HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-09-06 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present:
Staff Present:
Alter, Bergus, Harmsen, Taylor, Teague, Thomas, Weiner
Fruin, Jones, Kilburg, Goers, Fruehling, Nagle-Gamm, Knoche, Havel,
Sovers, Sitzman
Others Present: Miglin (USG), Zeimet (USG Alternate)
Teague: It is 6 PM on September 6, 2022. And I'm going to call this meeting to order for the City
of Iowa City. Roll -call, please. [Roll Call] All right. Well, welcome everyone to your
City Hall. Excited to see you here and to those that are virtually welcome as well.
2. Proclamations
2.a. International Day of Peace
Teague: We're going to start with proclamations, which is item number 2, 2.a is International
Day of Peace. And this will be read by Mayor Pro Tem Alter.
Alter: (Reads proclamation.) Accepting is John Jadryev. I apologize if I didn't say that right.
Teague: Yes. Thank you. And feel free to give some words. And the mic is right there.Yes.
Jadryev: Thank you Megan Alter and City Council. It's an important day for us to recognize an
International Day of Peace. And so it will be planting a peace pole in Mercer Park near
the fire engine where the kids are, and it'll be a colorful thing. And I would hope that you
will all find a way to attend. Thank you so much.
Teague: Thank you.
2.b. National Senior Center Month
Teague: Proclamation number two is National Senior Center month, and this will be read by
Councilor Taylor.
Taylor: (Reads proclamation). Accepting is Emily Edrington.
Edrington: Hi everybody. I just want to briefly say thanks so much for the City Council's
ongoing support of the Iowa City Senior Center. Obviously, we couldn't do it without
you. We are dedicated to enhancing quality of life for a growing and diverse older adult
population by creating opportunities to promote and support wellness, social connections,
lifelong learning, and community engagement. So we really appreciate all of the ongoing
support and thank you for recognizing National Senior Center month. If anybody is
interested in learning more, visit icgov.org/senior. Cool. Have a good night.
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2c. World Champion Ben Kueter Day
Teague: Proclamation 2c. is World Champion Ben Kueter, Kueter Day (reads proclamation).
You're welcome to speak.
Kueter: Not much to say. Just thank you guys. This is huge, honor, and I just want to thank my
family as well, so yeah. Thank You, guys.
Teague: Look like you have a lot of people here with you and I know your mom is very proud of
you and you're not only are you a great athlete, but I understand you're an excellent
student. So thank you Ben, for all that you do in our community.
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3 — 8 Consent Calender
Teague: We're moving on to consent calendar items three through eight. Could I get a motion to
approve the consent calendar?
Taylor: So moved, Taylor.
Weiner: Second, Weiner.
Teague: Alright. Anyone from the public like to address a topic that is within our consent
calendar? If so, please come forth, if you are online. I do see Sara Barron online.
Welcome.
Winborn: Mayor Teague, members of City Council. I'm not sure if I'm part of that consent
calendar or not, but my neighbors and I do have a few remarks about a rezoning request
that you folks will be considering today.
Teague: Yeah. That's that's not on. Item and that'll be that'll be later in our agenda.
Winborn: Okay. Great. Thank you. Sorry about interfering.
Teague: Welcome, Sara.
Barron: Hi, councilors.Thank you so much for taking my comments today. This is Sara Barron
from the Affordable Housing Coalition. I wanted to draw your attention to part of your
consent agenda. I believe it is item 6.d, authorizing the City to pay itself about $700
thousand and ARPA funds to make up for the utility gap in payments that were due to the
suspension of water shut off during the COVID pandemic. Let me start with a profound
thank you to the City and the staff for making the decisions that lead us to this point in
the conversation. Keeping peoples water service on during the pandemic was a
significant public health intervention and a huge support for housing stability during a
very uncertain time. I would like to suggest to you that in addition to using this public
money to pay for peoples utilities, you commit to a stronger process for leaving peoples
water on. Using punishment to get people to pay their bills is not our best practice. I
know that we can do better. I appreciate that the City has invested some time and effort
into looking for better ways to support lower-income residents and paying your utility bill
and appreciate that. And I believe that a more robust process where we really do an
equity focused review of the current practices and procedures and programs and get more
input from non -profits and from residents themselves can lead us to better outcomes. If
you're wondering whether this is the right choice or not, I would encourage you to
imagine that you are the City representative who goes out to someone's home because
they have an unpaid water bill. And you look at that household member in the face while
you disconnect their access to fresh water. That is the decision that you're authorizing
when you agree shut up people's water for non-payment. I know that because you are
people who pursue justice and equity. Because you are people who seek to foster peace
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and a community where everyone can thrive. You want to imagine I'm the Iowa City that
can do better than that. So again, today I ask that you do please make yourselves whole,
keep our infrastructure strong, and also commit to a more equitable process to ensure that
everyone can have access to water in their homes. Thanks.
Teague: Thank you. What anyone else like to address a topic that is within our consent calendar?
Seeing no one, council discussion, Roll -call, please.
Harmsen: Just a second Mayor.
Teague: I'm sorry.
Harmsen: That's all right. No. I just wanted to second what Sara Barron was saying. I think
that's. you know, it's very important. First of all, I wasn't on the council when the decision
was made to keep, you know, keep from shutting people's water off. So thank you to the
Council members and city staff. That was absolutely one of those moments where you're
proud to be in Iowa City and to have people that represent you that express those values. I
think it's very important that we make our water system hole, that we keep our
infrastructure in place. We've seen in the news, if you watch the national news, other
communities which did not keep investing in their infrastructure and are paying huge
prices for that today. And I think it makes sense if we can to commit to seeing what we
can do moving forward so that we have the most equitable process. I don't know if
maybe, just a minute, we actually, so I know the city has already does some of those
things. I don't know if Geoff, You have a minute to kind of walk through. Like we
haven't just been walking out, shutting off water left and right as my understanding. And
then maybe to kinda as we move forward to look and see if there's even more that we can
do. So that's just again, voicing my support for that concept.
Alter: I'm seconding that as well. When I was on the Housing and Community Development
Commission during COVID, Sara Barron had had raised this as something, brought it to
attention of council and other commissions, and it seemed absolutely to be the right thing
to do. And Iowa City got behind it. I like the idea, the suggestion of, it's always a
balancing act because we want the ARPA money has a deadline on it and a timeline. And
I know that that our budget is hurting. But I also very much agree that if we can look at
different alternatives and work with, youe know between staff and other entities as we
did with the downtown district and we talked about during the work session, to find
alternate agreeable ways to move forward, then I certainly think that it's worth
considering if we can do that with what might be, to quote Sara, it's sort of best practice
and what would be equitable for residents to make sure that we keep water on.
Fruin: Real briefly, I think it's well well outlined in the staff report in your packet, but as a
reminder, we did do an equity review in October 2020 of the practices. So we took the
opportunity to examine all of our practices when we did not have shut offs occurring.
That resulted in us corning before council and requesting a numerous numerous fee
reductions for folks that are, or households that may fmd themselves in a situation where
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they're having an inability to pay their water bill. And I say water bill, but please know
it's also has sewer and refuse and stormwater. It's all itemized there, but it's a little bit
more than water. Those changes were estimated to reduce our annual revenue and those
utility counts by about a $150 thousand. So pretty substantial changes to try to, again
reduce some barriers. We also expanded our low-income discount program and I always
encourage people to call our staff or stop by here at City Hall to see if they're eligible for
our low-income discount program which provides up to 60% off of the utility rates. And
we did expand the eligibility during COVID through that process. But that's an ongoing
program that existed pre-COVID and will continue to exist. And then for residents that
have the ability to do so, you, we also have a donation option on your utility bill, so you
are able to pay a little bit extra on your bill to help support that low-income discount
program. Going forward, we encourage those that have the ability to do so to participate
in that program. We did do a quick look, I wouldn't say it was in depth, of other practices
outside of shutting off water throughout the throughout the country. Unfortunately, we
didn't find anything that that we thought would work here. I would say the vast majority
of cities, well over 90% that operate utilities and even private utilities have to rely on the
shut-off as that fmal option. I will say that our staff will work to set up payment plans
with anybody so you do not need to necessarily come in and have that entire past due
amount to keep your water on. But you do need to engage with us. I think where we have
situations that result in water shut off, those situations in which we have no
communication from that household after several attempts of us trying to reach out in
various methods. So if you do fmd yourself in that situation, or you know somebody in
that situation, the best thing to do is come in and let's figure out a reasonable payment
plan that would work for the household budget. At that time we can also look at whether
that household will be eligible for the discount price. Often times we fmd that people that
come in with that are struggling to pay may not be aware of that payment plan. We're
able to register them very quickly and help alleviate some of that stress.
Bergus: I also just want to highlight on the same item that we are wiping clean any delinquent
amounts up through May 31st of 2022. I know previously when the council, when we
were forbearing from shut offs and talking about what are options would be in the future,
we were considering what kind of collection could we be looking at and how might we
approach that. So I'm grateful to see that our option tonight is to wipe those clean for
people who got behind up until that date.
Harmsen: In all that said, assuming there's a majority of the council and support to leave that
discussion open, that door open to community partners from the affordable housing
coalition. Any other commissions that have some maybe want to look at some additional
sorts of layers of things to do that that is a door that is open and will remain open. Is that
a safe assumption?
Fruin: Absolutely.
Bergus: Oh I'm sorry. I was gonna go to a different item.
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Alter: I just wanted to say thank you for the reminders of what is in place at the moment.
Harmsen: Thank you.
Bergus: On item 6.e Mayor, we talked a little bit about this at the work session, but I just want to
highlight, that's for the procurement relating to police patrol vehicles. I know Mayor Pro
Tem and I had both asked some questions regarding this. So just to clarify, this is not for
any additional vehicles. These are vehicles that already exists that would be replaced and
funds that are already existing, correct?
Fruin: That's correct. These are these are existing budgeted funds and existing vehicles. The fleet
is not being expanded. Actually, when we put together the budget, we thought that we
would be replacing six vehicles at this cost. Unfortunately, due to cost increases in the
automotive industry, were only able to replace five. So we're actually holding onto one of
our patrol vehicles a little longer than we normally would. And well look to replace that
one with next year's planned replacements as well.
Bergus: Then the longevity of these vehicles, we'd expect to be not more than 4.5 years.
Fruin: Yeah, we averaged between 3.5 to 4.5 years. And by that time, the patrol vehicles usually
have between 90 and 95 thousand miles on them. We still will, they still have some
revalue, resale value at that point. So that helps us with the purchase of new vehicles. But
as you can imagine, those are those are hard miles to those aren't easy highway miles.
That's a lot of starting and stopping. That many miles in that short of a period is pretty
hard on the vehicle.
Bergus: Thank you.
Weiner: I also wanted to call attention to item 6.c. The other thing that we're doing with ARPA
funds is, is signing an agreement with The Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa to
address wage theft in the community and sort of make it so that they can hire the person
to work to work full-time on that. And just having passed through Labor Day, it's really
important that people paid a fair wage for the work that they're doing.
Taylor: I agree with Councillor Weiner on that. This wage theft issue is something that's, it's a
very real issue out there. It's not something that's just been dreamed up and it's coming
and going. It's it's it's out there and will probably be a continuing issue. And I think it's
very important that we're going to help with this for the Center for Justice.
Alter: Then the seems to have been a very meaty consent agenda. I just wanted to point out one
thing, 4.a, the Climate Action Commission. I just wanted to make note because there
have been a lot of eloquent and e-mails to us about the possibility of Solar 247. And I
just want to commend the Climate Action Commission for the work that they're putting
into researching this proposal. They've been reaching out to cohort of cities that are also
exploring this. They're creating a really thoughtful bank of questions and considerations.
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And I know are working to provide us with a summary of the work that they've been
doing. So I know that time is of the essence in terms of looking at climate action, but I
just want to let the public know, as well as the commission know, that I appreciate what
the Commission is doing and that they are really digging into this issue and looking at all
angles of this to see what our best ups working forward in a whole and equitable way to
borrow some terminology. So I just wanted to make mention of that.
Weiner: Finally, or maybe finally, we have a couple of items where there were a couple of our
commissions are amending their bylaws that 6.f and 6.g It just really highlights the work
that so many Iowa Citizens do for who volunteer to serve their community by working
out, by serving on a board or commission. And that at the same time they're working to
improve those commissions that on which they serve by making sure that the rules under
which they operate, their bylaws and their membership are the best they can be.
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9. Community Comment (items not on the agenda)
Teague: Any other comments? Roll -call, please. [Roll call]. Motion passes 7-0. We are on to
item number nine, which is community comment. So this is for any agenda that is any
item that is not on our agenda. If I can get a show of hands of everyone that wants to
speak on an item that is not on our agenda. Okay. We're going to start with three minutes.
I may have to reduce the minutes depending on how many people actually show up. I do
see. Is there anyone online that wants to speak as well, please raise your hand? There is a
sign -in sheet at the back of the room and also here at the podium. We're going to ask
commenters to come at this time. And then please state your name and the city you're
from.
Maloney: Do you want them in order?
Teague: No. You can just come on up and just make sure your name is either written there or you
put the sticker in there.
Maloney: I just need one minute. My name is Monica Maloney-Mitros and I wanted to thank you
for the excluded workers. Thank you very much. I wrote to you. I got an answer back
from Shawn, and I appreciate that you were able to figure out a way to do it. Thank you
very much.
Teague: Thank you.
Teague: Welcome.
Kretkowski: Hi there. I signed him before and I dropped my name tag in there. I'm Amy
Kretkowski, and I live here in Iowa City and I'm here to express my continued support
for keeping the current design of the City Park Pool.We now have over 900 names on a
petition of people who support keeping this design. So I'll give these to you. The City
Council is being asked to make a really important decision about the future of City Park
Pool that will have a lasting impact on this community. But you really don't have all the
information that you need in order to make an informed decision. We know the City Park
Pool is old. The consulting firm that was hired by Parks and Rec paid for with taxpayer
dollars, said that the infrastructure of the pool is near the end of its useful life. There's no
actual substantive evidence to support this other than the age of the pool and the
consultant, the consultants, inability to fmd a pool that is older or as old as City Park Pool
that's currently operational. Well, if you do a 10 -second Google search, you'll find several
pools around the country that are older than City Park Pool, including two right here in
Iowa. We know that the pool needs repairs, but we don't know the exact, the full extent of
what's wrong with the current pool. The engineer, the engineering firm that was hired by
the consultants, paid for with taxpayer dollars, wrote that the City needs to consult a
structural engineer to find out what's wrong with the concrete pool vessel and to get a
good idea of exactly what's wrong with the actual concrete of the pool in order to make a
better informed recommendation. In the most recent letter that I sent to you, this is on
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page 121, it's the very first item of the condition of the pools report. It says get a
structural engineer to do an evaluation to figure out exactly what's wrong. So we don't
really know what's fully wrong with the pool. We've been told, sorry, it's leaking 30
thousand gallons a day. That's huge, but we don't know where the leak is coming from.
Item two on that very same report says that it would cost between 4 and 6 thousand
dollars to perform a leak detection test. Why hasn't that been done? Instead of spending
millions and millions of taxpayer dollars to replace a pool that this community clearly
loves, shouldn't we first find out what's wrong with it and make the necessary repairs. If
it's leaking 30 thousand gallons of water a day, shouldn't we make those necessary
repairs? Please don't throw out the pool with the pool water. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name and your city, please.
Katalinich: Hi, my name is Dan Katalinich, 418 Fifth Avenue here in Iowa City. Thanks you -all.
I am here this evening before you do request that the Council establish an ad hoc
committee charged with evaluating the public comment on our pools. I call it the
committee for aquatic renewal, to ensure that the Gather Here Masterplan charge of, this
is a quote, "to provide truly exceptional commitment to public engagement is realized."
So I know all of you weren't, weren't seated on council when the Gather Here Masterplan
was adopted. That was almost five years ago. I think it was later in September, five -years
ago. But that was the charge to be engaged with the public in a truly exceptional way.
And I think we need that to bring to fruition the renewal of Iowa City aquatics, and make
recommendations to Council, and to Parks and Recreation. The letter from Amy
Kretkowski, the underside dated August 1 lth and 30th, provide abundant documentation
of the public comments disparity from the updated masterplan of May 25th. And I note
that when the Gather Here Masterplan came out, they touted 425 citizens had been
involved and we have over nine over double that have petitioned in conflict to the
updated masterplan. An ad hoc committee is needed to establish trust in our process of
renewing Iowa City aquatic facilities, particularly in light of, for example, Parks and
Recreation recommending the City Park Pool redesign prior to the end of the period for
comment, which was June 4t. We must work together to bring the best result for our
community. City Park Pool in particular is a concern. As the updated plan stated that the
original anesthetics and character to be maintained, but the design does anything but
maintain the original aesthetics and character of that pool. The big water and the oak
savanna is what we must maintain. It's a collective gathering place, and it always has
been. It was born of a public desire that persevered through the tribulations of World War
II and was catalyzed by the death of a child who drowned in Iowa River in City Park.
That's what brought it to fruition. The perseverance and compassion has earned the
establishment of an ad hoc committee on aquatics renewal. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name and the city you're from.
Reid: My name is Mitzi Reid and I live in Iowa City. My family recently invested our entire
future in Iowa City's promise of a vibrant, livable downtown. We are living our dream
within walking distance of wellness and recreation services, groceries, shops, as well as
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amazing restaurants and entertainment. Now we need you to continue delivering that
promise. By seeing the truth about the Robert A. Lee Pool. The truth is affordable access
to a downtown pool is critical to promote the lifesaving skill and lifelong fitness activity
of swimming, to serve current residents and attract others to live, visit, and invest their
money in and near downtown. The closure plan ignores the facts. The City's grossly
overstated cost, and severely under counted pool attendance are used to justify closure.
When the fiscally responsible choice is to renovate and revitalize the RAL pool. Public
comments confirm residents value aquatics above all other recreation services. They are
overwhelmingly against closure of the RAL pool and consolidation of all indoor aquatics
to Mercer. It stands to reason they would also oppose a future multi-million dollar bond
required to fund it. Centralized aquatics also directly conflicts with goals to promote
geographic equity and prioritize facilities and programs that are equitable, accessible, and
responsive to the Iowa City community. No alternate use would attract a wider range of
long-term customers downtown or deliver the broad appeal and health benefits that a pool
provides. City staff have made it clear they don't intend to retract the closure proposal
despite overwhelming public opposition. So it's up to you, our elected City Councillors to
stop this contrived plan from eliminating our affordable and accessible means of lifelong
health from the heart of Iowa City's downtown. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name and city.
Stapleton: Anne Stapleton, Iowa City. You'll hear a theme here. The data and community input
do not support closing or repurposing the Robert A. Lee Pool. This is clear from the
many reports and surveys published this summer. I want to address the damage that
diminished hours at RAL's pool is already causing and that a closure could worsen. Since
January, administrators have reduced access to the pool, which is now only open from
6:15 AM to 9 AM and 11 to 1. Very difficult hours for families with children and anyone
with a traditional daytime work schedule. First, the pools diminished hours and
threatened closure ignore the feedback of Iowa Citians who have chosen aquatics, as
Mitzi said, above all other programs and prefer a downtown central location finding
RAL, more assessable. Why alienate this broad segment of Iowa City when the purpose
of a community center is to bring people together. Second, RAL is reduced hours are
already preventing many children and adults from taking swim lessons, a necessary life
skill that can prevent drowning. RAL's pool is now closed every weekday afternoon.
That means after school and when many adults finished work. Some parents have been
unable to schedule the lessons they need at Mercer, the only pool now open most weeks
year-round in the afternoon. To compound this, Mercer is closed during swim meets. This
lack of access is unnecessary. RAL's pool is functioning well and provides access to all
ages and abilities. Yet staff have reduced access when children could be learning to
swim. Finally, closure of RAL would affect all aquatics users in Iowa City by limiting
opportunities and leading to potential overcrowding at Mercer when it is open. This
includes people who can't drive to Mercer, aquatics users with conditions that cannot
tolerate Mercer's cold water, downtown residents who rely on RAL's central location and
others. While I, when I use RAL Pool, I often encounter more than 15 people in the pool
at the time I'm swimming. Why shut the doors to this well loved, widely -used facility?
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What if, rather than a campaign of closure, Parks and Recs promoted the value of the
RAL Pool, where children and adults can learn the life -skill of swimming, where toddlers
can begin a trajectory of health that continues through retirement age, and where all Iowa
Citians feel safe and comfortable enough to let their hair down or take their wigs off, as
in my case when I was undergoing chemotherapy. Please don't close this community
centric inclusive pool. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name and city.
Thank you.
Crane: My name is Carin crane and I am an Iowa City resident and I'm also a friend of the
Robert A Lee Pool and I want to start with a compliment. The Parks and Rec Rec Assist
Program that offers free swim lessons to children, depending on their household income,
truly makes me proud to be an Iowa City resident. I believe that every child should be
able to swim at a pool or go to Lake McBride and get a paddle board or Terry Trueblood
to get it to paddle board or just go to the beach at Lake McBride and be safe. The Rec
Assist Program has really promoted that and made that a possibility for so many children
and I applaud bad. And I'm not alone in feeling this way. The Gather Here surveys show
that 91.8 of those surveyed also believe that every child should have swim lessons. And
that's what brings me here today. Because if a pool is closed, if a public pool is closed,
there will not be access to swim lessons, which is a life saving skill. I'm not alone in
feeling that way. I have a stack of signatures, 1163. but who's counting? And they are all
adults from Iowa City. We have stricken some of the names because we did not think that
they lived in Iowa City or they were not adults. But 1163 adults in Iowa City agree that
the Robert A. Lee pools should remain open. We have an additional letter that includes
160 people who are not counted in the 1163 who also sign on to this initiative. And in
addition to expressing that feeling, I want to point you to the Gather Here community
engagement fmdings. And these fmdings, which are the City's own, show that 68.7 of the
people surveyed have an unfavorable view about having all indoor aquatics moved to
Mercer. There's another ten percent that's neutral.So when you add those, you have
almost 80% of the people surveyed saying they do not want all indoor aquatics at Mercer.
And I think that the goal of having swim lessons for all, access to the water for all, so that
we have safe kids and healthy adults is a great vision for Iowa City. And I know that my
friends m the audience join with me and hoping that you will invest in, preserve and
protect the Iowa City downtown pool at Robert A. Lee Aquatic Center. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you.
Crane: I'm going to give these to you. Thank you.
Teague: Welcome. Please state your name and city.
Protheroe: Hi. I'm Sue Protheroe. I live in Iowa City. I've been swimming at City Park for over
40 years. I have also life guarded, taught swimming lessons and manages that pool. So I
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think I have a broader view of its use than almost anyone. I think that the crux of the City
Park issue is pool design. The current design is flexible and serves every population I can
think of. Although, I do think that kids and teens would enjoy a water slide, which would
be easy enough to add. The proposed design is not flexible and it does not serve several
populations. Older and less proficient swimmers who can't manage 50 meter swim --these
people are currently using the 25 yard lap area that is open during open swim times.
Aquajoggers and floaters who need deepwater. These people are currently using outside
lanes during designated lap swim times and the 25 yard area during open swim times.
There is no deep water in the proposed design outside of the diving well. These two
groups that I've already mentioned are older people. So we've now hit that population
twice with this proposed design. Additionally, intermediate swimmers who need to
practice swimming in water over their heads. Swimming lessons --I taught swimming
lessons for over a decade and I'm having trouble picturing how lessons could be
accomplished in this pool with the rounded edges. Club swimmers who currently share
morning hours with lap swimmers and teens like the current pool. The proposed design
doesn't have a slide or anything really for teens to do. So that's six distinct populations
without mentioning the obvious problem of inadequate lap lanes. The importance of
getting the City Park Pool design right should be obvious. We're building this pool for
swimmers as far out as our great grandchildren at the very least. And if we build the
wrong pool, we're stuck with it for a long time. So I would just want to --I have a question
and I don't know if that's appropriate, but I know a lot of us would appreciate
understanding the process here.What's next, and how will we be informed of what's next?
Teague: And this is an opportunity for you to speak to council.
Protheroe: Okay. Well, that's my question.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Wichert: Hi. My name is Martha Wichert and I rival you as I'm not even here for the pool, but I
have taken advantage of the City pools for about 60 some years. I learned to swim. I
taught swimming lessons. I was in synchronized swimming and swim team and life
guarded and everything. So I'm giving you some of my time for your support. But what
I'm actually here,
Teague: please state your city.
Wichert: Oh, Iowa City on and off for 60 some years. I have been here for 60 some years on and
off and the two houses I own on College Street that are historic have been in my family
for 80 years. I'm here to make a proposal or just becoming just be more aware of what is
going on with the radon testing that's required of duplexes here in Iowa City. My
qualifications --I have a doctorate in physical therapy and I'm getting three-quarters of the
way through a Masters in Public Health and I got through Biostatistics and Epidemiology
and it didn't kill me. So I think that I can decipher some of the information and come up
with some good questions for you. I called the Public Health Department. The only
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person that's qualified to be an expert is Dr. Field. He retired. I went on and tried to find
research. And what do you know? The Iowa City research project that has been going on
since 1998, I believe, something like that, was published in 2000 was directed by him.
Some of that information I think is still being incorporated when you are requiring rentals
and it's only single-family homes that had been changed to duplexes right now. They
fmished phase one. And it was carried out on women in the same house for the past 20
years with a duration of testing for one year, and the testing equipment located in the
sleeping areas or the living area. The conclusions suggested cumulative Radon exposure
is a significant risk factor for lung cancer in women. But those are the criterias. No one's
disputing radon is a severe problem in this country. But my problem with this is how it's
being tested. I went through that testing. It was in the basement-- city code --I don't have
anybody living in my basement. They go there for the laundry. That's it. Testing was
done there for 48 hours. That's it. The research I have a lot I don't have much time. The
research doesn't use the same criteria that Iowa City is using for their testing criteria. I
think it's skewed. I think it's skewing your phase two data that's going in with the APA
research that you are in phase two of now. And I think it's very unfair to a lot of the
people that are out there, those tenants that are compliant and those landlords that are that
are trying to do the right thing, they might not have the right thing.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name and city.
Mccuskey: I'm Erin Mccuskey and I live here in Iowa City. I'm here today to talk about the City
pool and how ignorant this Recreation and Parks plan is. I wanted to be generous about it,
but it creates a huge vacuum where children and adults and everybody has so much less
access to pool. I couldn't believe when I read this proposal when I was there. That they
wouldn't build a regulation pool. If you want to participate in swimming, if you want to
learn how to swim, you have to have a regulation pool because then you can grow a
swimmer into a teacher. And then that cycle can participate again and again. And this
plan...and I'm so emotional about it because I walked into Mercer Pool 1988 when I was
14 and I saw how the world swam, which was in meters.When you get the pool like this
City Park Pool, closing Robert A. Lee pool, it completely diminishes the possibility of
more people learning how to swim. And if you don't have regulation pools where people
can participate in recreation programs there and then also possibly swim team, then you
cannot get people to be lifeguards, and you can't get people to teach. And then the pool
isn't open. And then they say that the pool isn't going to be used and then they're going to
close it. So I'm shocked that no one has talked about the fact that like, you can't drown on
a pickleball court. And you wouldn't you wouldn't build a pickleball court that was five -
by -five or a baseball field with 10 -meter diamonds. You know, have to build a regulation
pool. And I'm so emotional like so many other people here because it is the next 50 years
of pools. So I know that one thing that we can all agree on is that the City needs to have
more pool. I love all the other ideas here. I hope that Mercer, all those plans are
happening. But every person should have the right to learn how to swim in the city.And if
we don't have that right, we cannot pass on these life skills. And the city should never
consider approving anything that isn't a regulation pool. The world swims in meters,
America swims in yards. City Park pool is eight lanes, 50 meters. That's how the
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Olympics are. The butterfly was invented in Iowa City. That's been a stroke since 1952 at
the Olympics that's competed. So when I was in Seoul, South Korea in 1988, after I saw
Mercer, I saw the same pool in Seoul, South Korea.
Teague: Thank you.
Mccuskey: Thank you. Sony, cried so much.
Teague: Welcome. Please state your name and city.
Weidemeier: Audrey Weidemeier, Iowa City. Hello City Council. I am just here to say my
support for keeping the eight lane 50 meter City Park Pool designed the way it is. I've
talked a lot over the summer with my fellow pool rats. And we agree that there needs to
be more pool and not less pool. And I'd like to applaud the access program that the Parks
and Rec did this summer. I saw lots of families that reflected the diversity of our
community taking free swim lessons, which is awesome. It would be great to see a pool
on the south side and on the west side too that kids could ride their bikes to. I've ridden
bikes around Iowa City with kids a lot and sometimes we end up riding to Terry
Trueblood. You don't want to get into Terry Trueblood the way it is and be great if there
was a pool down there too. And having free swim lessons to any kids at more pools in
Iowa City would be great. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else to address a topic that is not on our agenda? Welcome.
Tresnak: My name is George Tresnak. Iowa City. I spoke before. At the times I spoke before.I
predicted that the opposition to the stated closing of the Robert A. Pool would continue to
grow, which it obviously has. I swim there six times a week. And I have covered local
government for, in communities in four other states besides Iowa City. And everywhere I
went where there were boards and commissions, their purpose was to enhance and to help
the council, and to improve the confidence in government. This is the first time I saw
anyplace, a body that does exactly the opposite. The the every time a rationale for closing
the pool is refuted,well, the leadership of the parks board comes up with another
rationale. The, any expertise in maintenance and operation rest with the staff. The
volunteers on board and commission really don't have any expertise of the operation of
this the pool and the staff could be just as well handled through the staff and public works
department in cooperation with the City Manager. The question is, where do you actually,
where do you actually need a body that's recommending actually closing, closing the
pool. The main recommendation, the suggestion that I would have is since the Council
has the power to remove this cloud. Because there's a lot of people like me that has this
concern that uses a pool every day. All the Council has to do is take an action to remove
the pool from the purview of the Parks Commission. And any recommendations on
maintenance and improvements could be just as well handled through a combination of
staff and public works in coordination with the City Manager. So that's the main, the
main suggestion that I have and with all due apologies in advance, I consider it, I actually
consider it hypocritical for the Council to adopt a proclamation... Well, okay.
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Teague: Thank you. And I saw one other person.Welcome. Please state your name and city.
Winborn: Good evening. My name is Erik Winborn and I live at 862 Ryan Court in Iowa City.
And I'm here with my neighbors and the neighbors who are watching and at home. And
we're here to oppose the rezoning request that's before you that you'll be considering later
on tonight. And I had a longer statement, but.
Teague: Yep. Sorry.This is, we'll get to that item in a little bit.
Winborn: Well, that'd be even better because these people were tough acts to follow. I wouldn't
mind talking to you folks later on, right before your trying to make a decision, so I
appreciate the opportunity. Thanks.
Teague: All right. Anyone else have any comments before we close our public comment section?
And we will end at 07:00 PM. Welcome.
Armbruster: Hi. I'm Sandra Armbruster and I live in Iowa City and I'm a patron of Mercer and
City Park pool. I just wanted to say some things on behalf of City Park, to keep that
footprint. I, one, I just want to share one observation. I go to the pool nearly every day at
Mercer and it's always enjoyable to watch the kids play. And they go off the board at
Mercer maybe one to two times, maybe three times when they're playing in the pool.
When they are at City Park, kids go off that board all day long. And I don't think, I think
in this society we know a lot of kids, you know, they're not outdoors enough, they're not
doing things outside. You take your kids to City Park Pool if they know how to swim.
And another thing is watching kids do that swim test so they can go off the board is
incredible. They will work so hard so they can go off that board. And so, and another
thing I did this summer, because I do I think the footprint of the City Park Pool is not
broke and doesn't need to be fixed. So I had, there were these Boys, four of them, and
they were probably 14 years old or so. And so I asked him about if they saw the new pool
design and what they thought and we talked about it. And I said, what do you think about
the boards, the diamond boards, I think they're going to move them or do something
different. They thought a lazy river might be nice. They weren't really excited about a
slide, which I was surprised. And when I mentioned the boards, I said, what if we didn't
have that high dive. In unison as only for teenage boys can do, they all went, no. I think
one thing to keep in consideration is how it would affect our youth. And I also think the
City Park Pool is one of Iowa City's best kept secrets. And I think promotion would be an
answer to, if you wanted a higher participation rate there. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. So this will be our last comment because we're approaching 07:00 PM.
Park: Okay. Hi.
Teague: Welcome. Good evening.
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Park: I'm Jiyun Park from Iowa City. Honorable Mayor Teague and honorable council members,
I just want to thank you for this opportunity. I think the most important things have been
highlighted, but I wanted to share a personal story about moving to Iowa City with
children who learned to swim in each of the pools. So if we tell our children who have
lived here way longer than us who have just presented as children themselves that what
we do with something when it gets old and needs repair is to demolish it, fill up the
landfill, while there's a climate crisis, and then shop for all the bells and whistles of a new
pool. As consumers, I'm not sure what the children are going to walk away with with
their memory where our son learned to count from 12 underwater to 13, 14 and self -
motivated in that space at City Park Pool, the long space where he could himself say, Oh,
I want to get to that part, I'm going to get to that part, I want to get to that mark, I want to
get to that mark, because there was space for that and there was a lane for that. I think the
subtle things that we're not designing for or accounting for in terms of like, what are our
economic resources...they're limited supposedly...is where are we going to choose our
values and our priorities? Looking at 2025, 2030, 2035 and so on. If we have limited
resources, where are we going to place those priorities for the entire community? I don t
know that City Park needs an overhaul that's I don't know how many millions probably. I
don't know what the demolition budget alone is. So it would seem that it would be worth
our time and energy to explore what would be a benefit to the entire city, thinking about
an ecosystem instead of swimming here .And also, the other thing that really struck me is
I did a little Google search and swimming is the number four recreational thing that
people do in the United States. It's number four. And then on top of that, that it has safety
against drowning. It's a life safety skill. And I've seen, as everyone else has said here, and
Erin touched me so deeply because I've seen her at the pool with her babies. I've seen her
babies grow up here at the pool. And you've seen all the women who swam here for
generations. So I think to tell our children that what the City will do is just demolish that
out and replace it seems kind of I don't know. Anyway, it would be really wonderful if
there was increased transparency and also taxpayer transparency for budget allocation.
Or what are the in and out possibilities for where we can spend this funding in
neighborhoods that may really need to learn how to swim so kids can be safe.Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. And thank you to everyone that have given comment today. I did want to
get a motion to accept correspondence. Could I get a motion, please.
Bergus: So moved.
Weiner: Second.
Teague: Moved by Bergus, seconded by Weiner. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any oppose Motion
passes 7-0.
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10. Planning and Zoning Matters
10.a. Rezoning — Cardinal Heights — Ordinance conditionally rezoning
approximately 27.68 acres of property located east of Camp Cardinal Blvd and west
of Camp Cardinal Rd from Interim Development — Research Park (ID -RP) Zone to
Low Density Multi -Family Zone with a Planned Development Overlay (OPD/RM-
12). (REZ22-0001).
Teague: Item number 10 is planning and zoning matters. 10.a is rezoning Cardinal Heights
ordinance conditionally rezoned, and approximately 27.68 acres of property located east
of Camp Cardinal Boulevard and west of Camp Cardinal Road from interim
Development Research Park zone to low density multi -family zone with a planned
development overlay. And I'm going to open up the public hearing and I'm going to
welcome our staff and Danielle. Welcome.
Sitzman: Thank you Mayor and Council, Danielle Sitzman, Neighborhood and Development
Services. This is a rezoning application to, this evening for a property located as outlined
here in the yellow or white dashed line, located between Camp Cardinal Boulevard and
Camp Cardinal Road, approximately where Deer Creek road cuts into it from the west.
This land is proposed to be rezoned to an overlay planned district and a underlying
(RM -12), or I'm sorry. Let me get caught up here on my slides. Low density multifamily
zone. The purpose of the rezoning is to allow for a residential development, including
several lots, 22 lots of duplex, duplex housing, one lot for a four-plex development, and
one lot for an apartment with approximately 30 dwelling units in it. The site does contain
regulated sensitive features including wetlands, woodlands, and slopes. And due to those
impacts, to those, it does require a sensitive areas development plan. So that is the trigger
tonight for this planned development overlay. Sometimes we see cluster development in
an area with sensitive sensitive features that are waivers to the underlying base zoning
requirements that are required to accommodate that. In this case, that is not so. They're
not requesting any waivers from the base underlying zoning of (RM -12). This exhibit
shows the property again bounded in the white white line with the surrounding existing
zoning in the neighborhood. As I mentioned, this would be a proposed mix of duplex and
multi -family residential. Um, which is seen in the surrounding neighborhood and other
similar zones. To the west, there is (RM -12) already zoned. To the south, there's actually
a more intensive event center plan. To the east there's also some (RM -12) zoning for an
apartment, two apartment buildings. And then also to the northwest, there's a mix of
housing types, including slightly more dense housing (RM -20) and also (RS -12) our
directly to the north, there's a loop street development with zero lot houses that look a lot
like duplexes are on individual lots as well. As I mentioned, this is a planned
development overlay rezoning that includes a preliminary sensitive areas plan. They've
also filed for preliminary plat, which I won't present tonight because it needs to catch up.
It would be by resolution. So it would be presented on the third reading of the rezoning,
but it is a detail that's included in a lot of the drawings that were included tonight. So it
does show you that the proposed layout of the street network, as I mentioned. Along the
southern border, there would be a through street connecting Camp Cardinal Boulevard to
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Camp Cardinal Road and then it cul-de-sac in a loop street off of that to accommodate the
residential development of the duplex lots, the town home lots, and then the apartment
complex. Because this is an OPD rezoning, there's extensive set of criteria that staff does
look at in addition to the general zoning criteria. So well go through those tonight. The
two general criteria are in consistency of the comprehensive plan, first of all, and
compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood. In this case, the comprehensive plan,
the main general comprehensive plan is the plan that we would look at. There's no district
plan in this area. The comprehensive plan identifies this area in that kind oif taupe color
as appropriate for 8 to 16 dwelling units per acre. The actual proposed zoning is much
lower because of the sensitive areas that are present and need to be avoided. It actually is
closer to just three units per acre. As I mentioned, there's a diversity, diversity of
residential housing types, preservation of sensitive areas, and a focus on the third street to
complete the network of streets and as well as the to accommodate pedestrians moving
through the neighborhood as well. The comprehensive plan itself does discourage cul-de-
sacs. So I mentioned there's one cul-de-sac proposed as well as that through street and
loop street. However, there are instances where cul-de-sacs are actually a preferred
alternative, especially when topography and sensitive areas are in play. So speaking about
the compatibility with the existing neighborhood, as I mentioned to the north, there's
existing single-family 0 lot line development and then development to the northwest,
which is continuing to occur. There's also proposed development to the east along
Gathering Place Lane potentially in the future. But overall, it's generally a residential
neighborhood in this part of town. So as I mentioned, there's additional criteria that staff
reviews for Planned Development Reviews and I'll go through those here next. The first
has to do with land use proposes and density. In this case, it is a single-family attached
housing styles I mentioned, including duplexes, a four-plex in a multi -family apartment.
It is within the density allowance and does provide for a mix of housing types in this
neighborhood. The proposed plan continues to the existing pattern of single-family
attached development and adds to that mix in the overall neighborhood. I'm speaking
about design, the mass -scale in general layout. And as I mentioned, this is predominantly
how scale buildings, those duplexes and the four -plexus, which would look like town
homes. In addition, the multifamily development, which would be located on the east, top
right of this slide, is subject to the multifamily design standards. There is no waiver to
height being requested tonight, so that would be limited to three stories or thirty-five feet
in height. Um, when we look at the garages and the layout of the street network to
accommodate the duplexes, our code does regulate the appearance of those duplexes and
that would be reviewed as site plans are developed. As I mentioned, there are sensitive
areas that are identified with this sensitive various development plan. And we do go
through an analysis to make sure that the areas that are required to be protected meet our
ordinances. This is a rendering of that three-story potential multi -family development. As
I mentioned, that this would have a site plan review. So all of the multifamily site
development standards would be reviewed when the actual development of this building
occurs. Also going through the open space requirements. There are no waivers being
requested tonight. So all of the baseline requirements for private and public open space
would need to be met with this development. That is essentially 300 square feet of rear
yard private open space per unit, duplex, and as well as the base standard of ten square
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feet per bedroom for multifamily. So those would be checked at each time ofdevelopment
of those lots. And then there's also a requirement for the public open space based on the
acres of the development that's determined at final plat, that can be satisfied either by
dedication of parkland or fee in lieu. In regard to the surrounding neighborhood, as I
mentioned, this is a continuation of that development pattern. There are actually two
outlets proposed for a total of 17 acres of land not to be developed. It would include a
protective conservation easement over those 17 acres. And there's actually quite a bit of
separation because of that and along the north boundary of this property. There's a stream
and a lot of protected areas and so the separation between this development and the next
development to the north is actually quite wide. Staff does find that the development will
not impact neighboring residents as a more conventional neighborhood would do, which
is the criteria that we use for a planned development review. And then finally talking
about streets and utilities. This property can be served by both sanitary sewer and water.
As I mentioned again, access to the site will be provided by Deer Creek Road, which is a
third street, which is helping to complete the street network in this part of the city, as well
as potentially providing a future connection to the south along Camp Cardinal Road.This
development will not be building that segment of Camp Cardinal Road, but there is a
condition proposed to ensure that they commit funds towards that eventual completion.
Talking just a little bit about stormwater. We had quite a few questions and concerns
raised about how stormwater would be handled. This exhibit is meant to show the two
stormwater sheds and where water would drain to from the two parts of this development.
Essentially the dark blue lines drain to the northwest and the light blue lines drain to the
southeast. To the northwest, there's an existing stormwater detention basin. And so
stormwater would be would flow into that basin. That basin has been designed to
accommodate runoff from this development, so it is properly sized for that. Then the light
blue line turning to the southeast are going into a new detention basin that would be
created on the southeast portion of the site. There were concerns regarding the operation
of that existing basin. The staff from public works did investigate. They went out to
check to make sure that the facility was operating as it was designed as far as the outlets
between the basin and the stream, ensuring that there were no blockages and there was no
evidence of excessive erosion occurring. So we did have staff go out and actually do a
field visit and verified that that was the case. Public Works has also reviewed the
preliminary stormwater exhibits that have been presented so far. Any final construction
drawings for the establishment of the new basin on the southeast side would be included
in the final plat. And as far as sensitive areas, there are sensitive areas on this site. We do
have a sensitive areas ordinance. The City of Iowa City regulates several types of features
on this site that would include slopes, wetlands, and woodlands. And the purpose of the
sensitive areas ordinance is to define and permit the reasonable use of properties that
contains such features. Allowing for development and at the same time, protecting those
resources from damage. Due to the proposed disturbance of wetlands on the site, there is
this level to design review required and that's part of the sensitive areas development plan
that is being presented tonight, to you tonight. Sixty of the area of the site will actually be
contained in those two outlets that I mentioned. So 60% of all of this proposed
development would be in an area protecting those sensitive features. So as I mentioned,
there are slopes that are impacted. We have a steep, steeper and steepest designation for
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slopes. This site contains the steeper and steepest of slopes that we regulate. We have
quantified those and ensured that the steeper slopes which can be impacted are not
impacted more than the allowable percentage by our sensitive areas ordinance. And then
the steepest slopes, which we call protected slopes, are actually usually never allowed to
be impacted. However, there are two cases when they still can be the instance in this
development. So the steepest slopes are protected slopes, are only allowed to be impacted
if the slope itself is a man-made slope or if it's necessary for infrastructure. So we've
evaluated that and the steep, the slope protection is adequate for our ordinances. And then
also talking about wetlands, there are wetlands in existence on the site. The applicant did
have a specialist review those wetlands to identify their location and their fitness, I
should say. There are methods for protecting wetlands and our ordinances typically
require just a baseline buffer around them. But that buffer can be reduced in some places
as long as it's averaged out to accommodate the wetland, the quality of the wetland where
it needs to be. That's called buffer averaging. So in this case, there is some buffer
averaging being requested as well as buffer reduction. When buffer reduction occurs,
then basically we require compensatory mitigations. So basically the impact to the
wetland is made up for by establishing or improving a wetland elsewhere. In this case,
they're actually going to do the improvement in the wetlands on site. So it's not going into
a wetland bank or some other place in the environment. It's actually occurring on the site.
And so we've evaluated the amount of land that are impacting with their buffer averaging
and their compensatory mitigation to ensure they meet the ordinances. As far as wetland,
woodland retention, they are actually sufficiently protecting the woodland resources per
our ordinance. So next steps, like I said, this is a rezoning step. There will be a
preliminary plat that I have not highlighted in green here because it'll be at a future
meeting catching up to the third reading of this ordinance. But then after that, they would
do fmal plating. As I mentioned, that would be with the construction drawing review
segment of this. Then because there are sensitive areas, there would actually be a fmal
sensitive area, area review and site plan review by staff, as well as building permits. So
the Planning and Zoning Commission does recommend approval of a zoning application
tonight, to you tonight. They did so at their August 3rd meeting by a vote of 6 to 0. There
was one proposed condition by staff. As I mentioned, that the contribution of funds for
the future upgrading of Camp Cardinal Boulevard and the traffic circle proposed to be
designed as part of that. They did support staffs condition that comes to you tonight as
well. The conditional zoning agreement for this property has been signed. A protest
petition has been filed which was in your packet as of five o'clock this evening. That
protest petition did not include enough signatures to change the threshold of the vote.
That concludes quit staff report and I'm happy to answer questions.
Teague: Hearing no questions.
Alter: I'm just trying to formulate one. Can you speak a little bit more, because I was struck in
the presentation about normally the recommendation is to not use cul-de-sacs except in
certain cases. And so I wanted to hear a little bit more about why it is that there's in this
case a cul-de-sac is being recorded or approved.
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Sitzman: So in the comprehensive plan we we generally signal what is the best intention and the
best kind of design. But we always leave a caveat for just in case because never say
never. There are times when putting a street through something would actually be more
destructive than simply allowing for a dead-end street are cul-de-sac to be the design
choice. So typically, the comprehensive plan was discouraged cul-de-sacs and emphasize
stubbing a street so that it can connect to a future extension of another road in the future.
However, this development really doesn't have that opportunity in a lot of ways. To the
north, there's nothing to connect to because it's already developed as a loop street with no
way to stub into this. Plus it would be impacting the creek and the trees if it were to go to
the north. There's already an east -west connection included in this development. There's
not really a good opportunity for southern connection. So as often is the instance of the
instance, the road tends to follow the ridge line and development comes off of that and to
get as much development as possible without further impacting the sensitive areas, the
best choice oftentimes the cul-de-sac, a little bit of a road but not a connection to
something else. So that's the caveat in this case.
Burges: Danielle, I have just some maybe kinda backup contextual questions to really put you on
the spot. So you very well spoke about the compliance with the sensitive areas ordinance
relating to the slopes and relating to the wetlands and the woodlands. And maybe if you
could just maybe very briefly explain what actions are prohibited or allowed, like what
does that mean if it's complying with the sensitive areas ord-ordinance for each of those
three things.
Sitzman: So the sensitive areas ordinanc is intended to identify things that should be protected
and then to put limits on how much of the disturbance is allowable and at what point can
you do no more disturbance than that. So depending on the resources there are different
limits. So wetlands are protected with a buffer, woodlands tend to be a calculation of
percent impact. And slopes, like I said, there's steep, steeper and steepest and you can do
something slightly different depending on the steepness. So there's a point where the
slope where we say absolutely 0 impact is allowed except for these two things. And in
this case those two things are in play. So with the steepest slope, the protected slopes, in
this case, it would be their steep slopes because there were manmade slopes. They're not
a natural slope that we're trying to protect. Or there's some place where a critical piece of
infrastructure must go. And so it's kind of a trade-off between what's, what's better --to put
the infrastructure someplace else where it's less efficient or to put it through the slope
where it's a little bit of a risk, but it's not somebody's house that's sitting there on a very
steep slope. For wetlands, like I mentioned, there's buffering that's required. But looking
at the health of the wetland is important. So sometimes a buffer needs to be wider in
certain spots for the wetland to really be ecologically healthy and it can be a little bit
narrow in other spots. If it's the less quality part of the wetland maybe they can average
out those more critical parts with the less critical parts. Also, as a kind of very last case, if
the wetland must be impacted, as long as you are establishing more wetland someplace
else, so banking it up someplace else, that's acceptable. We generally ask that if you're
going to impact it that it's not a one-to-one trade-off. You impact some amount and you
build back even more. Um, preferably it's onsite and that's the case here so doing an on -
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site, on-site improvement of the wetland, taking away a little bit of it and re-establishing
more of it in another place.
Bergus: And so when you say the evaluation is done and this was at a higher level because of the
degree of sensitive areas. Did I understand that right?
Sitzman: Yes. So we asked for the developer to actually hire a specialist, a scientists who knows
how each one of these resources is ecologically maintained and can go out and do field
site and then help their engineers drop a plan that shows on the plan where those areas are
and then do the math and the area calculations to let us know by each part of our
ordinance and what they're impacting. Staff reviews that exhibit as prepared by the
developers, specialists and their engineers.
Bergus: Thank you.
Thomas: Danielle, on the um, on the these drawings that long cul-de-sac is, it's oriented north -
south. Usually that's pointing up, but anyway, yeah, that's probably better. So with the
construction work, that's required to create that cul-de-sac, and the grades north of the
road termination there, will tie into existing grades further to the north simply by a graded
slope. Is that, is that not correct? In other words there arent any retaining walls.
Sitzman: Sure. You're right. There's no engineered uh...
Thomas: Transition.
Sitzman: Transition, right. It's a stream bed to the north and then it goes down to the stream and
then backup to the development to the north.
Thomas: Right. Okay. Thanks.
Sitzman: Grading, or in fact, by just not touching it, leaving the existing grades there as much as
possible. Anything else?
Weiner: There were some there were some concerns expressed in some of the correspondence
that we that we read about erosion along that, along that stream bed. Is that, is that a part
of this particular development or is that part of part of the already existing development
to the north?
Sitzman: So if neighbors are seeing erosion occurring now, it would be from existing
development in some way. So that's where we went and actually the staff went out to
double-check that they were not seeing unexpected amounts of erosion. Erosion is a
natural process that's going to occur. The purpose of our ordinance is to just to limit the
impact of development, to not create more erosion that would naturally occur. And so the
stormwater systems are engineered to hold water and release water at a rate that's roughly
equivalent to what it was before development happened. So because that existing or
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orginal detention basin is already built, it's been functioning for several years, we went
out to double-check to make sure there wasn't some failing part of that, that was perhaps
contributing to more erosion than we would expect to see. The reports we got back from
the field was that the creek was actually in pretty great shape. There wasn't an observable
significant amount of erosion, and there's a lot of vegetation actually helping to stabilize
that stream. So that would be something that we would continue to look at, but we would
expect the engineering on that to anticipate those as part of the design so that it should
function as it's designed.
Weiner: Thank you.
Teague: Alright, thank you. I understand the development team is here. I don't know if you all
have any comments you wanted to make the council. Welcome.
Walton: Hello. My name is Jason Walton. I'm the Navigate Homes Development Vice -President
and I would just like to thank Mayor Teague and the Council for your time here and
especially thank the planning staff. This has been a very difficult project to work on, as
you've probably heard during the staff report on the extensive hills and wetlands and stuff
that we've had to navigate around to make this project work. We've been working in that
area for a good many years now. Prior to my employment at Navigate Homes. It's been
exciting to see it come together. It's a wonderful part of the city. We just fmished up
Cardinal Point West part three. We're excited to get homes started m there. The staff
report that I received from the planning staff here at the City, I've read through, and I
agree with it 100%. And I would just ask on behalf of Navigate Homes that the Council
would approve the plan as is as allowed by the City ordinances that are in place. And
that's all I got. Does anybody have any questions for me? I, also, technical questions I
have my engineer here, so don't go down that road and try to try to ask me those type of
questions because you won't get a very good answer from me.
Bergus: I do have, I have some questions just about the site layout and I think I understand the
topography as it goes. As Danielle was saying, the road kind of along the ridge line, cul-
de-sac at the north, and then slopes down to the creek and then kinda up into on the, not
on your property, on the next property kinda goes up into the backyards. So looking at
what we have in our packet includes the preliminary plat, and I think it's the sensitive
area overlay that includes the topo lines that I'm looking at and it also has the edge of the
existing woodlands demarcated on there. I just want to kinda go through some distances
of what we're looking at. I think we have the northernmost edge of the cul-de-sac and the
what will be platted on the plans approved lots would be, and then kind of a conservation
area or a an area that will not be developed that includes some of those more sensitive
areas and the existing woodlands. Do you happen to know the distance from that
northernmost lot edge at the end of the cul-de-sac, at the top of the bulb, to your northern
property line. It's kind of a weird shape because it goes a lot further out as you go east.
But I'm just looking at kind of like where the closest homes to the north would be. Do
you have a sense of that?
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Walton: From lot to lot --I think it's a lot to back door --and Brian did bring some of that
information tonight, kind of anticipating this question. We've got it with us. I don't know
if he's got the what specifically you're talking about. We have about 400 feet from I
believe it's from house to house. If I remember off of memory. From house to house.
That's not lot line to lot line, that's house to house. So that's the view shed, what you've
got is 400 feet and there's a good number of mature trees in-between there along with the
creek that was mentioned before. There's quite a bit of trees down there. Brian and I
actually walked it last week and it was difficult to get through there. There is a lot of
growth down there. I was really surprised at how well, just how much being from Iowa,
living in Iowa, living out on the farms and being around a lot of creeks and a lot of this
type of stuff, I couldn't believe how well and how much was growing. There's grass
growing down in the creek, there's trees growing up on the banks. I lived on 50 acres here
not too long ago where my creek was in far worse shape. It was all natural. But this thing
is really holding it. I was really surprised at how well, if you have erosion, you don't have
trees growing out of the banks of the, I mean, there's some there obviously, Pm no expert
there, but just from what I witnessed and what I've actually seen him being out around.
It's it's pretty well established. So there's a good amount of trees there, there's a good
amount of space there. We're trying to conserve as much as we can in that which we
have. And a lot of it's due to the sensitive areas and whatnot, but it also brings just a lot of
appeal to the area and people that will live there will truly enjoy that space as well. So
Brian might have the technical, more, more technical, like lot line to lot line or maybe
some more measurements that he can bring up an address and maybe answer that
question a little more thoroughly than I can at this point, but.
Bergus: Just while you're here at Jason, just the, or you're not planning to disturb anything in
that, in that, I guess we'd say a lot line to lot line because obviously up to the home there's
probably going to be some amount of yard.
Walton: Right.
Bergus: But in that from lot line to lot line, are you taking out any trees or changing the slope?
Walton: Absolutely not. Well, I should say, we will absolutely not disturb any more trees than
what we have to, because keeping the integrity of the timber that's there is important to us
on several fronts. The most obvious one from a business standpoint is that it helps sell the
houses. People love big mature trees in the back of the house. Myself included. There is
one spot that there has been some trees already removed years before, prior to my
employment here. There was, actually I was working with Southgate at that time, not for
them, but when we are working on The Grove project across the street to the west, and at
that time they, we had gotten that Grove approved four buildings and so they went ahead
and started the sewer line tree removal there. So those trees are down. There will be some
disturbance for that sewer line. But any of the major trees are already down there.
They've been down for about three or four years I think at least. Um, and then we do plan
on replacing some trees down there. Decent trees, they're listed of what we're going to
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plant to replenish the area there once we go through there. But we'll do the minimal
possible because it's in our interest as well.
Bergus: And that last part you're talking about is along that sanitary sewer easement?
Walter: Yes.
Bergus: Alright. Okay.
Walton: Other than that, we're going to do everything we can to minimize any tree removal on
any of the lots. There's only going to be tree removal where absolutely necessary and
were permitted. We will absolutely not touch anything that we're not permitted. So.
Bergus: Thank you.
Walton: Anything else?
Teague: Thank you.
Walter: Thank you, Council.
Teague: Great. We're going to open up for public discussion on this item. Did you have a
comment?
Walton: ...30 feet from the property line.
Teague: Thank you. Alright. We're going to open it up for a public discussion. If you're online,
will ask that you raise your hand, but if you're in-person remember to sign in, but also
give us your name, your first and last name, and the city you're from.Welcome.
Winborn: Well, good evening.Thank you again for letting me appear. And I guess third time's
the charm. And my name is Erik Winborn. I live at 862 Ryan Court and we live directly
beside the project. The uh, the letter of opposition you have in the file really expresses
our opposition well. Thank you. Members of City Council for the excellent questions.
And I'll make a few clarifying comments. First, there was some discussion about the
creek. Our homeowners association owns over half the creek.We own half of the
watershed below that hill. So it's not as though we don't have an interest in that watershed
because it's our homeowners association property. And second, what we really oppose
are the four duplexes that are planned to be built on the hillside overlooking the
watershed, the sensitive areas of wetlands and so on. And we wouldn't be here tonight if
that plan or project didn't include the four duplexes. If the four duplexes are taken out,
the owner hasn't suffered any damages. Their building 18 duplexes, the multiunit
complex, and the town homes. Then there was a lot of discussion about the the cul-de-
sac. Both the comprehensive plan and the city code is very clear in discouraging and
having a policy against cul-de-sacs. Once again, we wouldn't be here tonight if that cul -
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de -sac wasn't approved that feeds the north end of the project. That cul-de-sac will allow
those four duplexes to be built on the side of the hill, destroying 40 -year-old mature trees,
building over sensitive woodlands or sensitive areas, and being built over our creek and
our watershed. Now the staff report extensively references negative impacts and talks
about negative impacts on sensitive areas, woodlands, wetlands, steep and critical
protected slopes. But then the report says it meets all the minimum standards. So I guess I
ask the City Council, does Iowa City want to be known as the city of minimum standards
or do we want to be known as protecting the environment? Once again, like I said, we
wouldn't be here if it wasn't for those four duplexes. So I'm confident that City Council
will side with a comprehensive plan and the city code in really recognizing our precious
natural resources. And I'm available for any questions that you might have. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Online as Dan, I'm going to walk them down at this time. Welcome. You're
on mute.
Fishburn: Can you hear me now?
Teague: Yes. Welcome.
Fishburn: Good evening.My name is Dan Fishburn. I reside at 832 Ryan Court with my wife,
Cindy, and we live in one of the, the building that is probably closest to the proposed
development. And I would agree with Erik Winborn's comments and would join in those.
When we purchased our home almost four years ago, we realized that this area to our
south might eventually be developed. But in looking around Iowa City and the way that
the city has been developed and the protection of green space, we felt confident that the
City would hopefully maintain that hillside beyond, behind our home to the south. And
what we are objecting to are the two buildings, four duplex units being built on what is
shown on the plat as lots 6 and 7 at the north end of the duplex. And we're requesting that
the plan be modified to eliminate those two buildings and preserve the hillside. There was
some testimony that indicated that it's 400 feet from building to building, but it's not 400
feet on flat ground. It's 400 feet at an angle going up in the air, which, which means that
those two buildings will be much closer to our unit than 400 feet. And on top of that,
they're going to be looking down on top of us. The other thing that I think, which Erik
didn't touch on, I think our neighborhood group feels that we filed a sufficient number of
protests in our petition to require more than a majority vote by the City Council. And I
think that Mr. Winborn could speak to that because he actually filed the documents with
the the City Clerk. And our understanding from the initial documents we got from the
City way back at the start of this, is that the adjacent owners for purposes of your
ordinance or, were all of the owners of the duplexes along Ryan Court, and there are
seven or eight of those and a significant number of those people have joined in a protest.
So I'm not quite sure where the comment from staff came that there were not sufficient
number of protests filed. Thank you very much.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic? Welcome. Please give your name and
the city you're from.
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Gedlinske: Hi. My name is Mark Gedlinske. I live at 834 Ryan Court in Iowa City, so I live in-
between Erik and Dan who just spok. In 1958 we moved to Iowa City and we've lived
across, or next to Ralston Creek out on the east side of Iowa City. At that time it was a
dry creek. Well, a few years later, after development started in that area, we experienced
significant flooding in our backyard. So that's what I grew up with and I don't want that
flooding to happen in my backyard at my new house on Ryan Court. We talked a little bit
about the Camp Cardinal Creek that goes back behind the properties. And I'd love to
invite any of you that would like to take a tour to come out there and see the little, the
ravine that we have. I was out there a few weeks ago and walked down to the bottom of
the creek bed and the erosion along the sides, and the height of the ground, it was was at
least two to three feet above the top of my head when I'm standing down there. So it's not
this little creek going through the neighborhood. There's a significant amount of erosion
that we can point out to you. Well, that's affected by things we really can't control,
whether it's rain, rainfall, or water flowing down from slopes or in our case, the retention
pond that is on the west side of Camp Cardinal. We can't control any of those, but our
homeowners association as responsible for that creek when it crosses our property. The
one thing we could control is to try to reduce any anything that might affect that flow of
water or the erosion or the drainage and the I totally agree with the idea of pushing back
on that north cul-de-sac, moving that off the slopes, and moving that further south. I think
that would allay our fears about about what could possibly impact our creek area. Thank
you.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else? Welcome.
Hedlund: My name is Steve Hedlund. I live at 864 Ryan Court. I would like to echo my
opposition to how the zoning is as it stands. I would support the removal of two to four of
those most northerly duplexes. The area north of them, that slope is not a slope. It's a
ledge. If you go out and look at it, you can't believe how steep that is. Placing homes on
that downslope or ledge, as I like to call it, it's going to create erosion problems. It's, it's,
it's not a good idea and it's taking out many, many, many old growth trees.The whole
project is going to remove 12 acres of trees. The buffer zone is a little over 16 yards. I
make putts longer than that and on the golf course. So I would strongly support removal
of those most northerly duplexes. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Is there anyone online or in person that want to give any more comments on
this agenda item? Seein and no one... before I close the public hearing, I just want to ask
council if they're inclined to vote in accordance with the P&Z recommendation. Alright.
I'm going to close the public hearing. Can I get a motion to give first consideration?
Thomas: Move Thomas.
Bergus: Second, Bergus.
Teague: Council discussion.
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Bergus: I just want to thank the advocacy of the neighbors and asking a lot of questions and
pointing out their concerns. And I appreciate staff explaining and the developer
explaining how we mitigate those types of concerns and look to make sure that this
would be constructed in a way that can's impact, for example, can't cause flooding on the
adjacent property and that we have engineers who evaluate that and make sure that that is
the case and review that internally. So thank you everyone for your thoroughness and
care.
Taylor: I also appreciate the neighbors comments on this because it's certainly things that I'd
thought about and we always talk about as far as the effect on the environment and
especially slopes and sensitive areas. And I do have concerns about it, I think you've
raised some very good concerns and I appreciate the fact that it's not the entire project
that you're against. It's, it's very specific that it's those duplexes. So I'm inclined to listen
to those concerns and consider those.
Teague: I do think the concerns were valid when it comes in relationship to the stormwater
specifically. There's an additional stormwater detention basin, I think is good. I do hear
all the residents, really appreciate you coming and bringing up these concerns so that
when this does, if this should be approved and it moves forward, I think we'll be paying
extra attention to just make sure that some of the things that you anticipated or you've
mentioned as far as flooding, no one wants their home to be flooded, absolutely not, but
make sure that that is carefully executed in this project.
Alter: I'm struck by how knowledgeable the neighbors are and how much they've aligned with
actually the studies that have been done to what is allowed, what is not allowed in order
to make sure that the very concerns that you have or assuaged. I know that it's important,
especially you were talking about being in the Home Owners Association, who is
responsible for some of the watershed and whatnot. And so I think that I echo what the
Mayor said, that we will be paying particular attention if this goes forward to make sure
that everything is executed in a way that you're not left holding the bag.
Thomas: Well, I know in my time that I've served on the Planning and Zoning Commission and
on the City Council, I've always had a deep concern about how projects affect
neighboring properties. And in looking at this project, it does appear to me that given the,
the distance that will exist between your properties and the proposed development, which
depending how you want to measure it at somewhere between three to 400 feet. Coupled
with the fact that what is being proposed or essentially the same type of building as those
that you live in. It's not a large bulky project at the top of the hill. It's very similar to the
houses you live in yourselves. In some ways almost mirror what you have. And so these
will be houses that will be consistent with the character of your your street in your
neighborhood. That coupled with the distance between the two developments and the fact
that it will be, for the most part, vegetated with existing woodland, seems to me to have
satisfactorily addressed the transition or coexistence, if you will, between what's being
proposed and where you live now. I understand, and I would no doubt be like you in that
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I would be attached with the existing condition. I mean, there's a natural slope woodland
there that you've been living with for some time. At the same time, it seems to me that
what's being proposed here will not dramatically influence your experience from your
property.
Bergus: Could we have clarification from staff on the protest petition question?
Goers: . What's your question?
Bergus: I, one of the public commenters, I think Mr. Fishburn, indicated that he thought there
were sufficient signatures to elevate the threshold for approval.
Goers: I've been monitoring that and as of last Friday, they needed an additional 151 thousand
square feet.They had achieved about 60, 61 or 62 thousand square feet and had 151
thousand square feet to go. I've been monitoring it throughout the day now that the, to see
if there are any additional protests. It's my understanding that none, no more came in, so
they did not meet that threshold. I understood the one commenter to say something to the
effect that the only properties that would matter would be the houses that border the
property to the north. I don t know where he would have gotten that idea. That is
defmitely not how our ordinance works.
Bergus: Okay. So just to be clear, this is a simple majority.
Goers: Simple majority will be required to carry the day.
Bergus: Thank you. Eric.
Harmsen: Could, could I just, can you explain just a little bit more about you said, how does this
work just for those of us that are new?
Goers: Sure. So the question about the protests has been whether or not at least 20% of the
property, not 20% of property owners, people who control 20% of the property within
200 feet of the development wish to protest. If that threshold is achieved then a three-
fourths vote, that is, six out of seven council members, would be required to accomplish
the rezoning. In the absence of that, as a Councilor Bergus mentioned simple majority
carries the day.
Harmsen: Thank you.
Goers: Sure.
Teague: Any other comments from councilors?
Weiner: The only thing I'd add is sort of analogous to what Councilor Thomas said is that I was
struck in addition to everything else that's been said, which I really appreciate by the ,by
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one of the members of P and Z who drove out there and looked at the, looked at the
developments and said that it really would be a mirror, a mirror development very similar
to the one that currently exists on on Ryan Court and fit in very well. That's all.
Teague: Alright. If no more comments by council, roll -call, please.[Roll call]. Motion passes six
to one. Could I get a motion to accept correspondence?
Weiner: So moved.
Alter: Second.
Teague: Moved by Weiner, seconded by Alter. All in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Teague: Any oppose? Motion passes 7-0.
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10.b. Rezoning — 518 Bowery St. - ordinance conditionally rezoning approximately
1,470 square feet of property located at 518 Bowery Street from High Density Multi -
Family Residential zone with a Historic District Overlay (OHD/RM-44) to
Neighborhood Commercial zone with a Historic District Overlay (OHD/CN-2)
(REZ22-0010).
Teague: Item number 10.b is a rezoning of 518 Bowery Street. This ordinance conditionally
rezoning approximately 1470 square feet of property located at 1518 Bowery Street, from
high density multifamily residential zone with a historic district overlay, to neighborhood
commercial zone with a historic district overlay. I'm going to open the public hearing,
and I'm going to welcome, Danielle.
Sitzman: Thank you again, Mayor. As you mentioned, this is a rezoning of just a single property
at 518 Bowery Street located here in the white outline on the southeast side of downtown,
essentially. The applicant is requesting this rezoning to establish a coffee shop at this
location. This property has a long history. This was one of the original commercial
locations before there was such a thing as zoning in Iowa City. And it has remained a
commercial activity throughout the years until just recently when it was vacant for long
enough that it was no longer to be considered a grandfathered property. And then it ran
afoul of our zoning. Requested action tonight is to rezone this to a zoning district that
encourages and it would make it simpler to do neighborhood commercial in this location.
As I mentioned, 518 Bowerly actually has an overlay zoning on it for historic as well as
it's a local historic landmark shown here. The barrel roof might look familiar to some
folks. So it's currently zoned (RM -44), which is a high density multifamily district, which
is what is around it, that brown colors the neighborhood around it, which is also (RM -44).
They're seeking to rezone it to (CN -1) neighborhood commercial. As I said, to re-
establish a commercial use there as a coffee shop. This building was built some time in
the 1800s, mid 1800s, 1856 to 64, as far as we can trace back and a lot of our records.
And then over the years has maintained a commercial use off and on through special
exceptions or because it was grandfathered in. And as I mentioned, for a period of time
recently became vacant and it lost the ability to go back and ask for a special exception to
allow the establishment of a commercial use. So the rezoning, as I mentioned, is a way
forward for continuing to encourage neighborhood commercial. CN1 is a district that
allows for and encourages neighborhood shopping areas conveniently located in
neighborhoods, embedded in neighborhoods promoting smaller sized commercial uses to
serve just essentially the neighborhood around it, and to therefore, not have a large
impact on the neighborhood fabric. Current (RM -44) zoning district actually makes this
property non -conforming for a lot of the zoning dimensional standards. So things like lot
requirements, frontage, setbacks, things like that, in its current zoning districts, it's not
conforming with. Switching it to the (CN -1) zoning actually alleviates a lot of those non-
conformity situations because the (CN -1) zoning doesn't have those standards. So it's
improving the fit of this development with the zoning class that it would be designated as.
Nothing would change in regards to the historic designation. That overlay district gets
carried forward forward regardless. This is just an exhibit showing the kinds of uses
aloud in (CN -1). To do a rezoning just the two simple criteria in this case, consistency
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with the comprehensive plan and with compatibility with the neighborhood. I'm as far as
a comprehensive plan, it defmitely encourages and acknowledges that there are these
situations out there. The district plan actually mentions this and several other properties
that were historically commercial embedded in residential neighborhoods. So defmitely
encouraging goals with the comprehensive plan to rezone it. Actually, the (RM -44)
district probably puts an incentive for redevelopment of a site that we would be at cross
purposes with trying to preserve it for historic purposes. So it's a good opportunity to
move this property into a more conforming situation and a more appropriate and
transparent zoning classification. So like I said, this is compatible with the existing
neighborhood despite its size and by the fact that it really cannot grow beyond serving the
neighborhood. It's constrained and its size is small. It doesn't have a lot of parking, so it's
really just going to serve the immediate neighborhood around it. I'm talking a little bit
about the parking --because it is a historic property they have the ability to ask for a
special exception to reduce their parking load. That's great. That's some of the flexibility
that we built in recently to encourage adaptive reuse of historic properties that we expect
will make use of that but really not intended to generate a lot of vehicle traffic to the site.
People are probably more likely to walk or bike to pick up coffee. So as I said, this has a
long history, so I was actually able to build this slide out a little bit more than I typically
would. Down there at the bottom in the green section, they're just talking about a
rezoning tonight. And then if they need to do anything to rehab the building, there would
be building permits. They're not intending to do anything to the exterior, but if they were
someday to make exterior changes that we go to historic preservation because of the
zoning overlay for historic. So they did hold a good neighbor meeting. Nobody attended.
Nobody had great concerns about this that we heard about. Staff did recommend one
condition with some hours of operation. And actually, the Planning and Zoning
Commission chose to alter staffs recommendation and make the hours of operation a
little bit earlier in the morning. Not being a morning person, I don't really anticipate being
there at 6 AM, but wanted to give the business the maximum flexibility to operate. So
they changed the only recommended condition to being a six AM start time. So it is
coming to you tonight with the recommendation of approval from the Planning and
Zoning Commission, and there has been a conditional zoning agreement signed. So this
one is in good standing and I'm happy to answer questions.
Teague: Alright, Thank you. Anyone from the public like to address this? And seeing no one
online either. Before I close this public hearing, just wanted to see if council is inclined to
vote with P&Z. Alright. I'm going to close the public hearing and can I get a motion to
give first consideration.
Weiner: So moved, Weiner.
Taylor: Second. Taylor.
Teague: Council discussion.
Bergus: I like this.
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Alter: Yeah, looks good.
Bergus: It is a better use instead of (RM -44).
Weiner: A great addition to the neighborhood.
Taylor: Yeah.
Weiner: When we're talking about walkability and being able to do things within 10 to 15
minutes from your home.
Taylor: A great reuse of a historic building.
Bergus: And they talk a lot about neighborhood commercial. So it's exciting to see it hopefully
happening here.
Alter: I go by this quite a bit, almost every day and every time that I've gone by it in the past
years when there was something I was like oh, is that, because I was thinking it is perfect
for a coffee shop or something like that. It never quite got traction of the different places
that whatever was in there before. So on a personal note, I'm psyched that this is going
forward. I think it's gonna be great for the neighborhood.
Teague: Alright. Roll call, please. [Roll call] Motion passes 7 - 0.
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11. 2022 Sanitary Sewer Manhole and Pipe Rehability Construction — Resolution
approving project manual and estimate of cost for the construction of the 2022
Sanitary Sewer Manhole and Pipe Rehability Construction Project, establishing
amount of bid security to accompany each bid, directing City Clerk to post notice to
bidders, and fixing time and place for receipt of bids.
Teague: Item number 11. 2022 sanitary sewer manhole and pipe rehabilitation construction,
resolution approving project manual and estimate of cost for the construction of the 2022
sanitary sewer manhole and pipe rehabilitation construction project. Establish an amount
of bid security to accompany each bid, directing City Clerk to notice, to post notice to
bidders and fixing time and place for receipt of bids. I'm going to open the public
hearing. And welcome Scott.
Sovers: Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Scott Sovers. I'm the Assistant City
Engineer. Tonight I'm going to provide you a brief overview of the 2022 Sanitary Sewer
Manhole and Pipe Rehabilitation Project. This rehabilitation project is a part of our
annual sewer maintenance and repair program. Within this program, the City reviews the
condition of city -owned sanitary sewer, main and manholes. Many of the pipes and
manholes contain deficiencies that can be real, excuse me, rehabilitated through a lining
process. Advantage of this process is that it's significantly less disruptive to build public
infrastructure on adjacent properties because it does not require excavations.
Additionally, it is more cost-effective than full removal and replacement. This years
rehab, rehabilitation projects includes the lining of approximately 11,500 feet of sanitary
sewer main and 46 sanitary sewer manholes. The locations that we'll be focusing on this
year are North Dubuque Street, Tanglewood Street, Ventura Avenue, an area around the
Montrose Avenue and Rochester Avenue intersection, throughout the Rochester Avenue
corridor, Rochester Court, Windsor Court, Ridgewood Drive, California Avenue,
Grantwood Drive and Russel Drive. The estimated construction costs for this project is
$550 thousand. As far as schedule goes, we're hosting the public hearing tonight,
September 6th. The bid letting will be on September 22nd. Then we'll be bringing this
back to you for award at the October 3rd meeting. Construction is scheduled for October,
late October through June of next year, 2023. That concludes my presentation. I'd be
happy to answer any questions that you -all have.
Weiner: What's, since it's within existing sewers and manholes, does that mean that the
disruption to the neighborhoods involved is minimal?
Sovers: Absolutely, yeah. So there's basically just aligning process that goes down through the
manholes, the existing manholes, That's how they access the sewer. So there are no
excavations. So the disruption is very minimal.
Weiner: Thank you.
Thomas: What what's the anticipated life of the liners?
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Sovers: Studies show about 50 years. Fairly fairly long life on.
Thomas: Okay.
Teague: Alright, thank you. Anyone from the public link to address this topic? Seeing noone, I'm
going to close the public hearing. Can I get a motion to approve, please.
Alter: So moved.
Thomas: Second Thomas.
Teague: Moved by Alter, seconded by Thomas. Council discussion. Roll call, please. [Roll Call]
Motion passes 7 - 0.
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12. The Konnexion tobacco penalty — Resolution assessing $300.00 civil penalty against The
Konnexion.
Teague: Item number 12. I may not get this right. The Konnexion tobacco penalty. Resolution
assessing $300 civil penalty against the Konnexion. Can I get a motion to approve?
Harmsen: So moved, Harmsen.
Weiner: Second, Weiner.
Teague: Alright. Any staff comments on this?
Fruin: Sergeant Paul Batcheller from the Police Department that oversees the tobacco penalty
process. So, sergeant, maybe you can just give a quick overview on what this looks like.
Teague: And maybe Sargeant can correct the pronunciation.
Batcheller: It's the Konnexion.
Teague: Thank you.
Batcheller: Yes. So I oversee our tobacco compliance program with the Police Department. The
Police Department and the ABD through the State. We have a grant that requires that we
check every business in our city limits at least once per year to ensure compliance and
any failure or business that has a failure during that compliance check has to be
rechecked. But during that process, we check as many. I'm sorry, with each of the
businesses, we checked, in this situation, we checked 55 businesses. 45 of them failed
this time around in 2022. The Konnexion sold to our under age person who was 17. State
law changed two years ago to require that the person purchasing any type of tobacco,
tobaccoless tobacco or vape products be 21 years old. In this situation, we use somebody
who has 17, who looked 17, and sent them into the businesses and we still had these
failures take place. With the Konnexion itself on June 30th around 02:00 PM, the
underage person went in. The employee asked for ID, glanced at it and handed it back
and sold the tobacco product. The employee involved in this situation pled guilty on July
20th, after we cited the person with providing tobacco to a person under age 21.
Harmson: Did you say 45 out of 55 failed this?
Batcheller: No, I'm sorry. 45 passed out of 55 businesses. Maybe I misspoke. I apologize. Still
not, not the best thing.
Harmsen: I thought maybe we would do these in batches. Now I understand.
Teague: Any questions?
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Taylor: We did have a lot of these in both our consent calendar and now in our regular agenda. I
just had a question as when they apply for the permit, tobacco permit or they required
that all these companies to have any sort of in-service to their employees that instructs
them of the rules and how to spot fake IDs or or young people?
Batcheller: That's a very good question. My understanding, and obviously I don't work for any of
these businesses, but they partner up under what's called the I -PLEDGE program through
the ABD, that requires that they provide training to their employees. The employees are
instructed much the same as they are for alcohol sales, that they have to make a
reasonable attempt to determine the person's age prior to selling them these products.
Taylor: Thank you.
Goers: I would just add that state code kind of grants a get out of jail free card for those who
have been through that training and yet sold anyway. They can present the certificate
moving forward no more than once every four years. And then there's no civil penalty. So
one would assume since we haven't seen any indication of that in any of the three cases
that are before you tonight that they did not receive that training.
Alter: Who pays the fine? Is that the person is it that the store or is it the employer, or is it the
person who sold the.
Batcheller: So the employee will receive a citation for providing tobacco to a person under age
21. And then the city, by virtue of the ABD, has the authority to put a fine against the
company or the business.
Goers: Yeah, the employee paid the criminal fine and then the business pays the civil penalty.
The civil penalties, what's before you tonight.
Alter: Thank you.
Taylor: Okay.
Bergus: Just very quickly on the facts of this, you'd mentioned that the employee, like, looked at
the ID and just to clarify that ID said the person was 17, right?
Batcheller: That's that's correct. Part of our program and I should have probably said this part of
our program is that the person is briefed prior to working with us, that they have to if the
person asked them their age, they have to be honest and tell them they can't do anything
deceptive m any way. If they asked for their real driver's license, they have to hand them
their real driver's license. And it's just a straightforward compliance check. And so if they
take any type of reasonable attempt by looking at the license because if they're under age
21, that's going to be vertical, not horizontal, and it's stamped that they're under age 21,
any type of reasonable attempt. So we don't use out-of-state kids. We don't use any type
of they can't use any type of fake IDs. And to ensure that that process is valid, we we
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search the person prior to them working with us to make sure there's not a fake ID or
anything like that. In addition, we operate in plain clothes within visual distance. And as
often as we can we try and listen at the counter. We might be buying a pack of gum or
something in line behind him to ensure that it's a straightforward compliance check. So
we don't issue the citation till we're 100% sure.
Bergus: Thank you.
Teague: Alright. Thank you. And is there any representative from the business here? Seeing no
one, Council discussion. Roll -call, please. [Roll call] Motion passes 7-0.
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13. RJ'Z Express tobacco penalty — Resolution assessing $300.00 civil penalty against RJ'Z
Express.
Teague: Item number 13 is RJ'Z tobacco penalty resolution, assess an $300.00 civil penalty
against our RJ'Z Express. Can I get a motion to approve?
Weiner: So moved. Weiner.
Taylor: Second. Taylor.
Teague: Moved by Weiner, seconded by Taylor. And welcome again, Sergeant.
Batcheller: Yes, this is very much the same that I just described. This was on June 30th at 04:50
PM. The person working with us went into RJ'Z Express 2 Escort Lane. Went there and
in this situation, bought a pack of Newport cigarettes. The employee got the cigarettes,
sold them without asking for any type of ID, age, date of birth, anything, and just sold the
person. The employee involved to pled guilty on July 15th of 2022 after being cited by
us.
Teague: Any questions by council? Would a representative from this business like to speak at
this time? Seeing noone, council discussion. Roll call, please. [Roll call] Motion passes 7
-0.
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Item 14. Almost Paradise tobacco penalty — Resolution assessing $300 civil penalty against
Almost Paradise.
Teague: Item number 15 up in smoke tobacco penalty.
Fruehling: You missed 14.
Teague: Oh, yes.
Weiner: Almost paradise.
Teague: Item number 14, Almost Paradise tobacco penalty. Resolution assessing $300 civil
penalty against Almost Paradise. Can I get a motion to approve, please?
Alter: So moved.
Weiner: Second.
Teague: Moved by Alter, seconded by Weiner. And welcome again, Sergeant.
Batcheller: Thank you. In this instance, the same date, June 30th, around 01:00 PM, the underage
person went into Almost Paradise. Bought a, requested a package of Escobar's vape
cartridge which is a, contains nicotine. Employee got it, didn't ask for any type of ID or
any age, and completed the sale. The employee was then cited and pled guilty on July
15th of 2022.
Teague: Any questions? Is there a representative from this business they would like to speak at
this time? Seeing noone council discussion. Roll call, please. [Roll call]. Item passes 7 -
0.
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15. Up In Smoke tobacco penalty — resolution assessing $1500.00 civil penalty against Up In
Smoke.
Teague: Item 15. up in smoke tobacco penalty, resolution assessment, $1500. Civil penalty
against up in smoke. Kind of get a motion to approve, please.
Weiner: So moved. Weiner.
Taylor: Second, Taylor.
Teague: All right. Welcome again, Sergeant.
Batcheller: How are you? Alright. On June 30th at 03:45 PM, again, the underage person went
in, requested a vape item. The employee obtained it. Began completing the sale, asked for
ID, glanced at it, didn't look at it, handed it back to the person, the underage person, and
completed the sale, and we issued a citation to the employee who then pled guilty on July
28th of 2022.
Teague: What was the age of the of the person with the ID?
Batcheller: This was the same person for all of these who has 17 -years -old.
Teague: Great. Thank you. Any questions Any more questions from council?
Weiner: So they've had they've had a couple of violations within the two-year period. That's why
the fine is elevated.
Batcheller: I would defer to Eric, but I believe that is the case.
Goers: That is the case, yes. It's second within two years.
Teague: Alright. Any other questions from council? Hearing none. Is there a representative from
the business. Seeing noone. Council discussion? Roll call, please. [Roll call] Motion
passes 7 - 0. Right.
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16. Council Appointments
16.A. Historic Preservation Commission — E. College St. — One vacant to fill a
three-year term, July 1, 2021— June 30, 2024 (formerly advertised).
Teague: We are on to item number 16, which is council appointments. Applicants must reside in
Iowa City and be 18 years of age unless specific qualifications are stated. 16.a is Historic
Preservation Commission. Historic Preservation Commission has one vacancy to fill a
three-year term, July 1, 2021 through June 30th, 2024. I'll go ahead and read the other
appointments. Well, we'll do this one. We'll do this one. Yeah. There was only one
applicant. Although their choice was their comments really were surrounding the Human
Rights Commission.
Weiner: That was all I was going to say is that we basically know nothing except they live in the
right place.
Taylor: Yeah.
Weiner: With respect to their interest in this. But they just applied and they applied for both.
Alter: Well and they did.
Weiner: They applied for both so.
Alter: I mean, they noted that they also were interested in HPC.
Bergus: Am I reading this right? This is one that's been opened for over a year.
Harmson: I would be okay with it.
Bergus: Yeah, I think we should.
Alter: I'm inclined to fill it.
Harmson: So do you want to do these individually, Mr. Mayor, or do them all and then vogte at
the end.
Teague: We will vote at the end. So yes, so I'm hearing support for Cole Eckhardt. Alright.
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16.b. Human Rights Commission — One vacancy to fill an unexpired term
Teague: And we're going to move on to item number 16.b Yes. Human Rights Commission.
Human Rights Commission, and one vacancy to fill an unexspired term effective upon
appointment through December 31st, 2024.
Weiner: My only note on this before we discuss is that we could, it's required to be a male in this
case, which cut out a lot of really good applicants. I'm always impressed by the caliber of
applicants, particularly for this commission, a couple of others. So thank you. Please
apply again.
Harmson: 22 applicants by my count.
Weiner: Or stick with it.
Alter: Well, I'm happy to throw a couple of names out just to start the discussion going of people
who impressed me. T.J. Dedeaux was one, I believe is art professor.
Thomas: That's a female.
Alter: Is that a female? Oh my gosh. I apologize. My apologies. I misread it.
Bergus: It was very impressive though.
Alter: I know I know her.
Weiner: Very impressive. Uses, appears to use they them pronouns but designated as female. I'm
not sure what we should do about our applications in this instance.
Alter: I misread. So I'm going to let other people go.
Taylor: I was impressed with Kim Gilmore Sr. I think he's applied before. Seems to have a good
knowledge of the HRC, good background, and stated that he's African-American, which
would help our diversity on our commissions. Just throw that one out there for you guys.
Weiner: I would also throw out, I don't feel strongly about any of these, but we have number of
really good applicants, but Doug Kollasch worked very hard, worked on Hawkeye Pride,
Alumni Network, LGBTQ and so forth. And also Matt Arnold.
Teague: So we have Kim, Doug, and Matt that I heard so far thrown out there. Any anybody
want to give support to either one of them?
Alter: One of the ones that stood out to me with Doug as well. Although Kim Gilmore was in
there as an Matt, they're all three very strong. But Doug with someone who struck me as
potentially being really good.
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Teague: I can support Doug.
Taylor: I liked his comment about, I think he was the one, described Iowa City as a beacon of
inclusion and equality. That was impressive.
Teague: Okay, so we will go with Doug Kollasch. Did I say that right?
Goers: Yes
Teague: Alright.
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16.c. Public Art Advisory Committee (Art or Design Profession) — one vacancy to fill an
unexpired term.
Teague: And then item 16.c Public Art Advisory Committee. Public Art Advisory Committee
one vacancy to fill an unexpired term, effective upon appointment through December
31st, 2022.
Fruehling: I just want to point out in your late handouts today, there was one more application
for this, so it was a revised coversheet with the application.
Teague: So also want to point out that this appointment is for less than six months. So if the
Council wishes, we can appoint for an unexpired term upon appointment, plus a full
three-year term. January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025.
Thomas: Well, I I'm acquainted with Jeremy and I think he would be a good candidate.
Taylor: I was impressed with Jeremy's application.
Teague: Any other comments?
Harmsen: Both applications looked good, but if people are good with Jeremy.
Teague: Alright.
Taylor: Endsley, lessly, ED, ENDSLEY, Endsley.
Teague: Well, well have to
Fruehling: Will that be for the unexpired plug plus or?
Teague: Do we want to do the unexpired plus so it'd be for sinexplored. So it'd be for six months
plus another 3?
Taylor: Sure, I am okay with that..
Teague: Alright. So could I get a mo...Um, Well we're already, I just do. Could I get a motion to
approve the Historic Preservation Commission? Appoint Cole Eckhart.
Weiner: Also, there's one for the senior center Commission as well.
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16.d. Senior Center Commission — One Vacancy to fill an unexpired term, effective
upon appointment - December
Teague: The next page. Okay. Before we do that, 16.d Senior Center Senior Center Commission.
Senior Center Commission when Vacas it feel uninspired term effective upon
appointment through December 31st, 2024. Alright, Sony about that.
Harmsen: One really good applicant.
Teague: And we're okay with that?
Fruin: Mayor, just want to I just want to make sure everybody realizes that the applicant is a city
employee.
Taylor: Isn't what?
Fruin: City employee, I don't know.
Alter: Is there a conflict?
Fruin: Go ahead.
Goers: Well, Ms. Lard, as a transit supervisor, if I recall, and the Board or Commission, you're
considering her for now as senior center commission. I don't think there'd be a conflict
between those two. Unlike, say, the Human Rights Commission or something which
would have or CPRB, which have a much broader perspective. The senior center, it
seems narrow and his focus, and it'd be hard for me to imagine that it'd be accomplished
if there was as it related to, let's say, parking and tower place, she would probably just
have to recuse herself from that. Okay.
Alter: May I ask them because she also she mentioned it in her application and I know her she is
one of the co-founders of the diversity market.
Goer: Yes.
Alter: So say there was some kind of like, wouldn't it be great to have a way to engage seniors
with the diversity market? Would that be an instance where she would also have to
recuse herself or would that be something that would could be like a welcome community
connection?
Goer: Would she have to recuse herself from the..
Alter: I don't know, from
Weiner; That is not a city issue.
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Alter: Its not a city issue, Right. I guess is that
Goers: well, I just want to make sure I understand like recuse herself from the discussions and
the senior center, is that what you're asking?
Alter: Yeah. If there was some plan that was like, Hey, let's get the seniors to come to the
diversity of market. How to how can we make that happen as a commission or
something?
Goers: Yeah. I would I would think probably not. That's a fact specific question.
Alter: Yeah, I realise that.
Goers: Obviously, if there's any kind of financial interests on her part or anything like that?
Alter: Okay
Goer: My memory is that she owns, I think JD beauty supply or something out there. So if
they're looked like there was a financial conflict then sure. But if it was just trying to be
more engaging of senior citizens [OVERLAPING] um, out there. No.
Alter: exactly. Okay. Great.
Teague: Alright. So I think we're ready for our appointments. Can I get a motion to approve the
following regards to the Historic Preservation Commission? Is College Street kind of get
a motion to appoint Cole Eckhart in relationship to the Human Rights Commission. Can I
get a motion to approve appoint Doug Kollasch in relationship to the public art
commission public art advisory committee. Could I get a motion to appoint for 6, um,
through December 31st, 2022, and also appoint for January first 2023 through December
31st, 2025. And that appointment will be for Jeremy Endsley And cut it. Also get a
motion to a point, harsh Tasha Lard to the senior center commission.
Taylor: So Moved.
Alter: Second.
Teague: Moved by Taylor, seconded by Alter. All in favor say aye. (Voice vote) Aye. Any
oppose? Motion passes 7 - 0.
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18. City Coucniil Information
Teague: And we are at city council information combine committee plus yes. Committee, all of
it.
Taylor: I'll start with Committee and Councilor Harmsen and I are on the rules committee. And
you can chime in if you want to.
Harmsen: Go right ahead.
Taylor: We met recently as you saw in both the consent agenda and commission meetings for the
CPRB and the HCDC, with weight changes to their bylaws. We took into consideration
the minutes and comments from the commission members, as well as some legal input.
And you saw our conclusions in there and we agreed with them. Would you like to add
anything to that or not?
Harmsen: I mean, I can get a very good job.
Taylor: We've got a great committee. Don't have to meet very often, but they have some good,
good, important decisions to make. And I think these were these will be good changes in
very positive changes to their bylaws. We had a lot of questions, but I got those questions
answered. That was all I had for committee. For announcements. I hope everybody had
an enjoyable on Labor Day. I'm fortunate. I'm on the Monday refuse route, so I was
fortunate enough to have The city workers. So thank you to those city workers who
worked on on Labor Day, hand picked up our refuse as as usual. So thank you to them. It
was great weekend, Saturday. I had a chance to my first time to view a movie outdoor
movie at the Chauncey. I know Councilor Thomas will agree with this too, when we first
talked about this and the whole Chauncey thing and having movie in there. I was like,
how how can that be that there'll be traffic noise and just all kinds of things. So there was
only one time that a fire truck was very loud, but otherwise, most of the traffic noise we
didn't even notice they had I think the theatre the volume was high enough that that's
what you paid attention to. It was a great movie and a great turnout.
Weiner: We went there too.
Taylor: I saw that everybody kept complaining about the weather at all, which the weather was
bad, but it wasn't too bad, was a little bit chilly but not bad. So that was very enjoyable
and I'll hopefully be able to go to another movie there because that was fun. Then Labor
Day on Monday actually finally had the opportunity. We hadn't It's no secret that I'm a
member of organized labor and we since the first time, since 2019, we're able to have the
in-person Picnic, which we always have and it's always well attended. Over a 100 or
something people. So it was great to see some longtime friends and see some new faces.
So that was fun. So I hope, hope everybody had a very enjoyable weekend. That's all.
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Alter: I just wanna do. A great big shout out to the 50th anniversary of the farmer's market. And I
know I think just about all of us were there at one point and yeah, it was just amazing to
say, My God, it's been 50 years that this has been happening. And so I just wanted to
make special mention of it and thanks to the staff and everybody who is out there,
making it even more special than it usually was, that that was really cool and very well
done kudos to everybody.
Weiner: I'll date myself by saying I remember when they opened.
Alter: Like Alaska age.
Weiner: I first of all, I also like to she's not here anymore, but really thank Ellie for her work as a
liaison from the university. And really second her, what she had to say about the
dedication of the Stanley Art Museum? I was there. I think it was two Fridays ago. Nice
event fabulous museum. Just really an incredible opportunity for the entire community
they talked about, really, wouldn't it be wonderful if every single third grade class and the
city could go through it. And they are, the opening exhibition is appropriately entitled
homecoming. All these sort of meshes university with bringing the art home and bringing
it back to our community.
Bergus: If you want to go to the art museum without a crowd, I went on Saturday during the
football game. I would recommend that to anyone if they're not watching is really good.
It's really, really good. We will have one more meeting before climate fast, but it
happens right after our next meeting, I think starting on the 21st. So I was perusing the
webpage J and just really excited about all the activities that'll be happening. I know our
staff is working really hard and partnering with a lot of organizations too, pull off a
wonderful climate fest. So I think it begins the 21st with an event at Big Grove in the
afternoon, I think at four and continues for a few days after that, so please check that out.
And then the peace pole dedication in Mercer park. I think I missed the date and time.
Did anyone catch that set the 21st at six. Okay. Thank you. We did have a really
interesting, ECICOG meeting if we're doing our board and commission updates also, our
last ECICOG board monthly meeting was at the Innovation Lab up in Monticello. And
that is a non-profit that runs it. That I am going to blank on the name of the overall
organization, but they're doing some really interesting and creative work, primarily
supporting rural, more rural communities. But I know they're collaborating with ICAD as
well. They have a co -working space and a maker lab, and a whole lot of different things
that they support for entrepreneurs and small businesses. So that was just a very exciting
board meeting to learn about that. So I encourage you all to check it out.
Weiner: Field trip.
Teague: Any other updates? Alright.
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20. Adjournment
Teague: Where at item number 20, can I get a motion to adjourn?
Taylor: So moved, Taylor.
Bergus: Second. Bergus.
Teague: All in favor say aye. (Voice vote) Aye. Any oppose? We're adjourned.
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