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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-12-01 TranscriptionDecember 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 1 December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session 6:45 P.M. Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Hayek, Wilburn, Wright Council Absent: O'Donnell Staff: Lombardo, Helling, Dilkes, Karr, Davidson, O'Brien, Rummels, Goodman, Faye Others Present: UISG Representative(s) Planning and Zoning Items Bailey/ Okay. All right, let's get started with the work session -Planning and Zoning items. d) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14, ZONING CODE, TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "HOUSEHOLD" TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF UNRELATED PERSONS ALLOWED TO RESIDE IN ONE DWELLING UNIT FROM FIVE (5) UNRELATED PERSONS TO THREE (3) UNRELATED PERSONS IN THE COMMUNITY COMMERCIAL (CC-2), CENTRAL BUSINESS SERVICE (CB-2), CENTRAL BUSINESS SUPPORT (CB-5) AND CENTRAL BUSINESS (CB-10) ZONES. (SECOND CONSIDERATION) Davidson/ Good evening, Madame Mayor, Members of Council. Uh, this evening we have items d and e, in P&Z items, uh, to discuss. Item d is second consideration of the occupancy standards in the Central Business zones. Uh, it is second consideration. Any...anything we need to discuss about this? Champion/ Um, I'm sorry, what...what are we on? Davidson/ We are on item d of Planning and Zoning items. Champion/ D as in dog? Bailey/ Page six. Champion/ Um, I'm wondering if the people who voted for this are willing to reconsider some exception for when this is implemented. Um, because of buildings that have already had plans for development. Hayek/ I don't think I am. I'm... Bailey/ I'm sure I'm not. Correia/ No. Hayek/ I...and I'll mention this tomorrow night, I looked...because some concerns were expressed about the process followed, um, I did some independent investigation This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 2 and...and satisfied myself, um, as to how that played out and um, that might have impacted my...my thinking, I think, about timing and issues like that. Bailey/ Okay. e) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE FINAL PLAT OF MOUNT PROSPECT ADDITION, PART IX, IOWA CITY, IOWA. (SUB08-00009) Davidson/ Anything else? Okay, let's move on to item e. Item e is a final plat of Mount Prospect Addition, Part IX, and uh, the location is...is right here, this area right here, uh, and it's a slightly...this is the access to...to orient you, this is Grant Wood School here. Lakeside Drive. Uh, it's a little...a little bit unusual in that there's basically a one...a one lot width that was preserved here, um, to provide the single access in to this, um, larger parcel, sort of the balloon on the string thing, looks a little unusual. That's because this was originally intended to be a church site, uh, and the church that was going to locate there...and this was going to be the driveway into it. The church that was going to locate there, um, decided not to and so subsequently, uh, it was platted and it's been preliminary platted. There you see the subdivision. It's, uh, 16 single-family lots on...about 5.2 acres. Uh, it does confirm, uh, excuse me. Conform with the preliminary plat. Uh, there is two point...excuse me - .27 acres that will be dedicated basically along here, outlot B which is the strip right along here, which is the location of the existing trail along there. It's in an easement right now. It will be dedicated to become City property. We...we maintain it right now so it makes sense to do that. They will be fulfilling their open space requirement then by that dedication of outlot B. There's just two other outlots real quickly - outlot A right here, uh, we originally, uh, had requested that property for the, uh, for the street dedication here, um, but with the new...new standards, we...we don't need, uh, ten feet of that, and so ten feet of that will be added to this lot right here, Lot 245, which is not part of the subdivision, but that...that has been worked out, and then the final outlot is outlot C, which is right here. Um, and we are in the process, and hopefully by tomorrow evening will have resolved the status of outlot C. Uh, City staff believes that that should be - I lost my arrow -right there, that is a...a walkway easement between, uh, these two lots, and we believe it should not be an outlot, but it should be an easement that's part of the two lots. That's the, we have these all over town. That's the way we set `em up. The maintenance responsibility then goes to those two, uh, property owners, and it's basically like having a corner lot, is essentially what it amounts to. Uh, the, uh, subdivider is suggesting that that should be an outlot dedicated to the City. The Parks and Rec Department, um, who...who maintains the trail along here has suggested that, uh, if that can't be worked out, and we are trying to work it out such that it will be an easement and not an outlot, uh, that it just be deleted entirely and we'll have the final resolution of this hopefully by tomorrow evening. You know, these lots all along here have direct access to the trail already, so that basically these lots here, um, worst-case scenario would have to come out and get on the trail right here, but we'll...we'll hope to have resolution of that tomorrow, but we don't want it to be an outlot. They've suggested an outlot with a homeowner's association. We just really feel that with the development that's proposed here, a homeowner's association that exists for no other reason than the maintenance of this outlot is...is not a workable solution. So, hopefully we'll have resolution of that by tomorrow night. Uh, any other comments or questions about this? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 3 Dilkes/ Actually, I understand from my staff that the preliminary plat shows that as an easement, and um, it has been staff's position that if Council was interested in changing that to an outlot, it would have to go back through P&Z, per our Code. Davidson/ And we've told the property owner... Dilkes/ We had told them that. (unable to hear comment) Davidson/ We're hoping. Bailey/ Any other questions? Comments? Davidson/ Thank you. Bailey/ Okay, thank you. Let's move on to agenda items. Agenda Items ITEM 4e(1). CONSIDER A RESOLUTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING ON DECEMBER 16, 2008 ON PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CITY ATTORNEY AND COUNCIL OFFICE REMODELING PROJECT, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH NOTICE OF SAID HEARING, AND DIRECTING THE CITY ENGINEER TO PLACE SAID PLANS ON FILE FOR PUBLIC INSPECTION Karr/ Madame Mayor, I'd just like to note that Item 4.e(1), setting of a public hearing on the City Attorney and Council office remodeling...has been removed from the Consent Calendar. It'll be, uh, put back on probably by next meeting. ITEM 7. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 5, "BUSINESS AND LICENSE REGULATIONS," CHAPTER 2, "TAXICABS," IN SECTIONS 5-2-4, "VEHICLE INSPECTION REQUIRED," SUBSECTION A AND 1(A) OF THE CITY CODE TO CLARIFY CURRENT REQUIREMENTS, TO INCREASE SAFETY, AND TO REQUIRE ANNUAL INSPECTIONS. (SECOND CONSIDERATION) Bailey/ Um, and I just want to draw your attention to Item 7, um, staff has recommended expedited action on that, so just note that for tomorrow evening. Any other agenda items? g) Correspondence. 2. Crime: Denise Halter, Krystal Halter, Karina Smith Correia/ Um, I wondered...the, correspondence 2, um, g)2. The, um, there was discussion, that correspondence, about car break-ins on Rundell Street, I think, and there was a comment in there about, um, an extra light on Rundell would be a good addition or whatever, and I know there's the...a way that residents on the street can petition for a new light, or an additional light mid-block or whatever. So I'm just wondering if somebody could follow This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 4 up with that person on that specific issue, saying if you want an extra, you know, mid- block light, here's the process that you go through to do that. Can we get somebody... Davidson/ Yeah, we would generally do a neighborhood survey. Correia/ Right, but I mean, I guess I'm just wondering if somebody could follow up with her on that specific item. Davidson/ Yeah, I'll have Marcia Klingaman just follow up with...with that person. Yeah. Information Packet Discussion (11/20 and 11/25) Bailey/ Other agenda items? Okay. We're going to move along. Um, I'm going to move up the Information Packet discussion from November 20"' and November 25"'. Are there any items that you wish to discuss from those agenda...or, those Information Packets? Correia/ Well I was wondering, the memorandum...I see... Bailey/ Which one are you in? Correia/ Sorry. 25"'. Bailey/ Okay. Correia/ IP2, uh, on the invisible fences. Bailey/ Which is on our agenda, uh... Correia/ Oh, it is? Bailey/ Uh-huh. Correia/ Oh, sorry! Bailey/ You're good. We get to talk about that later. So, um, in the same Info Packet, there was a...a memo from Bob Miklo regarding parking requirements. Since Jeff is here, are there any questions or... Champion/ Isn't that going back to Planning and Zoning? Davidson/ No, this item's not on your agenda right now, Connie. We're doing some research. We hope to bring it to P&Z and then back to you on the 15a'. (several talking) Bailey/ Do we have any other direction... Davidson/ Is this direction acceptable is what... Champion/ Right, yes! Bailey/ Okay. Any other Info Packet items? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 5 Hayek/ None...for me, none, other than to commend staff for prompt responses, uh, regarding the SEATS complaint we received recently. And then, uh, one related to snow removal. Address those quickly, I think, probably diffuses those concerns faster (several commenting) it's good so I'm pleased to see that. Lombardo/ Snow removal...I did have a conversation with Rick today and he showed me some, uh, mock-ups for public notices and flyers and stuff, and so we're very close to getting that notification started. Hayek/ Sounds good! Right out there, in fact. Don't let yourself get towed and a picture of a snowy car. (several commenting) Bailey/ And uh, Carol Sweeting and John Sobaski, we taped a...a little info sort of question and answer thing that will be up on the web, as well as on the City Channel, too, and it sounds like they're well prepared for, um, questions and notification, but probably can't have too much. Wright/ Is it possible to do any kind of like a text message notification? Bailey/ That's planned. Wright/ It is planned? Okay. Lombardo/ Through the University's, um, mail system, we're working with the University on that, but then also for an email sign-up, um, so that you can get...I don't know how, you know, advertisers automatically being...to cell phones. I don't if that would be productive or not, but...it'd be interesting. Bailey/ And Carol was talking about through out web site people potentially can sign up for that? Lombardo/ Right. Wright/ Sign up for an email notification. Bailey/ Text. Wrightl Or text, okay. Lombardo/ Text messages as well. Bailey/ At least that's what she indicated. I don't know where it is in planning, but she indicated that they were looking into that, for sure. That was on the list. Champion/ Instant notification, everywhere you go! Bailey/ You'll get it when you're in Chicago that there's a snow emergency in Iowa City. That'll be good! (several commenting) Yeah. Okay, any other...items from Info Packets? Okay. All right, we're going to move to the discussion about commercial vehicle congestion downtown. (laughing) Wow! People usually aren't that enthusiastic about... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 6 Hayek/ And since I was the water carrier on this earlier on, let me just briefly introduce this. I have...Chris and his gang are going to make a presentation. I've not seen it tonight, um, but what I do know is that they've spent quite a lot of time in recent weeks, um, meeting with, uh, many, many downtown business owners to solicit their views on congestion issues, and they've also done a fair amount of work, collaborating with other departments within the City, uh, so I think what they're going to present to us tonight, uh, will be a comprehensive approach to this issue. Commercial Vehicle Congestion Downtown O'Brien/ Uh, there's a couple of things we're passing out. One is just a copy of the slides for you to refer to as we go. The second actually is...uh, sort of a memo, but it's actually more of an outline of discussion topics as we go through it, so rather than a full memo, ~we thought just bullet points to kind of go through as we...as we went would be a little easier to follow. Um, and to add one more thing on the snow emergency, where actually in the areas we patrol, um, putting flyers on vehicles to inform them, so we're going to hit the areas that are actually going to be the areas that could potentially be towed from, to get that information out as well. So...just to add that. Okay. Uh, why are we here basically - downtown vehicle congestion is how we got to this point, um, there's been...oh, thanks. There's been several meetings where we've come to discuss this issue, and um, it usually stems from the 10 block of South Dubuque, which is actually the first photo at the top left-hand corner, um, that's a photo that we got on, uh, November 14. Um, and the one below that is actually the same, uh, same street, um, and then the 10 block, or the 100 block of East Washington, which is the larger photo on the right-hand side. Um, the concerns that were raised were, one, the unsightly issue, safety was an issue, um, as well as where do we put commercial vehicles so they're not impeding traffic. Um, we brought it to Council, um, at that point we thought let's enforce the ordinances that are currently in place, uh, the concern that arose from that is what do we do with the commercial traffic that we have then, due to...and there's several concerns we'll show during this. Um, so...so reasons we're here, 10 South Dubuque Street, centerline was obviously one of the big topics. Uh, commercial loading zones, the 100 Washington Street area, meter occupancy -which we'll get into how that relates, and then we have some recommendations that we brought forth for you to let us know what you think. Um, and I guess before we go any further, Mark Rummel and Mark Faye are here as well. They've helped with this, and kudos should go to the Planning staff. They put together a nice, um, memo about some traffic patterns and some other things, um, that we'll talk about later on, as well, so, um, kudos to them as well. Um, so what we've been doing during the time that...that we've been away, um, interviewing downtown business representatives, and I'll show you a list of...of how many. Uh, we went through 40 plus businesses in the downtown, uh, asking a variety of questions about, um, their concerns, their wants, their dislikes, as well as proposing kind of our ideas of what we're trying to do with...with our proposal here. Um, I'd say overall it was met, uh, very favorably. Mostly, uh, they were just nice...they felt that they were, they liked being heard. Um, they liked being able to express their concerns. They liked that we're coming to them ahead of time, rather than...than, uh, pushing things at them. Um, and I thought it was...we got a lot of data that we...we actually put into some of our decisions. Um, we've been gathering parking data, about commercial loading zone usage. Of course the 10 block of South Dubuque Street and metered parking, and then observing and photographing the problems areas that we have. Here's alist - I'm not going to go through `em all, but here's a list of the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 7 businesses that we contacted, um, and if you want data from any specific ones, we actually have a notebook, uh, where we have a summary of all the information from each of these businesses, so...um, and mostly what we focused on was the 10 block of South Dubuque, um, 100 Iowa Avenue, 200 Iowa Avenue, 10 South Clinton Street, and then along Washington Street, along the one-way there. Um, some of our data results - commercial loading zones, um, and this was information gathered from, uh, Planning and Zoning. That 80% of the vehicles parked in the commercial loading zones were actually non-commercial vehicles. Um, meaning personal vehicles, meaning uh vehicles that maybe they were being used for commercial usage but weren't properly signed. Uh, but the 80% of those vehicles actually were not...non-commercial, which as you can see the problem with that is then commercial vehicles cannot get into those spots. Uh, obviously, centerline congestion on Dubuque Street. I didn't need to put that on a slide for you to know that. Um, but here's a photo for you just in case you need reminded of (laughter) of what that block looks like at times. Champion/ On these 80% vehicles parked are non-commercial... O'Brien/ Uh-huh. Champion/ ...um, is that Washington Street? O'Brien/ That was on Iowa Avenue, um, we tried to focus on just the commercial zones, not the actual 15-minute loading zones. Champion/ Oh, okay. Thank you. (several talking) Can I ask a second question? (mumbled) O'Brien/ The metered parking, um, and here's some numbers that I think will help. The average usage was 91 % throughout a business day, meaning that 91 % of our meters were occupied. During the peak times, which was basically from 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M., 98% of that was occupied, meaning we only had 2% of our metered stalls open, uh, for people wanting to come downtown. And the 39% of those vehicles were actually feeding the meters, rather than helping turn over those spots for people to come downtown, um, or than using...rather than using parking garages, they were feeding the meters. Um, this is just a shot of 100 and 200 Iowa Avenue to show you the...the high number of usage that we have and...and you know, there's one or two per...per block...of spaces that are actually open at the time this...this photo was taken. Um, 10 South Dubuque Street - obviously this is one of the main concerns; um, the picture on the left, um, I think shows some of the safety factors that are...that are there. People loading and unloading while traffic's going...going, uh, southbound to northbound, as well as just what it looks like from, as you're approaching downtown Iowa City, uh, that's the Sheraton in the background on the...on the picture on the right. So for vehicles coming in, that's what they would see, uh, coming in to the downtown. Um, and those were some of the issues that have been raised for at least the last few years that we've been working on this. Um, and they're still going on at this time. Um, there's just another shot of coming into downtown Iowa City. Um, some of the concerns that we have, uh, commercial loading zones. The areas in yellow are your commercial loading zones. The areas in blue are your, just your regular 15-minute loading zones that anyone can occupy. So as you can see in that area there are really only four actual commercial loading zones, uh, that can be used. Uh, one of which, the one on South Clinton, uh, the corner of Clinton and Washington, uh, will actually be doing some construction work on that bank and that'll This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 8 be taken up for about the next 18 months once they get that project going, which'll leave you three on Iowa Avenue, as well as any vehicles that can get into those spots on, uh, Washington, Clinton, or even further down on Washington. The size limit, uh, we have pictures of two vehicles here that, each vehicle takes up the entirety of those...those commercial loading zones. So you're talking one vehicle per zone when those vehicles park in the loading zone, which doesn't, you know, two vehicles versus...where are the other vehicles going to go? Um, they're going to be in the street; they're going to be in a zone meant for other people doing business; they're going to be in metered areas; uh, but the commercial loading zone's when you have two vehicles that take up two of the three or four that are available. You can see there are concerns as far as the size limits. And then illegal usage, um, people that are, as we said, the non-commercial vehicles, which was 80% utilizing the actual commercial loading zones. Um, 100 Washington, the concerns that we saw, vehicle congestion, illegal parking, and commercial traffic, um, as you can see on that photo on the right, people crossing, mopeds, scooters, uh, a bus, a vehicle that's coming on the left side, and then a vehicle illegally parked on the right, uh, kind of utilizing that area as a loading zone, and that's typical for that area on Washington Street. I don't know if it's the Post Office, but when those loading zones, uh, as the photo on the left shows, that's an...actually one of the loading zones up at the corner of Clinton and Washington; um, they're very heavily utilized, and some of the data that was (mumbled) businesses that we got are they really appreciate those 15- minute zones for customers be able to stop -run in, run out -and then do their business and not have to worry about trying to find a metered spot. We provide those loading zones for them. Um...meter occupancy. The concerns that we had are obviously the...I'm going to say concerns, um, obviously I don't have a concern with the fact that 98% of our meters are occupied, um, from a financial standpoint, but from a doing business downtown standpoint, that's an awfully high percentage of...of occupancy, especially when you have a high number of people that are actually feeding the meters, um... Wright/ Isn't that actually higher than traffic planners recommend for your maximum? O'Brien/ I want to say it's in the 85 to 90, because you want to have continual turnover, rather than people searching for those five spots that might be open in a given area. In the area...just so you...this isn't all of our meters. This is an area, um, in the Clinton, Washington, Linn...from, let me make sure I get my parameters right. From Clinton down to Linn, and from Washington over to Jefferson, I believe. Bailey/ Oh! That's quite an area for that kind of occupancy. O'Brien/ Uh-huh. And here's a photo, um, South Dubuque Street and of Iowa Avenue, as far as, uh, the number of meters that are taken, um, at one time. Uh, some recommendations we have, and then there'll be time for questions, follow-up, things like that. For 10 South Dubuque Street, uh, we'd like to eliminate all the loading, unloading parking, etc., that on centerline, um, and to accommodate that, and...and I think that's the key. We have to find a place for those vehicles to go. Uh, we recommend creating a commercial loading zone along the entire east side of Washington Street, or I'm sorry, of Dubuque Street, and I have a photo of it, um, so the bright yellow, uh, right now we have nine metered stalls in that area, that if we remove those, um, we would have basically access for, um, did we measure the...did we measure that area? The length? (mumbled) I think we could get three...three to four actual semis in that area. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 9 Bailey/ Is that north of the alley, or... O'Brien/ It's both -north and south of the alley. Bailey/ North and, oh, okay. Thank you. O'Brien/ And then traffic could flow then, uh, northbound out of town when they were done, or if they had to go somewhere else, turn and utilize Iowa Avenue. Creating aone-way -now this is something that came up through discussions with business people, and actually with distributors. We actually met with, uh, Flex Sales and uh, Dale Lee, uh, as well as the businesses downtown to talk about concerns that maybe they have, and obviously safety was an issue, but some of the discussion points were creating...making that street a one-way. Bailey/ Going south? O'Brien/ Dubuque Street, 10 South Dubuque, heading southbound. So as traffic's flowing into downtown, um, here's what it looks like with, actually we Photoshopped this and removed all the cars from the parking stalls. This isn't typical. Um, to show what it looks like currently, um, with stalls on both sides. And then this is what it would look like with aone-way, um, and this was done by Engineering. They did a, a mark-up for us, with a loading zone and then creating diagonal stalls on the west side of the street, which would...we actually would gain I think one spot. This would also allow us then to create passenger loading zones on that block, which several of the businesses commented that because of the nature of their business, some of the restaurants and some of the other shops said that people just like to stop, run in, pick up their orders that they've phoned in and then leave. That would create the ability for us to, uh, to get some short-term loading and unloading on that side of the street, while still maintaining all of our metered parking. So that's something that John Yapp is actually...we've spoken to them, and they're actually investigating and getting research on, so...um, and even if this isn't something that's done, we still like the idea of...this won't effect the other things that we're doing, um, by throwing this out, uh, that loading zone is still something we...we think's a good idea, in order to accommodate the commercial traffic that we would be displacing by removing them from, um, 10 South Dubuque and from Washington Street. Bailey/ Um, I have a question about that. O'Brien/ Yes. Bailey/ When will...when will, uh, they have the data? O'Brien/ Uh, they're actually in the process of gathering it now, uh, of monitoring traffic patterns. We assume that...if everything went and was passed, um, there are some things that once we get to the meter occupancy, we're going to try to approach and budget as well as some rate structures that we want to change, um, that we'll approach in the...in the budget, um, but we're...we would assume that we're probably looking at spring to summer before we can implement anything, which would be good because we're allowing the people that are currently utilizing it, uh, a vast majority of people so that when they leave town and come back to have things in place and to have tried it out This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 10 through the summer to see how things operate, with small traffic patterns before August hits and we have everyone coming in, so...I would say after May. Bailey/ Okay. O'Brien/ After the people leave. Bailey/Ithink that's an interesting idea. Ithink others....others Ithink are interested. Champion/ Of course you'd like it. You don't have a business downtown! (laughter) I'm just joking! I don't think it's a bad idea at all. Wright/ Don't have a business downtown...yet! (laughter) Champion/ I'm going to ask you something. Um, can you go back to that slide, um, the one-way. Is that just back one? O'Brien/ This one? Champion/ Yeah. O'Brien/ Okay. Champion/ So, I mean, at first I thought this was really a dumb idea (laughter). O'Brien/ Thank you! Champion/ And so then would you keep those loading zones on Iowa Avenue also, or would you make those 15-minute loading zones? O'Brien/ LTh... Champion/ Like they have on Washington. O'Brien/Ithink one of them we would consider moving to a 15-minute loading zone. Um, actually those two spots are the biggest culprits of personal vehicles parking.. . Champion/ Because there's never any commercial vehicles parked there. O'Brien/ Right. That's because they can't get in there. Champion/ It's empty 99% of the time. I watch it. O'Brien/ Actually those photos we took were of that block, which.. . Champion/ So people just park there because there's never a beer truck parked there, because it's always going the wrong direction for them. O'Brien/ Well, and it's always on, plus they're always in the middle of Dubuque Street. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 11 Champion/ Right. It's not quite long enough for them, either, for some reason, but.. . O'Brien/ Yes, we would consider, and I think that's something we'll get to as other recommendations we would have would be converting one of those, probably the one that is the most, uh, not next to the Atlas, but next to Dulceia would be the one that we would...the usage on the one in, next to the Atlas is much higher than the one in front of Dulceia, so... Champion/ That's very interesting. That looks very... O'Brien/ But also, two of those diagonal stalls we would create 15-minute loading zones, as well. We have similar stalls on, down by the daycare, that's in Court Street. 15-minute loading areas where they can... Bailey/ They work well, or they seem to there. (several commenting) O'Brien/ Okay. Then move on to the next one, or are there more questions about this? We can come back later, once we...um, as far as the commercial loading zones, uh, one of our recommendations would be to create a more strict definition of commercial vehicle, um, the reason being currently anybody with a piece of paper - I'm going to borrow this for a second -apiece of paper this size, if they write on it and it's 2-inches high can say that I have a commercial vehicle. (laughter) Um, do I have all the...there's...with a community like this, there's a lot of people that run businesses out of their home. We're not expecting them to come in with a huge van or a, but I think some sort of permanent fixture, whether it's a magnet, something that can't be mistaken as a piece of paper on your dashboard. Something a little tighter, and I don't know if we need...I don't know if we can go to registering vehicles. I think there's headaches that are...that are there with that, but I think at least for now something that's a little bit more strict than we have now, but isn't so much so that we're preventing people from doing business, whether it's out of their homes or small business...not making them buy a vehicle in order to do commercial vehicle, or commercial business. Uh, we think a big one is increasing the fine for vehicles illegally parked in commercial loading zones to $25.00. Um, currently it's $10.00, uh, and the reason we picked $25.00 is it's, you know, A it's two and a half times what...and it's a tool to educate, rather than, you know, we're not looking...this isn't a revenue-raising, uh, this'll be something that we...and we don't post our...our citation, but this would be posted, much like a handicap violation where it tells the person that parks there that if they're illegally parked it's a $25.00 fine. Um, but that's...I think that's one that we felt was essential, was raising that, and then obviously the additional loading zone on 10 South Dubuque, we've adjusted that, uh, as far as adding commercial space, or commercial zones for people to park in. On 100 Washington Street, and this is in the Jefferson Building by where that little Post Office is, changing that signage from no parking any time to state no parking, stopping, standing or loading. Um, we're trying to...what we have are a lot of commercial vehicles that park there that really congest traffic coming down Washington, whether it's bus traffic, whether it's vehicles that are...that are coming through, and...and we want to try and eliminate pretty much all vehicles from...from parking in that area, which is another reason why we thought creating such a large loading zone on Dubuque Street was a...was a benefit, and then one of the other things that...our initial proposal, we came with proposals to change the current loading zones that were on Washington Street and Clinton Street, the personal loading zones, and a lot of the feedback we got from businesses, um, after getting their This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 12 feedback we decided that wasn't a...a really good idea to remove those, but rather to create commercial space where I guess currently the vehicles are already parking. Just get `em out of the original lane of traffic, and uh, leave those loading zones alone for people that are wanting to do short-term business downtown. Wright/ Those are popular spots there. O'Brien/ Yes they are. They're highly utilized. Hayek/ The signage changes -you're talking about not any zones for parking, but the actual street itself that they're double parking in. O'Brien/ Correct. On that area where it's no parking anytime, next...on the...south side of the street. That south lane. (unable to hear comment) Yep. Uh-huh. Uh, this photo here is a photo of Washington Street, and you can kind of faintly see a red line. That's the area we're talking about for the signage, and you can see mail truck, SUV, and a large semi parked in the area, um, just east of the actual loading zone, which is up a little further in the photo. So... Bailey/ Are those ever ticketed now? O'Brien/ Commercial vehicles are currently allowed to park there, because they can use no parking any time, I think if you leave...I believe if it's 12-feet for vehicles to pass, you can park pretty much anywhere if you're a commercial vehicle. That's sort of how that is written. Uh, our meter occupancy. And this is something we wanted to throw this up as a heads up, but this is something we're actually, um, going to be talking about around budget, or in our budget, this was something that was raised, uh, was increasing our on- streetparking rates from 75-cents to one dollar per hour, and, um, I've been a proponent of this for a while because right now our on-street rate matches our garage rate, and there's no incentive for people to utilize the garage, and what you want is your on-street spaces to be at a price so that people that are going to be parking longer term are going to utilize the less expensive option and go into the garage, rather than park on-street. Bailey/ Would this...where would this be? All of our... O'Brien/ Meters in the downtown core, not all of the meters. Bailey/ So the CB-10. O'Brien/ Uh-huh. And then increasing the fine (coughing) excuse me. Increasing the fine for expired meters. Currently it's $5.00 - to either $7.00 or $10.00 with an escalation of $5.00 if not paid within 30 days. Um, and this is in order to prevent people from continually feeding meters or uh, from leaving those, their vehicles illegally parked, um, not allowing other vehicles to come downtown, which could then, uh, park illegally and prevent some of the commercial...uh, some other changes, and this is things that we're doing internally. Adjusting our enforcement areas to focus more on the areas. Currently we have five areas. We're going to, I think, redo our areas so that we hit that kind of a T - Iowa Avenue, Dubuque area -where we have so many loading zones, um, alleys, and so forth. It just has to do with us tweaking our areas a little bit, and then currently we allow contractors, if they're doing work, um, in this...in the CB-10 zone to park in a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 13 commercial loading zone, if they purchase a permit. Um, we'll be eliminating that -this is a proposal, of course, eliminating all day permits for contractors in commercial zones and allowing them to park in alleys and metered spaces, rather than parking in commercial zones and taking that space up all day, while they're just... Hayek/ Do they get a hood then... O'Brien/ A hood for the meter or a permit which would allow them to bounce from meter to meter, or to park in the alley, rather than...than park in the commercial loading zone. Champion/ They'd probably object to that, because I know when I had work done, you know (mumbled). I think they...I'm not going to pay them by the hour while they're waiting for a meter to open up. Correia/ They buy a hood for a meter. O'Brien/ Right, and then it's open to them all day. (several talking) No, no, just, nope, that's actually what we're going to encourage is met...to buy the hood. We just don't want them parked in the commercial zone all day. Champion/ Oh, I see what you mean, yes, okay. Right. Okay. Bailey/ And, parking in the alleys, I mean, that... O'Brien/ Currently we allow that now, and I've...we've talked to Andy about it and he says they don't, they try not to utilize the alleys anyway for emergency use, um, but we currently allow them to do that, as well. Champion/ No, but this is fine. I misinterpreted. O'Brien/ Questions? Gunn/ I have a quick question for you. You mentioned those 20 new stalls, on the Dubuque Street. O'Brien/ Correct. Gunn/ Would they be one-hour? O'Brien/ Yes. Gunn/ So, one hour to me is the perfect time for students, to have a 50-minute class, come out on a 10-minute break and plug the meter and go back to class. Have you looked at maybe going down to 40 minutes? That would increase tickets, which, but then it would free up those spaces for commercial use. (several talking) O'Brien/ ...more than one store in the downtown, it's tough to do that in 30 minutes. That's why we like the hour timeframe. Wright/ We still chalk tires, right? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 14 O'Brien/ Um, as far as for meter feeding? (several commenting) No. That was one of the ordinances that we were told to...ease up on. Wright/ That was dumb! We need to be chalking tires! For turning over those spaces. (several commenting) O'Brien/ Overtime, it's a $5.00 violation for any violation that goes over (several talking) Basically the term of the limit is what dictates. So, for aone-hour meter, if you...we would chalk it when we get there, and when we come back, if it's...if an hour has gone by and your vehicle is still there, whether your meter is paid or not, you would get a violation. Now, there are some...let's say someone feeds that meter. They're from out of town; they're from, um, those are some of the concerns that we ran into, and why we were asked to...(several talking) Bailey/ Yeah. O'Brien/ And then once you get into...well, actually it's the second feeding that gets you. You start running into problems with enforcement, and that's exactly what we ran into, was there was some pressure to...to not enforce that. Hayek/ That's not part of your proposal here tonight. O'Brien/ Correct. Unless you tell me to. (several talking Correia/ Some things I like are...well, I like a lot of it, but in terms of the meter, I think...I think there is...in some cases there isn't an incentive to park in the ramp because it's the same price. O'Brien/ Right. Correia/ I mean, I think...I tend to get parking tickets, and so when I get too many I go in the ramp more often because I don't want to get parking tickets, and also I think increasing the price of a parking ticket also creates an incentive to go into the lot, because this $5.00, if I think, well, you know, it's $5.00, you know, but $7.00 - I don't want to be spending $7.00 on a parking ticket. I'm going to go into the ramp. Wright/ I think particularly the increased fine can be helpful in helping those spaces turn over. Correia/ Increased fines, and letting folks know...I don't know how we would do it in terms of that, it's cheaper to park in the ramp just on an hourly basis. (mumbled) O'Brien/ Sure, and that's something we can do through marketing, as well... Correia/ Yeah, I think that would be.. . O'Brien/ ...on the web site as well as...we have, we can utilize, uh, the Gazette. We have a contact there, as far as...Press-Citizen, in order to get word out. So... Bailey/ So...you want some guidance tonight, on these recommendations. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 15 O'Brien/ Correct, that's what we're...some of these things obviously can't be worked out so we can start tomorrow, but I think what this is, allows us to get a plan going forward on how we would approach... Bailey/ Can we start at the top of the page, the memo. (several commenting) Go ahead. Champion/ Well, I would like to mull this over a little bit, before I make any definite decisions. (several talking) O'Brien/ Yeah, are there things you want me to get more information on and... Bailey/ Yeah, let's start at the top of the memo and go through with questions or comments and see where we are and if we need to mull, we need to mull. So the 10 South Dubuque recommendation -questions, comments? You want to mull it. Champion/ Well, L..when I look at this, I'm not interested in eliminating all the loading and unloading if I'm going to lose parking places. (several talking) Then I could go for that one-way, which I think that's where most traffic comes in anyway. That's the direction it comes from, then we would actually gain one or whatever. So the only way I'd be willing to do that is because I would not lose parking places, especially on my side of the street. (several talking) Wrightl That's a very creative solution to the problem. O'Brien/ Well, and one other option is to convert one of those commercial loading zones on Iowa Avenue to diagonal parking stalls as well. Bailey/ You wouldn't lose parking on your side of the street. (several talking) O'Brien/ No, wouldn't be on your side, you wouldn't lose any parking. On the block, correct. (several talking) We actually, we talked to the businesses on that...on the other side, where the loading zones were, um, about that issue, um, if they'd have concerns with commercial vehicles parked there all day and um, as far as I remember every one of them said no, we feel it's safer to have them to the side of the street in those stalls, rather than in the middle, so... Correia/ And what about...oh, never mind. (mumbled) O'Brien/ But anyway, what...those, okay. Sorry. Correia/ I have a question. What about, would that be a commercial loading zone 24 hours a day? O'Brien/ iJh, we would use that...we would actually, I guess our proposal would be to treat it like we do all of them, which is, uh, unti15:00. Correia/ That would increase parking after 5:00, in the downtown, on Dubuque Street. O'Brien/ If we went with the one-way, yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 16 Correia/ That's what I mean. In this scenario... O'Brien/ Correct. Bailey/ But the one-way isn't something that we can do very quickly, that's.. . O'Brien/ No, we're still...we're still gathering data and Traffic Engineering may come back and say, `You are crazy!' That's not going to work, but...they may come back and say (both talking) it's plausible, so... Hayek/ And one thing I think you'd want to think about if you went with that 24/7 on the east side of Dubuque as, you know, after 5:00 you still have delivery needs. Bailey/ Right. There are. Hayek/ Especially the bars and restaurants, and... O'Brien/ Uh-huh, well, especially... Hayek/ ...so you might want to not have it turn over to free for all (both talking) O'Brien/ ...what we could do is target the times that they require it. You know, I think football weekends is when you really run into the extra deliveries in the evenings, to where we could say, we could post different signage at those times, that say no, you know, no parking at all, like...same as we do for parade routes, same as we do for, you know, if we're only talking six weekends a year, that's easily addressable through temporary signage, rather than making it that way year round for a few events, I guess. Bailey/ So, for this recommendation, at this time, are we interested in moving ahead? You are not? Cormie? On South Dubuque. Champion/ Well, I...I'd like to see what the traffic engineers say about the one-way. I'm not going to support getting rid of the parking in the middle of the road, unless we (mumbled) because I'm not going to lose parking places on that street. Bailey/ Where are others on this? Wright/ I would like to see that linked with the one-way, as well. I think that makes more sense. O'Brien/ Just...just to make sure. The reason we proposed that loading zone in the first place is we need a place for the vehicles to go if we remove them out of the center lane. That's...that's the key factor when you're thinking of...and I, you know, giving up nine metered stalls...while it's only nine, isn't something I'm, you know, I'm not usually in the business of giving up metered stalls, but I think for the general good of what we're trying to do with this proposal, it's to remove them from the places we don't want commercial vehicles, which is in the middle of the street, congesting traffic. So, I... Bailey/ This is one of our worst streets. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 17 O'Brien/ Right. I don't want people to get too focused on the one-way. That's something with, that's down the road a little bit, but focusing on how do we address the problem, which is the commercial traffic. Not...and I know it affects parking on those, that block, but we can make changes in other places, but I think understanding that we need to address that area. Otherwise we're going to end up right back where we started, which was... Bailey/ And, partnered or paired with, um, some meter occupancy adjustments, perhaps you would see, I mean, perhaps this could be accommodated. I... O'Brien/ That's why we went at the total grasp of kind of a full plan, instead of one just temporary fix. Correia/ How do we (several talking) Champion/ No, go ahead, Amy. I'm just thinking...(both talking, laughter) do it all at once. I mean, that's what you're saying, so...um, go ahead. But I'm saying if you're going to do it, do it all. I mean, don't just do the parking on one side of the street and not the one- way, or...if you're going to do it, do it! Correia/ How long will it take to hear back from the... O'Brien/ I actually spoke to John today and what he told me is we're, they're still gathering data, which, you know, I assume that they're going to want to do it for weeks, to see full, I mean, we're not talking about, you know, a minor change. We're talking about a point where people are...Dubuque Street being the main access in and out of town. Correia/ You do, I mean, anybody who's...any time you're going down Dubuque Street that way, it's not because it's the most direct route to get anywhere. It's because you're looking for.. . O'Brien/ For parking spaces, correct, and...and we.... Correia/ Because if you're coming in you could keep going straight on Clinton Street or you're going to go down to Linn Street. I mean, really the only reason you really go, need to go that way, is to look for a place to park. If you're going anywhere else, not downtown, you're going... Bailey/ Well... O'Brien/ It affects traffic patterns on major... Correia/ I know! O'Brien/ On your Clinton Street, Gilbert Street, if that's where those people then are diverted to, you know, it goes to the major inlets and outlets, and causes some traffic concerns there, and I think, he just wants a grasp of the full scope of what's going on before he shoots off at the hip with that. Correia/ Is there a way...is there a way that we could do some things with the loading zone keeping two-way traffic, with (mumbled) taking out of the middle, with loading zones on This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 18 that east side of Dubuque Street at...that says commercial vehicles need to load between 6:00 A.M. and noon. We cut off at noon, and then have metered spaces from noon forward. Bailey/ Do you look at that? O'Brien/ Yeah, we talked about delivery hours, and I think a lot of the feedback we got was that. most of the businesses don't open until 10:00 or 11:00, um, in that area that we...we interviewed, and so our concern was that by then eliminating, you know, for your bars it was fine. They had somebody there to take deliveries. But at 2:00 in the afternoon if somebody has deliveries coming in, where do we put those vehicles? Um, so yeah, delivery hours is what we proposed initially, um... Correia/ Well, and that's what I'm wondering if we...those Iowa Ave spaces that are commercial that right now we're seeing a lot ofnon-commercial. O'Brien/ Uh-huh. Correia/ That we step up that enforcement, increase that fine, um, to then... O'Brien/ I think the size limitations is what, and that was one of the concerns we had, um, and once you give them the ticket, it's not atow-away zone, so the vehicle is still there. Um...and...and I, yeah, delivery hours are something we looked at, and felt from feedback that we got, and from I guess a confusion standpoint to people that are coming to downtown. Okay, you can park here at 10:00. Okay, it's...it's 9:55. Am I going to be okay? Is it, um, that is something we can certainly pursue, but then you're talking...you'dhaue to have really...signs that really stood out in that area, and then you're talking signage issues and, um, we thought just going commercial zone all day was maybe the route to go, so then you're not limiting. You're allowing people to come in, do commercial business, uh, you're commercial haulers that are coming in, uh, Flex Sales and Dale Lee both said, more or less, they can adjust, um, if that was the route we wanted to go to. Bailey/ Where are others on this particular item? Couple want to wait for the one-way. Ross? Matt? Amy, I'm not sure where you are on this. Correia/ I guess I feel like the...I don't, um, so I'm just wondering if even there's a way to take parking nine spaces off Iowa Avenue. I just think the immediate reaction to people coming downtown and there's all these spots gone from Dubuque Street, which is, you know, if people are going down that street. They want to go...it's going to be, I think we're going to be getting... O'Brien/ It's the highest percentage of our meter feeders, as well, is that 10 block of South Dubuque Street. Hayek/ (several talking) Even if they were just replaced by more parallel spots? Champion/ ...the Dead Wood pizza place. O'Brien/ Sports Column. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 19 Bailey/ Connie... Hayek/ But if you look at both sides of the street, you're ending up with more spots for cars. O'Brien/ If you go one-way. We're talking...(several talking) Hayek/ Okay, I didn't... O'Brien/ We're talking if we don't go one-way. Correia/ ...that's the way to go. I think that's the way to go. Bailey/ But we're just talking about the 10 South Dubuque right now. You put a shiny object in front of us, Chris, the one-way, and.. . O'Brien/ No, no, and I understand (laughter) Bailey/ ...distracted! (laughter) You're so distracted by this! (laughter) O'Brien/ I'm betting you weren't expecting one-way to come up in the conversation. Correia/ We weren't! That's so exciting! Bailey/ No! So, just, okay. Let's just start with this first page, the 10 South Dubuque Street. Wright/ Yeah, we're not exactly focused here. Bailey/ Shiny object (several talking) O'Brien/ Well, and I was saying earlier, we could actually look at those spots on Iowa Avenue, converting one of them to diagonal parking spaces, as it is on the rest of Iowa Avenue, which would make up for probably at least half of the stalls that...that we would lose on that block of...10 South Dubuque. Correia/ And you know, knowing that, I mean, I do think there is an emotional reaction. You...I wouldn't know that all those spots (mumbled) meter feeding. Those spots are being taken up by business owners, or people that work there, that can go in the lot, then.. . Bailey/ Yeah, I'd like to try...I'd like to try this. Dubuque Street is the most congested, parking in the middle. It's an entrance to downtown. I'm...I am sympathetic to concern about losing spots for your business, or Prairie Lights, which would mean, you know, all those businesses along there, but if there are meter feeders...'course maybe they'll take the... O'Brien/ Well, and I think if we treat this as a trial for even a year, and every three months we come back and say, `Here's where we're at.' Bailey/ Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 20 O'Brien/ And do you can always say in six months, or three months, or nine months or 12, hey, you know what -this isn't what we had hoped for when we made that change, and tell us to go back to metered stalls and... Champion/ Can we talk about the one-way? O'Brien/ That's still going to...that's still being pursued. Bailey/ We're going to look at that. That...we'll have data probably in two months. Lombardo/ Chris, isn't it fair though...I, when we, it's been awhile - I'm trying to recall our conversation, we can go to this interim step and...and make these changes, and then just convert the stalls to diagonal.. . O'Brien/ Our plan is to actually go with the loading zone, regardless of what... Lombardo/ Right. So the thought is, I mean, it's fewer spots on Dubuque, but it should function relatively the same, if we make these other changes, and encourage, um, meter turnover. Bailey/ Right. Yeah, I...I...that seems, yeah, that seems like an important pairing, as well as...if like you said if there are meter feeders on this street, let's try it for six months and see, and we'll have up-close and personal information. (laughter and several commenting) What do you think, Ross? What...weigh in here. Wilburn/ I think it's a well thought out comprehensive plan, uh, and I think that based on interviews, based on direct observation, I think that, uh...regardless of a comprehensive plan or a modified plan or components of this are tried, uh, the success of it is going to be based on time with changing behavior, consistency from enforcement, and some physical barriers, and the consistency from enforcement will be based on consistency, uh, of Council. Um, whether we as a group or a future Council decide to stick to it or not. When, um, the Pedestrian Mall went in, there were complaints afterwards, but you know, physically changing that would be difficult. When a big hotel got plopped right in the middle of Dubuque Street, uh, I still hear people complain... somebody yelled at me about urban renewal about a month ago (laughter) so, um, you know, I...just for matter of perspective, I think if...I'm...I'm willing to go with the entire concept because it's...it's, uh, been proposed in response to, uh, several of the downtown folks and observation again, now there will be the question will be, what will Council stick to when the rest of the public comes forward, but uh, but I think, you know, given this, uh, it's something that could be done, could be observed, uh, if we allow it to be observed, um, and behavior will change, you know, as people get accustomed, or not, but even if they don't get accustomed, uh, the example of the person yelling about urban renewal the other day j ust shows you that there's...you're not going to satisfy everyone, but behavior will eventually change. Hayek/ Yeah...go ahead, Amy. Correia/ So, we could do the, in the current scenario two-way street, take off, do the east side commercial loading all the time, and then add five angle spots on that Iowa/Dulceia block? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 21 O'Brien/ Yeah, we would have to measure that out and determine how many we could... Correia/ So that in the interim, if we...before we potentially go one-way where we make up for all those lost spots, we might only lose five spots. O'Brien/ Right, and...and I think what our intention was with those, um, once again you'd be adding a large commercial area, but once again we'd be taking away a commercial, and if, um, and, I guess our plan was either to convert that...to keep it a commercial loading zone, or change it to a 15-minute passenger loading zone for people to do quick business. Wright/ (several people commenting) I think a 15-minute zone would be.. . Bailey/ We love the 15-minute zones! O'Brien/ Yeah, we got a lot of positive feedback from business (several talking) on those. Wilburn/ If I could add one other piece to... Bailey/ Oh, sure. Wilburn/ Um, again, several of these things are designed that change in practice and behavior, and um, while there may be some initial shock to the physical look of things, whether it's a one-way or there's commercial here now, if the net effect is by doing all of these that you've got fewer, uh, meter feeders that you've got, you know wide open berth with... Bailey/ Safer. Wilburn/ You know, so if...if the net effect is...of modifying all those behaviors is it takes less time to find a place, and you convince some of those folks to start parking into...into ramps, which they probably should anyway, then that will decrease I think the amount of anxiety about the physical changes, so... Lombardo/ Chris, earlier this summer we talked about extending the hours for the meters till 6:00 too. Have you... O'Brien/ Yeah, there're a couple things that came up in our....that didn't...weren't specific to congestion downtown, and, one's scooter parking is one that we're looking at major... Bailey/ I hear a lot about that. O'Brien/ ...major changes to, and the, actually John Yapp and the traffic engineering folks did a good job of putting data together. Longer enforcement hours, um, there are some...some issues with that as far as employee safety once you get into dark, evening hours and how we would staff that, but those are things that we're certainly looking into as well, but we didn't think they hinged on this proposal, um, but are things we're going, I guess, bring at a later date, but yeah. Bailey/ Matt, did you have... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 22 Hayek/ Yeah, no, I...I support proceeding with this and we're going to get more information, um, from John Yapp's group and elsewhere, um, it's comprehensive, it's thoughtful. Ross, you're right, that it...probably need to let the various components play out, because they're all part of a grander approach, um, and it's responsive to our downtown market study. Let's not forget...that was something raised in that. So, I'd like to...and you have to experiment. I mean, you have to try these things. So... O'Brien/ Well, and I think most of these things we have to come to you for approval - signage, changes, removing of meters, uh, rates, so you're going to see me again on a lot of these anyway, so... Bailey/ So...it sounds like we want to move ahead with this first page. Don't turn the page, and give it a try. Can you live with that, Connie? Champion/ I guess I'll have to. (laughter) Bailey/ How, um, when...when will we expect to see some of these changes? I mean, yeah, you'll have to come back to us for a lot of these details, but when will this move, start going.. . O'Brien/ Well, a lot, the financial, that's going to be a budget issue, um, as far as addressing our... our rates, um, which.. . Bailey/ We know when we'll get that. O'Brien/ Right, and the loading zone, we could really, you know, we'd have to get signage approval. We'd have...there's, so you could go in a matter of weeks with that; however, do you want to, or do you want to wait until the spring semester ends and start it in the summer when we... Correia/ The loading zones? O'Brien/ Uh-huh. Bailey/ iJh-huh. Correia/ What if we started it over winter break? Bailey/ Like it to start at the beginning of the calendar year. Wright/ Yeah, January 1 would make a nice clean break. Bailey/ Yep, I mean, what do others think? Lombardo/ Would it be helpful if...if Chris were to prepare a schedule of, and come back to you so you can see it comprehensively? Bailey/ What do others think about this timeliness, I mean... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 23 Hayek/ We're relying on their expertise for the overall look of this, and I think makes some sense to do that for the...for how this is laid out or how this is carried out. I'm certainly open.. . Bailey/ I'm a sooner rather later. Would be my preference. If that's feasible. Wilburn/ My initial gut reaction was I liked the concept about the spring time, uh, however, I appreciate wanting to do it sooner, but my recommendation would be to wait until after the holiday, December holiday shopping season so... Bailey/ Yeah, I agree with that. Wilburn/ ...argument doesn't come back that we... Bailey/ Are messing with... Wilburn/ ...sales and all of that by changing that. Wright/ First of the year, early January would be, I think would be a fine time. Bailey/ Whatever, I mean, come back to us with what's feasible and just let us know. I mean, is there any reason to wait, from anybody's perspective, if...if we're just looking at this first page? Hayek/ I don't know, I mean, L ..that's what we need... Bailey/ Well, it doesn't sound like... O'Brien/ Yeah, and I'll put a schedule together. What can be done first, and what things will be, obviously the one-way's down the road a lot, but...and what happens in between. Bailey/ Shhhhh, don't mention that. You're going to distract us again! Champion/ Just takes a sign! (laughter) Bailey/ Oh, yeah! Some paint. Any other questions for Chris? Regarding this... Champion/ Thank you, Chris. O'Brien/ You're welcome. Wright/ Really nice solutions. Bailey/ Thoughtful. Lombardo/ The other thing I want to add is...is in terms of the ordinance enforcement, if there are changes that you would contemplate, there are otherwise my inclination is that we have an obligation to enforce the ordinance even-handedly, not ease...so, I... Bailey/ Talking about meter feeding? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 24 Lombardo/ I have concerns about chalking...the chalking and the backing off on enforcement. Um, if we have an ordinance, we should be enforcing it evenly, and so I...if that's something you want to work on, or uh... Correia/ We probably need to revisit some of these ordinances that we're not.. . Bailey/ Yes? O'Brien/ We actually, with Eric Goers I've been, we have about ten that we've already addressed, as far as cleaning up some of the ordinances, um, we can certainly add that one to the list and see what it looks like, but Eric's been really helpful at helping me get those together, and you'll see some more of those in coming weeks. Bailey/ Okay. Thank you. O'Brien/ Thank you. Hayek/ Good work! Bailey/ Thanks. Wright/ Have all day parking! (several talking) You know the most successful downtowns have the most extensive parking. Bailey/ Okay, animal ordinance. Stop talking about (mumbled) This is in IP2, current Info Packet. This is, um, in response to a letter about invisible fences and Misha is here, also has a memo. So... Animal Ordinance -Invisible Fence (Ref. IP2) Goodman/ (several talking) No, I wish I did, but you know... Bailey/ Pictures of dogs? Goodman/ If it was of an invisible fence you wouldn't see anything! (laughter and several talking) Still wouldn't see anything! Bailey/ Your memo is pretty clear. What would you...I mean, are there items you'd like to add or you just want to take questions? How would you like to... Goodman/ No, I really don't have anything to add. I think I was, uh, I think I told you everything in the memo. Bailey/ Okay. Goodman/ That I could think of at the time. Correia/ So... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 25 Bailey/ I'm...I concur with Misha's memo. I'll just start...I'll just put it out there because I... Wright/ I'm not interested in a change. Bailey/ I'm not interested in a change. Correia/ Right. So basically, it's not something we go around looking for. Somebody...is there a dog in a back yard that there's no fence, and is the dog coming out of the back yard. Goodman/ No. We do a lot of advising, and as you folks all know, we don't do any, a lot of heavy-handed enforcement anyway. We do a lot of educating, and we try and assist people, and that's what happened on this particular day. I did get a call from the citizen the other day and we did discuss it a little bit and she had a number of questions and understood, uh, our point and I...and I did let her know that, you know, her dog is...is a good dog. It happens to stay there and do what it's supposed to do, but of course unfortunately that's not always the case. Correia/ Well, and that's the thing is where I walk in my neighborhood, I think there's an invisible fence because there's a dog that stays in the front yard and doesn't leave, but there's no sign that tells me and so I never know...should I stay really far away from this front yard or.. . Champion/Oh, you won't get shocked! You have to have a collar on. Correia/ No, no, no, in terms of whether the dog's going to come out or not. Champion/ Oh. Wright/ In terms of the dog, yeah, you might want to stay a little bit away from it. Goodman/ Yeah, and it is a concern, and one of the things that we try and do with animals in the community is to make the community, uh, as safe as possible, but also allow those animals to live with us, and so you know, this is one of those ordinances that, um, you know, gives people, if you will, the satisfaction that they can walk down the sidewalk and not have a dog charge at them... Correia/Right. Goodman/ ...not knowing what it's going to do, because there's an invisible fence there, that again, you don't know is there. You have no clue. Um, you know, the ordinance actually came about because our own employees. were getting bit, going in and doing the work that they were...that they were asked to come out and do, in an invisible fence area, not knowing it was there, and the citizen didn't even express that it was there, but the dog was sitting right there behind the building and would come out, and so it was...that was the initiating factor was we were getting bites on meter readers, um, cable employees, things like that, um, you know, the other issue is that these...these fences, uh, particularly in the newer developments, they were, uh, marketed by the developers as an enhancement to the community, which it can be, you know, physical fences can be ugly and that type of thing, so it's nice to have them. Unfortunately when they were installed, their installed so close to the sidewalks, that, yeah, the dog runs up and charges you, you have no clue. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 26 And by the time you figure it out, you may be in the street in front of a car. So, you know, we really haven't had a lot of issues, um, the dogs that do get out, luckily we live in a community where a dog is loose, it gets reported so fast here, and we're out there picking it up, or half the time citizens pick them up. So, you know, it's not a problem in that sense, but I think it is a safety issue. Bailey/ And so...okay, so there seemed like there was general consensus of no change to this ordinance, is that what I...generally heard. So would you communicate with Ms. Brown regarding this, that's...this was brought about by a letter that we received. Goodman/I can do that, if, uh, maybe Kathy still has her information. Bailey/ Okay. Helling/ I did send her an email, and a copy of the memo, that Misha sent you, and also indicated to her that she could come in and observe this evening. Bailey/ Okay. Helling/ Uh, reminding her of when she can speak to Council, so she maybe in tomorrow night, I don't know. (several talking) Bailey/ Okay, great. Correia/ But the other thing I was wondering, so I mean, I know people can find the ordinance somewhere, but on the animal services web site, is there anything specific where you can just go to it and... Goodman/ Which is going to change big time. No, it's not on there right now. The ordinance is simply a definition in the Code. Correia/ Right, so what I'm wondering...I guess is if...this memo could be turned in to just a, you know, citizen info sheet about invisible fences. Thisbe posted so, you know, somebody's looking at invisible fences, it's right there, or if we get other calls about invisible fences, you know, we know there's aone-page info sheet about explaining... Goodman/ Would you like that to be on our web site or on the City web site? Correia/ Isn't that the same thing? Bailey/ No. Goodman/ There's a link. Correia/ Postable places, I guess. Wright/ It's the type of thing that's just, it's good to publicize from time to time, remember that, you know, invisible fences are not acceptable for animal containment. Bailey/ Violate our ordinance. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 27 Correia/ I mean, it could be in the A to Z search, invisible fences, and then could also be found if somebody's just going to the animal shelter's site. Goodman/ Yeah, we can do that. Bailey/ Okay. Um, any other questions for Misha? I'm sorry you had to wait so long for this very, it was a good memo! You can tell! No shiny objects, no distractives! Wright/ I will tell you, about ten years ago I had a dog come flying through an invisible fence and take a chunk out of my arm and the response I got.. . Goodman/ So it came through. Wright/ It came through it. Uh, and the response I got from you guys was terrific on that, and the next I knew there was a nice big real fence around the yard. Goodman/ Thank you. Thank you. Bailey/ Okay. Goodman/ Okay. Council Time Bailey/ Thanks, Misha! All right. We've already done Info Packet discussion. Council time, I just wanted to let you know that, um, I sent on behalf of Council, um, and we sent, basically we sent a letter of condolence to Sally and Roger Stutsman, as well as flowers. I just wanted to let you all know that. Any other Council...Council time items? Correia/ Um, yeah, I have a couple of things. One on, uh, at the last work session we talked about, um, flood recovery. I'm wondering, um, if we can have maybe on the next work session or something, um, a discussion on efforts, um, that our flood recovery (mumbled) or whatever they're...um, and if any....in terms of finding additional funding for homeowners who, you know, these federal and state funds, um, I know they talked about some Community Foundation funds that they'd applied for...we'd applied for, um, but I think there's some concern from homeowners that, you know, there's limited funds, more needs for funds to address their needs... Bailey/ So a memo describing what other funds that our recovery people are...aware of. Correia/ ...yeah, for, um, and... Dilkes/ Can I interrupt here for a minute? You've got a 7:30 meeting posted. You probably need to finish this one, and... Bailey/ Sure! Dilkes/ ...and get to it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008. December 1, 2008 City Council Work Session Page 28 Bailey/ Is flood recovery on our next work session? Okay. Because, did you have another item? Correia/ I just wondered if we could get an update then at the next meeting on the Economic Development flood recovery funds. Status on that. Upcoming Community Events/Council Invitations Bailey/ Okay. Anything else? All right. Um, I do have one upcoming event that I can't attend, and I told Marcia I would ask about and I just want to find the memo. It's on December 8`'', and it's regarding the Weatherby Shelter dedication, and it's during the day and I know I brought it...just let me find it. So, I just wonder if somebody might be available during the day to do that. Hayek/ That's a Monday? Bailey/ It's next Monday, um, 3:30, and say a few words at the Weatherby...it's apublic art event. I'll be presenting at a flood conference. Wright/ I might be able to pull that off. Bailey/ Okay. All right. I'll let Marcia know. All right, thank you, Mike. Wrighb I think if I just rearrange something a little bit I'll be good. Bailey/ Okay! All right. So...shall we move right into our Special Formal? Or do we need a break? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of December 1, 2008.