... Karr/ Okay, so I'll fill that in. Okay, um, then the only other dates we have open are, um, July 3`a Wright/ Not likely! Karr/ Okay. Uh, 16`~ (several talking) 16`h, 17`x, or 18`~ Correia/ I just found out on Friday I might be going to a conference that week. Karr/ 18`h? Friday? Correia/ 16`h to the 20`h. O'Donnell/ Can't do the 18`h, that's my birthday! Wilburn/ Well if the 12`h would work with folks, I could jot down some ideas and just give them to you. (several talking) I don't want us to get hung up... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 67 Bailey/ Feel pretty strongly about having everybody here, uh, and I think that's... Correia/ I think we'll have to wait to August. Karr/ August? Looking at June? August? (several talking) Bailey/ ...hard to get a facilitator at this date. Karr/ Okay, August? Bailey/ August. Karr/ Um, August, uh, 16`h is a Saturday. Is the first... Bailey/ I think I told you I was going to be gone. Karr/ Uh, you're gone the 12`h through the 15`h. Bailey/ Oh, I'm coming back then? Karr/ Well, that's (laughter) don't know. That's what you told me. Bailey/ Okay. Karr/ The 16`h is the first date I have everybody in town, that I'm aware of. O'Donnell/ I'm not sure that I will be, Marian. I might be, we were just told last weekend that we have some kind of a thing going in St. Louis. Karr/ Okay, that weekend? O'Donnell/ I don't know which weekend in August. Karr/ Well, then what about the week of the 18`h? That is, it's the week school starts. Wilburn/ Just not the first day. Bailey/ Can't on the 19`h. (several talking) No, put me out that day. I'm doing something with the National Guard. Karr/ Okay. Um, 21 or 22, that's a Thursday, Friday? Champion/ When does school start? Karr/ 18`h. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 68 Wilburn/ It's early this year. Bailey/ How about the 22"a? That's a Friday. Is that (several talking) or not? Champion/ I always do a teachers' luncheon at my house (unable to hear). Karr/ And you usually do that the first Friday of that week? Champion/ On Thursday I think; it's Thursday or Friday, so let me just check. Wright/ Purely from a...I'm sorry, Connie, finish up. Champion/ No, that's all. O'Donnell/ Everybody's fine with the 16`", was that a Saturday? Wright/ Saturday...I was going to ask if you could maybe check on that date. O'Donnell/ I'm going to check tonight. WrighU From purely selfish standpoint, if I can not take a day of vacation, I'd like that. Bailey/ Oh, yeah, because we'll use up your vacation at later times. (laughter) O'Donnell/ I'll check it tonight and let you know tomorrow. Karr/ Mike, how about I call you tomorrow? Champion/ So what dates are we (several talking) August 16`h? Karr/ August 16`h, Saturday, and I can do an email to most of you tomorrow and you can check your calendars, if you didn't... Correia/ I'm good. WrighU I'm fine. Karr/ Amy's good and Mike's fine. Champion/ And then that August 8`h, the Friday after school starts... Karr/ The 18`h? Champion/ Yeah, that would probably be okay too. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 69 Karr/ The 18`h though doesn't work for Ross, so I think we were looking for later in the week. Like the 215` or 22"a, and you wanted to check your calendar on when you were doing the (several talking). So, Mike and Connie were okay with Saturday the 16`h. Correia/ I'm okay with Saturday the 16`h. Karr/ And Amy's okay. Bailey/ I'm okay, I just... Hayek/ ...I don't know. Bailey/ And on the 2155, I mean, there's that Leadership Group meeting, um, at 5:00, so we would want to be done by then, and you (mumbled). Wright/ Usually Thursdays are not good forme. Bailey/ Okay. (several talking) 22"a Karr/ Yeah, we could go then with Saturday the 23`a too. I can keep moving later, but then we hit...try and work with the 16`h 21s5 22"a somewhere in there? And I'll call Connie, I'll call Connie, Mike and Matt, or... Champion/ No, you don't need to call me, because I can just say it's going to be Thursday or Friday. I mean, I'm giving the lunch! (laughter) Bailey/ So are we holding another day? Karr/ I think we're holding the 16, Saturday the 165h, or Friday the 22"a Wright/ Friday the 22"a, yeah. Karr/ Or, but the preference is to Saturday the 16`h, but I'll hopefully know tomorrow. Bailey/ All right, good. Correia/ I have one more thing. Karr/Saturday the 23`a any better? Champion/ That's fine with me too. I'm not going to be out of town. Karr/ So Saturday...would you prefer the 16`h to the 23`a, rather than dealing with (several talking). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 70 WrighU 23`d would work as well Karr/ So the preference is 16`h or the 23`a, before we deal with the Friday. Correia/ Okay. Um, I apologize, I need to go back to Council Time. I, um, agreed to be on the ECICOG board and I cannot serve with my work schedule. Bailey/ When do they meet? Correia/ Third Thursday, um, I think this last... Bailey/ Are others...is anybody else...think about it, you can see me. And we'll tap somebody (mumbled). Karr/ We need to do that by appointment. It's not just see you, it's a Council appointment. Bailey/ Right. It can be on the next agenda. Right? Correia/ It's the last Thursday of the month, whatever the last Thursday is. So if there's five Thursdays, it was the last Thursday. At 1:00, one to two hours. Bailey/ So think about that, and then we'll put it on the next agenda, for Council appointment. Let's have somebody; let's not make it be like some of our other boards and appointments - no applicants. Wilburn/ Technically that seat, from their point of view, they just need three reps from Johnson County. Bailey/ Okay, but I think that we, I think it would be short-sited if we didn't participate in that boazd. So... Correia/ Does it have to be a Council Member? Karr/ It has...isn't that the one that has to be an elected...I think we've talked about that before. I have to look at the language, but I think it... Bailey/ Will you check too? Karr/ Yeah, I think we looked at that and we wanted to make a staff member the last time and we couldn't do it. Wilburn/ Because there is I think one community rep, but there... Karr/ Yeah, I think it's something like that, but I'll look at that later. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008. June 2, 2008 CiTy Council Work Session Page 71 Bailey/ Okay. Can we go home? (several responding) Thanks...thanks, we got a lot done. Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of June 2, 2008.