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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-10-01 Bd Comm minutes Item Number: 4.a. r 1 CITY OF IOWA CITY a Qa, COUNCIL ACTION REPORT October 1, 2024 Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission: September 5 Attachments: Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission: September 5 September 5,2024 Approved Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Minutes Emma Harvat Hall Commissioners present: Amos Kiche, Cliff Johnson, Chastity Dillard. Commissioners on Zoom: Lauren Merritt, Wangui Gathua, Lubna Mohamed. Commissioners not present: Chad Simmons, Kayla Rossi, Louis Tassinary. Staff present: Stefanie Bowers. Recommendation to City Council: No. Meeting called to order: Approximately: 7:07 PM. Reading of Land Acknowledgement: Dillard read the Land Acknowledgement. Public Comment of Items not on the Agenda: No. Approval of the Minutes from August 15, 2024: Dillard moved, and Merritt seconded. Motion passed 5-0. (Gathua not present for vote) Next Steps for Phases Three and Four Including Upcoming Events and Engagement: Johnson apologized for his absence at the Latino Festival due to a personal emergency. Kiche updated the commission on the success of tabling during a Willow Creek event. Kiche reported himself and commissioner Tassinary were able to attend from around 12:00 pm — 5:00 pm and engage with the community. During the event community members signed up to volunteer with the commission. Kiche also attended the Latino Festival in representation of the commission and was able to talk to community members interested in volunteering and had a total of 26 people willing to be contacted to learn more about the commission. Dillard suggested creating a poll asking when people who signed up would be available to attend a meet and greet event. The meet and greets would be an opportunity for an open dialogue where community members can learn more about the TRC and how to get involved. It was suggested the meet and greet run for 45 minutes to an hour and be split into two groups of the commission in order to avoid meeting in quorum. Dillard also mentioned the possibility of inviting people to attend the commission's next meeting. Commissioner Lubna suggested a Sunday at 4:00pm option, Dillard suggested a Saturday (1 lam/12pm) option, and Johnson suggested a Friday evening (4/5pm) option. Merritt is available between 6-8pm on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons. Kiche reported on a community meeting he and Mohamed hosted at the Java House (Mormon Trek) on August 20th. There were 6 community members in attendance. Many attendees wanted to focus on workplace discrimination. 1 The first two people who spoke about their experiences reportedly work for Oral B and experience verbal mistreatment and inconsistent hours/pay. They believe these experiences may be due to the fact they speak Arabic and are Muslim. They reported there appears to be a corrupt hierarchy within the facility including a group manager and the supervisor. A third person spoke to the commission about their experience working at Walmart and alleged mistreatment from a new supervisor. This person reported issues of getting unwarranted warnings regarding her work performance that has led to being suspended from work. The fourth person who shared with the Kiche and Mohamed spoke on being bullied in the workplace and denied additional hours. The last person reported being laid off for 3 months due to poor communication with the supervisors and false accusations made by coworkers. Kiche summarized that the workers performance and possible reasons for the mistreatment they reported to him, and Mohamed share a common conclusion that the mistreatment is unjustified and unfair. Kiche shared on behalf of Mohamed that 17 other people have sent complaints to Mohamed alleging similar forms of mistreatment within the same workplace. Mohamed spoke about additional employees complaining regarding the same company,but they are afraid to come forward to the commission due to possible retaliation from their supervisors. Staff asked Mohamed to provide her with the contact information after the meeting so that the office can reach out to them. Johnson and Gathua thanked the commissioners for their work. Gathua asked if any of the people have gone to the Center for Worker Justice to report their claims. Mohamed mentioned the Center for Worker Justice does not deal with discrimination just wage theft for workers. Dillard shared thoughts on the matter mentioning the importance of helping these people access resources to fight against discrimination as well as the commission keeping an eye out for similar reports and patterns to bring light to the issue. Mohamed spoke of the language barrier for Arabic- speaking employees and the lack of access to an interpreter or effort to obtain an interpreter for languages beyond Spanish or French. Kiche supported this thought and spoke on the importance of employing an interpreter to allow employees clear communication. Project 2030 was another resource mentioned as a possible bridge between these workers, their employers, and the city. Kiche mentioned it is in the company's best interest to work with their employees. Gathua mentioned that Linn County has programs that assist employers in understanding how to best accommodate immigrant employees in the workplace. Gathua offered her workplace for smaller group gatherings as a free option as well as organizations that will help fund community-focused gatherings. Gathua also mentioned attending a housing presentation by Iowa City Catholic Workers House and the possibility of them presenting to the commission. She also talked about the non-profit Resilient Sustainable Future for Iowa City and the possibility of them helping fund community gatherings. 2 Kiche spoke about his talk with individuals who have experienced the homeless shelter in Iowa City and their willingness to speak with the commission. A date of early October was suggested for a time to meet with these people to hear what they have to say on issue of housing, including choice and affordability. Kiche also brought up that the city recently received a grant and are taking suggestions on where the funds should go noting the number of persons struggling with housing in the community. Mohamed updated the commission on her discussion with a lawyer from Iowa Legal Aid and their discussion on the issue with section-8 housing. The lawyer shared that each family would have to report their issues to Iowa Legal Aid so they can communicate with these families and evaluate their applications. Mohamed will follow up with staff regarding this issue and future solutions. Dillard mentioned that this meeting has brought up topics for future areas of focus or future truth telling events. Dillard also mentioned the possibility of the commission tabling at the upcoming African Festival. Kiche said he would be there to represent the commission. Gathua will also be in attendance. Gathua thinks that the commission should also attend the Welcoming Immigrants to Our Community event to meet with the community as well as connecting with the Refugee Alliance of Johnson County. The commission agreed they would like to get onto the agenda for the Refugee Alliance to present to them. If they are not able to present this month, it was suggested a few commissioners attend a meeting and introduce themselves and the commission briefly. Kiche suggested providing beverages at future events. Dillard provided that beverages and other necessities the commission may need was approved in their budget and that Kiche just needs to let staff know what he wishes to supply at events. Dillard asked about the progress on the TRC documentary. Gathua mentioned the possibility of the commission presenting to the NISAA community over a Zoom. Staff confirmed that Resilient Sustainable Future for Iowa City is on the agenda for the next scheduled meeting. Annie Tucker thanked the commission for its work. Announcements of Commissioners: Dillard invited others to attend the opening of a new building of the Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County. It will be held on September 21 from 2- 5 PM at 1041 Arthur Street. Announcements of Staff: Staff will follow up with the City Attorney on the feasibility of a Meet and Greet as part of the commission's next meeting date. The meeting adjourned at 8:29 PM. The full meeting video can be viewed at this link. 3 a N a a N N d d d v; d d a a a N d a d a N a a a N d a d a N a a a N a d N 0 z 0 O N 00 VW N A zz � ° A �, M a a a a a a s � W o D F� x A M �I N N N N N N N N N i�l �yL Item Number: 4.b. CITY OF IOWA CITY Q COUNCIL ACTION REPORT October 1, 2024 Airport Commission: July 11 Attachments: Airport Commission: July 11 4 MINUTES FINAL IOWA CITY AIRPORT COMMISSION July 11, 2024—6:00 P.M. AIRPORT TERMINAL BUILDING i Members Present: Hellecktra Orozco, Warren Bishop, Judy Pfohl Members Absent: Ryan Story, Chris Lawrence Staff Present: Michael Tharp, Sue Dulek Others Present: Matt Wolford, Adam Thompson, Carl Byers RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: None DETERMINE QUORUM A quorum was determined at 6:01 pm and Orozco called the meeting to order. ELECTION OF OFFICERS Bishop nominated Lawrence as Chair and Story as Secretary, Seconded by Pfohl. Tharp staffed that he had talked with both Lawrence and Story since they were expected to not be at the meeting and both were willing to serve in roles as nominated. Motion Carried 3-0 (Lawrence, Story absent) APPROVAL OF MINUTES Tharp noted that Pfohl had submitted some grammatical corrections to the draft minutes. Pfohl moved to approve the minutes from June 13,2024 as amended, seconded by Bishop. Motion carried 3-0(Lawrence, Story absent) PUBLIC COMMENT - None ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION /ACTION a. Airport Construction Projects: i. FAA grant projects 1. Runway 12130 Displaced Threshold/Relocation — Tharp stated that he was really hoping to say that Runway 12/30 was open. Tharp asked Carl to give an update as he was just out there. Byers stated that they were installing some temporary lighting to be used until permanent fixtures were in. Wolford asked if they were over time on the contract and Byers responded they were and the contractor knew that. Bishop asked about night operations and Byers responded. Airport Commission July 11,2024 Page 2 of 4 2. Solar Power Project — Tharp stated that they had met with the contractor on the last Monday of June. Tharp stated they received a rough schedule from the contractor which called for the start of work around Labor Day and would take up most of September with the work. Tharp also stated that MidAmerican still had to do work to upgrade the transformer in the area so both array systems could be online. 3. Terminal Building - Tharp stated that they put this back on just because the FAA opened the window for the terminal building grant program applications. He noted they were due at the end of July and that he and Byers were working on a revision to submit from what was submitted last year. Tharp stated that this was still planned to be split into 2 phases the first being the environmental and historical review and then construction. Bishop asked if he had received any feedback. Tharp stated that he hadn't but in talking with other people he noted that some had developed a FAQ style document to .give to the FAA regional staff and others that were pushing for support. ii. Iowa DOT grant projects—Tharp stated that this was just on as they were finishing up the grant closeout process. Tharp noted that the next round of DOT grant applications would be in April so if they had something between now and then that they wanted to apply for,they would have time to get some cost estimates. b. Airport"Operations" L Budget -- Tharp noted that the budget was pretty critical this year and probably would be next year. Tharp noted that they were getting the final bills through the system but they would be over budget for the year. ii. Management 1. Strategic Plan—Tharp noted that he had planned to do a strategic plan update but felt it would be better to hold off on the discussion and get everyone at the meeting hopefully next month. Orozco stated that the update might give them more of an idea for future DOT grant applications. iii. Events—Tharp state that.the drive-in movie was this weekend. Tharp stated that most of the major stuff was starting to wrap up. 1. Autocross: Sept 15, Sept 29 2. Drive-In Movie: July 13(Barblie) 3. Pancake Breakfast(Aug 25) c. FBO/Flight Training Reports ii. Jet Air—Wolford noted that airport things were doing pretty well. Wolford stated that they had done some mulching around the viewing area and out front. He also stated that they were advertising a fuel discount for the Oshkosh traffic. Wolford noted that the shop AO was something they had been nursing along and he mentioned to Tharp that its probably time to look for a better option. Wolford noted that charter activity was doing well. Pfohl asked about cutting the bushes dowry or trimming them back again from the Iowa City sign. Orozco asked about the maintenance and Tharp stated that for a while the city had been managing an HVAC maintenance contract. Airport Commission July 11,2024 Page 3 of 4 d. Commission Members' Reports —.Pfohl stated they had their 50th anniversary recently. e. Staff Report — Tharp stated that July 30-August 601 he would be out of the office for vacation. Tharp stated that the 4 states/FAA Central regional conference was August 21- 23rd. SET NEXT REGULAR MEETING—Pfohl asked about the date on the agenda and Tharp noted that was a typo. Bishop noted he would be out of the country for the meeting. Members set the next meeting for August 8th, 2024 at 6:OOpm. ADJOURN Bishop moved to adjourn, seconded by Pfohl. Motion carried 3-0 (Story, Lawrence absent). Meeting adjo at 6:26 pm. Zo2H - o9-!Z CHAIRPERSON DATE A!rportCommission July 11,2024 Page 4of 4 Airport Commission ATTENDANCE RECORD 2023-2024 TERM o o -�--c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0o to 0 s N .Lt W A' yr t71 ¢1 y i i1i, i Q Q iZNAME v i o A ID tT A 00 0? �i �N EXP.. N N N, N N N N N N N N N i Warren 06/30126 - r--- Bishop X X OIE X X O/E X X O/E O/E X X X 1 , Christopher 06/30125 Lawrence X X X X X X O/E X X X O/E O/E O/E Hellecktra 06/30/24 X X X X X 0'/E X X O/E X O/E X X Orozco Judy Kohl 06130/26 X X X X X X X X X O/E X X X Ryan Story 06130/27 O/E X O/E X X X X X I X Kew X = Present X/E = Present for Part of Meeting 0 = Absent O/E =AbsentlExcused NM = Not a Member at this time XIS = Present for subcommittee meeting O/S =Absent, not a member of the subcommittee Item Number: 4.c. CITY OF IOWA CITY COUNCIL ACTION REPORT October 1, 2024 Board of Adjustment: April 10 Attachments: Board of Adjustment: April 10 MINUTES FINAL BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT FORMAL MEETING EMMA HARVAT HALL APRIL 10, 2024—5:15 PM MEMBERS PRESENT: Larry Baker, Nancy Carlson, Bryce Parker (via zoom), Mark Russo, Paula Swygard MEMBERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: Sue Dulek, Parker Walsh OTHERS PRESENT: Casey Kohrt CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 5:15 PM. ROLL CALL: A brief opening statement was read by Baker outlining the role and purpose of the Board and the procedures that would be followed in the meeting. SPECIAL EXCEPTION ITEM EXC24-0002: An application submitted by Casey Kohrt requesting a historic preservation exception to 1) reduce the minimum onsite parking required for a three-bedroom single family home from two to one space and 2)waive the standard that parking spaces within the front setback must be located behind another parking space for the property at 435 Rundell Street. Baker opened the public hearing. Walsh began the staff report showing an aerial of the property and then the zoning map which shows this property as within a historic district overlay, which grants them the ability to have the historic preservation exception tonight. He stated this is a three-bedroom single-family home constructed in 1937, the house is a key contributing structure in the Longfellow Historic District, and the applicant is seeking to convert the garage to habitable living space in order to assist their ability to live in the home long term. On March 21, 2024, the Historic Preservation Commission approved a Certificate of Appropriateness to allow the garage conversion and rear additions subject to the condition that window and door products are approved by staff and that will be approved by the historic preservation planner during the building permit review. The Certificate of Appropriateness also acknowledges that the project can lead to historic preservation exception from the Board of Adjustment to reduce or waive the parking requirements. The exception requests to reduce the onsite minimum parking requirements from two to one and the standard that parking spaces within the front setback must be located behind another parking space. Walsh shared the existing floor plan with noting the covered patio in the rear and the existing garage. He then showed the proposed floor plan with the rear addition in the same location as the previous covered patio but noted that addition is not part of the Board of Adjustment review Board of Adjustment April 10, 2024 Page 2 of 7 tonight, the Historic Preservation Commission already reviewed and approved the addition through the Certificate of Appropriateness, with a building permit being the next step for the addition. The focus tonight is for the garage, the plan is to convert it in order to have a first-floor restroom, which the home does not currently have, as well as some additional habitable space. The plan is to replace the garage door with a wall but still maintain the appearance of a garage from the outside and still appear as a single stall garage after the conversion. Walsh stated since this is a three-bedroom home the Code will require two parking spaces, which they have currently with one within the garage and one within the driveway. The owner is requesting to waive the required two parking spaces and also waive the parking within the front setback standard. Again, the Code currently requires at least one space to not be within the front setback or the driveway and by converting the garage the only other available parking location will be within the driveway which is also within the front setback. Walsh next reviewed the specific approval criteria, starting with the Historic Preservation Exception. Criteria one is the modification or waiver will help preserve the historic aesthetic or cultural attributes of the property. Staff found the existing historic character will be preserved as the remodel will maintain the appearance of a permanent single car garage which was original to the house and important to maintain the character. Criteria two is that the applicant must obtain a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Commission. Walsh confirmed on March 21, 2024, the applicant received an approved Certificate of Appropriateness. Walsh next reviewed the general approval criteria that must be met for approval of all special exceptions. First is the proposed exception will not be detrimental to or endanger the public health, safety, comfort, and general welfare. Walsh noted the use of and intensity of the property will not change due to the garage converting to living space nor will it impede the access of any surrounding properties as all changes will happen on the site within the existing footprint of the property. Criteria two is that the specific proposed exception will not be injurious to the use and enjoyment of the property in the immediate vicinity and will not substantially diminish or impair property values in the neighborhood. The findings for this are the proposed alteration will not impact the ability of neighbors to utilize and enjoy their properties, nor will it negatively impact property values within the neighborhood. Criteria three stated the establishment of the specific proposed exception will not impede the normal and orderly development and the improvement of surrounding properties. The surrounding neighborhood is already fully developed with residential uses and the proposed garage alteration will not enlarge the building footprint nor will it substantially impact the development of surrounding properties. Criteria four is that adequate utilities, access roads, drainage and/or necessary facilities have been provided on the property. Again, the property is currently developed, as well as the neighborhood, so there's no changes to the utilities, access roads, drainage, or any other necessary facilities for the neighborhood. Additionally, the sidewalks along both sides of Rundell will remain unaltered and the green space for the property will remain in place so any stormwater runoff will be absorbed by the existing green space. Board of Adjustment April 10, 2024 Page 3 of 7 Criteria five is that adequate measures have been or will be taken to provide ingress or egress designed to minimize traffic congestion on the public streets. Again, there are no changes proposed to the existing driveway, sidewalk, or the street and one parking space would continue to be provided on site within the existing unaltered driveway. Also, traffic on the street is mostly limited to residents and non-street parking will continue to be available along both sides of Rundell. Walsh also explained Rundell Street currently has an 80-foot right-of-way with 40-foot paving which does exceed even arterial streets minimal requirements. For two-way traffic the minimum required is 22 feet and Rundell is 40 feet. Also, in order to park on both sides of the street they need a minimum of a 28-foot-wide street which in this case it is 40 feet. Criteria six is that except for the specific regulations and standards applicable to the exception does the property comply with all of the Code requirements. Walsh stated outside of the specific waivers they're discussing tonight, the property does meet all other applicable Code standards. Seventh is if the special exception is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and the Future Land Use Map of the Comprehensive Plan designates this area as residential, as does the Central Planning District, and the use is intended to remain the same this is just an alteration to the parking standards. The Comprehensive Plan's vision also includes a goal to preserve historic resources in established neighborhoods, which is carried out through the strategy and supporting the goals of the Historic Preservation Commission and supporting reinvestment in housing and existing neighborhoods. The Plan also notes that in order to protect the community's historical assets they should continue to support the Iowa City Historic Preservation Plan. Walsh stated the Central District Plan includes a goal to work to achieve a healthy balance of rental and owner-occupied housing in the District's older neighborhoods to promote long term investment, affordable housing opportunities and the preservation of historic homes in neighborhoods. The goal goes on to list strategies such as examining the zoning rules to ensure that they support housing goals and neighborhood stabilization efforts. This single- family property is located within a historic district and although the Board is not revising the zoning code tonight, the Board does have the opportunity to examine and modify the standards related to the garage conversion in order to support long-term housing investment in the neighborhood. Walsh noted that the the Historic Preservation Commission has reviewed the project and approved it due to the property owner's ability to maintain the existing historic character. Staff received one piece of correspondence in support of this application. Staff recommends approval of EXC24-0001, to 1) reduce the minimum onsite parking required for a three-bedroom single family home from two to one space and 2) waive the standard that parking spaces within the front setback must be located behind another parking space. Carlson asked about the parking space in the front yard noting she thought that parking spaces in the front yard cannot be within 15 feet of the sidewalk. Walsh stated the specific details of the standard they're looking to waive here tonight is that parking is not permitted in the front principal dwelling setback except in the following situation, for single family uses one of the required parking spaces may be provided in the principal dwelling setback on a regularly constructed aisle that leads directly to a space that is not located in the front principal dwelling setback. He explained the setback for this zone is 15 feet and they currently have one space Board of Adjustment April 10, 2024 Page 4 of 7 that would be located within the garage that is outside of that setback but by converting the garage space to living space the only available spot would be within the driveway, and that would be within that 15-foot front setback. There is not any other specific standard that says the space must be 15 feet away from a property line. Baker noted everything they do is permanently attached to this property, so in the future, however many years, this parking reduction requirement would apply to all future occupants of the property. Walsh confirmed that would be correct. Baker asked what then about rental properties in this zone, if for example 10 years from now the house was sold, rented out, would still only one parking space required for four bedrooms. Walsh confirmed yes, for this site it currently requires only two spaces, regardless of owner-occupied or rental, if they approve this reduction and only require one space on this site that wouldn't change based on if it was no longer owner occupied. This is a permanent reduction, regardless of owner-occupied or rented in that zone. Baker asked if all things being equal, same applicant, same application, same property, same issue, except not in a historic district is it the same decision and recommendation by staff. Walsh stated yes, the historic district itself is not the deciding factor on the recommendation. Baker asked if the applicant were to choose to build an addition on the back, not using the garage, per se, but the porch behind the garage expanding that, parking would not be affected so would that require them to come before this Board at all. Walsh stated they would have to go back to the Historic Preservation Commission for approval on anything that alters the exterior appearance of the home, but the parking would not be an issue in that case. Carlson noted when she drove up and down the street today she noticed most of the houses on that side of the street are very similar, if not exactly the same, and in most cases the garages have been changed into living space and the cars are parked on the driveway in front. Did all of those houses have to apply for exceptions to allow that. Walsh replied that he was aware of at least one other property that did go through the exception process on the street and future properties would have to do the same. Casey Kohrt (435 Rundell Street) has lived in the home with his husband, Christopher Munoz, for 21 years now. They have recently paid off the house and are thinking long term about staying in the house and this is something that will help them stay in the house because the bathroom now is upstairs and the laundry and pantry are down in the basement, which is a lot of very steep stairs. He noted this is a Moffitt house and for 21 years they have not pulled a car into the garage because it's too small, it was built for model A's and stuff like that. They have always parked in the driveway or on the street. Rundell Street is one of the widest streets in Iowa City because it used to have a trolley that ran down the middle of it so there's ample parking on Rundell for many, many cars. He does not see any public good in not approving this exception. Baker asked for 21 years they've had two cars using the property and have parked one on the street. Kohrt confirmed that was correct. Carlson asked how many square feet this adds to their living situation. Kohrt stated it would be probably 160 or 180 additionally square feet and gives them a main floor bathroom and laundry on the first floor and a pantry for the kitchen, which is what they are looking for. Carlson asked Board of Adjustment April 10, 2024 Page 5 of 7 how many square feet they have right now, noting those Moffitt houses are small. Kohrt stated theirs is 1100 square feet not including the basement. Baker closed the public hearing. Swygard moved to approve EXC24-0002, to 1) reduce the minimum onsite parking required for a three-bedroom single family home from two to one space and 2) waive the standard that parking spaces within the front setback must be located behind another parking space. Russo seconded the motion. Swygard stated she appreciates the reinvestment in the existing home and making it more adaptable for their needs and can certainly recognize the need for a restroom being more conveniently located. Carlson noted when she looked at all the houses today and at the garages, she thought there's no way anybody today could get their car into that garage area, they are small, so by converting it into living space seems like the only reasonable thing to be done to use that space. Carlson stated regarding agenda item EXC24-0002 she does concur with the findings set forth in the staff report of meeting date, April 10, 2024, and concludes that the general and specific criteria are satisfied, so unless amended or opposed by another Board member she recommends that the Board adopt the findings in the staff report for the approval of this exception. Swygard seconded the findings. A vote was taken and the motion passed 5-0. Baker stated the motion declared approved, any person who wishes to appeal this decision to a court of record may do so within 30 days after this decision is filed with the City Clerk's Office. CONSIDER MARCH 13, 2024 MINUTES: Carlson moved to approve the minutes of March 13, 2024 with minor corrections. Russo seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried 5-0. BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT INFORMATION: Swygard noted she was absent for the last meeting and at that meeting she was elected Vice Chair. She wanted to state she wasn't officially notified of the results of the vote and only learned about the election by watching the recording on City Channel 4. It caught her off guard, but she doesn't know what the options are at this point. She reviewed the Board bylaws, and they don't specifically address the election of a member who's absent, the bylaws refer to the most current edition of Robert's Rules and per Robert's Rules she would have the option to decline the office after she was appropriately notified, as long as she does that within a certain timeframe. Since she hadn't been notified, when she found out by watching the recording of the meeting, she reached out to City planning staff, and Dulek as the attorney present at that meeting. Swygard stated she will not decline the office and will serve as Vice Chair but does think they could do better. Granted, it's a very small Board but as a practical matter she thinks Board of Adjustment April 10, 2024 Page 6 of 7 it's best to elect a member who would agree to serve and avoid the problem of electing someone who's absent without any input from them first. Someone could decline the office which would trigger another election, she almost did that but wanted to avoid putting anyone else in the position of not knowing what their options were. Swygard stated she would like to see this process outlined in more detail in the bylaws and perhaps Dulek could offer some advice and draft something if other Board members support exploring this and possibly amending the bylaws to more clearly define the process of being elected in absentia. Dulek asked if they want this discussion on the agenda for the next meeting. Baker feels it would be appropriate to give the staff and City attorney time to think of possible verbiage. Baker apologized because he was the one that nominated Swygard, they were looking for vice chair and he thought she'd be good. If there's any sort of discomfort at all, that's his fault and he apologizes. Baker agreed put on the agenda for next month. Walsh noted they don't have a meeting lined up for May but this will go on the next meeting agenda. ADJOURNMENT: Russo moved to adjourn this meeting, Swygard seconded, a vote was taken and all approved. Board of Adjustment April 10, 2024 Page 7 of 7 BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT ATTENDANCE RECORD 2023-2024 318 4112 4119 5110 6114 7112 1118 12113 3113 4110 NAME TERM EXP. BAKER, LARRY 12/31/2027 X X O/E X X X X X X X PARKER, BRYCE 12/31/2024 X X O/E X X X X X X X SWYGARD, PAULA 12/31/2028 X X X X X X X X O/E X CARLSON, NANCY 12/31/2025 X X X X X X O/E X X X RUSSO, MARK 12/31/2026 X X X O/E O/E X O/E X X X Key: X=Present O=Absent O/E=Absent/Excused ----=Not a Member Item Number: 4.d. r 1 CITY OF IOWA CITY COUNCIL ACTION REPORT October 1, 2024 Historic Preservation Commission: August 8 Attachments: Historic Preservation Commission: August 8 MINUTES APPROVED HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION AUGUST 8, 2024 — 5:30 PM — FORMAL MEETING E M M A J. HARVAT HALL, CITY HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Margaret Beck, Kevin Burford, Andrew Lewis, Ryan Russell, Jordan Sellergren, Deanna Thomann, Christina Welu-Reynolds, and Frank Wagner MEMBERS ABSENT: Carl Brown, Nicole Villanueva STAFF PRESENT: Jessica Bristow OTHERS PRESENT: CALL TO ORDER: Sellergren called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANYTHING NOT ON THE AGENDA: None. REPORT ON CERTIFICATES ISSUED BY CHAIR AND STAFF: Certificate of No Material Effect -Chair and Staff review HPC24-0043: 332 East Davenport Street— Northside Historic District (internal gutter repair) This is the Emma J. Harvat house and this time they're working on the internal gutters. The contractor is proposing to patch them with fiberglass and that can be controversial because making sure that it adheres to the substrate is important or it doesn't bond and will leak. The contractor reports they have done this quite a bit in a district in St. Louis and has not had problems with it leaking. They'll also fix the sofit by replacing it with new where it's rotten. HPC24-0059: 1003 East Washington Street— College Hill Conservation District (porch ceiling repair) Bristow noted what's actually the most interesting about this house is it looks brick but it is stucco impressed with a brick pattern. She doesn't know much about the history of that process so reached out to one of the local historians and she didn't know about it either so it's something that they'll need further research someday. However, this project is the front porch ceiling, which was just a plywood ceiling covering the bead board which was actually in good condition. They'll be painting it and replacing a piece of crown molding filling the gap between the beam and the ceiling. Bristow noted they also approved them to do it on the back porch too but is not sure if they intend to do so. HPC24-0060: 316 Church Street— Northside Historic District (porch floor structure and flooring replacement) This is a historic house in the Northside Historic District, which is interesting because it is taller without any windows at all in the second-floor fagade. It has windows on the two gable ends. Bristow discovered during review of this project that the floor portion of the porch had been built by the owner and they are going to be replacing it. The original floor lasted 30 years or so. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION August 8, 2024 Page 2 of 5 HPC24-0064: 713 North Lucas Street— Brown Street Historic District (replacement of a portion of the foundation wall) This house has a shed roof extension on both of the back corners yet, on the historic maps it looks the existing footprint. Bristow noted an area where foundation is different under the porch because they filled in the porch. The NW corner is the same material. This NW corner of the house must have had the foundation wall replaced in the past, but they need to fill in that area again and this time match the other part of the foundation Minor Review - Staff review HPC24-0054: 721 Brown Street— Brown Street Historic District (roof shingle replacement) This project is a simple asphalt shingle replacement to new asphalt shingles. HPC24-0056: 820 Bowery Street—Governor-Lucas Street Conservation District (front and rear step replacement) With this house there was an issue as they needed to replace the steps and they built the steps without a permit. The staff approvable steps will have closed risers and a toe kick or overhang on all the steps. There are also code requirements for riser heights being the same. The owner had rebuilt the steps but did not meet the guidelines. He knows he needs to replace them. HPC24-0058: 312 South Governor Street—Governor-Lucas Street Conservation District (front step and railing replacement) Last month this house had the driveway and the sidewalks replaced and now they're removing the steps and in order to do that they have to regrade the front yard so it's going to change how the steps meet the yard. They are also rebuilding the railing, it currently is a wrought iron railing and that will not be approved however when there are instances like this with a big historic column that is not easy to attach to, a standalone railing is the best option HPC24-0062: 721 North Linn Street— Brown Street Historic District (roof shingle replacement) The Phillips house on the alley in the Brown Street District is a roof shingle replacement. HPC24-0063: 604 Ronalds Street— Brown Street Historic District (front porch roof cladding replacement) This property is a key property in the Brown Street District, and they've been working with them on replacing various roofs and now they're doing the front porch. While normally black is recommended and they want white and since it won't be seen a white membrane roof was approved. HPC24-0067: 619 North Johnson Street— Brown Street Historic District (metal roof replacement with shingles) This house went through the UniverCity Partnership program so they flipped it and improved it. There was a deck in the back that was removed. This house did have a historic metal roof and it was approved to be replaced with asphalt shingles. Sellergren asked if normally going from a metal to shingle roof is something the Commission used to vote on. Bristow confirmed yes it used to be however a few years ago the Commission approved it as a minor review so that staff could review it. Sellergren feels that something they should move to put back on the Commission. Bristow stated that is something they could put on the next agenda to discuss. She stated there are times when it might be appropriate to change a house from a metal roof to asphalt shingles, for example the houses with the standing seam metal roofs may not warrant the expense of another standing seam metal roof and it's possible the Commission could approve shingles on a house like that. Bristow will put this on the September agenda for further discussion. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION August 8, 2024 Page 3 of 5 Intermediate Review -Chair and Staff review HPC24-0055: 812 South Summit Street—Summit Street Historic District (minor revision to a previously approved COA) Bristow noted the Commission had already seen and approved a design for the ramp for Deluxe Bakery but during the building permit process it was noted there would need to be a change. The ramp goes basically to the property line and then comes back towards the sidewalk and along the face of the building. It was all to be concrete which fit with the stoop that they have and the metal railing. However, during the building permit process they requested to change the portion that runs in front of the building to a wood deck floor instead of concrete, a more commercial wood deck construction than what one would find in a residential house wood deck. Staff questioned the changing from one material to another and the reason why they wanted to do this had more to do with the owner's concern about having to put the same type of footings under a concrete ramp adjacent to the stone foundation. Bristow noted there could be ways to get around that but it would require additional expense and it isn't good necessarily to put concrete adjacent to the stone. So the goal here was to be able to use a different type of footing and a different type of pier to support that portion of the deck. Additionally, it will be behind the planter and won't be visible. HPC24-0025: 121 North Linn Street— Local Historic Landmark (new sign and awning installation) This is the Economy Advertising Building and they have new signage that will go over the area that was Linn Street Cafe. Bristow noted that the signage must be mounted through the mortar joints only and no new holes are allowed in the historic brick. They will mount the signage to a bracket so all of the letters will be attached to the bracket and that will be attached to the wall to minimize the amount of connections. They are also doing an awning which will be installed with the existing mounting hardware. HPC24-0066: 504 East Bloomington Street— Local Historic Landmark (rear one-story wall, concrete step and cellar access wall reconstruction and cellar door replacement) Just north of the hospital is this big brick house that has a wall failing and the brick was being pushed in by the concrete paving adjacent to it. There's no expansion joint or anything so every time there's a freeze and thaw the concrete just pushes further into the wall, causing it to bow out and the whole wall is collapsing. They are using a mason who will be able to rebuild it mostly by salvaging brick with a few new bricks needed to piece in. The cellar walls are also brick and they are completely falling apart so he'll re-lay concrete block down there and will salvage some of those bricks as well and be able to use them in the wall reconstruction. They will cut back the concrete to create a permanent expansion joint and put on a new steel door on the cellar opening. Sellergren had a question regarding the paint because with brick houses in Iowa City they often see a kind of creamy yellow and is that the historic standard or just a preference. Bristow replied it is not a standard but is very common. HPC24-0069: 923 Dearborn Street— Dearborn Street Conservation District (non-historic brick removal and siding patching) Bristow stated this house is non-contributing at the very end of the Dearborn Street Conservation District and the Commission, in the past, approved a second story addition which the guidelines would not allow now. Regardless, at the time when they added the second story, the house had a non- historic patch of brick cladding on the fagade that is falling away. The owner was concerned that she had to rebuild it but of course since it's a very modern thing that's added she can definitely remove it. Underneath, the historic siding is covered with asphalt shingle siding with metal siding over that so she's going to just patch with metal siding. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION July 11, 2024 Page 4 of 5 CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES FOR JUNE 13, 2024: MOTION: Wagner moves to approve the minutes of the Historic Preservation Commission's June 13, 2024 meeting as amended. Welu-Reynolds seconded the motion The motion carried on a vote of 8-0. CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES FOR JULY 11, 2024: MOTION: Wagner moves to approve the minutes of the Historic Preservation Commission's July 11, 2024 meeting as amended. Thomann seconded the motion The motion carried on a vote of 8-0. COMMISSION DISCUSSION: Work Plan and subcommittees: Sellergren noted they had a good meeting regarding the awards ceremony and have committed to February 27th at the public library. They have now made a working order of what they need to be doing over the next couple months and they will be meeting monthly to stay on track. The other subcommittee regarding future landmarking, in particular with the Downtown District, the previous chair Kevin Boyd had worked with the Iowa City Downtown District chair at that time, Nancy Bird, and they developed an incentive proposal that did not end going anywhere with the City Council. Perhaps now is a really good time for a subcommittee to form and look over that and maybe start having conversations with the current chair of Iowa City Downtown District to talk about how they can actually move forward and put some protections on those buildings. Bristow suggested that the communication this time includes staff because part of the concern from the original proposal was that there was not any staff input and it was felt that some things might not be as feasible as other things. It would be good for this subcommittee to meet with Anne Russett or Danielle Sitzman to discuss ideas/options. Sellergren agreed having a meeting with senior staff to explain the relevant issues and they need staff input to actually move forward and be successful. She does think they have City Council's ear and the public's ear since the landmarking of the building including Pagliai's and could hopefully make some progress. They could start with some of the low hanging fruit in the downtown area that's owned by people who are supportive of landmarking to set an example. She has been hearing from people who are business owner's downtown who have a lot of concern about what's happening so now is a good time to move forward with further protection so if anybody is interested in being on a subcommittee let her know. ADJOURNMENT Thomann moved to adjourn the meeting. Lewis seconded The motion carried on a vote of 8-0. The meeting was adjourned at 6:15pm. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION ATTENDANCE RECORD 2023-2024 TERM 9/14 10/12 11/9 12/14 1/11 2/8 3/21 4/24 5/22 6/13 7/11 8/8 NAM E EXP. BECK, 6/30/24 X O/E X X X X X X X X X X MARGARET BROWN, 6/30/26 X X O/E X O/E O/E X X O/E X O/E O/E CARL BURFORD, 6/30/27 --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- X X KEVI N LEWIS, 6/30/26 X X X X X X X X X X X X ANDREW RUSSELL, 6/30/27 --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- O/E X RYAN SELLERGREN, 6/30/25 X X X X X X X X X X X X JORDAN STORK, NOAH 6/30/24 X X X X O/E X X X X X --- --- THOMANN, 6/30/26 X X X X X X X X X X X X DEANNA VILLANUEVA, 6/30/25 X O/E X X X X X X X X X O/E NICOLE WAGNER, 6/30/26 X X X X X X X X X X X X FRANK WELU- 6/30/25 X X X X X X X O/E X O/E X X REYNOLDS, CHRISTINA KEY: X = Present O = Absent O/E= Absent/Excused --- = Not a member Item Number: 4.e. r 1 CITY OF IOWA CITY a Qa, COUNCIL ACTION REPORT October 1, 2024 Housing & Community Development Commission: August 19 Attachments: Housing & Community Development Commission: August 19 MINUTES FINAL HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION AUGUST 19, 2024—6:30 PM FORMAL MEETING E M M A J. HARVAT HALL, CITY HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Horacio Borgen, Maryann Dennis, George Kivarkis, Kiran Patel, Denise Szecsei, Kyle Vogel MEMBERS ABSENT: Daouda Balde, Karol Krotz, James Pierce STAFF PRESENT: Erika Kubly, Brianna Thul, Kristin Watson OTHERS PRESENT: Terry Vargason (FBA Properties), Erika Mason (REM Properties) RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: None. CALL MEETING TO ORDER: Dennis called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM. WELCOME NEW MEMBERS: Kivarkis introduced himself, he is an economic student at the University of Iowa. The other new member, Balde, was not present. OFFICER NOMINATIONS: Dennis moved to nominate Vogel to be Commission chair, Szecsei seconded the nomination. A vote was taken and the motion passed 6-0. Patel moved to nominate Dennis as vice chair, Szecsei seconded the nomination. A vote was taken and the motion passed 6-0. CONSIDERATION OF MEETING MINUTES: JUNE 13, 2024: Patel moved to approve the minutes of June 13, 2024. Dennis seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the minutes were approved 6-0. PUBLIC COMMENT FOR TOPICS NOT ON THE AGENDA: None. FAIR HOUSING PRESENTATION: Kristin Watson (Investigator, Equity and Human Rights City Department) began her presentation with a couple of recent examples to showcase this problem is not really fading into the past. A professor at Johns Hopkins University bought a house in Maryland, and he and his wife wanted to sell at a competitive price. They had black family members in portraits on the walls. They had art that had a black focus. He's a history professor and his research focus is on the history of housing segregation so he had many books about African American History and segregation. Professor Connolly was home when the appraiser came to the door so it was very obviously the home of a black family, and the appraisal came back low so they asked a professor friend who was white if he would pose as the owner. The Connolly's removed all of the Housing and Community Development Commission August 19, 2024 Page 2 of 10 family pictures, the obviously African American art and books, etc. Then when another appraiser came they had the white professor answer the door and that appraisal came in at$750,000. This all happened in 2021, so very recently. Another example is a medical doctor who toured a condo via FaceTime with her camera off- she made an offer on it without actually visiting the property, the offer was accepted, and this doctor was in the middle of the buying process when she went to actually visit the property in person. When the property owner saw her they told the realtor they not want to sell to this person. That was in May of 2024. Now of course the realtor said they can't rescind the sale, but the property owner was very vocal that she did not want to sell to a black person. Watson next discussed how fair housing laws developed. There weren't always fair housing laws, 150 years ago nobody cared and then in 1866, right after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment declared, among many other things, birthright citizenship. If someone is born in the US, they are a citizen. That is important because a whole lot of things flow from that, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which was this country's first Civil Rights Act. It stated that all citizens, anybody born here, has the same right as a white person to own property. Watson noted although just having a right doesn't mean one can exercise it, because that didn't seem anything to in practice erase segregation. Just because one has a right to do something doesn't mean they'll find a property that will be sold to them, it doesn't mean a bank will be willing to lend to them, etc. Then some 40 years later in 1917 Louisville, Kentucky had a city ordinance that kept people from selling to races that didn't match the neighborhood, so a white person couldn't buy in a black neighborhood, and a black person couldn't buy in a white neighborhood by city ordinance, basically racial zoning. The US Supreme Court said it violated the 14th Amendment, not because of civil rights and having to be fair, but that ordinance violated working with right to contract and it made the racial zoning ordinance unconstitutional. That's really all that happened for another 30 more years. In 1917 the Supreme Court saying everyone has to be able to contract freely, however, restrictive covenants then began. Watson acknowledged restrictive covenants are not all enforceable, HOAs can dictate what color a mailbox can be but restrictive covenants based on race and also religion were very common then. Two cases came up at the same time, so they were consolidated, and referred to as Shelley versus Kraemer, but it was Shelley versus Kraemer and McGhee versus Sipes. In both cases the two families were trying to buy property. The property Shelley was trying to buy, the person was willing to sell to them, but the property had a restrictive covenant saying it can't be sold to a black person, or in that case, an Asian person. Kraemer was a neighbor who lived over two blocks away, but he objected to having a black family living anywhere in the neighborhood, so Kraemer sued to enforce the restrictive covenant, not the seller of the property. At the same time, the Sipes family was doing the same thing, the same situation, only in a different town, and the Supreme Court said it does violate the Equal Protection Clause, one can't dictate that a person can't sell to this person or that person. Again, it's the 14th Amendment. Watson noted what's interesting about this is that the Sipes family's attorney was Thurgood Marshall who later became the first African American Supreme Court Justice. So in the 1940s housing segregation still persisted and just because one can't enforce a restrictive covenant it doesn't mean that they won't be steered. Watson noted she personally was steered by a realtor when she moved to Iowa City. This was in the 2000s and they looked at many houses, but she noticed that his agent would just not show certain properties. She would give her a list of listings she was interested in and the agent just wouldn't show some of them. Certain properties were really talked up and the agent would point out all the good things about a property and then at the others she had left off the list several times she would point out all the bad things about certain properties. Watson acknowledged that even in the 2000s this person was blatantly still steering buyers. She stated in 1968 they get the actual Fair Housing Act but the Fair Housing Act had been introduced many times in over two years before it was passed and it was passed because President Johnson basically strong armed Congress to pass it after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. The original protected classes were very few,just race and color, religion and national origin. Then in 1974 they added sex and in 1988 handicap. It still says handicapped, it has not been updated to say disability. In 2 Housing and Community Development Commission August 19, 2024 Page 3 of 10 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed and even though it has a very large impact on housing as it covers service animals and reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications to property, it barely mentions housing. Rental housing is covered as part of public accommodation in the Americans with Disabilities Act and that's the only way the Americans with Disabilities Act actually applies to housing. The Fair Housing Act covers all real estate transactions, so that's the coverage in buying and selling properties and the Americans with Disabilities Act only covers rental transactions as a public accommodation. The Americans with Disabilities Act protects people with disabilities from all sorts of different discrimination in all arenas and housing was just one of them. Senator Tom Harkin, a long-term senator from Iowa, was the main sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act because he had a brother who was deaf from childhood. Watson noted when they're talking about unlawful discrimination, they aren't just talking about people treating people badly. If someone is treating everybody badly, that's not discrimination, they have to be basing the bad treatment on a protected class. A protected class is a category that's protected by law and different jurisdictions have different protections but there is a concept called the intersection of laws which states a higher law dictates to a lower level of law. So federal law applies to everybody, and then state law applies only within state and local law, counties and cities will make their own laws that apply within those jurisdictions. In housing, for the Fair Housing Act, it just protects race, color, national origin, religion, sex, family status and disability. Then in Iowa there is some layering onto people that aren't protected under federal law, although some administrations interpret sex to include it, but gay people, sexual orientation and gender identity are not protected explicitly at the federal level. Iowa City also has a more explicit City ordinance regarding dependence based off the family status at the federal level. Family status at the federal level is specifically having minors in the household so in Iowa City at some point, Council said there are other kinds of dependents, such as elderly parents, adult children with disabilities who will never live on their own or there are people who simply have unrelated people that they're responsible for. Council wanted to broaden the ordinance and could do that a lower level of law so long as it doesn't contradict the higher level. Ohio protects military status, Washington, DC protects political affiliation and not allowing discrimination against people because of their political beliefs, 13 states protect natural hair, so whatever gets passed for protecting is a protected class. Watson stated her office takes complaints of discrimination, and although their true jurisdiction is only Iowa City they get people from North Liberty, Tiffin, and Coralville all the time walking into their office and they don't turn them away so they help people from the whole area. However, if somebody's not in the jurisdiction of Iowa City they will send the complaint to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. Dennis asked about the Iowa City ordinance, because it says source of income, public assistance, is a protected class. Watson stated City Council passed a City ordinance that said here in Iowa City housing choice vouchers are part of the public assistance source of income, but then as a higher source of law the Iowa State Legislature, within two years, said no, housing vouchers are not protected but any other sort of public assistance, SSI or disability, is protected. Vogel noted they've had this conversation multiple times about Iowa City money only being used for Iowa City citizens, so he is curious why they even process claims for tenants that are outside of Iowa City. Watson explained all they do is take that complaint and scan it in for the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, they take over the complaint from there. Vogel asked how Iowa City rank compares to the rest of the state in complaints and how many of the complaints filed in Iowa City are actually found to be with cause. Watson said it's hard to give a specific answer as everything's confidential, so it's hard to compare when statistics released are aggregated. She did note the last time there was a public hearing was over 15 years ago. Most complaints are solved through conciliation or mediation. They have to have a complaint for 60 days before the complaints can have a right to sue letter, and then they can sue in District Court, which is where the real money is. If something's really egregious they'll get the right to sue request and they have to release the complaint to the attorney who wants to file suit. 3 Housing and Community Development Commission August 19, 2024 Page 4 of 10 Kubly stated they are working on the analysis of impediments to fair housing and some of that data will be incorporated into the report, and that report's going to come before this Commission. The consultant is working with the Office of Equity and Human Rights to get some of that information, and then also will put together housing needs data, which would be some of the Fair Housing stuff that maybe doesn't get reported to the Human Rights Office. Vogel noted it'd be interesting to see what those numbers really are and how many cities or counties have their own local outlet and not just having citizens report directly to the state office of discrimination or equity. Watson stated it's enshrined in statute that any municipality in Iowa with populations of 29,000 or more must have an office. That statute was enacted because there was somebody who wanted to keep their job. So that's where the 29,000 people came from. DISCUSS LANDLORD INCENTIVES: Vogel noted Szecsei had mentioned two or three meetings ago the Commission discussing landlord incentives. When the Commission was discussing CDBG funds and HOME funds and how a lot of these larger chunks of money go into 501(c)3 funds for affordable housing needs but what about private landlords? He noted Terry Vargason is here and is both a member of the Greater Iowa City Apartment Association as Vice President and also sat on the most recent housing task force committee. Vogel stated he has doing business here for 24 years and Vargason has been around for about that amount of time as well. 10-15 years ago, affordable housing wasn't discussed as much and Iowa City was mostly student housing oriented. They talked about zone one, which was the one mile around campus and that was always understood as that's where the student lives and anything outside of that circle was where everyone else who worked for a living lived. That really has changed in the last 10 years, with student housing expanding outside that zone, when Hawks Ridge opened, and then Lakeside, and obviously the growth in Coralville with The Banks. Additionally, they saw more and more properties in that zone one, and not just in the outer edges, becoming more and more available for non-student properties. And at the same time, Iowa City created incentives for new developers to have either fee-in-lieu-of or put affordable properties in. The Iowa City Housing Authority has expanded the availability of housing choice vouchers, Shelter House is having more and more ability to have homeless emergency vouchers, veteran vouchers, etc. but they still hear constantly that there's a desert of affordable housing for these people, the properties just don't exist. On the private landlord side, Vogel has seen his whole time here in Iowa City that there's a lot of vacancies out there, and there's a lot of landlords that either have participated with housing choice vouchers in the past, or may consider it, but the risks involved are greater. Without a doubt, damages, expenses, evictions, vacancies are absolutely higher when dealing with a higher risk population set. Dennis noted when Vogel says sometimes it's hard to rent to these people, the high-risk populations, to her that is a generality that may not be reality. Vogel clarified when he said these people, the high-risk populations, he absolutely means families, people on vouchers, whether that's seniors on vouchers, whether that's families on vouchers, homeless - they are absolutely high risk. They are higher credit risk, they generally don't have income, they generally don't make three times the amount of rent they would need to normally qualify. It is the same reason Iowa City has their housing program where they rehab houses and sell to a population that are a higher credit risk. They are a higher risk to be able to make the rent, make the mortgage payment, even upfront be able to pay deposits or first or second month's rent. In Iowa City they're lucky that they do have a lot of ability for people on vouchers, especially on emergency vouchers through Shelter House, to have the two months paid and the deposit paid. His argument for years has been that these properties are available, but that it is tough to incentivize private landlords to take that risk because they don't have the same kind of ability to request funds through grants or CDBG or HOME or 501(c)3 availability and be part of the funnel. Dennis noted that anybody can apply for funding. Thul noted they've also worked with for-profits in the past for HOME funds, but it isn't a generally a popular option for private companies. Most people don't like to apply because of the level of financial scrutiny and federal rules they have to meet. Vogel stated then it's also a matter of scale, a small landlord with one or two properties won't have the manpower nor the knowledge to apply. Szecsei agreed that she 4 Housing and Community Development Commission August 19, 2024 Page 5 of 10 would not apply as a small landlord. Vogel shared HUD has an incredible document called Monetary Incentives and Reimbursements for Private Landlords and there are tons and tons nationwide of Public Housing Administrations, similar to Iowa City Housing Authority, that are using monetary incentives to get private landlords to participate. He is just pointing out that elsewhere public housing authorities are convincing private landlords to take high-risk tenants with true risk mitigation funds. In Iowa City one must have been denied by three different companies to even be qualified for the mitigation fund, versus having someone with a family of four who's looking for a two bedroom on Burlington but can't quite afford the deposit. They cannot apply for the deposit mitigation fund without being denied by two other landlords. Terry Vargason (Broker, owner FBA Properties) stated he has been a property manager for close to 20 years, and as Vice President on the Iowa City Apartment Association he was part of the Affordable Housing Steering Committee for City. One of the items discussed by that steering committee amongst all the other housing people in town was a risk mitigation fund. Szecsei asked what the risk mitigation fund was to do. Vargason said it would assist with deposits for high-risk tenants. For people to have some extra financial backing from the City or for the City to assist them on getting their foot in the door so they could get an application approved. It is common if a credit score is low or the income is low, a company is going to require a double deposit, which might be unrealistic for some people. So the mitigation fund was created but to be eligible one has to be turned down three times, so the intent for that was to help people and be available to people that are just really at the bottom of the barrel and criminal or whatever. His hopes were that it was going to help some people that he might rent to. He has been involved with the housing choice voucher program for years and has no problems with it he was hoping to just see some participation with private landlords. The tax incentives are all for the new stuff, but it's high dollar so in attrition they are creating some older and less valuable properties. Vargason noted if one chooses to live in Iowa City, that's a choice and it's going to be expensive, but how do they help them? How to help these good people that are just in a bad situation. What he could see is some partnership here, not just only with the Housing Authority or the Shelter House but all others. If there was a clearing house system where there are properties that landlords have an inventory of that they're not getting rented, how about putting these into a central database where they can start helping some of these people that are on that threshold. Szecsei stated if the issue is deposits and that these people have to come up with a double deposit, as a landlord she has money from tenants that sits in a bank earning zero interest that is not being touched for the time that they're living in the place, so it almost seems like maybe the City could guarantee the money and if the landlord knows that the City is their partner in this, it might facilitate not having the City run out of money to give to the landlord, to have it sit in their account, to do nothing. Vogel stated this may run afoul of 562A because deposits have to be held by the landlord. Szecsei stated though if it's not a deposit as much as it is the City saying that they will cover any damage. Vogel talked about the Housing Choice Voucher Landlord's Handbook. They originally first had a conversation about the damage mitigation fund, almost a decade ago, and at that time they envisioned that a landlord who takes in a Housing Choice Voucher client into a property that if at any point they left and left damages and rent due more than whatever the deposit that they held, the City would have a fund that a landlord could request reimbursement. In the guidebook, it talks about a couple other states, one has a mitigation fund that's paid through general funds where to access funds landlords have to pursue a small claims judgment and the tenant has 45 days to respond to the claims. There's another state that got rid of the small claims, but only allows a minimum of$500 anything under$500 the landlord just has to deal with. Vogel noted the mitigation fund was created as a line item in the city budget but was not funded for quite a few years, until the task force did fund it but the Shelter House was to administer it. To obtain funds it has to be someone that's coming through the Shelter House program. The task force had envisioned it as 5 Housing and Community Development Commission August 19, 2024 Page 6 of 10 the way the federal government envisioned this kind of program, which is something administered as part of the HCV program. Dennis asked what's the source of the funding. Kubly stated the risk mitigation fund is part of the general fund. It's part of the million-dollar affordable housing fund. Vogel stated at most it's $1,000 or$1500 -they're not talking about$10,000 or$20,000. It's the $2,500 landlords are concerned about when someone doesn't pay the last month. Vogel noted it could be a lot more than that due to potential damage. He also noted he doesn't own any of the properties, so not sure what that would mean or how that would be handled. Dennis stated if any for profit landlord wants to apply for HOME funds they could. Szecsei noted that is a lot of work and a lot of effort, especially for someone who owns only one or two properties. She stated if the owners knew they would have a partnership with the City that if an owner rents to people, whether they're high risk voucher or not, if they trash the should the City will help. Vogel noted they wouldn't even be having this conversation if they had not heard from the City for years that there's not enough affordable housing. If the City was coming forward saying everybody who needs affordable housing in Iowa City is currently taken care of, they wouldn't be having this conversation. They are having this conversation because they're being told that there's not enough affordable housing. Everyone knows there's vacant units being held by private landlords, and in some cases there are landlords who will never accept Housing Choice Vouchers. Dennis noted to play the devil's advocate, as a taxpayer in the city of Iowa City, if somebody rents a house and trashes it, why are my tax dollars going to pay to repair it? Why should tax dollars be used to pay a private landlord who picked a bad tenant? Vargason stated the people in Iowa City in need of housing who may have some detriments in their background, the City's going to spend some money on these people in one way or another with assistance or shelter or crisis management. Dennis thinks they should separate that out a little bit. It sounds like the risk mitigation that Shelter House is administering is mainly for people coming out of the shelter or who are the hard to house. And then there are families out there who maybe don't have a good credit score. The adults in the family may be employed and they may have a Housing Choice Voucher, they just don't have a double deposit, but they still need a place to live, and they're not going to trash the property. It's two totally different groups, so put something else in there to provide a private landlord some other kind of incentive that isn't specifically designed for the hard to house. Szecsei stated there will be many tenants who will not damage the property. That's risk mitigation - if the house is not damaged then that money is not touched and it doesn't cost the taxpayer anything because those funds haven't been used. But the landlord would have the security to take the risk because of the partnership with the City. Szecsei would appreciate the City screening tenants personally, because she doesn't want to have to go find people. She would love to find somebody, a family who needs a home where she can provide that and then the flip side of it is, as far as incentives go, give her a bit of a property tax break if she doesn't raise the rent and charge the maximum amount. Then she doesn't have to pass those expenses on to her tenants year after year. Vogel noted there are some other discussions about the monitoring incentives from the federal side as well. He noted one of the things that kept popping up when they've talked about the CDBG stuff is senior assistance. One thing he is finding a lot lately is seniors who have been on a Housing Choice Voucher for years that really need more day to day assistance, whether it's someone coming over to just to help them take out the trash or do light cleaning, but they've been on the wait list for the senior apartments for a year, two years. Vogel wonders if there could be help transition current Housing Choice Voucher for people who are transitioning into senior housing. Some landlords don't want to renew the leases for seniors because if the trash doesn't get taken out they become an infestation concern. 6 Housing and Community Development Commission August 19, 2024 Page 7 of 10 Vogel stated when talking about incentives it would be interesting to see if there's anything that they could do, maybe a partnership with Iowa City Housing Authority, but it would be nice to figure out something whether it's a fund or whatever. There are the senior issues as well as disability issues where they can't do the day to day tasks of keeping their place clean and it would be nice if at some point the Iowa City Housing Authority or City staff could figure out how these fee-in-lieu-of fund payments that go into the affordable housing fund could be used for that assistance. Dennis noted the fee-in-lieu-of fund is only for Riverfront Crossings and that's the only place they can those funds. Kubly commented it would be helpful to know specifically from a landlord what's the incentive that they need. For example, how much money do they need to take on the risk? Vogel stated for the senior side it's not as much risk mitigation as it is assistance for health care or assisted living. Vargason wondered if there is any agency that works to channel these people to some place that they can live a better life, the fact of the matter is those places are in short supply. Dennis noted it's been a daunting discussion. Vogel stated there's going to be legal issues surrounding it from all sides but he will put together the stuff he found from HUD and send City staff to pass on. There was a second report HUD did that states there's a handful of public housing administrators all over the United States that they basically gave incentive money to and said here's the nine incentives and they have to offer two or three of them. It is an example of public housing authorities utilizing these funds and are getting positive feedback that private landlords are expanding units and availability utilizing these incentives. There's a lot of the incentives he thought were good and not all of them are monetary. Some were just having a dedicated liaison at the public housing authority level, which would be Iowa City Housing Authority, so people would have someone to talk to. There was also an advertising component as one of the incentives, having the public housing authority advertise. Kubly stated that the Iowa City Housing Authority is not a Moving to Work housing authority and does not receive that funding from HUD. Szecsei wanted to bring up one other thing that she heard about in Oakland, California, where they've got a bunch of empty or vacant places, and the city is now starting to charge a vacancy tax to basically say if they're going to have a rental unit and not going to have it occupied, then they can pay a little bit more. So that's another outside of the box thing to do. Vargason stated one idea floated around was to have clearinghouse, some kind of a web-based platform where individual landlords could host or advertise they have properties to one general source. Right now the advertising platform goes up to 12 different sites and not everybody's looking at that stuff, especially people that only have their phone as their computer. If they had a central place where they could work again in partnership with the City to have a site where the private landlords can post the vacant places they are having trouble getting rented. Szecsei noted it seems like these solutions would get more bang for the buck than the buying a property for$400,000, that's only solved one person's problem. They need to address that central section of people to help and actually have a meaningful impact. Vogel will get information out to the Commission and maybe come back with other ideas in the future. REVIEW AND CONSIDER APPROVAL OF FY26 LEGACY AID TO AGENCIES APPLICATION MATERIALS: Vogel noted this is the amended material that was discussed and agreed and worked on. For newer Commissioners he explained there was a whole process with the previous board where they had a couple 7 Housing and Community Development Commission August 19, 2024 Page 8 of 10 commissioners that worked really hard on making some streamlining adjustments to all the application materials to try to make it more fair for everybody, a little more objective, and also make the Commission's lives easier by not falling into the minutiae. Thul gave a brief background on the process. The Legacy Aid to Agencies funding is an application that is accepted through the United Way Joint Application process rather than through the City directly like other funding rounds. So the City, Johnson County, Coralville and North Liberty all are using one application to make it easier for nonprofits. As Vogel mentioned there was a subcommittee that worked to make recommendations for the application and staff have worked to balance those with the needs of the funders to try and make one application that works for everybody. Kubly noted the specific changes to the application, the subcommittee developed an agency profile, which is information that's going to be the same year after year that the agency won't have to fill out again. They'll do a narrative about the community need that they're serving, which won't typically change year after year, and that information is not going to be scored anymore, because it's required for them to qualify. The subcommittee also resolved a lot of technical issues with the application, mainly in the budget section with a simplified form to help the applicants. In the application there's a lot of demographic information that is requested and they added an "unknown" field to capture all the beneficiaries, along with an explanation field for agencies to explain if they're missing information. For example, there are a couple agencies (like Free Lunch)who don't collect demographics as part of their mission so that will give them an opportunity to explain. They revised some of the language in the narrative questions and listened to the agency feedback to change a few things that would help them continue to use the funds flexibly for operations, which is the intended use of the funds. Questions were reordered a little bit and some of them are combined or separated, but still the same information. Finally, they updated the outcome measures. The agency will select which outcome measures they want to provide over time. Kubly noted they also revised the scoring criteria to match the new application. The timeline is that the application will go live on September 1 and be due on October 15. There will be opportunities for training for applicants through United Way. Dennis had a question on the general information page, it says City Steps priorities and their services to the homeless or those at risk of homelessness and then there's a whole list. Then on the common outcomes options, it talks about affordable housing services - is that covered under services to homeless and those at risk of homelessness? Kubly explained for the Legacy Agencies that are served, the projects aren't direct housing. They might be for some of the other partner agencies, but probably not any of Iowa City's. Also since they are going through the new City Steps procecss, they can update that as well for clarity. Dennis asked what the source of funds are for the Legacy Agencies. Kubly explained the source of funding is a portion of the CDBG public service funding, the City can use up to 15% of the CDBG allocation -that's around $120,000 and then the rest is local general fund. Patel moved to approve the FY26 Legacy Aid to Agencies application materials. Kivarkis seconded the motion, a vote was taken and the motion passed 5-0 (Borgen left the meeting). STAFF& COMMISSION UPDATES: Dennis would like to congratulate the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County as they're going to be celebrating their 20-year anniversary this month. There will be a celebration at Terry Trueblood at five o'clock on August 28. Thul stated staff has been working through the consolidated planning process. Staff have been busy holding stakeholder sessions and public input meetings. There's a page on the Iowa City website icgov.org/2030 where it lists information about how to participate in that planning process. There will be another stakeholder session on the 9th for anybody that may have missed the other sessions that wanted to participate. The Zoom registration link is posted on the City Steps website. 8 Housing and Community Development Commission August 19, 2024 Page 9 of 10 The other thing Thul wanted to mention is the housing survey. It is still available so please encourage others to take that survey, it is on that same website and it's available in five languages. As Kubly mentioned earlier, this information is useful for the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing report as well. Thul noted that there's a couple spots for presentations like they had tonight from Watson. If there's areas of interest that the commission wants to hear more about feel free to send an email with ideas. Vogel stated having the Iowa City Housing Authority come present is always interesting and that might be useful again for new commissioners. Vogel noted there is an opening for an assistant housing inspector so if anyone knows anybody who's interested in working with the City of Iowa City. Szecsei had a question, is there a program for down payment assistance for first time homeowners through the state, and how much do they offer. Thul replied that she isn't sure about the state programs, but there is a program through the City where they offer just under$25,000 for income qualifying households. Qualifying income is under 80% AMI. The exact limit depends on how many people are in the household, there's an income chart on the website. Patel asked if it is restricted to certain areas of the city and Thul stated the program revised in the last year or so to include other parts of the city. ADJOURNMENT: Dennis moved to adjourn, Patel seconded the motion and a vote was taken and the motion passed 5-0 (Borgen left the meeting). 9 Housing and Community Development Commission August 19, 2024 Page 10 of 10 Housing and Community Development Commission Attendance Record 2023-2024 Name Terms Exp. 5/18 7/20 9/21 10/19 11/16 3/21 4/18 5/16 6/13 8/19 Balde, Daouda 6/30/27 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- O/E Dennis, Maryann 6/30/25 X X O/E X X X X X X X Kivarkis, George 6/30/27 -- -- Krotz, Karol 6/30/27 X X X X X O/E O/E X X O/E Vogel, Kyle 6/30/26 X X X O/E X X X O/E O/E X Patel, Kiran 6/30/26 X X X O/E X O/E O/E X X X Pierce, James 6/30/26 -- X X X X O/E X X X O/E Szecsei, Denise 6/30/25 -- -- -- -- X X X X O/E X Borgen, Horacio 6/30/25 -- -- -- -- -- O/E O/E X X X • Resigned from Commission Key: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused --- = Vacant 10 Item Number: 4.f. CITY OF IOWA CITY COUNCIL ACTION REPORT October 1, 2024 Parks & Recreation Commission: August 14 Attachments: Parks & Recreation Commission: August 14 IOWA CITY PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION APPROVED MINUTES OF AUGUST 14,2024 PARK SHELTER—TERRELL MILL PARK Members Present: Alex Hachtman, Connie Moore, Aaron Broege, Virginia Hayes, Brian Morelli,Alex Stanton Members Absent: Missie Forbes, Rachel McPherson, Caleb Recker Staff Present: Juli Seydell Johnson, Brad Barker, Tyler Baird, Gabe Gotera Others Present: None CALL TO ORDER: Chairman Hachtman called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: (to become effective only after separate Council action): None OTHER FORMAL ACTION: Moved by Haves, seconded by Morelli,to approve the July 10,2024, minutes. Motion passed 6-0 (Forbes,McPherson, &Recker absent). PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANY ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA: None REPORT ON ITEMS FROM CITY STAFF: Parks and Recreation Director —Dir. Seydell Johnson Ribbon Cutting: Dir. Seydell Johnson thanks the Commission for coming out to Terrell Mill Park to attend both the Commission meeting and the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Ice House Single Track Trail. PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION August 14, 2024 Page 2 of 4 Skate Park: Dir. Seydell Johnson says that the following day, she will be presenting the grant application that the department had submitted to the IA DNR office for a Land and Water Conservation Fund grant. The grant would go towards the budget for the Terrell Mill Park Skate Park. Seydell Johnson explains that staff will not have an official announcement this week regarding the grant, but that staff should have a sense of whether or not they will receive the grant. Seydell Johnson clarifies that the plan will move forward even if the grant is not received, but that there might be a few less items than on the original design. Seydell Johnson adds that staff are hopeful for the project to go out to bid this year. City Park Pool: Dir. Seydell Johnson says that the design process for City Park Pool is moving forward, explaining that there have been meetings to look over details in the bath house and filter house such as choice of restroom faucets. Seydell Johnson expects the process to move onto construction documents within the next month. Seydell Johnson clarifies that the Commission likely will not see much more on the project until January/February 2026 when staff are preparing for the project to go out to bid. Park Name: Dir. Seydell Johnson talks about an option submitted for the name of the new park near Shannon Drive. Seydell Johnson describes receiving an email from a member of the public about Adelaide Joy Rogers, the first female to run for election to the Iowa City Parks and Recreation Commission back in the early 1900s, when commissioners had to be elected and not appointed. Seydell Johnson explains that Rogers ran for office but was not elected,the same year that Emma Harvett become the first female elected to the city council. Throughout her life, Rogers did a lot of things in Iowa City, advocating especially for women in sports, Parks and Recreation, and recreation facilities. Seydell Johnson adds that staff have reviewed Rogers and like the idea and tie-in to the west side of Iowa City,where Rogers lived. Seydell Johnson says that this member of the public will be at the September Commission meeting to comment more on the subject, and that information about Rogers will be included in the agenda packet. Seydell Johnson clarifies that staff are still open to other ideas and encourages the Commission to bring these ideas to the September meeting. REAP Grant: Dir. Seydell Johnson announces that staff have applied for the Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) Grant. Seydell Johnson reminds the commission that the department has been very successful regarding state REAP grants from the state DNR,receiving $200,000 every year for the past seven years. Past projects have included, Whispering Meadows Park, Terry Trueblood Recreational Area, Ryerson's Woods,Ned Ashton House. Seydell Johnson explains that this year the grant would go towards environmental restoration efforts along the Sycamore Greenway, including the removal of invasive species,replanting desired plants, and adding new benches and bike repair stations. CHAIRS REPORT: None PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION August 14, 2024 Page 3 of 4 COMMISSION TIME/SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS: Commissioner Hayes explains that she has heard from members of the public who are not happy with the City Park Pool closing times, specifically Saturdays when the pool closes at 5 p.m. Hayes says that she understand that it is late in the season and that the schedule is likely derived from staffing, but asks if during City Park Pool discussions, it could be made a goal to keep the pool open until 8:00 p.m. Dir. Seydell Johnson encourages Hayes to bring this up again when staff are preparing the open the new pool, as that will be when staff are looking over the entire pool schedule. Vice Chairman Moore thanks Diane Allen of Project GREEN for the correspondence received via email including volunteer info,project updates, and pictures. Moore says that she loves to read these weekly updates. Moore says that she had received messages from a member of the public who had concerns about unhoused people living in Riverfront Crossings Park(RFX). Moore explains that the concerns are specifically about power cords that are pulled across the trails and people that are camping in the parks, despite a sign that says, `No Camping'. Moore says that past response has been to contact the police if there is a problem but asks what the recommendation of Parks and Recreation staff is. Dir. Seydell Johnson responds that staff are aware of individuals that lack housing that are using some of the Parks past hours, some in more obvious locations that others. Seydell Johnson explains that some department staff participates on a city committee that includes Police, Public Works staff, Parks staff, Shelter House staff, and Outreach officers who have been trying to make contact as best they can with each of these individuals when they are identified. Once the outreach officers make contact, they will try to get them entered into services, but this can take some time per individual. Seydell Johnson says that staff do have cameras on the buildings in RFX Park to monitor the area, but that the restrooms in the park have been locked off due to the amount of damage/vandalism sustained recently, opening for larger events in the park. Commissioner Morelli says that it is cool to see the updates from Project GREEN. Morelli says that he also has heard concerns regarding RFX Park, specifically about the restrooms being unusable by the public, wondering how the issue can be addressed equitably. Dir. Seydell Johnson responds that the bulk of the group that had been staying near the restrooms have moved on from the area in the last six days, but that staff are unsure of when the restrooms will be a operating normally. Parks Supt. Baird does mention that a temporary restroom was recently added at RFX Park. ADJOURNMENT: Moved by Morelli, second by Stanton,to adjourn the meeting at 5:09 p.m. Motion passed 6-0 (Forbes,McPherson, & Recker absent). PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION August 14, 2024 Page 4 of 4 PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION ATTENDANCE RECORD N N N N N N N N N N N N NAME o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TERM N N N N N N N N N N N N M l� O� M O � M O � N O � EXPIRES N N M � W� 1Z t- 00 Aaron 12/31/24 X X X X X O/E NM X NM NM X X Broe e Missie 12/31/25 X X O/E X X X NM O/E NM NM X O/E Forbes Alex 12/31/24 X X X X X X NM X NM NM O/E X Hachtman Virginia 12/31/27 * * * * X X NM X NM NM X X Hayes Rachel 12/31/26 X X X X X X NM X NM NM X O/E McPherson Connie 12/31/25 X X X X X O/E NM X NM NM X X Moore Brian 12/31/25 X O/E O/E X X O/E NM X NM NM X X Morelli Caleb 12/31/26 * X X X O/E X NM O/E NM NM X O/E Recker Alex 12/31/27 X X O/E X X X NM O/E NM NM O/E X Stanton KEY: X= Present O =Absent O/E =Absent/Excused NM= No meeting LQ = No meeting due to lack of quorum * = Not a member during this meeting Item Number: 4.g. r 1 CITY OF IOWA CITY COUNCIL ACTION REPORT October 1, 2024 Planning & Zoning Commission: September 4 [See Recommendation] Attachments: Planning & Zoning Commission: September 4 [See Recommendation] r ��_. .® CITY OF IOWA CITY MEMORANDUM Date: September 19, 2024 To: Mayor and City Council From: Anne Russett, Senior Planner Re: Recommendations from the Planning and Zoning Commission At its September 4, 2024 meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission have the following recommendations to the City Council: By a vote of 5-1 (Wade dissenting) the Commission recommends approval of REZ24-0006 an amendment to Title 14 Zoning as detailed in Attachment 1 to enhance land use regulations related to tobacco retailer use and to further implement the City's goals related to public health. Additional action (check one) No further action needed Board or Commission is requesting Council direction _X_ Agenda item will be prepared by staff for Council action MINUTES FINAL PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 4, 2024 —6:00 PM — FORMAL MEETING E M M A J. HARVAT HALL, CITY HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Susan Craig, Maggie Elliott, Steve Miller, Scott Quellhorst, Billie Townsend, Chad Wade MEMBERS ABSENT: Mike Hensch STAFF PRESENT: Eric Goers, Anne Russett OTHERS PRESENT: Kristian Nixon, Jonathan Lewallen, Dana Haverkamp, Jenna Dyroft RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: By a vote of 5-1 (Wade dissenting) the Commission recommends approval of REZ24-0006 an amendment to Title 14 Zoning as detailed in Attachment 1 to enhance land use regulations related to tobacco retailer use and to further implement the City's goals related to public health. CALL TO ORDER: Craig called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANY ITEM NOT ON THE AGENDA: None. CASE NO. REZ24-0006 Consideration of an amendment to Title 14, entitled "Zoning Code", to address tobacco sales- oriented uses. Goers began the staff report with a little bit of the history about why tobacco regulation comes before the Planning & Zoning Commission as it is not something they are normally tasked with addressing. At the April 2 City Council meeting the Council voted to deny several tobacco permits, notifying staff that there was something up and that Council wanted to discuss the issue of tobacco regulation. Staff came back with a moratorium at their May 7 meeting that put the halt on all new tobacco permit applications at that point so Council would have time to consider how to regulate, if at all, tobacco permits. Goers explained that moratorium runs through the end of this calendar year. Council then engaged in several work sessions, the first being on July 16, at which Council tasked him with drafting three ordinance amendments. One is a zoning ordinance amendment that is for their consideration this evening having to do with distance separations between retailers and each other, and also retailers and either K - 12 schools or University property. The second ordinance amendment was having to do with putting a cap on tobacco permits issued throughout the City and the third had to do with banning kratom, an herbal substance that he is still learning about. Ultimately through a couple of additional work sessions on August 6 and August 20, Council directed to not to move forward with the permit cap, but to move forward with the other two ordinance amendments of a kratom band and the zoning ordinance. Goers noted the draft ordinance amendment was included in the agenda packet and he worked Planning and Zoning Commission September 4, 2024 Page 2 of 8 closely with the assistance of the urban planning staff on it. He also just wanted to make it clear tobacco retailers use is not something that's currently regulated under Iowa City zoning and it is a use that they've had to create in order to effectuate change that Council would like to consider. Therefore, there's nothing in the zoning code at present to compare to see how this is going to fit in with present regulation. The ordinance structure is modeled on alcohol zoning which at present has a couple of different separation distance measures in the code. One is 500 feet between drinking establishments, places that have licenses for on-premises consumption (bars), and the other is 1000-foot separation distance for off-premises consumption (liquor stores or places that sell alcohol for off-premises consumption). With the alcohol ordinance there are a couple of other caveats regarding accessory uses and so forth and it gets to be a little tricky but with tobacco is quite a bit more straightforward, either they have a tobacco permit or they don't. Staff did include some grandfather provisions, as they are apt to do on zoning measures because there are a number of retailers that are within 500 feet of each other at present or are within 500 feet of a school or university property. In the ordinance amendment it is stated that grandfathered retailers will have 60 days to allow their permit to lapse and if their permit lapses for more than 60 days they lose their grandfather rights and will have to cease selling tobacco. Goers noted that could mean a rehabilitation or remodeling project that would close down a shop and not sell for more than 60 days would also lose grandfather rights and their tobacco permit revoked. Goers showed a map that displayed the present location of both school property and current tobacco retailers, of which there are presently 62. He pointed out the tobacco retailers within a 500-foot buffer around University property or K - 12 school property. He noted in the downtown area there would likely not be an ability of any new retailers to come in but in other parts of the City there would be a little bit more opportunity. In so far as staffing is concerned, because the clerk's office already does tobacco permit applications and manages all of that, they would likely just continue managing this part of it and all they would really need to do is type in an address and then see whether it falls under one of the buffers or if it was in the clear and thus could be approved. Therefore, staff recommends that Title 14 Zoning be amended as detailed in Attachment 1 to enhance land use regulations related to tobacco retailer use and to further implement the City's goals related to public health. Townsend asked if this is a new issue and are there more tobacco retailers. Goers explained there has been an increase in tobacco retailers recently, insofar as tobacco retailers include convenience stores, grocery stores, drug stores, a lot of businesses for which the sale of tobacco and tobacco products is not their primary concern. Additionally vape shops and everything they sell would fall under the tobacco licensing. Goers also clarified the tobacco permits cover both traditional tobacco products like cigarettes and cigars, pipe tobacco, but also vapes, alternative nicotine delivery systems, but not kratom, that is a separate ordinance amendment. Wade noted Goers mentioned alternative nicotine products and that the definition of tobacco sales-oriented business would include any business that sells alternative nicotine products. Looking at the definition in the Iowa code it seems pretty broad, like it might pull in, for example, Target which sells nicotine lozenges, is that accurate, and if so, is that the intent of the ordinance. Goers stated he would need to look to see whether nicotine lozenges fall under the definition of products that require a tobacco permit. For this ordinance amendment the definition Planning and Zoning Commission September 4, 2024 Page 3 of 8 is if they need a tobacco permit, then this applies to them. If they do not need a tobacco permit, then it does not. Wade stated he is just trying to understand whether these restrictions would apply to something like ZYN which is an alternative to chewing tobacco and would be sold at a grocery store or pharmacy, it's more of a recreational nicotine product, as opposed to lozenges and gums which would typically be used for smoking cessation. Goers will look at Iowa Code Chapter 453A which defines some of those products and can circle back. Wade also asked if this were to pass would new tobacco shops need to seek approval for a provisional use from the Board of Adjustment or would they just go to the City Clerk. Goers stated it would be handed by the City Clerk's office. Goers noted in the ordinance that there are a number of charts that talk about whether they would be allowable under certain zones and there he would depend on the planning staff to help with the process by which they would secure the approvals that they need and if it's a provisional use, or something like that in a particular zone, planning staff would assist but in so far as the Clerk's concerned in issuing the tobacco permit, it would just be are they within 500 feet, yes or no. Wade asked if there would be any mechanism for an exception to that rule other than grandfathering. Goers confirmed there would not. Townsend asked if a company that has been grandfathered in goes out of business or for some reason can't continue to operate, no one can come in and replace that shop. Goers confirmed that would only be correct if there is a lapse of a permit of more than 60 days and/or a cessation of sales for more than 90 days. If a convenience store went out of business, and a month later got bought up by Casey's or something, Casey's can open up shop and get a permit, that would be fine. There are 62 permits at present and while Council originally wanted a cap on permits they chose not to move forward with that. Permits will be allowed so long as they are not within the 500 feet of another permit. Miller noticed when looking at the map he was just kind of surprised that Hy-Vee and grocery stores were on there, he was thinking that vape shops was what they're trying to limit with this legislation. It doesn't seem like anyone would want to limit having another grocery store within a certain radius of vape shop. Goers stated there was some discussion of that and City staff met a couple times with Susan Valetta, who's a Johnson County Public Health Educator, and based on her research she indicated that she's more concerned with the convenience stores and the grocery stores because there's greater exposure to children as children go into those places all the time. Whereas it would be surprising and unusual for a child to wander into a vape store and it's about exposure and normalizing of use that leads to greater problems down the line. If there's a higher density and higher availability of exposure, particularly to young people, then they're more likely to become users. Miller asked if all or most grocery stores have tobacco permits. Goers hasn't checked on that but believes most grocery stores have tobacco permits as well as most convenience stores also. Craig stated then if the Hy-Ve Drug that's on First Avenue, which certainly is within 500 feet of Regina, if that went out of business, unless someone else came along and bought the business or secured a permit within 60 days of a lapsed permit they would lose their grandfather rights. Goers confirmed that was correct. Planning and Zoning Commission September 4, 2024 Page 4 of 8 Craig stated the impetus for this concern from Council is a health one and Goers replied that was correct. Goers stated regarding the question about the alternative nicotine products and the list under State code which is incorporated through this ordinance states alternative nicotine product means a product not consisting of/or containing tobacco that provides for the ingestion, into the body of nicotine, whether by chewing (nicotine gum), absorbing, dissolving, inhaling, snorting or sniffing, or by any other means. Alternative nicotine product does not include cigarettes, tobacco products or vapor products as each of those also require a tobacco permit, or a product that is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. So, it appears that any kind of nicotine gum or anything like that would require a tobacco permit. Wade asked if a location had a move because of loss of lease or something like that do they fall under the new rule as soon as they move locations and have to be greater than 500 feet, and the grandfathering would no longer apply. Goers confirmed that is correct because zoning regulation is about the use and not the user. So, if a tobacco retailer wants to move from location B to location C it has to be outside of 500 feet and eligible. Wade asked also about an explanation on why locations of education facilities from 18 and younger and college or universities are the treated the same. Goers stated the law used to be one only need to be 18 to consume tobacco products but now it is 21 and probably half or more of the student body at the University of Iowa is under 21. Craig opened the public hearing. Kristian Nixon (student, University of Iowa College of Law) was wondering if there's been any research on the increase in property value that the smoke shop owners might have, since they already have these locations that are close to the schools. Goers stated they haven't done any research on that but are cognizant of the changes because of the alcohol one upon which this tobacco ordinance is largely modeled. The proposed ordinance is kind of locking in some locations, because if they ever stop that use they will lose those grandfather rights and they are aware of landlords who require, as part of their lease with their tenants, that they continue to engage in the sale of alcohol and so forth as to preserve that right. Nixon also asked if there is currently a limit to how much product they could have, for example could one of these places expand upwards if they have a tall building. Goers replied that would be an expansion of a non- conforming use and would not be allowed. Jonathan Lewallen (student, University of Iowa College of Law) asked if there's been any consideration to the effect this ordinance could have on currently vacant properties with infrastructure for gas station use. For example, the closed gas station on Mormon Trek and the closed gas station downtown. Is there a risk that would be locking out the reopening of those businesses with this ordinance. Goers is not sure the Council would use the word risk to characterize that, but yes there is some possibility that if this passes and the use ceases. Currently there remains a tobacco permit in place for the former Kum & Go at Mormon Trek and Benton. He doesn't recall if there's one at the intersection of Burlington and Madison. Dana Haverkamp (student, University of Iowa College of Law) stated as per the Iowa code, under the alternative tobacco products, or nicotine products, nicotine patches would also fall under that definition, is there a benefit for restricting the sale of nicotine patches that an Planning and Zoning Commission September 4, 2024 Page 5 of 8 exception would not be a better idea to allow the sale for reducing the usage of nicotine in the first place. Goers noted there is an exception for products that are regulated as a drug or device by the US Food and Drug Administration and if nicotine patches fall under that category it would not apply. If they do not, and they otherwise fall under the definition of alternative nicotine products, this ordinance would apply to their application. Haverkamp stated there's no intent to make an exception for things that are preventative. Goers replied no, the City is bound by the State's regulations regarding alternative nicotine products and how they are defined. Haverkamp asked specifically for this new zoning permission why not make an exception for products that are aimed at reducing the use of nicotine, rather than having a blanket statement preventing this sale of nicotine and tobacco products. Goers stated the City is defaulting to the State's definition. There's a reason why some products are regulated and require a tobacco permit and that some are not and so they're just following the State code in that way. Haverkamp noted the majority of individuals that start smoking to begin with are individuals who are interacting with already people that smoke, such as family and friends, things of that nature, so how would they view restricting the locations themselves as a way that would actually reduce the influence of nicotine usage in the first place, like in children. The locations in themselves are not typically what's actually getting them to start smoking in the first place. Goers acknowledged it's difficult to regulate tobacco use within the home. Jenna Dyroft (student, University of Iowa College of Law) wanted to put forth the idea that perhaps this measure might be a little bit counterintuitive, they were speaking about how many grocery stores sell tobacco products, but primarily this seems like it's targeted at a typical vape shop, but because it's modeled off of alcohol prohibited measures it's including grocery stores, etc. She thinks it's worth considering looking at how the City is set up, a lot of the bars and liquor stores are concentrated in the downtown area and this measure is making it so that it's basically prohibiting any new stores from being in the downtown area which might encourage people to open new stores in the peripheral of the City, which would, in effect spread out tobacco use across the whole City, instead of maybe concentrating it in more of that downtown nightlife area. Russett noted residential zones do not permit tobacco or alcohol-oriented retail. Craig closed the public hearing. Elliott moved to approve REZ24-0006 an amendment to Title 14 Zoning as detailed in Attachment 1 to enhance land use regulations related to tobacco retailer use and to further implement the City's goals related to public health. Townsend seconded the motion. Quellhorst states he generally supports the proposal but would oppose the motion because he thinks that they should exclude alternative nicotine products, or at least tobacco cessation products like gums and lozenges. His concern is that this definition of alternative nicotine products sweeps pretty broadly and makes it would make it more difficult for businesses like pharmacies, for example, or Target to enter downtown and other areas. And then, relatedly, the impetus behind this measure is to protect public health and he doesn't see the same public health concerns with lozenges, gums and other tobacco cessation products as he does with vapes and cigarettes, for example. For those reasons he supports the notion behind the proposal but doesn't support this particular motion. Planning and Zoning Commission September 4, 2024 Page 6 of 8 Wade appreciates Quellhorst catching that because that's something he would not have realized, the nicotine patches and so on. Elliott noted they don't know for sure that that's the case, there is an exception perhaps for nicotine patches and she assumes they're somehow regulated by the FDA. Wade wouldn't want to get in a situation where a new Walgreens, for example, is interested in doing business downtown but either couldn't do so or would get caught up in a lot of red tape, due to this ordinance. Townsend would be in favor of this, 500 feet is not a long way to walk if someone can't find the products that they're looking for. Iowa City doesn't need more vape and tobacco shops in the downtown area there's already an abundance of the vape shops and tobacco shops and places that offer those things. Wade's concern is less with another vape shop, which he agrees that they don't need more of and more that a business that may happen to sell tobacco cessation products, like a Target or CVS, can't get a tobacco license because of the ordinance. If the City Attorney is of the opinion that those sorts of businesses wouldn't be prohibited by this ordinance, then he'd be comfortable supporting it. Goers noted looking it up, according to the CDC nicotine patches are an FDA approved medicine and nicotine gum, also, according to the Center for Disease Control, is an FDA approved medicine. Therefore, both would fall under the exception of alternative nicotine product. Miller asked just to clarify that would mean that they do not need a tobacco permit to sell it. Goers confirmed that is his reading of the definition of alternative nicotine products. Miller stated he will support this as the intent behind this is reducing the number of vape shops, especially downtown. His only concern is about what Commissioner Wade brought up with institutionalizing these locations as forever a vape shop. What happens if this becomes a problem. Goers replied there could be an ordinance amendment and because this is a zoning ordinance it would need to come before this Commission again before Council took it up if there was a change. He also noted insofar as the question about institutionalizing, that was something at the staff level they considered as well but also have to consider the alternative, and that there will just be more of them. Craig stated that's why she's in favor of this zoning change, because it's always a tradeoff, they have to trade something away to get something that they feel is important enough, and she thinks in this case, it's a fair trade. Wade thinks the intention is probably good, the devil is in the details and it may have some unintended consequences. He also thinks that 90 days without the sale of tobacco products is a little on the short side and would hate to have a business get hit with a tornado or natural disaster and then as a result lose their permit and ability to sell. Wade asked if there is a reason why they did not take a different approach, like a per capita permit approach, and instead really focused on zoning mechanism. Goers stated one point Council was considering that, and had him draft one, but ultimately looking at the map they Planning and Zoning Commission September 4, 2024 Page 7 of 8 thought that the zoning would really address their concerns and it wouldn't prevent a new grocery store from going into an area that maybe is underserved at present, part of a food desert or something. And if that grocery store felt like they needed to sell tobacco in order to pencil out and make a go of it, that that was probably a net benefit, and they didn't want a permit cap to get in the way of something like that. A vote was taken and the motion passed 5-1 (Wade dissenting). CONSIDERATION OF MEETING MINUTES: JUNE 26, 2024: Elliott moved to approve the meeting minutes from June 26, 2024. Wade seconded the motion, a vote was taken and the motion passed 6-0. PLANNING AND ZONING INFORMATION: Craig introduced the new Commission member, Steve Miller. Miller stated he is an architect who is really interested in planning and zoning and looking forward to learning more. His first City board or commission was public art and he did that for just over two terms. Russett updated that the two rezonings that were considered in June were both approved by Council, the 1215 Camp Cardinal Road and 2255 North Dubuque Road for the school district property. ADJOURNMENT: Elliott moved to adjourn, Wade seconded and the motion passed 6-0. X X O X X X X LU X X X X X X X X O X X D X X X X X It 00 Q X X X ; XXX X N LU N X O X X X X X X X X XXX X N O X X X X X X Z O N X X X O X X X 20 X X X , XXX X C� N Z W N Z Z M Co OQON c X XX , XXXX od Z Z Z Q o X X X X X X X Z Q a � x xx x x x x c Qx xx x wx , o m w x xx xx , o , � X Xo x xx cn c L N X x x x x x X 0 W r N cv c O W � m o a) � QZ W w g vi � a Q Q OLU YLU<Co w ii ii w co � 2 w Z = YXOO CO _ Z 2 W S U O O fn J d, J Z W J Z J_ O W Q Item Number: 4.h. CITY OF IOWA CITY m' ) *z COUNCIL ACTION REPORT October 1, 2024 Public Art Advisory Committee: August 1 Attachments: Public Art Advisory Committee: August 1 Approved, p.1 Public Art Advisory Committee Mtg, 81112024 Minutes Public Art Advisory Committee August 1, 2024 Emma Harvat Hall Public Art Advisory Committee Members Present: Ron Knoche, Steve Miller, Jeremy Endsley, Leslie Finer, Nate Sullivan, Anita Jung, Juli Seydell Johnson, Andrea Truitt Members Absent: Rachel Kinker Staff present: Rachel Kilburg Varley Public Present: Matisse Arnone, Kymberly Koester Call to Order Miller called the meeting to order at 3:04 p.m. Public Discussion of Any Item Not on the Agenda None. Consider minutes of the June 6, 2024 PAAC meeting. Johnson moved and Jung seconded that the minutes from the April 4, 2024, meeting be approved. Motion passed (8-0). College Green Stair Painting— Green Iowa Americorps Project Matisse Arnone, Green Iowa Americorps member serving in the Climate Action & Outreach Office, discussed his community service project idea to repaint a mural on the College Green Stairs. Arnone also introduced Kymberly Koester, an artist associated with Public Space One who would oversee the volunteer repainting project, to present design concepts for the project and discuss the project. Koester presented the preferred design inspired by a waterfall cascading down the steps. Volunteers will assist with painting and acrylic paint will be used, which will result in a somewhat temporary mural expected to last for only a few years. Finer asked whether the PAAC has a framework for projects that involve volunteer participation and Kilburg Varley shared that the mural on the Resource Management building was another partnership with Climate Action that incorporated volunteer painters and relied upon an expert artist to oversee the process and apply finishing touches. Miller asked about the project funding. Kilburg Varley stated it was an unfunded project when approached about the idea, but due to the Committee's stated priorities of compensating and supporting artist's livelihood she recommended a $500 artist stipend from the Public Art budget and requested that painting supplies be purchased by the Climate Action Office. Approved,p.2 Public Art Advisory Committee Mtg, 81112024 Knoche mentioned that the process to bring this project forward was not typical and wanted to acknowledge that for future projects. Jung suggested that the location may be considered as an ongoing temporary mural site. Miller stated that the discussion on agenda item number 6 should also help inform how to handle project requests in the future. Jung moved to approve the project and artist stipend, Finer seconded. Motion passed (8-0). Consider Recommendation for Public Art Inventory Condition Assessment Kilburg Varley reminded the Committee that they had previously established a priority for art maintenance and set aside FY25 budget funds for a professional condition assessment of the existing public art inventory. Kilburg Varley solicited three informal quotes from firms in the region who provide this service and a subcommittee of members Truitt and Johnson helped review the quotes. The subcommittee recommends contracting with the Midwest Arts Conservation Center (MACC) at an estimated cost of $18,650. The scope of service includes an on-site survey with both an objects and painters conservator and a report for each piece which includes a condition assessment, site recommendations, treatment and maintenance recommendations, and a priority ranking based on need. Training for staff or treatment services are optional add-on services in the future and MACC has experience working with the UI Stanley Museum and the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation. Timing of the condition assessment would take place in either Fall 2025 or Spring 2026. Kilburg Varley recommended using the $15,000 set-aside in the FY25 budget for art maintenance, plus $3,650 from the Opportunity Fund set-aside, which means due to budget availability any actual treatment of pieces would need to be delayed until FY26 and beyond. Jung shared that she thought being synergistic with the firm used by the Stanley seems beneficial. Jung made a motion to enter a contract with the Midwest Arts Conservation Center for a Public Art Inventory Condition Assessment, Truitt seconded. Motion passed (8-0). Discuss Staff Recommendation for Handling Public Art Protect Requests Kilburg Varley shared that she frequently receives requests from individuals and neighborhood groups about proposed public art projects. However, it can be challenging to respond to these requests as there are not currently established processes for how to intake and handle them. In the past, most large neighborhood projects have been the result of direct contact between staff and organized neighborhood associations. However, for equity and clarity purposes, Kilburg Varley is recommending several improvements to clarify the appropriate channels, processes, and timing for public art requests. Kilburg Varley reviewed the proposed changes outlined in the staff memo included the August 6, 2024 PAAC agenda packet. In summary, the changes largely included creating and publicizing an application form and procedure for public art requests Approved, p.3 Public Art Advisory Committee Mtg, 81112024 initiated by neighborhoods and other groups within the community. Committee members shared the following thoughts: • For community-initiated projects, Johnson suggested that approvals by relevant City staff and departments must be obtained by applicants before they apply for approval from the PAAC. • Jung suggested the Committee may wish to identify spaces within the community that are designated for"temporary" public art installations. ■ Truitt agreed with the recommendation to maintain flexibility to identify when specific programs are accepting applications, based on capacity and resources available. • The Committee members discussed the difference between "Community initiated" projects versus "Neighborhood initiated" projects. Differences identified included the amount of resources and staff time being requested for investment and whether the request is coming from an organized Neighborhood Association versus a group of individuals. Committee members agreed that project requests from neighborhood associations should be required to engage or do outreach with households in the neighborhood. • The Committee members also discussed generally providing themselves flexibility to prioritize and invest in different programs at different times, and make those decisions annually based upon current priorities, capacity, and available resources. Kilburg Varley stated that she will move forward with working on these program processes and will bring them back for final PAAC input and approval before they are published. Lucas Farms Neighborhood Indigenous History Art Project Kilburg Varley reminded the Committee that they had previously agreed to move forward with a public art project in the Lucas Farms Neighborhood to be created in partnership with the Meskwaki Settlement School. A draft agreement between the City and the Meskwaki Settlement School was included in the August 6, 2024 PAAC agenda packet. Due to potential timing of the project with the Fall semester, Kilburg Varley invited feedback on the draft agreement and stated the final agreement and design concept would still be brought back to the Committee for their final approval. Staff Updates Kilburg Varley shared progress photos on the South District Bus Stop Bench Project and shared an update that the artists and applicable City staff had met on site and footing drawings and precise location at the bus stop at Fairmeadows Park along Lakeside Dr and site prep needs are being planned. Jung asked when they plan to install, and staff responded that Fall 2024 installation is desired. Approved,p.4 Public Art Advisory Committee Mtg, 81112024 She also reported that all eight new sculptures for the Sculptor's Showcase have been installed. City staff is working on a news release, social media posts, scavenger hunt, and promotional video. Kilburg Varley next refreshed the Committee on the timeline for collecting feedback to update the Public Art Strategic Plan. The arts stakeholder meeting is planned for August 1, a public survey can be issued, and staff will plan a work session for the Committee members to discuss in replacement of one of the upcoming PAAC meetings. Miller suggested a subcommittee could assist with drafting the Strategic Plan. Finally, Kilburg-Varley and Committee members thanked Steve Miller for his seven years of service to the PAAC Committee. Miller is resigning due to being appointed to the Planning & Zoning Committee. Adjournment Jung moved to adjourn at 4:02 pm. Endsley seconded. Motion passed (8-0). Approved,p.5 Public Art Advisory Committee Mtg, 81112024 Public Art Advisory Committee Attendance Record 2023-2024 Name Term Expires 514/23 618123 7/6123 8/3/23 917/23 11/2123 1217/23 114124 4/4/24 616/24 811124 Ron Knoche X X X X X* X X X* X* X X Juli Seydell- X X X X X O/E X* X O/E X X Johnson Steve Miller 12/31/23 X X X X X X X X X X X Eddie 12/31/24 O/E O/E O/E O/E 0 --- --- — --- --- --- Boyken Andrea 12/31/25 X X X X X X X O/E X O/E X Truitt Dominic 6/30/23 X X -- O/E --- --- --- -- --- Dongilli Anita Jung 6/30/23 X X O/E X X X X X O/E X X Jenny 12/31/23 O/E X X X O/E 0 X --- - --- --- Gringer Jeremy 12/31/25 X X O/E X 0 X X X X X X Endsley Nate 6/30/26 -- -- X X X X X O/E X X X Sullivan Leslie Finer --- — --- - - — X X X Rachel --- — --- -- — X X O/E Kinker Key: X = Present X* = Delegate attended 0 = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused --- = Not a member Item Number: 4.i. CITY OF IOWA CITY COUNCIL ACTION REPORT October 1, 2024 Senior Center Commission: August 15 Attachments: Senior Center Commission: August 15 Approved Minutes August 15, 2024 MINUTES SENIOR CENTER COMMISSION August 15, 2024 Room 311, Iowa City Senior Center Members Present: Nancy Ostrognai, Jay Gilchrist, Lee McKnight, Angie McConville Members Absent: Ross Taylor, Warren Paris, Betty Rosse Staff Present: Michelle Buhman, LaTasha DeLoach Others Present: None CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order by Gilchrist at 4.00 PM. RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM THE MAY 16, 2024 MEETING: Motion: To accept the minutes from the May 16, 2024. Motion carried on a 4/0 vote. Ostrognai/McKnight PUBLIC DISCUSSION: None. OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW: There will be a Healthy Aging Fair on August 22 at the Senior Center, which is a partnership with Johnson County Healthy Communities. There will be over 60 organizations involved as well as some demonstration classes. Buhman reviewed the September/October program guide. She highlighted a handful of programs including the partnership with Film Scene for Cinema Salon, Climate Fest programming, a new class "How to deal with conflict", a new member lunch, and a new Zumba class started this summer. The second annual Pickleball Jamboree will be held September 29t"at the Greenstate Field House. This is a fundraiser for Friends of the Senior Center. 1 Approved Minutes August 15, 2024 This summer Buhman piloted the Matter of Balance program, and it went well. She trained additional instructors for the program, and it has continued. Additionally, she hopes to have a Matter of Balance class in North Liberty this winter. Gilchrist asked about members from Coralville. DeLoach noted that she intends to reach out to the Parks and Rec Coordinator in Coralville soon. Coralville has had some senior programming in the past. She noted that without additional staffing it is unlikely we will be able to expand more off site. She noted that North Liberty has given a grant to the Senior Center so that is why the collaboration has continued to bring some programming there. DeLoach reported the Senior Center installed door counters to be able to have good statistics on how many people are utilizing the facility. DeLoach noted we are a pickup location for Field to Family on Thursday nights. COMMISSION DISCUSSION: The Senior Center had some water flood part of the ground floor through the emergency exit due to the heavy rain this week. The building temperature is still of concern. There is a HVAC project on the horizon this fall that will help with this. A full HVAC overhaul will be in the works for a few years out. DeLoach reported that she spoke with commissioner Ostrognai regarding creating a bulletin board for members to recommend service professionals and post obituaries. 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