HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-05-04 TranscriptionMay 4, 2009
May 4, 2009
Council Present
Staff:
Others Present:
Agenda Items:
City Council Work Session Page 1
City Council Work Session 6:30 P.M.
Bailey, Champion, Correia, Hayek, O'Donnell, Wilburn, Wright
Helling, Dilkes, Hightshoe, Karr, Davidson, L. Lewis, Howard, O'Brien,
Yapp, Lang
Bailey/ All right, I just want to point out to you in the big pile of papers that you have we have
an additional agenda item -item 34.b. Um, it's a resolution. It also (noise on mic, unable
to hear) so there are documents in your pile for tomorrow night.
Wright/ (mumbled)
Bailey/ Yes. Okay, let's go to, um, Planning and Zoning item...
ITEM 3. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS
PRESENTED OR AMENDED.
f. Correspondence
8. Animal Care Task Force Members -New Animal Shelter Site
Correia/ Sorry, can I just (both talking) agenda items? There was a, um, correspondence about
the animal (mumbled).
Bailey/ Uh-huh.
Correia/ Um, are we scheduled to talk about, um, relocation...
Karr/ I'm sorry. I...we can't hear up here. I'm sorry.
Correia/ I'm sorry! There was correspondence in the packet about the animal shelter, and I'm
wondering, the FEMA funds going to be able to fund a relocation or rebuild of the animal
center. Are...
Davidson/ Yeah, we're waiting to get a definitive answer from FEMA. We've tentatively
identified greater than 50% damage, but we want to get that established first and
foremost. We were exploring a particular site after meeting with the Animal Control
folks. Looks like...you've got the correspondence there (several talking) so we're
certainly willing to go back out and...and look at some other sites. There's definitely
some other possibilities.
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Correia/ Right, so I guess that was my question: is, what is...I guess, is there a process, who's
involved in identifying that?
Davidson/ Yeah, we've had kind of asub-group of our CIP Committee, and certainly anyone
is...is welcome to be on it, but uh, Rick and I, and uh, Misha and I guess Ron's been part
of that group and...and we're basically just, when we identify a site that's maybe on
public park land or something like that, then of course we bring in Parks and Rec and...
Correia/ Sure.
Davidson/ It's just kind of been handled informally, but we really feel like the next key thing is to
make sure FEMA will pay (both talking) location. So...
Correia/ Okay.
Bailey/ Other agenda items?
ITEM 20. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN
AND THE CLERK TO ATTEST TO AN AGREEMENT TO LEND
ANISTON VILLAGE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP $282,000 TO PURCHASE
LAND TO CONSTRUCT AFFORDABLE RENTAL HOUSING.
Hayek/ Briefly, um, Item 20 is the, uh, the loan to the Housing Fellowship, um, via the GO
bonds. I just want to...I think I understand that this is simply the loan...ah...(several
talking). Were you going to talk about it, or do you want to hear my questions? My...as
I understand it, we made the commitment to this in connection with their application for
other funds. So this is just a loan that follows up on that (mumbled). That was my
question.
Hightshoe/ Yes (can't hear).
PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS.
d) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE PRELIMINARY OF
COUNTRY CLUB ESTATES PARTS 3-7, IOWA CITY, IOWA. (SUB09-00010)
Bailey/ Okay. Other agenda items? Okay. All right, let's move to Planning and Zoning items d.
Davidson/ As soon as we get the projector on.
Bailey/ Okay.
Davidson/ Has the plat, um, actually this probably won't take much discussion, since we won't be
talking about the third reading of the rezoning tonight. If you pass the third reading of
the rezoning, uh, tomorrow evening, then the preliminary plat is on for your
consideration, and it is the plat that you....it's not on. Okay. It's the plat that we've been
looking at in conjunction with the rezonings, with outlot D established, uh, which will not
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be rezoned, but will be rezoned in the future, and at that point, then the...the park land
issues and the multi-family issues can be addressed before rezoning of that parcel.
Otherwise, it's the plat that we've been reviewing.
Correia/ Just today we received this packet from Larry Jewel.
Dilkes/ We're not going to talk about that tonight.
Correia/ Okay.
Dilkes/ It's a rezoning, so we're going to (both talking)
Bailey/ It's in regard to Item C.
Correia/ Okay, so we'll talk about that tomorrow.
Davidson/ And if you were to vote down the third reading of the rezoning.. .
Bailey/ We have to...
Davidson/ ...would not consider the plat.
Correia/ Right.
Bailey/ Okay, any questions about the plat? Guess not. How about if we move to another, um,
work session agenda item? (laughter) That's okay! Just hoping it would be faster than it
seems to be. Um...anybody want Council time at this point?
Council Time:
Correia/ Sure!
Bailey/ Okay!
Correia/ Uh, a few weeks ago we received correspondence from the Consultation of Religious
Community, asking for municipalities to, um, assist with the homeless overflow for next
year, the last year, um, of the homeless overflow if everything proceeds as planned with
Shelter House building, and so um, there is a, uh, active consultation group that's
committed to providing coordination of volunteers, but they're looking for space, church
space is not going to work for this final year. They've, uh, entered into some
conversations with the County over potential County space, um, but there is a need to
make sure that all possibilities are being covered, which would, um, then include working
with the City to see if there maybe any potential City space, and so I'm wondering if
there's interest, um, among us to identify, um, staff or ask Dale to identify staff to work
with the Consultation committee on space for the homeless overflow.
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Champion/ I thought the County, they denied the request to use the third story of (both talking)
Correia/ To use the third story, yes.
Champion/ But they suggested there was other County space.
Correia/ Is a potential for other County space, but it all depends on if it meets fire code, building
codes, so rather than only going on one track and getting to the end, down the road if
there's sort of, um, multiple tracks being considered all at the same time.
Champion/ Absolutely, I'm sure.
Bailey/So is there interest in...
Wright/ If we can determine if there's space available, I think thafd be great!
Bailey/ So do we have some staff who can work with the.. .
Helling/ Yeah, well, I can work with staff and see if anybody has any ideas. Obviously we don't
have a lot of...space, uh, and there maybe some restrictions, just because of the heavy
use of our spaces during the day, because my understanding is, they do this for a week in
each location...
Correia/ But they're wanting to find a one location for November 15th through the end of March,
for next year, because it's not going to work to...to travel from church to church. Two of
the churches are off-line because of, well, one's being sold. The other is in facility rehab,
and so based on the wear and tear on equipment, moving it around, um, they're looking
for one location. They'll provide the volunteers, and the coordination of those volunteers,
through the Consultation, through um, VISTA, one or two VISTAs, I'm not sure...they're
working with, um, state on getting VISTAs for that, but they're wanting space.
Helling/ Yeah.
Correia/ So I guess I'm wondering if there's a point of contact that we can give them, because
they're actively, um, you know, the County's identified the point of contact, the facilities
manager, um, so I'm wondering who the point...should I, they, they should contact you?
Helling/ Refer them to me, yeah.
Correia/ Okay.
Bailey/ Okay. Thanks for following up on that.
Correia/ I have one other thing.
Bailey/ Okay.
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Correia/ Um, is there, I have...had a call from somebody today who's interested, a member of the
community who's interested or wants to buy from the City, um, single-ride youth bus
tickets, and was told that...that isn't possible. An individual can't buy...go in and ask for
bus tickets to purchase, because...is there a policy about that or...
O'Brien/ We've normally reserved those single tickets for agencies that come in and request them
so they can hand them out one at a time. Um, it's not something that we've put into our
fare structure to do, where we're just selling 65-cent rides, um, they can purchase two ride
passes as well as all-day passes on the bus, um, but we don't actually offer out of our, uh,
sales locations one-ride passes currently. We have our ten-ride pass that they can buy for
$6.50 but not individual ones.
Correia/ We don't do that?
O'Brien/ No. We've...we got away from the ten-ride strip tickets for the ten-ride pass, and only
have a very small amount of the single tickets that we distribute to agencies.
Bailey/ Anybody e1se...Council time?
Hayek/ Um, I, uh, briefly mentioned this to Dale before this meeting, uh, and I'll follow up with
him on it as well. Um, I'd like us to look at our sprinkler policy for downtown
businesses, um, with a view toward gauging whether and to what extent we can lessen the
burden on businesses that are forced to go through this process to comply with fire code
if they're opening or expanding an establishment, and it has a lot to do with the recent
experience of Restaurant 126 on...on Washington Street, which, uh, took over a space
above Zephyr and has undergone, on a...a very significant project to...to sprinkler in
connection with that expansion, and I think it's...it has cost them over $100,000 to do so,
and a good chunk of that was with respect to the City water main and expanding the
diameter of the pipe coming into the building, and it was disruptive to, uh, the street
for...for quite a while. It's over with; they did it, and I hope they succeed, but I've heard
about...ways in which...ways in which other communities have...done things so that the
disruption and construction can be done less frequently and benefit more businesses
potentially, and um, I even heard of an instance where for an entire city block they
actually did a water main through all of the buildings, like up above the ceilings and
below the second floor and they got consent from all the property owners and they
greatly reduced the expense of it, and yet provided the sprinklering that...that was needed
for safety purposes. Things like that, I would like us to take a peek at that, if there's
interest.
Bailey/ Are there three others who would like to add this to the pending list? (several talking)
Three others who would like to add...one...okay. So...
Helling/ Yeah, we'll...bring you an update on how we do it so everybody will understand what
the policy is.
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Hayek/ And maybe we can't do anything, but...but it seems to me the cost is so high that it
will...it serves as...it'll have a chilling effect I think on...on that kind of investment
downtown.
Bailey/ Okay. Other Council time?
Wilburn/ If you, uh, I guess I would ask if, uh, as part of that if Dale's going to prepare a memo,
if, um...if there was any related commentary, um, about that particular issue, when we
reviewed and made the...when we passed the...the requirements for that. Just as a
refresher for everyone's memory. (several commenting)
Helling/ ...a lot of material that (mumbled). No problem.
Schedule of Pending Discussion Items (IP3):
Bailey/ Okay. Anybody else, Council time? Okay. Schedule of pending discussion items - as
you see, this is IP3 in your Info Packet, and will be routinely provided, um, to all of us
(coughing, unable to hear) sort of track what's on, and we just added the sprinkler system
topic.
Wright/ This is very nice to have.
Bailey/ Yeah, I think...I think ifll be helpful to help...have us keep track of things, um...but if
there are other items...best way to just keep track of (mumbled).
Wright/ Um, actually one thing that I thought of that isn't on here, and should bring it up, um,
(mumbled) maybe. Uh, we had talked about looking at regulating commercial trash
pickup in residential neighborhoods. Doesn't occur before X...because of the noise
involved.
Bailey/ I recall that as well. So that, we'll just make sure that that gets added. And I also think
that that was snow removal as well as trash pickup, I think. Or at least we heard.. .
Wright/ That's right, we've heard two years in a row about the snow removal.
Helling/ I think we talked about that with the snow removal (mumbled)
Bailey/ Right, but I think somebody came recently, or we.. .
Wright/ There was somebody here last winter, back for a second time.
Bailey/ It's just that backup beeper, is the problem that they were noting.
Helling/ Also, um, an additional item that will be added to that probably, hopefully in June, is
energy efficiency block grants. (mumbled) and we do have (mumbled)
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Champion/ Could we make a resolution that would keep the birds from singing so early in the
morning at my house? (laughter)
Bailey/ Send 'em to my house! Just send 'em to my house! (several talking and laughing)
Champion/ So many of them! (laughter)
Bailey/ Well, and those flowers blooming all the time too! Gotta stop that! (laughter) Are you
guys good to go? Karen? Oh, okay. All right, let's go to Info Packet discussion.
Information Packet Discussion (4/23 and 4/30):
Bailey/ Any items from the packets from the 23rd and the 30th? And/or the 30th.
Wright/ On, uh, IP2.
Bailey/ which date?
Wright/ On, uh, the 29th.
Bailey/ Okay.
Wright/ Back to talking about the Dubuque Street.
Champion/ We're talking about that tonight.
Bailey/ Which is on here tonight.
Wright/ Gosh, you're right. I'm sorry.
Bailey/ Okay.
Wright/ But I still have a question for later.
Bailey/ Okay. We look forward to that. Any other Info Packet items? Really? Okay. Yeah,
upcoming community events, council invitations.
Upcoming Community Events/Council Invitations:
Bailey/ Anything coming up that we should be aware of? Okay. Do we need to discuss meeting
schedules? All right.
Champion/ Maybe we could draw a picture.
Correia/ Should we talk about the downtown parking.. .
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Bailey/ Do you need the computer for...you don't? So, yeah, let's...(unable to hear person
speaking) let's give them one...okay, let's jump to downtown parking. Chris?
(mumbled)
Downtown Parking/Loading Zones:
O'Brien/ In the packet for last week we included the latest evolution of...of suggestions that we
have for the 10 block of South Dubuque Street. Um, and this came about through, uh,
discussion that we've had during work sessions, during Council meetings, as well as a
large amount of feedback that we got from the public regarding this area. Um, and the
business owners downtown, um, and the calls seem to be for some more parking for, uh,
the public to use in that area. Um, and the suggestions that we came up with, and this
was, uh, came out of a meeting, joint meeting between staff of parking as well as
planning, uh, was to remove the commercial loading zone on the north half of the east
side of the 10 block of South Dubuque Street, uh, and replace it with a 15-minute loading
zone, um...understanding that during the peak times of delivery that zone could be used
for delivery of, um, of goods to businesses in that area, um, and then during the times
when there's peak retail business, uh, that those spaces would be open for loading, for
people to run in, do quick business and come out, um, utilizing those spaces for personal
use.
Correia/ Is that similar to the 15-minute loading zones on Washington Street?
O'Brien/ They're identical. Exact usage.
Correia/ Okay.
Champion/ Well, this is a big step forward, thank you!
O'Brien/ There was a...we got a lot of feedback, and...and uh, I know I've spoken to the
Downtown Association as well as, uh, several other business people that have called,
um...and, you know, I think the memo points out, once again, I think this is kind of a,
um, a living area. So it'll probably continue to grow, continue to change, and we're by no
means cemented into things. We, uh, just have some recommendations that we think
may work, and uh, we tried something that we may have reached a little far on, um, may
have come back to balance that out just a little bit.
Champion/ Did I read in here, something about the alleys, in your memo? That they were going
to be used for commercial vehicles only?
O'Brien/ (both talking) uh, that's...that's currently what the alleys are...we currently allow
loading and unloading in alleys.
Champion/ It might have been in an old memo I found.
O'Brien/ And we currently allow that, as of right now anyway.
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Hayek/ Where are we on the Washington Street double-parking?
O'Brien/ Um, that's one that we're going to see how this...what happens here. I...we want to
wait until we can once again do everything at once, rather than continue to stagger things.
I think putting everything in play at once, rather than one step at a time, um, July 1st is
kind of our goal for everything, um, we still need to get lines painted on...on Dubuque
Street, um...we still want to get the fines raised, uh, for commercial violations so that we
can keep, uh, traffic out of those areas, because right now what we're running into, and I
think that's been pointed out by a lot of people is that a lot of personal vehicles are
parking in those commercial zones, not allowing the commercial vehicles to get in there.
Um...so I think until that, we get that alleviated, it's tough to move forward on the...on
the Washington Street, uh, that's going to require an ordinance change, because currently
we allow that type of usage, as long as there's clear lane space for vehicles to pass. But
that's certainly something that we're looking at still.
Hayek/ Yeah. I mean, I guess I view it as somewhat of a supply and demand issue, and we
greatly increased the supply of...of commercial parking, but the demand really isn't there
because there's still in part parking illegally on...or, blocking traffic on Washington
Street, and so when those two things sync up, I think then we'll really know how much,
uh, commercial parking is utilized on Dubuque Street, under this new approach.
O'Brien/ Correct, and I think we have to get the personal vehicles out of those areas, and I'm
hoping that the $25 fine will serve as a deterrent for people to park there. Um, because
right now $10 isn't stopping them. We're issuing a lot of citations still, for that area.
Bailey/ And we have the capacity to enforce this 15-minute provisional on Dubuque Street, as
well as Washington?
O'Brien/ Yes.
Bailey/ That's a lot of (mumbled)
O'Brien/ The way we've altered our assignments for our enforcement allow for more frequent,
uh, monitoring of that area.
Champion/ Well, I mean, L ..I think this is all well and good, um, I mean, I think this is much
better than what we have right now, but I personally don't mind the double-parking on
Washington or Dubuque Street. I don't...I don't see a big backup of cars till the next
block or, I mean, I don't think it's a big deal. That's all.
Wright/ As somebody who goes down Washington Street every day, it's a big deal.
Bailey/ I hate that!
Champion/ Oh, I...I'm downtown every single day. I don't see cars backed up.
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Wright/ It's not so much that cars are backed up. You can't tell if somebody's double-parked or if
they're standing and waiting, or just what the scoop is, Connie.
Champion/ You need new glasses?
Wright/ Pardon me?
Champion/ (mumbled) (laughter)
Bailey/ Okay, any other discussion? This is on our Consent Calendar. Okay, go ahead.
Wright/ Um, we were going to have some indication from JCCOG, uh, about the one-way street
feasibility for that block of Dubuque Street, and then having the angled parking?
Yapp/ We have done a preliminary study, which we're routing to some of the other departments
within the City, and then that will come to you for, uh, action.
Wright/ Okay, so that's...
Bailey/ What's the timeline for that?
Yapp/ Within the next month.
Bailey/ Okay.
Yapp/ And again, I think as Chris indicated it's something that we would want to implement, in
conjunction with some of the other initiatives, including the fine structure. Uh, that's
been our goal. And then, if it is approved, and there are some pros and cons, to that...to
that....that we will need to advise you on, uh, but if it were implemented we would want
to do it before the semester starts in August.
O'Brien/ And Jeff did point out, as the Mayor pointed out, this is a Consent Calendar item and,
uh, so I guess we're looking for a consensus on if you want to continue with this, or
remove that from the Consent Calendar.
Bailey/ It's Item 3.f.1, so if we're in agreement with moving forward in this manner, so
that's...um, we'll just keep it on. If not, we'll pull that item from the Consent Calendar
tomorrow. So where are we with this?
Wright/ I'm fine with moving ahead with it. You'd indicated a couple weeks ago you want to just
keep playing this plan out and see how it worked.
O'Donnell/ I'm fine with it.
Bailey/ Okay.
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Hayek/ Yeah, I am too. I mean, it's hard because we're...we're being fickle on this issue and it's
hard...and you're forced to roll out a policy in...in piece-meal fashion and that has
impacts, right, because certain things we're not tackling yet, but certain of the early
measures, like what we've done on Dubuque Street, uh, envision everything being
tackled, and so want to make sure you're...you're free to...to experiment in the way
we've talked about.
O'Brien/ It probably worked out well rolling this out, it was...it was a big change and to see the
feedback that we've received, without having all of the other things in place, I think might
have actually been a benefit, um, because then you know what they're reacting to, rather
than just everything at once. You can, I think that rolling that one big piece out first
might have actually been a benefit.
Hayek/ Good.
Bailey/ Well, and I appreciate staff recognizing that downtown is dynamic and that we're going
to have to come back and look at things as things change, as businesses change down
there, so...it's good. Okay. Seems like we're set. Thank you.
O'Brien/ Thank you.
Bailey/ How are you? (unable to hear, away from mic) Okay, you're going to have to put on
your mic.
Karr/ Could you...
Bailey/ Okay. All right, let's talk about the alcohol regulations.
Karr/ We do have staff on their way, so...
Bailey/ Do you want to wait? We can move on to the budget, priorities, citizen survey; Karen,
it's entirely up to you. (unable to hear response) No, it's really up to you. Yeah, there's
somebody coming. Let's...because you didn't need PowerPoint for this, did you, Dale?
Helling/ No.
Bailey/ Okay.
Budget/Priorities/Citizen Survey:
Bailey/ All right. You asked us if we wanted to proceed with the survey.
Helling/ Right, and you said put it on hold, for you to discuss it at the meeting tonight.
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Bailey/ Okay. So...um, Mike and I were talked to representatives from SCIU and they did offer
an option for this, is that they have aphone/computer system enabling groups of people
to come in and do calls, or to do surveys, to do polling, to do all kinds of...to do robo-
calls, and of course they charge a fee. It's a cost, basically, but they offered the
opportunity to...should we come in with a survey, they would load it up in the
computers, prepare the...the list for us, and Council could actually conduct the survey
itself. Um, so people would be hearing from familiar people, rather than, um, hired...a
hired group. So they offered that as a possibility or as a way, and I think it would be less
expensive if...if cost is a consideration. It would also give us the opportunity to talk to
people directly, which I've been hearing from people, is their interest, but that was one
thing that I wanted to put on the table as an option, and then you have RFQs, right? Do
we have a sense of how much this would cost us?
Helling/ I think the last number I heard was for the RFQ that we would select was around
$18,000.
Bailey/ Okay. All right, thoughts on this?
Hayek/ When you say the, uh, this other polling option involves the Council interacting, is that
(both talking)
Bailey/ Well, we would make the calls.
Hayek/ We would...it's not like a recorded...
Bailey/ No, we would be doing it and typing in any information.
Hayek/ Yeah.
Wilburn/ A couple concerns that I have related to that, um, we're all...all of us are...do, and are
willing to hear directly from constituents...
Bailey/ iJh-huh.
Wilburn/ ...on some of the more sensitive items it's been my experience when Council's
involved directly with that type of questioning or survey or presenting, here's what we
heard from the public on some of the more sensitive, uh, issues, um, then uh, there
are...some members who maybe on the opposing side to something that a Council
Member might bring forward, um, so sometimes having that third party, uh, may help
reduce the impression that some folks may have that the Council is skewing the
information that we are hearing from the public. The second piece that I would have a
concern is, um, the amount of, um, time and the time frame that the Council would be
doing this, would we be able to dedicate enough time to get, to hear back from enough
people, given uh, what we've got on our agenda, and then um, when we get to discussions
about future search and things like that...
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Bailey/ Okay.
Wilburn/ ...for City Manager rehire. So those are the two concerns I would have.
Bailey/ Other thoughts?
Champion/ I agree with Ross. L ..I think the (mumbled) really important to a lot of us, including
me. And I agree that I think if we're going to do a survey, I think it should be done by a
third party, um, I'm not so sure a survey's going to be that helpful. I mean, I'm...I don't
know what we expect to hear.
O'Donnell/ I question the, uh, helpfulness of it also. I'm...I guess I'm not prepared to spend
$18,000 to do this.
Champion/ I mean, we know the priorities have got to be fire and public safety, fire and police,
and then I don't know, do you want people, what are they going to want us to get rid of?
They'll say get rid of the two people who are always working together, reading in the
park. I mean, that's the kind of thing that they come up with. So, I mean, I don't care, if
there's a consensus to do the survey, I'm not going to strongly object to it. I don't see any
real value in those things.
Correia/ Well, I mean, I think that, I mean, I think of two examples where, recent examples of
getting significant input, citizen input, on things that was valuable to the process, and one
would be the Parks and Rec Master Plan, and that there were a variety of techniques. It
wasn't just telephone calls or I don't think it was any telephone calls, but it was written
surveys and the focus groups, and we just heard from the bicycle master plan, um, about
that at our last work session, and I know they did focus groups, as well as online. I think
there were a significant number of people who went online and completed a survey. I
don't know whether they did telephone surveys in that instance, but I think that there's, I
mean, I think there's value in soliciting input, um...
Wilburn/ Just to be clear, I would want to see the input. I just question Council being the (both
talking)
Bailey/ Well, I indicated to Sarah that I would just bring that...put it on the table (several
talking). It was not an advocacy.
Wilburn/ I just wanted to make sure it was....clear, what I was saying. (several responding)
Correia/ But I would be fine (mumbled)
Wright/ One of the things that I...I think if we're going to do a survey, I...I just want to make
sure that it's well designed, and that we don't just get the usual suspects, you know, the
folks that we typically do hear from. It'd be nice to have, uh, some kind ofcross-section
of the community, and that's one reason why I do kind of like the idea of a telephone
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survey, whether it's done by a Councilor, whether it's done by a firm, um, because it's not
self-selected.
Champion/ Does that work in this day and age, when a lot of people don't have landlines?
Wright/ Yeah, I think it would work fairly well.
Bailey/ Well, I think the fundamental question here, I think that what we put on the brakes about
is the $18,000, and I think that that's the question really, at the root, is are we willing to
spend $18,000 to do this at this time?
Hayek/ I am not interested in the...in the option in which we as councilors are making phone
calls. I share Ross' concern. I just, I don't want to put the umpteen hours it will take to
do that. I just don't want to do that, and...and I've got concerns, and with respect to
paying for a poll, I...I was supportive of that when we were, uh, going at this
prioritization process, you know, a different way earlier this year, um, it was in
connection with that process that we initially discussed a poll. This...this price tag is
higher than we had discussed, um, and I still come back to my basic philosophy about
what it means to serve on the City Council, and... and we are all elected by the
community, and this is a representative democracy and maybe, uh, are plugged into the
community, we live in and work here, and...and through that we should be, uh,
developing a sense of what the community's priorities are, and we bring that to the table
every time we meet, and we do that in connection with the budget every year, um, which
is far greater than the cuts we're going to have to make, unfortunately. Um, so I'm a little
less enthusiastic about, uh, spending cash, even on awell-prepared, well-executed poll
right now, I got to say.
Bailey/ Okay, so where are we with this? Mike, who's not interested; Matt, who's not
interested...
Wright/ I'm not entirely interested in spending $18,000 or more.
Bailey/ Right, I think that's my concern. I also wonder, too, I mean, to sort of dovetail on what
Connie said, um, perhaps...perhaps the time to get a lot of input will be after we
formulate some recommendations and some direction, and get a lot of input regarding
that. I'm not necessarily suggesting a survey, once again...in the past councils when we
did rezoning...we did the zoning ordinances, we took some time to do some public
hearing or some opportunity for people to speak and respond, and I know that that doesn't
cover everybody. We sometimes just get sort of the usual people we hear from, but
perhaps we could put something up on the web site, as well, with that plan out there and
get response in that way, playing into what Matt is saying, is we're plugged into the
community. Then we have something actual...a package to kind of pitch, and say, what
do you think, how is this going to work for you, what do...where do you see the impacts,
what are your concerns, what do you like, and that's where I would, um, rather spend
some focused time talking to the community -once we have something that is more
definite.
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Champion/ And then people do react.
Bailey/ Yeah, to...to gauge response and reaction, and...and get them to look at it from a
different perspective, because we'll see it from one and...and they'll turn it over and...and
so maybe take some time, um, take some extra time in a...or add it on a public input to a
work session for half an hour, 45 minutes, an hour -even right after work, to encourage
people to come on down and talk, speak to the package. The direction we're thinking of
going. That would be.. .
Wright/ ...after we've got something pulled together (both talking) response from the
community. Sure.
Bailey/ So, what I'm hearing is that we don't...seems to be consensus of not moving ahead with
an $18,OOO...or any costly survey.
Champion/ Right.
Bailey/ Doesn't seem like there's a dollar amount that would satisfy...at this point. Um, and then
let's try to figure out a process that would get that kind of input that we'd like to have, um,
once we get a recommendation (mumbled). Is that, is that the information you needed,
Dale?
Helling/ Process as we envision it will...will be one where you'll really be doing two things
simultaneously, but um, the first thing will be to look at reductions in the FY10 budget,
uh, that begins July 1st, and we'll have to be looking at immediate (mumbled). The
longer term is FY11 and beyond, and that's when we'll have to find bigger cuts, or
revenue to plug the holes or whatever, uh, from FY11 going out through our five-year
projections. So, I would hope that at least the end of the month we could zero in and
finalize the FY10. We need to do that, because the fiscal year starts a month later, um, in
the discussion of FY11 and beyond, I think that, uh, we'll have more time to do that,
because that will really dovetail with how we, what we put in the budget submission this
fall for you to, uh, look at over the winter, so...
Champion/ And how much do we have to cut? Can you remind me -was it a million?
Helling/ Um, the...the numbers, and I'm not sure, around a quarter of a million for FY10.
Champion/ Okay.
Helling/ And then...more like a million dollars, uh, total, another $750,000 roughly for FY11
and beyond.
Champion/ Okay.
Hayek/ And those numbers do not factor in the fire station.
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Helling/ Right.
Bailey/ Okay, so regarding the survey, did you get what you needed, Dale?
Helling/ Yes.
Bailey/ Any other comments about the budget, priority setting sessions or direction? Couple of
things that I, um, I've just been noticing what other organizations, I'm sure we're all
reading with interest what other organizations are doing, and so I don't know the
feasibility of these, but I see other organizations offering buyouts to their long-time staff.
I don't know what that does, what that doesn't do, impact feasibility, and also in talking to
somebody from the School District and they of course are a heavy user of electricity with
computers, and somebody indicated that turning off their computers at night makes a
huge difference in their energy cost. I don't know if that's accurate, but it's, um, but that
is something that...I know that we're pretty sustainable in green and...but if there are
savings to be had, and the number that was mentioned to me was quite large for the
District, although they have many more buildings (several talking) so...I know that those
might, are small things, but I hope that we all also look at those kinds of things, as well.
Helling/ As you know we talked about that, and that was a surprise to me. I just never
anticipated the computer would eat up that much energy, just sitting idle, so there maybe
some other things that...
Bailey/ Well look at the energy this one is eating up right now (laughter and several talking).
Yes!
Champion/ It's quite a large amount of money over a year, I...don't quote me this, but I think
somebody told me it's at least $10 a month per computer that's (mumbled) leave on.
Wright/ I would believe that.
Bailey/ So, and that gets us to some green goals that we have too that people are looking for
(several talking) so it's potentially could be a win-win. So.. .
Wilburn/ You ask some IT people though they...the reason they tell you to leave them on is
because the wear, tear.
Bailey/ I leave mine on at home, because it backs up at night, but yeah...(several talking)
Wright/ Depends on who you talk to. I mean, we're told at the University -shut 'em down.
Bailey/ Really? Okay. So, any other...thoughts? I'm sure we'll have thoughts as we move
forward. We're still on schedule for the end of May, for those meetings. Okay. All right.
Hayek/ Thank you, Dale.
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Wright/ Oh, and look at that!
Bailey/ Oh, nice timing, Karen!
Wright/ Thank you!
Bailey/ Very nice. Thank you. Oh (laughter) It will.
Wright/ We'll try not to look at it funny.
Bailey/ So, let's move to, um, zoning regulations, bars, and liquor stores. Karen?
Zoning Regulations Bars/Liquor Stores (Agenda Sbl:
Howard/ First of all I'd like to say the Planning and Zoning Commission took quite a bit of time
with this, and considered this quite carefully, um, with the goal in mind that you gave
them to, uh, help reduce and prevent concentration of bars and liquor stores in the
community, particularly in the downtown area. Uh, you asked staff and the Planning and
Zoning Commission to draft some zoning regulations that would require a minimum
separation between these kinds of uses. So the Planning and Zoning Commission looked
at several things -what does the Comprehensive Plan say about the downtown area?
What is it intended to be? Also, what....what the downtown area, Central Business Zone,
intended to be? Uh, wide range of retail service, office, and residential uses, and also the
downtown market study, uh, had indicated that there was just, uh, not enough of a
diversity of uses. These alcohol related, uh, businesses tend to predominate in the
downtown area right now. So not only the health and safety issues coming with over-
concentration, um, of...of these types of issues, but also the land-use issues in the
downtown area, and the health of the downtown were all things that the Planning and
Zoning Commission considered, and as you can see, um, mapping out, um, the increase
in the number of liquor licenses issued. This is Class C for, um bars, uh, on premise sales
in the CB-10 zone, um, the number has increased over 50% in the last ten years. So the
Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended to establish a minimum 500-foot
separation between drinking establishments, and establish a minimum of 1,000 feet
separation between alcohol sales oriented uses, which is a long name for, um, businesses
such as liquor stores and convenience stores that have a predominantly...sell alcohol.
And, one difference that you may not be aware of is that the second provision, uh, for the
liquor stores is to only establish those regulations in, uh, the downtown zones -the CB-2,
CB-5, and CB-10 zones. So, first of all we had to come to grips with how to define, um,
what a drinking establishment is versus, uh, other types of uses that might have, uh,
might sell alcohol. Um, so we came up with this definition, is where the principle
activity is preparation, dispensing, and consumption of food and beverages, and is
licensed by the State - has a liquor license for on-site consumption, and is open on a
regular basis, anytime between the hours of midnight and 2:00 A.M. In this way we
avoided with the regulations for, uh, bars, avoided having to bring in their income
statements every year and show a percentage of sales. It avoided that whole thing, um, so
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it seemed to be, uh, focusing on the businesses that were open between midnight and
2:00. Those seemed to be really what we consider to be bars, um, and what it does then
by...by having this definition is that you exclude, in other words the regulations will not
affect businesses such as restaurants that have a liquor license, but are not open after
midnight -theaters, bowling alleys, and other similar recreational type of uses, where the
principle activity is not eating and drinking, and hotels or motels that have a different
type of liquor license, just, uh, the Class B liquor license is just for hotels and motels, um,
and so we would exclude those businesses from these regulations. And for those uses we
consider the alcohol sales merely a...an accessory use to the primary use, which is
something else. And then moving on to, um, the alcohol sales or any retail uses, uh, we
didn't find any other, uh, means of defining these, other than by looking at the percentage
of income that they receive from the sale of alcohol, and so that is the reason that, um,
staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission is recommending that we implement
these regulations, the separation (mumbled), only in the downtown zones, because we felt
that having all the Hy-Nees in town and Wal-Mart and everybody else that sells groceries
and happens to sell alcohol but for whom, uh, alcohol sales is fairly minor part of their
business, um, to have them bring in their income statements every year was a little, uh,
much of an overburden regulation, and so um, we're suggesting that this only be applied
in the downtown zones, and any business that has, that sells alcohol that receives less
than 20...25% of their gross yearly income, um, from that, from those alcohol sales, um,
they can get a waiver, a certificate, um, that this would not apply to them. With regard to
the, excuse me, existing businesses, um, they would be grandfathered in. They would be
considered legally non-conforming, if they didn't meet that separation requirement, um,
and they may continue for as long, um, as the business continues. They can sell the
business to somebody else and it can continue in that use, uh, however, it may not
continue if the liquor license lapses, is revoked or discontinued for a period of one year.
And that is similar to every other non-conforming use. Um, for any non-conforming use
in the community, if it lapses, uh, is discontinued for more than a year, that then it has to
be brought into compliance. Has to be converted to a conforming use. And that's the
same as the second bullet point there, if there are changes to the use, uh, say somebody
buys a business, changes it from a bar, decides they just want to have a restaurant so they
change the use into something else, or a clothing store or whatever, they can't convert
then back to the non-conforming use. Uh, just a few illustrations of how this separation
requirement, um, would be measured as...as it relates to the downtown area, this, uh,
these circles represent a 1,000 feet from existing, um, alcohol sales-oriented uses in...in
the Central Business Zones, and I don't know if it comes out very clearly, but the little
green spaces are existing, um, convenience stores or liquor stores in the downtown area,
um, places that sell alcohol for off-premise consumption. As you can see, um, this would
cover the blue areas are, this is the Northside Market Place. This is downtown proper.
This is Burlington Street, so south of Burlington. As you can see, that 1,000 feet would
basically cover this whole area, so there would not be....um, unless one, a place closed,
there would not be an opportunity for another, uh, liquor store to open in the downtown
area. This is with regard to the, uh, drinking establishments, um, with the 500-foot
separation. As you can see, there's two colors on the map here, um, this is just the CB-10
zone downtown proper, uh, the light...light orange color here, um, are what we would
consider, uh, classified as bars. They're open...places that are open after midnight. The
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orange, the dark orange, are restaurants. Those are places that do close before midnight,
so those would not be considered, uh, bars. But the circles you can see really cover, you
know, with 50 drinking establishments downtown there really is not any opportunity with
these regulations to establish another bar downtown. Um, and then finally one of the
things that the Planning and Zoning Commission and the staff looked at is, okay, we've
got these existing grandfathered uses downtown. There was a lot of questions that came
up at the meetings about, well, how do these regulations make any difference then, um,
for one thing, over time things can change and go away. Um, but in the meantime, the
downtown is expanding, and we've already rezoned some areas south of Burlington
Street, and so looking at that area south of Burlington Street where, um, we've had some
new buildings, um, being proposed to be built that will have ground-floor retail space,
um, some new buildings that are just going up. Here's, uh, at the corner of Court and
Linn, the new Telluride Building will have ground-floor retail, um, and...and what will
happen, I guess, the consideration of...of what do we want to have happen there, with
regard to these types of uses, um, just as some sort of little case study we looked at what
happened along South Gilbert Street. As you can see we've got three liquor stores and
uh, seven bars that have formed in that area, so...so indications are that that will continue
south of Burlington if we don't have some sort of zoning regulation in place. Any
questions?
Dilkes/ Can I just make one clarification before you start your questions? Can you put the graph
back up, on the liquor licenses?
Howard/ Which one? The...
Dilkes/ The graph about liquor...yeah, this one. I just want to clarify that these are all Class C
licenses, so this does, this lumps restaurants, what we think of as restaurants and bars
together. Um, so that's the increase in those types of licenses, for both restaurants and
bars, not just bars.
Hayek/ Do we have, can we parse that data out...to distinguish between bars and restaurants?
Karr/ If you want to define bars and restaurants for me. (laughter)
Correia/ Well, I mean, would we just use the open between midnight and 2:00 A.M.?
O'Donnell/ No.
Karr/ We couldn't, no. (several talking)
Howard/ ...to some extent with this illustration here. We went through and looked at, uh, we did
make some calls to try to distinguish and ask for their open hours, their regular business
hours, so that's how we came up with this...this illustration here, um, of course it's a
snapshot in time, so um, I think the general trend, and um, I believe the University also
has some...some tracking data that supports that trend, so I think it was just, you know,
basically to give an illustration of the trend, that's happened in the last ten years.
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Champion/ It's, uh, I like the way you've defined, like it's...the bar is really 12 to 2:00 A.M., the
late hour type thing. If, how would this affect, let's say Giovanni's closed their restaurant
and there was going to be a wedding reception there, and they want to stay open past
midnight. Does that...
Howard/ And the way we've defined it, um.. .
Champion/ Normally.
Howard/ ...normal is...is to say on a regular basis, so it's what they advertise as their open hours,
you know, regularly open, even if it's...I think there's quite a few establishments, uh, that
close earlier on week nights, but then on the weekends they're always open, you know,
during the bar hours.
Hayek/ It's an inventive...that is an inventive approach. Um, it gets around a lot of the problems,
but are we confident that we're not going to sweep up some restaurants that we don't
intend to...to sweep up? I mean, I can't think of a restaurant that's open past midnight
that sells alcohol...
Champion/ But they're not, I mean, like the Mexican restaurant, Panchero's, is open ti112:00 or
3:00 A.M. So are some of the pizza places, but I don't think, I mean, I don't think
alcohol's a big part of their, they only sell beer and...
Wright/ This wouldn't preclude a restaurant from opening, to be 24-hours, even if I understand it
correctly, as long as they don't sell alcohol.
Howard/ Right, if they don't have a liquor license then...
Bailey/ But if they stay open 24 hours and have a liquor license they're going to be considered a
bar.
Howard/ Right.
Wright/ Right.
Bailey/ So at this point Panchero's is considered...do they...
Howard/ They would be considered then a bar, since they have a liquor license. That would be,
if there are a few of those businesses that, um, given the choice because probably they
stay open most likely to sell food...um, between those hours, and not as a bar, then I
guess they would need to decide whether to continue with that.
Dilkes/ Although they don't have to decide, I mean, they will have to decide for purposes of.. .
Howard/ Right, they'll be grandfathered...
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Dilkes/ ...filling out our forms, but they're not, they can stay there because they're going to be a
grandfathered use.
Howard/ (several talking) so any new establishment, yeah...
Karr/ Um, a few years ago you were approached by the Atlas who had the sidewalk cafe to
extend the hours of the sidewalk cafe, uh, past 11:00. So I think there maybe some times
that the Atlas would be open, um, on their outdoor service area, again, that would be their
decision on what...on what to do, but that is another example of one that would make
that decision.
O'Donnell/ This basically just affects new restaurants and bars.
Champion/ It wouldn't affect new restaurants.
O'Donnell/ Right?
Wilburn/ Yes it would.
O'Donnell/Because everything else is grandfathered in.
Hayek/ It could affect...if a new restaurant has a liquor license and wants to be open past
midnight.. .
Bailey/ Yeah, it would affect.
Hayek/ ...it can't happen within the confines of this geographic area.
Bailey/ Right. So, it will affect hours of new restaurants.
O'Donnell/ If a bar loses, I'm losing my voice here...if...if a bar loses its license for any reason
for a period of a year, then they cannot reopen as a bar, is that right? (several responding)
But can that bar be sold?
Howard/ Um, I think, typically what happens is if they have to get a number of suspensions
before it actually goes to revocation. The revocation which typically then lasts for over a
year, or a year, um, the suspensions a lot of times what will then happen is they'll sell it
before it gets to the point of where it's actually revoked.
O'Donnell/ But the res...revo...how do you say that?
Bailey/ Revocation.
O'Donnell/ Revocation, does...does not go with the bar, is that right?
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Howard/ Yes it does.
O'Donnell/ Goes with the building?
Howard/ Yeah, and that's State law. Another bar cannot open up there for another...for a year.
Champion/ That's why they sell it, before (several talking)
Bailey/ Any other...
Dilkes/ That's why we never get, well, we almost...we never get to the point of a revocation,
usually. Cause that's going to happen. But if there is a revocation, that premises, that
property, cannot be relicensed as a bar.
Wright/ When was the last time there would have been a...a revocation? Remember? (several
talking)
Champion/ No, that was Fitzpatrick, he sold it before.
Karr/ Not off the top of my head, no. We were close to on a couple of occasions, but they all
either decided not to renew or sold prior to the...(several talking) I don't recall the last
revocation. It's been a while.
Wright/ Given past data, that's not going to be an issue.
Dilkes/ There hasn't been one since I've been here, so 13 years or so (several talking)
Wright/ Not likely to be an issue.
Karr/ Well, you certainly would have plenty of notice in the process, of...it takes three
suspensions. It takes hearings. It takes, you know, notice, um, you would know far
enough ahead of time, typically, that doesn't happen.
Hayek/ Is there more we can do to...to discourage the restaurants that are not the source of the
problem we're talking about, um, I mean, I like that, you know, the midnight rule so to
speak is a bright line, easy to understand. I'm just worried about, uh, discouraging
restaurants that might want to be open past midnight and would also like a liquor license,
that are not the...typical definition of a bar that this policy seeks to address. That's my
concern, and I'm wondering what else we...we could potentially do, and you don't want
the exceptions to swallow the rule and all that stuff, but...
Bailey/ Do we have a lot of restaurants staying open until midnight?
Hayek/ I don't know.
Bailey/ I don't think we do.
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Wright/ Seems like most of the...the things (several talking) restaurant do close at midnight.
Giovanni's does.
Bailey/ Yeah.
Champion/ They, yeah, they close their kitchens probably at 10:00 or 11:00.
Bailey/ Yeah.
Champion/ But...but the fast-food places are the ones that would stay open. They don't need a
chef. They just need a microwave.
Bailey/ Sure.
Champion/ And, um, and most of them don't have a liquor license, although I know the Mexican
restaurant sells beer.
Wright/ Panchero's you mean, yeah (mumbled)
Bailey/ But once again, they'll be grandfathered in.
Hayek/ At that location.
Bailey/ Right. (several commenting) Yeah...
Howard/ I think at least then the idea is that there'll be full knowledge when somebody, you
know, wants to establish a restaurant, such as Panchero's, I mean, if their primary
business is to sell food, and they want to sell to the bar crowd, I think they will have then
full knowledge that...they can choose then not to have the liquor license, that their sales
from liquor or beer are so small that it's overwhelmed by their food sales.
Hayek/ What about allowing them to open anyway and just saying you can't sell alcohol after
midnight? Is that...
Dilkes/ Can't do that.
Hayek/ Can't do that?
Karr/ State license.
Hayek/ I see, yeah. All right, my other question is this, um, we're...this proposes to limit the,
um, the liquor store, um, prohibition...great word choice there, uh, to...to the downtown
Central Business District, but as to bars this would be community-wide, within the
perspective zones?
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Howard/ Yeah, we understood that your direction was to do this community-wide. So it can be
done, of course, any...either way, um, but I think we felt that because this was a way to
define the bars, that was a bright line as you called it, um, that it was easier to do
community-wide. It didn't involve having the businesses having to submit paperwork
and that sort of thing. So, uh, we felt that this was easier to...to apply city-wide, and I
think there was a feeling that this was more, um, concern about the concentration of these
uses, the liquor stores downtown. There was concern that those, the problem was really
more downtown than...than having the concentration somewhere else was less likely.
Hayek/ (both talking) Well, and that's...that's why I wonder, do we really care if another bar
opens up out near Sycamore Mall, near another establishment. Do we really care if
another bar opens up off of Mormon Trek in a strip mall near a bar, I mean, is that...do
we need to look at those areas as well. This does, and I...
Bailey/ I like that.
Wright/ Yeah, I think we (mumbled) keep an eye on those areas, because we've seen what
happens when you get a concentration in one particular area, and I think we want to avoid
that in the future.
Bailey/ Let's not make the same mistake about getting a concentration and then having to go in
and say this commercial area, um, with the liquor stores I saw some discussion about
getting, potentially getting a concentration outside of downtown, but it didn't seem to be a
concern. Can you talk a little bit more about that, because my inclination would be to
apply that, as well, outside of the downtown...to make all of this all commercial zones in
Iowa City.
Howard/ Um, I think the concern that was expressed at the Planning and Zoning Commission
was the areas that were immediately adjacent to the Central Business, the community
commercial zones that are just south on Gilbert Street, those areas that were fairly close
to downtown, um, what happens if, you know, we move that concentration, uh, you
know, if it...can a liquor store, in other words -there was aquestion - can a liquor store
open in a CC-2 zone, just directly south of the Central Business, and the answer would
then be "yes." I mean, there's ways that we could probably write it so it would be a
thousand feet from, even if it's a CC-2 zone, if it's within a thousand feet of another
establishment that's in a CB zone, I mean, there's ways we could probably write that, if
the concern was just in the areas close to downtown. And it wouldn't involve all the Hy-
Vees and the Wal-Marts and everybody else, I guess.
Bailey/ Yeah, I'm thinking of concentration of a lot of...I would say student and young people
living areas that are close to commercial areas, that might not be covered by this. And I
was trying to think of where those are, but...I mean, you move (both talking) south of
downtown.
Howard/ That was discussed at the Planning and Zoning Commission. Might be a way we could
craft something for that.
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Karr/ I think the other thing we've noticed in the past ten years too is when we talk about liquor
stores in one generation, versus the convenience stores now that do carry a full line of
liquor, it would meet that requirement, as well. So it isn't just your dedicated liquor store,
and then you go back to the percentage component that Karen had mentioned.
Champion/ And even Hy-Vee, for instance, someone...on that end of town. No, not First
Avenue. (several talking) Waterfront, I mean, that is a huge liquor store, and the one in
Coralville, well, wouldn't be affected anyway. (laughter and several talking) Um.. .
Dilkes/ I mean, the effect would essentially be making it city-wide, that every retail business that
sold any alcohol would have to prove to us what their percentage sales were, with
verified statement, and that's...that's an incredibly onerous...task, both administratively
for us, and for the businesses.
O'Donnell/ The only thing this is doing then is...is stopping new businesses from forming, is that
right?
Champion/ At this point.
Bailey/ Well, and downtown (several talking) stopping concentrations in other areas that don't
have a lot of bars right now, but as we move downtown and other commercial areas south
of Burlington Street, I think we want to be a little more planful. Right.
Wright/ It doesn't prevent somebody from opening a new business. It might...you might want to
key into your neighborhood a little more carefully, if this was in place.
Bailey/ It might prevent the second new business from being a bar, rather than a restaurant.
Hayek/ But I think it's important to...to take stock of why we're even talking about this. We're
talking about this because there are, whether it's perception or reality, um, issues with
overconsumption, underage consumption, violence associated with drinking, um,
and...and those coincide with the fact that downtown we have tens of thousands of
students living mostly in...in private, uh, apartments, and that's why you see the seven
new bars in the area on Gilbert that were highlighted with stars, and...and to take...to
take this...this, uh, policy out into areas of the community that...that don't have that
density of...of...of student population, and existing bars, worries me a little bit, uh,
as...as doing more than is necessary to address the problems that we're here to discuss.
Champion/ I think you're right.
O'Donnell/ Our problem is downtown...was downtown, or is downtown.
Bailey/ Well, okay, so you're saying concentration of students, but if you look at that Mormon
Trek area. I don't even know what it's called, um...I mean, there's a huge apartment
complex, or condo complex, adjacent. Many students live there, I mean, if...if you were
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a smart bar owner, you would simply begin to move your business to greater
concentrations, where there are people in apartments living, and it just seems to make
sense. I mean, one of the things this would have been...a much more beneficial zoning
code ten years ago. So let's not...I'm saying, let's be a little bit planful and proactive.
We're not saying no bars. We're just saying not a concentration. We know what
problems it brings, and if you have a captive audience of students anywhere, it can bring
problems.
Champion/ I don't think only students drink too much.
Bailey/ Right, that's true. That's a very good point. (several talking)
Wright/ I don't think we need to zero in necessarily on...on this being a student problem, uh, but
I was thinking about the same shopping district that you were, and I don't know what it's
called either, but...um...
Bailey/ Right. That westside place.
Wright/ By the Fareway and such, along Mormon Trek.
Bailey/ I don't know if those are condos or apartments behind it, I mean, there's a concentration
of residents there that.. .
Wright/ It's a high concentration of residents in a...in a relatively compact area that to me looks
like an area that would be ripe for, uh, over-expansion in the...in the alcohol sales again.
Champion/ I have to think about that. I mean, I...I think the problem with the Central Business
District, and I...all for moving this to south of Burlington as that develops too, the usage
ordinance to keep the concentration from just moving there. Um, what was I going to
say? I totally forgot! It must not have been very important!
Hayek/ And let me add another thing that...that underlies this...this policy and that is, um, the
diversity of the downtown business landscape. I mean, that's...that to me is compelling a
reason as any to support something like this, because we...we have a...a warped, uh,
business sector down here, and Connie, I mean, you recognize that as much as anybody,
but um...do we really care if a second Blackstone opens up out on the far east end of
town? That's open past midnight, and it's got a liquor license, so its clone could not open
under this policy.
Champion/ Well, I know what I was going to say now. I think also the problem with the
concentration of bars in our Central Business District and the possibility of it happening
south of Burlington is that they're on top of each other, and everybody leaves at the same
time, and you have this massive group of people who, some of them had way too much to
drink and, you know, even the Des Moines Register pointed out they're usually males
who get in fights, and males and alcohol don't mix very well. Sometimes. But, you
know what I'm saying, that...if we...never mind! (laughter)
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Wright/ I don't know why she was looking at you! (laughter)
Champion/ But I mean I think that's the concern with this concentration. If it was one bar and,
never mind. I'm just getting myself in deeper water, but you know what I'm trying to say!
(laughter)
Bailey/ Well, I'm comfortable with it in all commercial zones. I can see that some aren't, but
because I think diversity of...of businesses in any commercial zone is a
healthier...healthier commercial zone, and we know that. So why would we set up other
commercial zones to be addressing this problem for some future Council in ten years?
Why not just address the problem, make it community-wide, um, I have a little concern
about the, uh, liquor stores, but since Planning and Zoning thoroughly discussed this, I'm
comfortable with their recommendation, and let's just see what we have here. I think it
will make all of our commercial zones healthier.
Wilburn/ One of the...I support the proposal. One of the...historic...as of the last ten to twelve
years conversations that comes up from, uh, some other business owners, in particular
some other bar, uh, restaurateurs is, um, treating one segment different than the other, and
the phrase "level playing field" will come up and then that's part of the, uh, conversations,
concerns that gets put into the mix and...makes it more challenging for Councils
historically to take action and stick to it. That's my observation.
Hayek/ That's your, that's an argument in favor of acity-wide ban.
Bailey/ All commercial zones (mumbled)
Hayek/ Yeah, but...wouldn't that same logic apply to liquor stores?
Wilburn/ Uh, it could. It could. And...and I think, um, and so in which case what's the
argument against that, um, I would suggest that, um, the former would create a less, um,
logistical implementation, in terms of monitoring and that sort of thing, um, so.. .
Hayek/ And I...I appreciate (both talking) trying to tie what we're attempting to do to t he
problems that brought us here in the first place, and I just don't see those problems
existing in some of the areas where the solution would impact. Um, not yet.
Bailey/ So, regarding liquor stores, how far down does this take us? South...
Howard/ Well...since it's only applies in the CB zones.
Bailey/ Right. CB-10 and CB-5, right?
Howard/ The blue outline here are the zones that it would apply in. So even though the lines,
thousand feet lines go outside the blue lines, if you have acommunity-commercial zone,
in other words right outside the blue...
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Bailey/ Right.
Howard/ ...and there is some on South Burlington.
Bailey/ Right.
Howard/ Or, South Gilbert Street, not a lot...I think the Mansion is the only place that's nearby,
otherwise you have to go south of the railroad tracks, um...so...
O'Donnell/ Matt, your point out there on Blackstone's well taken, uh, you know, and that's a
great restaurant, um, I would hate to think that would be the only restaurant allowed in
that area. You can have a restaurant go in that serves wine, as long as they close at
midnight. Is that right?
Bailey/ Uh-huh.
Karr/ They can serve full liquor, Mike, it just has to close at midnight.
O'Donnell/ They close at midnight.
Karr/ Right.
O'Donnell/ Then I don't really see a problem there.
Hayek/ Um, in terms of the one-year lapse, what happens if, uh, your, let's say business changes
hands, takes, you know, two, three, four months for the transaction, uh, new owner comes
in, wants to remodel the structure, do something different, and you know approaches the
City, Planning staff and building permits and all that, and gets into a difficult situation
with respect to approval to do work, and...and maybe there's a code decision that gets
appealed or something like that, I mean, is there any mechanism to protect that business
if the delays are compounded by, you know, kind of going around and around with the
City and what they can do from a construction perspective? Is there anything in there
that alleviates that?
Howard/ As far as non-conformities go, we've always considered, you know, if there's ongoing
activity for a particular use, if it's changing hands we don't consider the use to be vacant
at that point. We consider it to be.. .
Hayek/ Well, I mean, what if there's...what if they stop, I mean, they...they want to completely
gut the bar and do something new with it, or the restaurant and do something new with it,
so they're not selling alcohol for a period of time because they're in a construction
project. Does that make sense?
Dilkes/ Well, they'd have to stop for a year. But if they, if it was vacant for a year.. .
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Bailey/ Construction took place for a year...
Dilkes/But if...if the situation that you were describing, as I understood it, was you know,
they...they're getting their plans ready and they get a piece of it done and then there's a
little code hang-up or something and then...this other's a month's delay and then they
start again. That would not be a problem.
Hayek/ Okay.
Dilkes/ But, if it's...but if they just, if somebody goes and buys a bar, and doesn't do anything
with it for a year. (several talking) their non-conforming status.
Champion/ What if they bought their liquor license though? I mean, once they had their liquor
license.
Karr/ They couldn't get their liquor license.
Champion/ Oh!
Dilkes/ Yeah, you have to have a place.
Champion/ Oh, I see!
Hayek/ I guess my thought is...
Karr/ And we never say "buy" a liquor license.
Champion/ Oh, I'm sorry! I'm from Chicago!
Karr/ Yeah, I know that! (laughter) My...Matt, maybe...maybe what you're...let's go back a
step. What happens I think maybe what Matt's saying is, if the building permit was not
issued. Let's say it sat idle for six months, then a new owner decided to buy it, and then
in buying it he drew up the plans and it was major construction and he was going through
an interpretation of the code, never had a building permit issued within that year. Is that
idle? So there's nothing...going on.
Dilkes/ I'm not going to answer those hypothetical questions. That's going to be...that's going to
be a very fact-based inquiry. Um, I think what Karen said is that we have been just
because of the law, you know, vested rights, etc., we have been more liberal than not in
making those decisions.
Wilburn/ I just want to clarify something, Matt, I mean, essentially what we're talking about is
freezing things where they're at, um, and given some of the concerns that you brought up,
in terms of concentration related to, in particular violence, but the other issues that you
brought up, you don't have a problem with that aspect of it. It's just...kind of the scope of
things is what your concern is.
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Hayek/ Correct.
Wilburn/ Okay. All right.
Champion/ Well, I think they've answered a lot of my questions, Planning and Zoning and staff,
and I'm going to talk to a few restaurant people, but I think you've done a great idea, kind
of weeding out the problems with this ordinance. Thank you.
Hayek/ Yeah, and this is a lot of work.
Bailey/ And you'll be here tomorrow night?
Howard/ Uh, either myself or Bob will be here.
Bailey/ Okay. Thank you. Any last questions before...no?
Wright/ Thanks, Karen.
Hayek/ Thanks, Karen.
Bailey/ Thanks.
Howard/ Oh, um, what kind of presentation from staff would you like tomorrow?
Bailey/ I think this was fine. I think...
Wright/ Those PowerPoints will be very useful.
Bailey/ I think it will be beneficial, because I anticipate we'll have a lot of audience and going
through everything to clarify, I think is good. Any other thoughts?
Champion/ I think it's good, because it does clarify a lot of things.
Bailey/ It pulls out the salient points. Okay. Um, do we need a break before we go to CDBG
stuff? Okay, let's do it.
Hayek/ Is that the last item?
Bailey/ Yes.
FY10 CDBG and HOME Funding Recommendations (Agenda 6):
Champion/ Eleanor? If we pull out the Shelter House contributions, uh, could I vote on the
allocation money? Okay. I guess I'll go home.
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Dilkes/ No.
Bailey/ Do you need to go home now?
Dilkes/ I think generally when we have addressed allocations, and I think we've been pretty
consistent about this, is if you have a conflict with one, then voting on others can
influence that allocation.
Bailey/ (several talking) This is the last thing. (several talking) That worked out well for you!
(laughter)
Hayek/ Eleanor, sorry to spring this on you, um, I think I talked to you a year ago about the fact,
I provide legal representation to, um, one of the recipients here. I never helped them with
anything associated with CDBG or HOME.
Dilkes/ No. We addressed that one, and that was okay because, um...because the money does
not...did...we, let me just remind myself what we did. We looked at it and determined
that, um, the money, the CDBG money would not be, um, used for legal fees.
Hayek/ Okay. Thanks.
Bailey/ Thank you.
Hayek/ (laughter) I'll stick around! (several talking)
Bailey/ Okay.
Long/ All right. Well, thank you. Tomorrow night on your agenda is, I think it's Item 6, you're
going to be discussing approval of the FY10 Annual Action Plan, which is basically our
budget for FY10 CDBG and HOME funds. I just wanted to go (noise on mic) through
the process and familiarize yourself with the projects that were recommended. I'd also
like to introduce Brian Richman who's the Chair of the Commission is here tonight, and
(mumbled) for being here (mumbled) ten-day-old at home (several commenting) still
awake, so I just wanted to recognize the Commission Members. We had nine very
dedicated volunteers, who spend as you know a lot of time making these decisions and
reading all the material. And I believe Holly Hart is here, as well. She's also a
Commission Member, in the back. So the Commission goes through and first off is a
couple days of site visits, where you visit the projects and then make...the applicants
come in and make a presentation, and then Commission reviews them, goes over the
rankings. They rank each project, look at the average allocations, and then the following
meeting they actually make a funding recommendation to you, which is what we're going
to talk about tonight. We had 25 applications received, and about $3.4 million in
requests, and $1.559 million, uh, to allocate. Now, that went up a little bit on Friday. We
learned that we received an increase of about $85,000. It's the first time in eight years
that we've received an increase in CDBG or HOME funds. We've had a steady decrease
and uh, so we had about 2.5% increase in CDBG and 11% increase in HOME, and we
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found that out Friday. Contacted the Commission Members and had a meeting today at
noon to reallocate the remaining fund. So we included that in this tonight. I'll point those
out as we get to them. Good news is that that $1.5 million's going to leverage about $7.5
million in other funds. Going to create or maintain 30 units of affordable rental housing,
provide 30 households with TBRA, or Tenant Based Rent Assistance. Downpayment
assistance for 12 households. Housing rehab assistance for 24. Make improvements to at
least seven non-profit facilities, which includes also building a new shelter. And assist
over 5,000 people, low-income persons, with services, and provide financial assistance to
four small businesses. We'll talk about that a little bit later, as well. I'll start off with just
explaining the public services and all the public services are operational funds basically
paying expenses for salaries, and the first one's the Free Medical Clinic, which is the
funds for a pharmacy technician (mumbled) request. I won't read that. Successful
Living, this is a new program. It's to provide funds for a therapeutic recreation position,
or program, to help people with chronic mental illness, um, that are living in one of the
Successful Living, transitional living facilities. And Shelter House, operating expenses
of $2,500 is part of the STAR program. That $2,500 leverages about a half a million
dollars in federal money. And something we did new this year is we set a minimum cap
of $2,500. So in years past we'd have six or seven projects, some of them getting a
thousand dollars or $500. We decided that...the Commission decided to set that at
$2,500 because it costs us the same to administer the $500 as really $100,000, so we
decided $2,500. Some affordable housing projects (mumbled) operating expenses is
something that's allowed by HUD and...and we support. It pays the operating expenses,
part of the operating expenses, of the Housing Fellowship. Um, this is atax-credit
project proposed by the Housing Fellowship. This will allow them to acquire 11 lots for
households between 31 and 50% of the median income. And these are scattered sites
throughout Iowa City, and I believe, uh, there's some in North Liberty, as well, as part of
this project. Dolphin Lake Pointe, this is our only homeownership project. And this is
for downpayment assistance for 12 homes. This is formerly Lakeside Apartments. If
you've driven by there lately there's been quite a transformation. These are actual shots
of the...what they look like now. Housing Authority operates their tenant-based rent
assistance program and this $148,000 will allow up to 30 households, uh, receive
assistance. Isis Investments is a relatively new for-profit that provides affordable
housing, and $150,000 will allow them to purchase three homes, existing homes, and
keep them affordable for, I believe, 20 years. Is that right? Fifteen years. This is a
familiar home to the City, anyway, um, because there's a lot of violations at this home,
uh, through the rental inspection program, and it's our...I believe it was our only project
that provided transitional housing this year, or not transitional, single-room occupancy
housing, which basically it's a 16-unit rooming house on Third Avenue, and Commission
allocated $20,000 to assist with taking care of some of those code violations. That...that
project also works directly with the STAR program. That's afor-profit. (mumbled)
Shelter House was, as you know, has been trying to build their new facility for, uh, many
years, and looks like they will be breaking ground the first of July, and they were
awarded...I guess I should also mention the Commission dealt with...we had received
about $176,785...thanks, Tracy, in stimulus money this year, and the Commission
allocated the stimulus funds at the same time as the allocation of the regular funds, so
they voted to give $116,785 to the Shelter House out of this, in addition to their regular
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FY10 funding. Neighborhood Centers is, uh, improvements to the play area at Broadway
and some parking lot repair at Pheasant Ridge. See the picture there. Community Mental
Health Center, another parking lot. Couple years ago it was toilets. Now we're doing
parking lots. First Mennonite Church, this was...Home Ties, which Home Ties provides
free childcare for persons or families in crisis situations and this is a heavily leveraged
project. They have their own funds, and it'll be a separate...completely separate structure
from the church. Well, it'll be an addition with separate entrances. (mumbled) this is
improving the security, basically putting in a task code or swipe cards for the residents of
the transitional living center. Domestic Violence Intervention Program, or DVIP, um,
improving the air conditioning. ARC, carpet. And uh, United Action for Youth, which is
right across the street, as you can see from the pictures, uh, some needed repairs, so the
Commission allocated the full amount there. We had a number of projects not
recommended for funding. It's a very competitive process...list of projects not
recommended for funding. I could...if you have questions on any of these, let me know.
Hayek/ Can you flip back to the...
Long/ The first three were public service, which is our most competitive section or sector.
Anchor housing at Saddlebrook was a proposed 50-unit tax credit project, and they, part
of the issue there was they learned about the application at 8:00 the morning it was due,
and it was due at noon, and it was...not a complete application. Builders of Hope was
proposing a...a transitional living facility or...or rental facility. Their location changed
mid-stream. And Shelter House was a rental, affordable rental. That's not the Shelter.
It's a separate project, based on the lodge model. Basically five...I think it was five
(mumbled)
Hightshoe/ Just had a high construction cost.
Long/ Part of our tour there...so today, uh today's meeting...we have a couple questions, or
issues, if you saw the memo in your packet from Tracy regarding Economic
Development funds. Tracy can touch on that a little bit.
Hightshoe/ We were looking through the FY10 budget and the allocations. There's a current
balance of $120,000 in our Economic Development pool. Um, HUD measures us on the
way we spend or how fast we expend our CDBG funds, and so if we were to allocate
$95,000, if...the proposed allocation for FY10, we'd have $210,000 sitting in that pool
where our allocation is only $600,000-some. So we were concerned, especially as to our
workload in our department's increased, due to the flood, the single-family new
construction, (mumbled) and our regular workload, would not be able to spend especially
$210,000. It would be sitting there basically...for the year. And so, um, the fund works
great when the staff has the capacity to market it to lenders, to work with applicants, to
get the kind of applications that we want to pursue for the eligible micro-enterprises. We
just didn't feel we had that and we were worried about our timeliness expenditure rate, so
we were recommending that this year, um, that $95,000 be allocated to those CDBG
eligible projects that can spend out within the year, and then in FY11 we resume that
allocation back into Economic Development.
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Correia/ I think that makes sense.
Wilburn/ I think that's a reasonable...given all the circumstances.
Bailey/ I do too. I'm easily uncomfortable reallocating Economic Development funds, but
given...given everything that's been going on, and I think it's been a successful fund.
think you've done a great job of marketing it, but.. .
Correia/ And it would leave $120,000. (both talking)
Bailey/ ...opportunity.
Hightshoe/ We can still assist five to six businesses that year, which is...which is a lot for us.
Bailey/ Yeah, it is.
Hayek/ When was the last time you got an application for...micro-enterprise?
Hightshoe/ It's been a while, and then in the last couple weeks I have two businesses that are
probably going to submit applications, um, (mumbled) or early June.
Hayek/ Okay.
Correia/ Well, I would support moving that $95,000 to the Shelter House new facility.
Wright/ I would too.
Bailey/ I would too.
O'Donnell/ No problem.
Bailey/ Other thoughts?
Hightshoe/ I believe staff concurs!
Bailey/ Okay. Great!
Correia/ So that would just...
Long/ It would put them over the request amount, but that's not a problem.
Correia/ We know they (both talking)
Bailey/ Where are they on their goal for fundraising? Do you know?
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Long/ This would...put them, uh, over half.
Bailey/ Good! That'll be good.
Long/ They are breaking ground July 1st. (several responding)
Bailey/ Yeah, this is good. Any other questions for...
Long/ I wasn't sure the PowerPoint would be working and I ran up and made copies so I have a
bunch of copies if anybody wants any!
Wright/ Just having read all the Commission minutes (mumbled) (several talking)
Bailey/ Thank you!
Hayek/ It is an exhausting process for the Members of that Commission.
Correia/ So will we get...a new one of these for tomorrow, with the $95,000 moved?
Long/ We'll do that. Yeah, we'll give it to Marian.
Bailey/ And in so far as presentation tomorrow night, what would you like to see? I think it's
helpful to go through (several talking) for the benefit of the public. This is a lot of money
that comes to our city. I think it's important that people understand the process and the
support that we have for our non-profits. Okay. All right, thank you very much. Okay,
that was the last item. Anything else for the good of the cause? All right. It maybe a
long meeting tomorrow.
Correia/ And don't forget to vote!
Bailey/ Okay, good! Vote early, vote often!
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