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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-01-21 TranscriptionIowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:llcitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:00:21] All right. It is 4:00 P.M. On January 21, 2025. And this is the City of Iowa City Work.Session, and I want to welcome everyone here, and hello to my fellow counselors. We're going to start with item number one, which is clarification of agenda items. [00:00:40] 1 think I'm just- I am going to recuse myself from the first planning in Zone. [00:00:46] 1 myself from the last. [00:00:49] 1 will be also exing myself from the last item from the agenda. [00:00:54] Okay- okay. All right. Anything else from the agenda? We're going to move on to item number two. Information packet discussion will start with January 9th. We'll go on to January 16. We do have a memo from the city clerk about the listening post. So probably need to get that. [00:01:35] Be great to get a couple of volunteers for at least the February, maybe the May, and then we can- I'll do another memo for the ones in the later the summer involved. [00:01:46] And I read this probably about 2 hours ago. I don't remember were there suggested dates, or was it just the months? [00:01:53] Just the months. And then I'll work with the two. So February- February would be the first one and then May is the one following. [00:02:00] 1 have a- [00:02:01] Do you have the place where it's going to be? [00:02:04] You guys get to choose that. [00:02:05] Okay. Page 1 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/Zcitychannel4.comlcity-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:02:06] I'd be willing to do February. It's been a while since I've done it. [00:02:09] It's been a while since I've done it as well. I- has anyone not done one yet? [00:02:13] 1 was just going to say there is also the USG. Um, it's not officially one of our forums or listening session, but that is, I believe February 11, so I don't know if that is an opportunity to do sort of listening posts for students, or are we going to do it to February sessions? [00:02:28] That's a long night. [LAUGHTER] [00:02:30] Yeah. [00:02:30] 1 will say. [00:02:31] Yeah. And if anybody wants to I agreed to do that, I don't know if somebody else wanted to go with me to that USG forum. [OVERLAPPING] We all all going. [00:02:40] We all go. [00:02:41] Yes, we all go. I do have a conflict that night where I'm not able to go to the USG. [00:02:47] Okay. [00:02:48] Okay. [00:02:48] But in the past, I think all of us have been invited. [00:02:51] We- yeah. Page 2 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,/./citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:02:51] Okay. I misunderstood our last discussion. I'm glad that we're talking about this now, so everyone, except for Mayor Tague is going? [00:02:58] This year, yeah. [00:02:59] Last year, you- we had a issue with notice not going out enough. So we didn't all go last year, so that was- would have been your first year on. [00:03:06] Okay. [00:03:06] Oh, right. [00:03:10] 1 guess maybe we can just determine who wants to do a listening session, and then if it ends up being student -related or something else, I guess whoever is, um, doing the listening session can determine that and just report to the council. This is what they're doing, and, of course, counsel can give thoughts and comments at that point. [00:03:29] I'm happy to happen to either February or May, though. More than glad. [00:03:35] Yeah, I haven't done one in a while, so I can, um, probably do one in February. And then you want to do February? [00:03:44] Sure. [00:03:45] Okay. Let's go ahead and set up May if people are interested. [00:03:51] Set up for May? [00:03:53] Do a May as well. I did one fall, that's time again. Page 3 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/Zcitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:03:57] Okay. Are you all okay with that? There're two that are not. Okay. So we just- those are the February and Mays, and then we'll figure it out from there. [00:04:07] Okay. [00:04:08] Great. Thank you. Anything else from January 16? [00:04:13] 1 just want to say on I133, which was the memo from Assistant City Manager Kirk Leman. It was just- it was a really good breakdown of where our money is that we have currently, the suggestions for moving it, some pieces of it into other funding streams or ways of paying, particularly for Li tech. Um, but I was also struck by just the- the commentary about us needing, um, a roughly 4,600 new dwelling units by 2030. Um, and so Usually, Councilor Mo makes this stand, but I'll just sort of do it in his stead or for my own sake, whatever, um, that this is just something that ongoing, even while we're facing, you know, rough couple of years, budget -wise, we really need to be, um, creative, deliberate, um, and welcoming for getting our housing stock up across the board because we're going to have many more residents who are going to need places to live in Iowa City in the next 65 years. So- [00:05:23] 1 want to highlight IP, I think, 6- 6. It is housing. The city manager really re bear a very nice letter here saying, like, how much money we have and where we have them. Ah, it seemed like we have 40 million almost $50 million. Ah, we can use to do affordable housing. And this is great. So even though some- some- some- monies have to be like allocated to certain projects like Riverfront crossing where you have to spend it there. But there is some like lose money that we can decide what we want to do. I guess want to mention that, so I don't know when are we going to talk about this, but- [00:06:061 1 was going to say that it would be great to actually sort of sit and brainstorm. [00:06:09] Exactly. So we have here where the money come from, and that's always the obstacles. Thank you City Manager for, like, putting this together so we can sit. And I guess we need just some time to talk about this. [00:06:28] Agreed. Agreed- agreed- agreed. [00:06:30] Page 4 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/.Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. And I do have one more IP comment. Ah, it was IP9, and it was a fantastic report by the Johnson County Master Gardeners, um, with all of their activities that they have been doing over years, but this was their- their annual report. I looked like- and I thought it was really quite wonderful, but one of the things that struck me and that I have a question, actually, to see if maybe we can reach out to them, um, is that there was a section that's on partner activities, and that's where there's the, um, team up to clean up, the pick up to clean up. There's different versions of it. One is downtown, one is out- on the South District, and there are several other activities. But one thing that I caught in this was, um, within the last year and a half, probably a year, there was some public comment by, um, a resident here who took it upon himself with some friends to clean up Ralston Creek because there was so much- [00:07:32] Garbage. [00:07:32] Stuff and garbage and everything, and I was wondering if this might be something that we could work with them. Um, maybe master gardeners could or the city somehow could- if there could be some kind of a conversation about adding this as a place where we could actually do a sustained cleanup effort, um, or if there's another entity like this, um, just because I know that that was something that was heartening that we have people doing it, um, and then also disheartening because from their perspective that we weren't. So it occurred to me, and I was just hoping that we might be able to pursue that. [00:08:05] 1 love the idea. I know there are groups of people who clean up the Iowa River every year, and they take canoes and sometimes tons of trash out of it, and I'm certain some of that trash is coming from Ralston Creek at some point. So, um, maybe finding a way to connect all those groups and encourage the city to, ah, to engage too would be the right way to get a lot more done. [00:08:30] Yeah. [00:08:31] So I think I'm seeing some ads in it in that we would love to have to follow up and, um, maybe even talk to our own department and see what those cleanup efforts are. [00:08:41] Yeah, just really quickly, the River and cleanups are things that we're involved with on a regular basis. Um, we can report out on how we've engaged on that over the last couple of years. I don't think the master gardeners would probably be the, um, the group that we would typically utilize to- to do the waterway cleanups, but there's probably some overlap with other groups that we can- we can explore. So we do that through our stormwater, eh, offerings, and happy to report on that in the future. Page 5 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,[/citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:09:141 Thanks for letting me take that piece of yarn because it really was just reading that report. Oh, what about, and I appreciate that it's like right idea, maybe not the right vehicle. But, um, that would be great if we find out more. [00:09:27] Great. [00:09:27] So we return to I133 that Counselor Alter brought up and, ah, Councilor SL also discussed. Is that something that, um, we should be putting on a work session agenda to digest that IP memo from the assistant city manager regarding the Affordable Housing fund? [NOISE] Is that something you need counsel direction on or want a public discussion about, or is this more of an FYI? [00:09:52] Yeah, we- we placed this actually under your next work session agenda, which is the fiscal year 26 budget because this is- that's where this discussion originally originated from. So you're free to talk about it tonight. Ah, but if you need more time, you can certainly put it on any future work session agenda as well. Ah, I would say for all of these funds, maybe minus one or two, the staff has work plans associated with them, or we've, ah, put forward efforts to, ah, contemplate how best to invest those dollars, but we of course, would welcome and appreciate any guidance from the council. So if you've got thoughts on how these should be expended, then absolutely we can talk about it tonight or we could, um, schedule on a different work session. [00:10:39] 1 believe that our strategic plan sets out kind of high-level goals for the staff to pursue housing opportunities, a community that does a lot of scattershot housing. We try to distribute affordable housing throughout the city. And I feel like that's staff's job is to do the digging on that and come up with great solutions. But I don't know if we need- yeah, doesn't sound like we need. [00:11:02] Well, Jeff, would you feel prepared tonight to maybe go through those different funding sources? Like you said, you have kind of work plans and just connect the dots a little bit for us, and maybe we can brainstorm some prioritization around that. [00:11:18] Sure. Happy to. [00:11:19] Do you have time? [00:11:19] Page 6 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 202S (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citicitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Yeah. [00:11:20) 1 want to do that now or do you want to wait till we get into that work session item? [00:11:26] If we can wait till we get in the budget discussion, cause I think that's where- [00:11:30] Yeah. [00:11:31] We can talk about that. So we'll come back to that. [00:11:35] What are the- I don't know which IP we are in? [00:11:39] January 16. [00:11:40] Still? Oh, I even jump to January 21 when I talk about the [inaudible 00:11:45]. Because that was not January 16. [00:11:48] It's in both. [00:11:49] 1 think it was or 16th, yeah. [00:11:501 You're right. [00:11:51] It was first Friday. [00:11:52] It was on that one too. [00:11:53] First day. [LAUGHTER] Page 7 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:11:57] There's another IP you want to talk about. [00:11:59] No, but not this one. [00:12:00] Okay. [00:12:02] January 20s. Oh. [00:12:08] So that would just be January 16. [00:12:10] 16th. [00:12:11] Okay. All right. Anything else from the information packets? [00:12:16] 1 guess just- still in January 16. IP8, which was about floodplain management, provided an annual progress report. That's not something that I remember us looking at. I'm sure it's been an IPs if it's an annual report. Um, one of the recommendations just at the very end of that memo was about, eh, just how jurisdictions should work with emergency management and, you know, the comprehensive planning process can I think help inform some of that. Is that anything we need to I don't know, be aware of, or have any more [LAUGHTER] input from counsel on? It's just for our information. [00:12:57] It's just for your information. [00:12:58] Okay. [00:12:58] Yeah. [00:12:59] Thank you. [00:13:00] Page 8 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at.https:,/,/citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. I want to talk us of the IP6. 1 mixed it up last time. I want to talk about the unsheltered and shelter. So here I see as October 31, 2024, Hart bon and time count. And this is a requ count conducted across the county of shelter and unsheltered people experience homeless on a single night. And in January 2023, the count was 160 sheltered and 18 unsheltered individual in Johnson County. In 2024, the count was 159 sheltered and 22 unsheltered individual in Johnson County. And I think there Aaga count will happen in- to this months, and we- yeah, maybe next time we can get that. But I just want to highlight this also is not covering a lot of people who are not reporting themselves as like unsheltered people, so. And there is- there is some people, they are not just go there and say, I'm homeless or anything. But - but this is also it reflects there is a lot of people need help. That's why we need to be aggressive and figuring out housing for those people. And also it's very cold. I don't know, even after- after this emergency shelter ended, we need also to focus on what we're going to do. Yeah. And for housing austerity, I think we are doing great, but still, there's a lot of people. They need- in the waiting list. And so, yeah, the need is great. That's what I wanted to say. [00:14:43] Yes, it is. Mm hmm. Anything else? We're going to move on to item number three, University of - University of Iowa student government updates. Welcome, USG. [00:15:01] Hello, everyone. (00:15:02] Hello. [00:15:03] Hi, guys. So we're back for the semester. Hopefully, our senators have taken this time to uh, relax, come up with some new ideas. We're really excited to do some more advocacy work and pursue other initiatives with the city. Town Hall is less than four weeks away. It's gonna be like Councilor Mosa February 11. It's going to be at 7:00 P.M. In the Richie ball room of the IMU. Um, we're excited to host you city councilors again, and it's going to be like an open discussion form with our student government members. Like last year, there will be refreshments and time to socialize after the main event. Um, our President and Vice President have recently tackled a downtown coach check initiative, which successfully started this past weekend. USG allowed downtown goers to wear their coats while outside, drop them off, and then pick them up. This has also served as a paid opportunity for a senders, working the coach check from 10:00 P.M. To 2:30 A.M. [00:15:52] And then we are on the Down. Excuse me. Sorry. We are on the downward slope of this administration. We still need to finish four individual counselor meetings, five pending the local election. We will schedule the rest of those meetings in the coming weeks. And then just know the more personal update. I've been invited to serve on the steering committee for the IC conferensive plan update. So I'm super excited for that and that's all. Welcome back. Page 9 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at.https:././citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:16:13] Yes. Thank you. Welcome back. And so sorry I'm not available to come to the town hall. [00:16:18] It's okay. Thank you for letting us know in advance, but we better see all of you there. [00:16:24] And -and happy to hear about that co check. I knew that was on the docket, so yes. All right. We're going to move on to item Number 4, Comprehensive Plan Update, Kick off presentation. Welcome. [00:16:36] Good afternoon, Mayor and Council, Anne Russet with Neighborhood and Development Services. Tonight, I would just like to introduce Chris Shiers, who's here from Confluence Planning and Design. He's part of our consultant team that's going to be helping us with this update, and he has prepared a presentation for us tonight. So I'm gonna just turn it over to Chris. [00:16:59] Great. Welcome, Chris. [00:17:01] Mayor, Mayor Pro Tern, members of the city council. Thank you so much for giving me a little bit of time uh, to meet with you. Uh, my name is Christopher Shires, uh, principal and Vice President with Confluence, and told you- and I do have a brief presentation to run through as far uh, as part of our update process to your Comprehensive plan. And I would say it's fair if you want to hold questions the end. That's great. Or if you want to interrupt me as I go along and- and ask a question, also, feel free. Uh, I'm here uh, to assist you through this. And so uh, this plan update is building upon your past uh, great planning efforts and work. So we're updating your current comprehensive plan, uh, but not forgetting about all those other plans and documents uh, that you have created as a community. We have broken this process, which takes a little more than a year and a half long uh, into five uh, steps, five phases. And so I'm going to run through these uh, briefly. Uh, phase 1, which is what we're starting right now is where we're doing that existing assessment, uh, we've met with your city staff, and we have a regular check in meeting with them. Uh, we have a plan for uh, making sure we're reaching out to the community, uh, representing uh, you - you well to your public. Uh, tomorrow night, we have a kick-off meeting uh, with the steering committee. Uh, we're going to continue on with reviewing plans. And then, of course, just like tonight, uh, we'll be available for a variety of uh, check in meetings uh, with you as the council uh, periodically as needed um, and then we will have a project website to house information on this plan update linking to your city website, of course, uh, and it's also a tool for engagement. We'll be conducting a statistically valid survey through ETC. Uh, and then er, uh, after we have all this information, wrapping it back up with the steering committee to tell them what we've heard and analyze so far. And then, of course, we'd like to do a joint workshop with uh, yourselves, as well as your Planning Commission to give you our initial uh, assessment. And right now we've tentatively Page 10 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,/,/citychanne]4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. scheduled that or scheduled that for uh, May 6. That looks like that was the best date for everybody's uh, calendar. And then in phase 2, that's when we reach out to the community. That's when we reach out to the members of the public to make sure we're hearing from all voices uh, before we do any drafting, before there's any uh, thought to the plan update. Uh, this is where we go live with our online engagement activities for our project website. We hold a series of community listening sessions early on to understand those important topics to your residents, to our community members so that we can gear the rest of our engagement around some of those pivotal issues and ideas. Uh, we will working with the steering committee, uh, identify a group of stakeholders, uh, special interest groups that we need to reach out to specifically uh, to gain their one on one input. As we know, not everybody feels comfortable showing up for a public meeting, so we want to go to where people are at, uh, so we're getting again, those diverse voices. Uh, we will hold some specific uh, events on identified opportunities, say, a special sub area, an- an idea of interest. And we'd want to be available at some of our public events, uh, so we can get the word out on this plan up date. So people are familiar with this process, know about our online engagement website, and know to stay tuned and -and participate. Uh, and then uh, rounding out that, we will have a series of public neighborhood workshops, now that we've kind of heard that initial input to dive deeper into some of those important topics that we hear from your community members. And then we were going to review all this information uh, with your steering committee. Uh, after that, in Phase 3, this is where we've started putting together the big goals for this plan update. What's important for this comprehensive plan, and what's our vision statement? What's the value uh, uh, value language uh, for our community and identify those key recommendations that we can start building the plan update around. We also want to meet with your department heads at this point, uh, your -your major city staff members, uh, so we can kind of hear their thoughts and ideas, as well as giving them a feedback of what we've heard from the community. In Phase 4, that's when we now start drafting the plan, based on our initial analysis, based on the feedback from the community and those big uh, big ideas that we've developed, uh, going through a series of uh, scenario plans, identifying the draft itself, and then reviewing that draft at a series of meetings with your steering committee. Uh, we will also then roll this draft back out still very much in a draft form, uh, to the public at - at a series of open houses and doing a public comment period. So folks can tell us, do we hear you right? Does this plan reflect your values? Is this plan where we want to head as a community so that we can still make adjustments? Still in a draft form, we want to bring it back to uh, the council, as well as the Planning Commission at a joint workshop if we can, uh, so that we can present that draft informally to you, that you can ask questions, uh, bring up different comments and ideas that we can react to, make adjustments where needed, and then work to finalize that draft after we've completed our public comments and review period. Phase 5, that's where we finalize the draft and go through that official adoption process with a public hearing before your Planning Commission. We'll then author a recommendation uh, for your consideration as the elected body, uh, and then we can uh, uh, provide the final deliverables. So just that simple, just that five step process. Uh, we have a detailed calendar where we've identified those uh, main uh, meeting dates, time frames, and of course, some of the meetings already are identified. Uh, but running through that five phase process, looking to wrap up the plan, like I said, in about a year and a half long process, comprehensive plan does take time. We want to be respectful for the public engagement process, the analysis, um, and then uh, looking to wrap up in May of 2026. So with what's next, uh, we are uh, working through our in -initial analysis of kind of the Page 11 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,Z/citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. issues and opportunities in our community. What is our community profile? Very excited that you have a very detailed housing analysis going on uh, kind of metro wide. We'll build upon that, as well as doing our own employment and economic analysis, our preliminary transportation assessment, as well as that build out analysis, build out scenario analysis uh, with your current land use planning. This all to be reviewed at our future meeting uh, in March with our Advisory Committee. So with all of that, uh, kind of near term, tomorrow, again, our kick-off meeting, uh, and then in midterm uh, in the following months uh, rolling out with our community survey and those initial uh, engagement uh, events. And I should say that last item. Uh, we just got this plan, that joint workshop with you and the Planning Commission to review our initial analysis uh, we're looking at May 6. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have of me, or I can uh, sit down and let you move on with your agenda. [00:24:23] 1 appreciate the detailed timeline. Thank you. [00:24:27] 1 get to sit on this committee, so I'm excited to get the I assume larger version of this tomorrow night. Is that our first meeting? And so I'll be happy to report back uh, when you're not here presenting. [00:24:40] If I can -can Council member, the full presentation is more like 90 minutes, but of course, we do have some detailed questions for our -our steering committee members. Sure. [00:24:51] And maybe one quick question is, I think all of us are familiar with the comprehensive plan, but sometimes it's easy to get kind of tongue tied when you're trying to explain it to somebody who doesn't live that world. What's your elevator speech when somebody says, What is a comprehensive plan? What's your 1 minute description of how important it is and what it is? [00:25:08] Thank you for that. So I love giving that elevator speech. So a comprehensive plan, in essence, is your long range plan for the community. It's comprehensive in nature. So we're covering a lot of topics, mainly focused about development, both new development, growth, expansion of our boundaries, but also infill development, redevelopment, and pre -preservation of our existing uh, built areas and neighborhoods. Uh, when done right, I hope you're able to use it as a tool to help inform you on everything from budgeting uh, to even regulatory decision making. When to annex territory, what uh, type of zoning regulations do we have uh, subdivision regulations to really use as an important tool. The biggest thing is, it is still a guiding document, and it does change over time as things change. Conditions change, our economy changes. We have outside influences we have to react to, and so our comprehensive plans are also flexible. We tend to look out 20, 30, 40 years in the future, but uh, we tend to have about a ten year shelf life on Conference of planning. It's hard to look out too far without uh, too many influences kind of changing what we thought was a great idea at the time. Uh, but it is a Page 12 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. guiding document. It is not law. So we use it as such as a really powerful planning tool. That was a long elevator ride, by the way. Several floors. [00:26:29] Can you tell us how you planning to engage with the- engage the community to this? [00:26:34] Right Mayor Pro Tern, thank you. Great question. Our biggest concern is to make sure that we're hitting uh, hearing all voices, giving everybody an opportunity to participate. I said earlier that not everybody feels comfortable showing up to a public meeting, uh, so we want to go beyond that. One of the best tools we have that we found the most effective results are doing these one on one stakeholder interviews. And I -I'm very excited about our steering committee. I feel like we've got a great group that they're going to give us a lot of contact, lot of individuals that we can specifically reach out to, as well as small existing groups that represent other larger interests, that they can also- we can meet with them. We can go to a meeting there, they may have already have scheduled so-so that we can be introduced as part of uh, um, their group to receive their feedback on- on grounds that they're comfortable with. So that's probably one of the best ways. Uh, the second way is I am excited about your - they're doing a community survey. This survey is not a generalized uh, satisfaction survey. This is very specific to comprehensive planning. And with hiring a professional survey company, uh, we'll be able to have that level of confidence that this does represent the interests of the city. They go out of their way to make sure that we're getting a randomized sample of the community, and they do enough follow up that we are actually hitting those milestones that its randomized. It's a broad cross section of the community, and it reflects our -our diversity. And so that is something I think is very critical. So as we see survey results, we can have a level of confidence that what it says is real, that it's not just uh, the few loudest voices in the room. That's our job is to really make sure we're hearing from everybody uh, those soft voices as well. [00:28:20] Great. Just giving the political climb in the country. There is many people will not gonna come to this meeting to be involved, but I hope you involve the leader- their leaders from certain community, because they will engage with them their way. Maybe not all people will show up to your public meeting, whatever, but maybe you engage to any all those immigrants, especially communities, if you can engage with their leaders, who being working with the city for a long time with a community will be great because that will be the voice for them, especially during this tough time. [00:28:59] Thank you for that -that feedback and advice. 1 -1 agree with you completely. [00:29:07] And I think just for my own memory, it's counselors Alter and Mo, who are of this body on the steering committee. So we can channel through them. Yeah. Page 13 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at.https://citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:29:19] That's true. Yeah. I kind of forgot that, but that's -that's great. [00:29:27] All right. Thank you so much. [00:29:291 Thank you. [00:29:30] Yes. All right. We're going to move on to item number 5, which is our fifth 26 budget discussion. And I will turn that over to our City Manager Jeff Rin. [00:29:42] So uh, you kicked off the budget review with the uh, all day operating uh, budget review on uh, Monday last week. And then you have your capital review tomorrow. We're just planning to have a standing fiscal year 26 budget discussion item on your work sessions, as we work through the budget process, until it feels like you have worked through everything that you have questions about. So this is really an opportunity for you to talk about anything related to the budget. We'll do our best to uh, answer questions that come up. The only thing that we prepared was the uh, housing memo uh, that is uh, what we previously discussed tonight. And if you want to start there, uh, that's great. If you've got other places you want to start, we can do that too. [00:30:27] Are you okay starting with the housing? [00:30:29] Yeah. [00:30:31] Councilor Burgess said, going maybe through each of those buckets and explaining how they're restricted and- [00:30:39] Sure. Ah, and I'm going to lean on Tracy a little bit to- to help me. Um, we'll start at the top and- and go down that list. So the pro -housing grant, eh, you see the amount of 2.8 million. If you recall, that was, eh, about a $3.75 million grant. Eh, however, some of those funds were dedicated for planning purposes, supporting things like the comp plan to ensure that our regulations do not provide, um, undue burden and restrictions on the housing supply. However, this 2.8 was geared towards construction of public housing. Ah, and, um, you may recall that late last year in 2024, we purchased multifamily property on North Summit Street. That property is zoned RM 12, is undeveloped at this time, and, eh, we anticipate using this 2.8 million as part of the funding package to build, um, multifamily public Page 14 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,[/citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. housing on this site. So I would say that 2.8 is- is really in staff's view spoken for at this time. We've represented to the federal government that that's our intention. Of course, if you want to change, eh, we can advise you on how best to do that, but at least for that 2.8 million in federal dollars, we would look to move towards construction of a project on the North Summit property that we purchased. [00:32:07] How many unit will be that? [00:32:10] That's what I'm going to lean on Tracy a little bit to help me out here. [LAUGHTER] [00:32:16] Tracy Hsu, since we didn't get the full grant, um, it's pro -rated, we're minimally required to have 18, but due to the zoning and that's going to be affordable housing, there are density bonus provisions, so we can get probably up to 36. That doesn't mean we'll have up to 36. Um, we'll also have to package different money because we might not have enough available to do more than 18. So we are working - that pro -housing grant also has money for us to hire a housing consultant, familiar with housing finance, HAD programs, development, and so they'll be helping us work through that process. And so if we do go with 28, 30 units, and we need more additional financing. Um, I'm hoping to instead of going into the pots we have, how we leverage our funds to get more units so that our funds keep- keep being used to create additional housing. So... [00:33:03] And this is- you said, like 18 unit. Eh, this will be city -owned unit. [00:33:08] Yeah, it's not technically in the public housing program, but it will be owned by the city, so it'll be city - owned affordable housing. [00:33:14] You mean likes the one in like the Vencila. [00:33:17] Yeah -yes. [00:33:18] That- that's great because those are really great units. And I love those units because everybody kind of lie for them and get them. No, this is- this is amazing. I'm just saying like, since we have the Iowa City Housing Authority Capital Reserve, the money also in the housing authority, and also is for public housing, yeah. [00:33:441 Page 15 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,//citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: Al -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Correct. So- so Tracy, while you're up, two of the other categories of the, eh, housing authorities unallocated reserves and the housing authorities capital reserves. [00:33:53] If it's capital reserves, those reserves as we have a public housing program, until we transition out of a public housing program, those funds can only be used for rehab of public housing units. The other unrestricted ones, those we can use for city -owned affordable housing, um, doesn't necessarily have to be public housing, but it has to be basically our permanently affordable that we're guarantee that's going to be permanently affordable. So we have two pots of money, and one can only be used for our current public housing programs. [00:34:21] So when you're looking at this table, the 1.4 of unallocated reserves is really to- can be used for- for future city -owned public housing. The 2.8 in capital reserves is really what needs to support our existing federal public housing units. (00:34:37] To maintain it. Yeah, maintenance and everything. [00:34:40] We could acquire. So we will have a consultant come in, but rega- as we go through this reposition of public housing, it might be our fair call -off lini- limit is 99. So we could actually buy additional public housing, um, and then technically convert reposition all those, but we're having a consultant walk us - walk us through those options. So we don't know what option we're going to pursue, but, yes, we could either- it all has to be for the rehabilitation of our current units or we could acquire more for public housing. [00:35:05] And I want to ask about, yeah, I know also some of it have to be like just to maintain those current public housing, just in case if they need maintenance or anything. But if there is a flexible money out of this, we can add it to the $2.8 million that we have to have more than 18 units. [00:35:26] Potentially, yes. But we're hoping that when we work with this consultant, we just use our pro -housing grant, and then we can leverage other funds or different pots of money so that we have that money for another affordable housing project. Because once we start going down this development path, yes, we'll develop the house on North Summit, but we're hoping to position ourselves that we can develop more housing internally, and those will be permanently affordable owned by the city. [00:35:48] Yeah, that's- that was my question. Like how much of it we can use. Page 16 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,I/citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:35:52] We can use that all at one point. [00:35:54) Yes. [00:35:54] Whatever 1 million. I'm not looking at my- my numbers, but yes, the unrestricted we could use for that project. I'm just hoping we tap into other pots of money that we don't have to. [00:36:03] What- for the pro -housing grant, if the first line here that we have the 2.8 million? Is- a public -private partnerships available for that? Could- is there opportunity to do that? And is that a strategy that the city is employing or are these wholly city -owned properties with no other- [00:36:21] They're wholly city -owned. That's what we applied for. [00:36:23] Yeah. [00:36:24] We applied to develop our own internal capacity to develop? [00:36:27] Sure. [00:36:28] 1 mean, you probably could be a substantial change that we'd have to ask Cad. [00:36:31] Okay. [00:36:31] I'm pretty sure we got ranked highly because of the direction we're going. [00:36:34] For instance, we couldn't have a private somebody put stores on the bottom, and we build housing on top or something? [00:36:41] Yeah, you could do that. Page 17 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at.https:,/.Icitychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:36:421 Okay. [00:36:43] The pro -housing grad could only go for the money or the housing port. [00:36:46] Sure, yeah. [00:36:47] And I know a lot of us on the council remember because we've talked about this. And you- you alluded to the switch to the idea of the city -owned. Eh, but for people who maybe weren't here for some of those earlier meetings, could you just sort of remind us all and remind anybody listening a little bit by what you mean by that and- and sort of- [00:37:02] Oh, the difference between city -owned and public housing? [00:37:04] And also the fact that we're working towards the city -owned, like that was something we've been talking about a lot the last year, but maybe not everybody who's listening tonight. [00:37:11] Sure. [00:37:12] 1 heard those. So just like the real like there's a strategy behind this. [LAUGHTER] [00:37:161 So we have 86 public housing units. It's a formal program by HAD where we get paid for operations. Um, we can charge up to 30% of a person's income for rent, and then we get capital improvements all through HAD. Problem is we've been losing money over the last several years. Is- [00:37:311 Yeah. [00:37:31] Okay. And then we also own 21 or 24, I'd have to check my note, of affordable housing that the city maintains. It's not a part of a HAD program. And we- we could treat that as permanently affordable there. Um, so we operate and maintain those. And then, however, since we're losing so much money in the public housing realm due to lower federal appropriations for the last several years and the Page 18 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. maintenance required, we've just been pulling too much from our capital reserves. So we're looking to hire a consultant and HAD allows you to reposition your public housing into kind of like a Section 8 platform. So we'd become basically affordable housing landlords. So instead of getting the public relying on public housing funds, we'd be able to charge and accept vouchers for we anticipate our income drastically improving under those- under those methods. Is that the question you asked? [00:38:17] 1 think so. And just kind of- just kind of just to underline that. It's- some of this stuff we're talking about is actually part of work that you have been doing. We've been doing the council supporting switching us into this kind of a mode from what we had been doing before on purpose, so we have greater flexibility. We can do, you know, we- meeting or two ago, we were talking about switching some units over from Section 8 to city -owned and taking over the way that would help with the voucher program and stuff like that. So this is all many pieces working together at the same time. So I think that's just important for people to know. [00:38:53] And Tracy, I just want to make sure the public know that the 2.8 million, ah, is- the way that you wrote the grant is to do a public housing owned by the city for now, right? [00:39:041 Yep. [00:39:05] That's why we either to follow that or if we need to make an again, we have to go back to HAD. Yeah, so I think we don't need to do that. [LAUGHTER]. [00:39:14] No. [00:39:14] We get the money. [LAUGHTER]. [00:39:16] Yeah, we get the money. We need to put ourselves like if they can approve it or not. So... [00:39:211 These are the HAD funds, the pro -housing grants. These are allocated funds. There's have a great deal of confidence that they wouldn't be lost in a new administration. [00:39:34] We already have an agreement. Page 19 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at httl2s://citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:39:35] Agreements. [00:39:35] We have signed agreements. We awarded we signed a grant agreement, now we're submitted- we've submitted our action plan, basically document that basically outlines specifically what we're doing with the money because we were- we didn't get the full grant. So we've submitted that and we're just waiting for HAD approval. But they've already granted us the ability to- for the things that we said we were going to do, like the comprehensive plan, the consultant. We're already drawing down those funds or we're charging that funds to the grant. [00:40:05] 1 get to name -drop here for a second. I was at a conference, and Secretary Buti Judge was there and in a room of talking to people about like this. And he assured us. He said exactly that, that if it- if it's already been signed, that money is not going to be taken away. [00:40:20] Okay, that's good. [00:40:22] We can blame him or something. No. [00:40:24] 1 know. That's very. I just want to tell the council why I ask about, you know, the housing authority fund. That it's there. I understand that there's some that needed to be there still for maintaining our public housing. But I feel like instead of buying an additional public housing, like house, single house or maybe townhouse, I don't know, like, you know, Duplex or something like that, we can use this money since you are doing the project for 18 unit. Can we do more than 18 unit? Because like instead of buying house and only single family will be living there, I think that amount of money can do like apartment two or three. So that's why I want since we're doing this project already, instead of 18, can we make it more? That's the only thing that I'm looking for. And maybe think about it, and if you feel this is a great idea, maybe we can direct the staff to do so. [00:41:20] 1 think that, um, I take your point, especially with you having brought up earlier about the statistics of how many people need homes and housing and- and shelter. I guess I would also say- as a yes and that we want to talk about as many different strategies for creating affordable housing within Iowa City because I think we need to have multi -unit buildings. But we also don't want to say that that is the only solution that we have for affordable housing because we really do want to integrate and diversify our neighborhoods as well. So I think it will be a mix. And I- I mean, the best part is that we've gotten this grant that allows us to do a lot in a building with multiple units, whether- and I agree, if we can try and Page 20 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/.Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. get some more than the 18, that would be fantastic. I just think that we want to make sure that We have a mix so that there can be duplexes and triplexes and single throughout so that the neighborhoods. [00:42:29] No, but- [00:42:29] Are more vitalized in that way, too. I'm saying both. [00:42:33] Yes, I get your point, but, you know, you just reminded me about like not separating the people economically. Like, for example, even the 18, and if we want to add them, we can still- we don't have to make it all of them like for, eh, for like low income. We can do like a market price including there because we don't want to have like a building which all of them are low income. We maybe we can have mixed people. Like, we don't want to segregate the people by income. And everybody know, Oh, this is the building that have all of them low income. No. We need to have, like some- that's my idea. Just some of the unit could be regular market price. And this is will support the maintenance of the as a unit that we have affordable. Maybe you can start like that instead of like segregating the people by income. And this is whether it is like multifamily buildings or like housing together in one place or whether it is like apartment building. That's what I really feel. We don't want to have it like 100% low-income. [00:43:34] On a second. [LAUGHTER] [00:43:36] Is that something that we can do with this, but because it's- [00:43:38] It's true housing, and it's like CDBG. So primarily, I think you'd have to have a certain mix, but I'd have to check the exact because it is CDBG- like CDBG, so I don't know the exact mix, but- [00:43:491 Can we have like 80% of the immediate income, 60%, 30%, 40%. [00:43:55] I'm pretty sure we could target different, especially if it's under 80%, target different incomes up to 80. [00:44:01] Yes, up to 80 will be great. If- if that's allow, of course. I don't know. [00:44:04] That's allowed, yes. Page 21 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,[/citychannel4.com./city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:44:05] Yeah. Okay. [00:44:06] I'd have to market rate like 100%. I'd have to check on that. But 80% or below, yes. Um, another interesting with our public housing repositioning, different- when we're interviewing the consultants that submitted. Um, they're going to give us different options that we'll bring to you. It might be, you know, we operate 86- 66 of those are scattered sites, a lot of single-family or duplexes. It might be that some of those are older. We could sell those, we could, you know, you might sell three homes, and you might buy multifamily properties of six, we might increase the housing that we own and manage. So those options all is what the consultant will be looking at and bringing that back to us just so that we can operate sustainably, and hopefully, we can operate more units and what we anticipate. [00:44:47] Sorry to step back to this conversation. But my first question about sort of what are the rules on that HAD grant, and is there an opportunity for, you know, public -private partnership? Because we really kind of aimed at that question is, how do we create an integrated housing situation? It sounds like with the HAD grant, we can adjust the levers a little bit to be 30 up to 80, but anything above 80 would be an amendment to the HAD grant to- [00:45:12] That, I have to check. [00:45:13] Achieve that kind of thing. Okay. [00:45:14] I'd have to check. I know the CDBG rules, but since this is kind of it's not CDBG, but kind of CDBG. I'd have to check. [00:45:19] Yeah. No, I think- it sounds like we're all talking the same language. We want housing and variety and mixed. So... [00:45:26] And the council will see and approve the project before we go forward. Even before we get into the, um, design the architecture of it, right? You're going to know the business plan and what we're trying to pursue prior to us moving forward. So plenty of time for that discussion coming out. [00:45:43] Page 22 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,/./citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Yeah, I guess we want to see, like, maybe, I don't know, but I'm going to throw a number there. Like, for the next two years, can we have 100 unit of affordable housing or mixed -income, like with 80% and under housing, so... [00:45:581 We have 15 million. [LAUGHTER] [00:46:01] Yeah, because now you're saying 18 and if we add this money over here, I will be like if to- 2.8, and we have another 2.8, mostly. [00:46:101 Well- sorry, go ahead. [00:46:12] Go ahead. [00:46:12] 1 see like- [00:46:13] 1 was just going to ask, I think the 2.8, we don't expect that to actually build 18 units. Like, there's no way that that would, I mean, it's going to be a much, much more expensive project when we're talking about new construction, but this is leveraging or it's giving us essentially the- the nest egg for that project. Is that a fair way to say it? So, I mean, I don't know if we have- [00:46:38] It's reducing the amount of- of private debt we'd have on that property, so we could offer lower rents. [00:46:43] No, when I- I asked specifically that question area 2.8 How money unit we're talking about, and she said 18. [00:46:50] By the grand, we have to- we'd have to- we'd have to construct at least 18, but we have a local match in there. [00:46:55] Okay, how much are we adding to that? [00:47:01] Page 23 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/.Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. don't remember. Um, but as, uh, Tracy just noted there, it's- you should expect that we'll have private debt. We'll have debt on- in a property like this. So yeah, 2.8 isn't going to build this debt free. We're going to have to leverage additional dollars or borrow those dollars to get this project off the ground, which we're confident we can do. [00:47:22] I- I know, yeah,- I know, but I mean, like, as a counsel, we are saying we are going to be aggressive, we're going to be bold, we're going to do this. If we are like, really borrowing money to do a swimming pool, we need to borrow money to do affordable housing. Because, you know, I- I feel like we- we borrowing - we bond, right? [00:47:40] 1 don't think we're disagreeing. [00:47:42] Yeah,- [00:47:42] 1 think we're there. [00:47:42] -exactly. Yeah, exactly. So then, we don't have to afraid from where we're going to get if we're going to borrow some money. You know, how much we did for the swimming pool for the, I don't know. It's a lot of money, right? How much was that? [00:47:57] Eighteen million. [00:47:59] Eighteen million, I think. [00:48:01] The borrowing is, I think, just 1.3 million maybe, and the rest is cash for the pool. Is the financing plan. Um, but we haven't got that we haven't bid that project yet. That-, [00:48:111 [OVERLAPPING] Yeah, should like. [00:48:12] -can become into you. [00:48:12] Page 24 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:I/citychanne]4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. It's is on- that's an idea. We have not- We are not going to do this tomorrow, too. But can we have that, like, additional idea in the table, just in case we need it, too. Just like that. We- maybe you- why not need that? Maybe we're going to find and also grant money from, uh, you guys doing a great job by applying for all these kind of things. But just like we have to put that in our toolbox. [00:48:371 Yeah. [00:48:37] 1 think what, oh. [00:48:38] You please. [00:48:391 1 think one way of thinking about it that's helpful to me is, like, if the 2.8 is sort of like a down payment, right? And then we're borrowing for the rest of- for that specific property. So what other, you know, what other monies do we have access to or how much would we want to borrow if the 2.8 is the down payment? How big could that project be? And so another way I'm thinking about it is, like, if knowing that we're going through these buckets, some of which have, you know, strings attached or conditional kinds of uses, what does $15 million as, like, a down payment in the- in the grossest terms, you know, does that get us within, you know, uh, sort of striking distance of 100 units. Like, I think is that kind of what you're asking of, like, what does this money actually get us? [00:49:31] Exactly. [00:49:32] Is that what you're asking? [00:49:321 Exactly, yeah. [00:49:33] 1 do think I heard, uh, Tracy, you know, talk about, uh, a part of the Pro housing grant as bringing on a consultant to try to find and leverage funding. So for me, I'm with you on being aggressive and wanting to set that number. I do think that this project, because it's right before us right now, we're going to see what opportunities are there. Um, and I think we're going to make some greater bolder statements. But I think the- the staff is very clear. That's why they brought this to us that we want, um, that housing. And think once we learn from, you know, the consultant or, you know, whoever do that research, these are the funds that, you know, can help with this project, but even future projects. I think that's going to be, uh, illuminating not only to us, but really to our professional staff in housing-, uh, housing department. Page 25 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:50:35] We have another like six million for housing cross fund. Is the consultant going to talk only about figuring out only for the project was- from the Hut project or can they. [00:50:48] We found that when we were interviewing the consultants that we- that you hire for Housing Development Finance, that once you hire them for contacting references, once you hire them for one project. So, this consultant was take us through like a three to five month process about, uh, what's our best leader- organizational structure, what's our best staffing model? How many employees do we have to hire in order for every 50 units that we had? I think, they'll take us through that, but then they'll also start with this pilot project, and they'll provide the technical development assistance. And so what I'm finding that a lot of communities they hire one of these consultants for the first project, and then they're hiring them again for subsequent projects. [00:51:21] Let me see. [00:51:21] So, yeah, so if we have, we can assemble land in the Riverfront crossings, and we- we are happy, and we are satisfied with the work that they did on our pilot project, then yeah, that would be an option as we continue and we keep developing. [00:51:35] Really, for river flood corns, I always think about, can we have 64 million there? Can we just, like, talk to the county and just do, like, combined project with the county in Riverfront crossing. They have some. [00:51:50] Yeah, those conversations are happening. [00:51:52] Okay. Great. Great, great. Yeah. Anyway, thank you. [00:51:57] Great. Thank you. [00:51:58] Thanks, Tracy. [00:52:00] So going down the list, the unallocated opportunity funds is the second line, 258,000. [NOISE] These are all local dollars, and, uh, as the name suggests, these are for kind of unexpected opportunities that come Page 26 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. up. So it could be that, uh, there's a nonprofit housing provider that, um, like the student build project, we had to use operating funds to get that project off the ground. So generally things that aren't anticipated, uh, in which we need flexibility, uh, and where we can't necessarily wait for, say, a federal funding cycle, like a CDBG funding cycle to come through. Um, these are [NOISE] available for those unanticipated opportunities that come up? Unallocated Light Tech support, these are just set aside dollars that we had reserved in past, uh, years that have not been awarded yet. So they are local dollars and could be repurposed by the council, so to speak, but they are intended to support future Light Tech projects. [00:S3:06] Jeff, can you, with that, um, talk a little bit about Okay. I mean, uh, as I know, the competitive Light Tech, which is a higher proportion, right? It's- that it takes longer to get them. A, because they're competitive, B, you don't always make it through the first time. So that- that dollar, it's not like it's just sitting there growing fallow. It's just a matter of the length of time to- to be able to sort of receive that might be longer. Am I understanding that, correct? [00:53:37] Yeah, it's not uncommon for someone pursuing a 9% Light Tech to have to apply for two or three years before their application is selected. So, uh, oftentimes, whether it's the city or the trust fund will make an award, and then you have to be patient to allow them to apply, and sometimes allow them to apply multiple times before you can leverage those dollars, but they are significant awards, and you are leveraging a lot of dollars that can produce units. Um, so it's a good strategy. It's just one that takes some patience and ultimately takes, uh, some luck with the- the competitive process that's out there. A lot of it is going to depend on how many other apps are received across the state. [00:54:23] So, one question I have, and I'm going to try, uh, and be as clear as I can but work with me on this. Um, does that money have to, the local dollars? Does the, um, whoever's granting, I can't remember whether it's the state or the state like, actually sort of administers it, right? But it is federal dollars. So does that money have to be, like, sitting in hand as far as what the feds are saying? They're like, you are able to have this so that it does. [00:55:02] So every [OVERLAPPING] put out a QAP or basically, you know, how they're going to score applications. Those are put out annually, and you will get points for all the different boxes that you can check, and if you've got a pledge from a local government or from a trust fund, you're going to score better. But you need to be able to speak confidently. So yes, those awards do matter and do improve the chances of, uh, somebody receiving those competitive awards. [00:55:31] Page 27 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at httl2s:.I/citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. So in terms then of your suggestion of us moving this piece of the budget out of our affordable housing to some other mechanisms. Does that do anything to the stability of that pledge that an applicant can make that says, with confidence to the city. The city has those funds. [00:55:49] Yeah. No. [00:55:50] It's pulled out of this? [00:55:51] 1 think there's other ways to do that. You could use some of these other parts of funds to pledge those dollars. So, for example, a Riverfront Crossings project could pledge Riverfront Crossings dollars. Um, you can look at tax abatement, you can look at tax increment financing and still work to accomplish that same goal. [00:56:11] Can I guess I ask you, how flexible is the 200 Light Tech money over there? Does it have to be for Light Tech? [00:56:20] So we have set that aside for Light Tech purposes. So every year? [00:56:25] That's the general fund, right? [00:56:26] It is general fund dollars. So, I'd have to think through, uh, the process. But every year, the council allocates those dollars, uh, and they're probably, they probably- you'd probably have to undo that process, and I'm not sure where the trust fund is and awarding those. Tracy looks like she knows, so. [00:56:44] No, I mean, I'm asking that because you said this year, can we give this to the trust fund instead of just, like, sitting there? [00:56:54] Funds. [00:56:55] So we have 23 and 24 allocations that we have reserved for Light Tech and the Housing Trust Fund has already accepted applications for those. So there's a project on Roosevelt that those funds are reserved for. So the city does not release those funds to the Housing Trust Fund until they get their state award Page 28 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:llcitychanne]4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. from the Iowa Finance authority. That's the state authority that administers the funds. So we hold onto that money until we- they are proceeding with- they got their award and they're proceeding. We did write into the agreements that after two years of not receiving a Light Tech application or reserve, that those funds could be released, and they could be spent on any eligible project that the Housing Trust Funds. So that's the way the agreements are written right now. [00:57:33] Okay. Great. No, I wasn't undersigned it that way. I so, once you- you say this is for Housing trust fund, you give it to them and they will be in their bank. [00:57:42] They do get at admin fee, so 10,000- they get 10,000 each year for the admin of it. And then 190,000 is reserved for that. [00:57:49] Whenever they have that borrow key, you give it to them. Yeah, good. [00:57:521 And then we enter into a separate agreement for those. [00:57:53] No, I agree for that. Thank you. [00:58:00] Okay. The TIF resources that are listed next, so uh-um, so on Foster Road, we have a TIF that was used to help build the connection between Prairie Dachen and Dubuque. And the state law, uh, requires that when you are using TIF to build infrastructure to support residential development that you set aside a certain percent, and that varies by community, but for Iowa City, it's about 50% of the TIF increment for affordable housing, uh, and that can be used throughout the entire city, does not have to be used within that TIF district. So that's really where this 397,000 is that is generated by the Foster Road TIF. And the council has discretion to deploy that anywhere in the city as long as we're producing more affordable housing units, and that's what we have to report to the state. Um, for this particular fund, um, it's been slowly building. We get a little over $100,000 per year, and we've been letting this accumulate so that we can make a more impactful investment when that time comes. I think there's, um, probably at least five or six, if not more years left on that TIF. So this will continue to accumulate. And we have discretion on how to spend those dollars as long as we're producing more affordable housing units. They do not have to be publicly owned units. They can be privately owned or owned by a nonprofit. [00:59:31] And this is- but we don't have to wait until they finish all the money. [00:59:35] Page 29 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:.//citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. You don't have to wait, no. [00:59:36] Yeah. Because I believe, you know, we have we said six, five years, more, so we can still wait for that to come, but to the point that, you know, council just said like public private on something, like if we can use those money also will be great for, like, doing housing, et cetera, because the house price is going up every year, we don't need to wait, so maybe we can use those. [01:00:03] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we could go out tomorrow and buy a house for $397,000, and as long as it was [OVERLAPPING] used for affordable housing. [01:00:111 Okay, it's available. [01:00:12] Not suggesting that- that's the path forward or what [LAUGHTER] you'd like to see, but. The point is you can let this continue to accumulate, like we have been doing, or you can spend all or part of it and just continue to take in the proceeds until the TIF is retired. [01:00:29] Really, personally, I think we didn't need to wait because since it price is increasing every year. So if we can use this and wait again. Many years to accommodate the rest of it. How many- how many year it took us to get 397? [01:00:45] Um, I would say that's probably about four years of TIF would be my guess. I think it's generating about 130,000 now, so that's probably grown a little bit, and we probably had a partial assessment in there at some point. So four years? [01:01:041 Okay. [01:01:05] The Black Lives Matter Fund. This is the unallocated funds from that million dollar commitment that was made in 2020. These aren't specifically designated for housing, but counsel could use those for housing. These are council directed funds, meaning staff is not going to pursue use of these funds without your direction. So really, we've been sitting on these funds, and I think past counsels have wanted the TRC to finish its report and receive its recommendations before deciding how to spend these dollars. But again, this year local funds, and you have complete discretion on how to invest those. [01:01:49] Page 30 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/Icitychannei4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. And question for the city of attorney. Is this could be like housing for [inaudible 01:01:54] community, or if we said that, it will be discrimination. [01:01:58] Right. We wouldn't want to limit it to that. We could look for underserved populations, which I think is the language that we'd used previously. That would be fine, but we wouldn't want to be exclusionary. [01:02:09] Okay, there is a way we can say that. [01:02:12] Again,-. [01:02:13] Under representative. [01:02:141 Under underrepresented or underserved would be either of those would be fine. [01:02:18] Okay. [01:02:21] We talked about the unallocated reserves and the capital reserves of the housing authority, so that just leaves the Riverfront crossing fees. These are fees received, uh, from housing developments that have not, A chosen not to provide those affordable units on site. And you can see that we've accumulated 6.4 million there. Um, this balance jumped up quite a bit over the last couple of years. There's two very large projects and Riverfront crossings that each had north of two million dollars fee in lieu contributions. So we've seen this-, um, this accumulation really, um, move quickly, uh, over the last few years, 6.4 million can be used throughout the district, but it is limited to the Riverfront crossings district. Staff has been exploring land acquisition opportunities, and we are having conversations with the county to see if there's something that we could do jointly utilizing the property that they own in Riverfront crossings as well. (01:03:33] All right. Any other thoughts relating to this? [01:03:39] Put a point on it. In my brain, $15 million, when you first look at it looks like a massive amount of money but then when you pencil it out, it's actually 35-50 units, maybe. And that's why it's so important to put money together as opposed to just spending it like a checkbook. So I appreciate the sort of caution, but also strategic planning of our staff and accumulating these and seeking opportunities to really leverage Page 31 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychanne]4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. this so we get 100 units. That would be great. A hundred would be an awesome goal. To get 100 units out of this, that just means we need to find somebody else with $15 million to partner with. [01:04:19] 1 was just going to ask, um, staff if it's helpful. I really like the idea of having, like, you know, something measurable, and we're talking about data -driven, knowing that the demand is thousands and thousands of units. Is it helpful to have some direction from Council on, like, um, you know, figure out a way to get us a minimum of 100 units in the next two years or so. Like, not- not that that would be a mandate, but is that kind of framing helpful for, like, this holistic affordable housing that we're looking about it? [01:04:56] Yeah, I think it's helpful, but it's also a little bit more nuanced than just a- a number. So for example, um, you know, are we looking at, um- if you were to kinda look at the operational supports along with it, are we looking to provide, um, permanent, like, supportive housing for chronically homeless like Cross Park Place in 501 because there's a- a very different cost structure, uh, to those types of, uh, units? Are we looking at that 80% AMI, um, and do you prefer multi -family versus single-family? Um, all those are- all those will have, um, uh, implications on what number we can realistically choose. But yeah, anytime we can better understand your priorities for what you'd like to see, that's- that's gonna help us. [01:05:43] 1 think we discussed on the- during the, uh, I think- yeah, plan that we need really to have metrics. And we talked about that. And I think if I understood what metrics is, is we have to identify as a Council, how many we need and we directed to the staff and they can report, like, every year, how many they achieve, and even if they did not achieve the goal, we- they can come and say, hey, we're- we're afraid that we are not gonna achieve this goal because we need certain amount of money, or maybe we need to partner with somebody else to do this or anything. But I think as a Council, if we did not have- if we're talking about metrics and we wanna major the outcome, we have to say a number. [01:06:29] So the- the pilot program, um, is, I think, can be given as a lot of information, um, with what number we can say because we're gonna find out, uh, what leverage we would have with other things. Maybe 100 is too small, you know, [LAUGHTER] and that would be great. Uh, but I- I- so it sounds like- [01:06:54) All the data in order to- [01:06:56] It sounds like we could get this in June- around June. Um- [01:07:01] Page 32 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. But that's only for that project. Unless we hire them again for something else. Am I interested to that, right? Oh, Tracy- We're- they- we- they will come to do only the project for 2.8 million and after that, we will hire them again to do something else. [01:07:16] Yeah, but part of that pilot project is also our- developing our internal development capacity. So they're gonna spend 3-5 months, like I said, um, understanding what legal structure should- we should be operating? 'Cause we- we hope to house us in the Housing Authority. They'll be looking at our staffing models, running our forecasting financial models, to put us in a better place to start developing. Then they'll help us with a pilot project. So hopefully, we'll be at a better place after we go through this analysis that when we have subsequent projects, um, now we might- we have to operate sustainably. And when we're operating with outside federal funds, and it's just our funds, we have to make sure that we are covering our expenses. So we might want to continue hiring consultants for the first two or three projects until we -'cause, you know, when I talk to these communities that hire, they typically will hire them to finance all their packages to- you know, so, uh, I wouldn't be surprised if we- we- if we're happy with them that we use them for subsequent projects. I just don't know how- how many projects until we're comfortable doing it ourselves. [01:08:12] Yeah. [01:08:12] In the same way, I mean, this is a- a little bit of a strange analogy, I guess, but what's sparking for me is the way that you're talking about, especially with it being a pilot program; is that it's not- there's multiple outcomes that you're gonna get from this, not just the housing, but then an understanding of what kind of infrastructure and personnel, and what have you, you need- [01:08:34] Informing- [01:08:35] In order to- [01:08:35] it's averaged. [01:08:36] Yes. [LAUGHTER] [01:08:36] Right. And in order to make it continue. So I think of it in the same way that, um, our city manager has talked about. You know, I'm not gonna put a position out there if it's for hire, if it means in a year, I have Page 33 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at.https:./,/citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. to get rid of it, right? Because it- it's- it's gonna be something that's sustainable, it has to be for the long term, so we're gonna use this as a learning- [01:08:55] Learning sample. [01:08:55] Opportunity as much. And then we can say with more confidence. [01:09:00] Yeah. [01:09:01] This is the number that we think we can achieve. [01:09:03] This is- yeah. This is a model we said how many house we did, and this is how much it take us. [01:09:07] Yeah. [01:09:07] And I do think if we already had- [BACKGROUND] had this model already existing, then it would be easy to kinda say, we want 100. But because we're also- you need to learn, what does this mean, now that we're going to be the developers, I think that is the difference. And it's a pilot project, which is great. We're gonna learn a lot of information. Um, and I- you know, like with most things, when you do one project, you can kinda issue a template for other projects and you learned from it. So I- I think I'm comfortable with the knowing that it would be 3-4- 3-5 months of, um, kinda just learning, and then we'll be able to have an- another conversation. And I'm with you, Mayor Pro Tem. You know, I'm ready to make a bode- [01:09:55] Yeah. [01:09:55] Numbers and all that stuff. And- [01:09:57] 1 know. [LAUGHTER] But, you know, as I- I appreciate what Jeff said, that's clear. He- he want us to also figure out what we need this for. Is this something like, you know, like, what type of affordable housing we need? We need to think about that, too. So- and- because I know what you mean. Some- some like housing, it come with services for the individual who gonna live there. And some houses will come - Page 34 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,Ilcitychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. doesn't need that. So yeah, we- we need maybe to come up with that. And also maybe we can see for the last maybe a few years, how many supporting housing did we did, like, for- with that sheltered house with- as a housing, and maybe we start from there. How many we did there, then now we need to do one without this kind of support. And after that, go back and do both, like Starbucks, because I- I would love to see we're now focusing only one population, there is many people. You know, let us, like, rise together. So if we don't like some supporting housing, now we do an affordable housing. That- after that next time we do both, like 50/50. [01:11:01] So your metrics are for affordable housing, not private market rate. [01:11:041 I- I think 80% of the [inaudible 01:11:081 [01:11:08] Well- [01:11:08] And below, right? [01:11:101 I think what I'm hearing from this conversation is that the city moving into being a developer of affordable housing is bold and new, and we're getting some expert advice over the next few months on it. And I know we saw last Monday that the city manager did not shy away from, you know, continuing to provide the support and the NDS budget as we're moving in that direction, right? That- like we haven't gone there yet, and we're not stepping away from it, despite the terrible financial situation we're facing because we think it will be sustainable, but it's gonna take some front-end investment. So I think maybe just continuing these conversations where we're elevating it to this room, right? Where you're doing all of this work, your department's doing- [01:11:561 Yes. [01:11:56] All of this work. And I [01:11:58] think the level of sophistication around affordable housing conversation has just increased a lot, and it's really exciting. Um, and so hopefully, you know, in my mind, Mayor Pro Tem, it's like, we're continuing that and not gonna let that fall away. [01:12:15] Page 35 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:.//citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Sure. [01:12:16] And that's gonna be permanent affordable house- [01:12:18] Yeah. [01:12:18] Right? [01:12:18] And imput- impaturity. So yeah. [01:12:20] And I think it's really useful. I'm sorry, I'm- [01:12:22] Yeah, it's okay. [01:12:23] Jumping in here, but I just think it's [01:12:24] incredibly useful, whether it's, you know, a few people or reporters or whatever are understanding just how complex this is. At the same time, it is an imperative to do it. But, um, I mean, I'm just glad that these conversations are- are- are being surfaced and that we're gonna continue to have them so that it keeps us accountable, um, and it also explains why it can't just be like, well, just build a building. [LAUGHTER] [01:12:521 Yeah. [01:12:52] Right? [01:12:53] Exactly. [01:12:53] Because we won't be successful in the way that we need to be and that we certainly want to be, but that we must be. So - Page 36 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [01:13:01] That sort of stepping back a couple of steps, as- as far as setting targets for numbers, the piece that I wanted to add to that is I would- I think we would make a big mistake if we set a number without a lot of guard rail- without a lot of guard rails about other goals, and that would be quality and dispersion throughout the community. 'Cause if we say, you must provide 100 units this year, we know how to do that. You just move to the far edge of town, buy the cheapest land, and build an apartment building, and I don't think that's what we want. So I- I don't think saying a number is good enough. I think that we need to get really- [01:13:32] But why as a city we didn't, uh- [01:13:32] Really new one about- about what exactly we want. But I do think it's worthwhile having those conversations and setting metrics, but also not- but also getting really specific about it, and not just having a number. So that's just- I'm not disagreeing. I'm just saying I- I- I- find that very important. [01:13:48] In addition to a number. [01:13:49] In addition to a number, but we don't just do a number without being very specific about- [01:13:54] Exactly. [01:13:54] About what we're trying to achieve and how it aligns with our strategic goals. The other note that I have is during our -our discussion, during budget, I- I took notes about city acting as developer, and I'm just- feel- development costs a lot of money and so I would expect that mid -year after we've had some more work with the consultant, will you be in a position to tell us how much it's gonna cost the city to add that sort of development services in? Is that kinda one of the goals? Is to say- [01:14:22] 1 hope so, yes. [01:14:23] This is gonna be a- a 600,000 or a million -dollar -a -year general fund budget ad for neighborhood development services, just for- [01:14:31] Page 37 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:./,/citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Well, it'll be in the housing authority. So everything we do in the housing authority is outside your general fund. [01:14:35] Okay. [01:14:35] So it has to be sustainable, and it has to pay for itself. [01:14:37] Yeah. [01:14:37] So- [01:14:37] Thank you. [01:14:38] That's important. [01:14:39] Exactly. [01:14:40] So we'll have to find out 'cause we've never- we've acquired property, but we've never been that -that developer that takes on that risk that that develops a project, so there'll be predevelopment costs, there'll be financing costs, things that you don't know until you know. [LAUGHTER] [01:14:50] Yeah. [01:14:51] You don't know what you don't know. So that's why having a consultant this first time will be very important to us. [01:14:56] Yeah. [01:14:56] Uh, just because if we're gonna do it, we wanna do it right. And yes, it'll be, uh- it'll be all through the Housing Authority. If we- if we go into debt or if something happens, that's a general fund. So that's why Page 38 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. we're gonna be really truly careful 'cause we want the Housing Authority to be its own separate fiscal unit that's self-sustaining. [01:15:12] Yeah. And I- I just wanna sort of re- reiterate what Counselor Burgus said about. This is bold. Like, this is a big bold thing to act as a developer. And because it's bold, it is risky. It might not work, but I'm really excited to try. And I hope it does work. [01:15:26] Yeah, let us say we're gonna make it work instead of like, we might not work. That's gonna be really tough. And first thing, when you say- when you say that we just asked the city to do affordable and they go there and buy a land. No, we're talking about the city. Is our city gonna do bad, like, affordable housing- build up- buy affordable housing because we just told them to do 101? 1 don't think so. I think when- when something built by the city, we're going to be comply. We're going to make sure we built something good for the people. And, you know -and I still- we say we don't have- when I threw the one like 100, 1 just threw it there and I said, let us think about it. It's not like, no, you have to do 100. But it could be for the first time 50, it could be 35. 1 don't care. But I mean when we talk about metric and we say we're gonna have a metrics, English is my second language, but I think metrics is numbers. [LAUGHTER] You know, and- and- and we have to look at numbers and- just to- to figure out because I would love to see every year the city manager would come here and say, hey, for affordable housing, our goal was this, and we- we- we met our goal or we exceed our goal. Even if our goal was just like the 18, you know, uh, you need that, we're gonna do. But let us say, yeah, we did. Can we increase it next year? And I'm sure 100%, we are a city. We're gonna build something good. And being a landlord or something like we have examples, and I love those apartments. I went there and I saw them. And it is very nice apartment, and the city is being- keeping them good. And also, don't forget we're getting rent for those. It's not like 30% of the- their income, they bad for us. If their- their income is zero, they have to pay zero. No. It's not like that. It's not subsidized. It's just affordable. For everybody who work, they can pay 30% of their income or the 40% or maybe 50% up to 80 if we want to make it mix. So we- we're going to get money that will maintain because we're not making profit. We are just gonna take the money from them and keep it- like maintain the same apartment by fixing it and something like that. That's why I'm very excited about this opportunity, uh, for the city to be that because we're not -for - profit, and we are not gonna get profit out of that, but we will get units. Yeah. [01:17:50] Thank you, Tracy. [01:17:51] Yeah, thank you. [01:17:52] Any other discussion on the affordable Housing? Thanks for this memo. It was very helpful. Page 39 Iowa City City Council Work Session of January 21, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [01:17:58] Yeah, thank you. [01:17:59] Great discussion. Hearing nothing on this. Anything else related to the Fiscal '26 budget discussion that folks wanna talk about at this time? We do have our, um, capital improvement tomorrow, and that's- [01:18:16] Tomorrow. [01:18:17] At two- 2:00 PM. [01:18:17] Two. [01:18:18] Yeah. [01:18:18] What was that? [01:18:19] 2:00 PM. [01:18:20] 1 said PM. Tomorrow at 2:00 PM. [01:18:22] Yeah. [01:18:26] Yeah. [01:18:281 Yeah. If- hearing no other discussions at this time, then we'll move on to Item Number 6, Council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees. Hearing none, we are adjourned from our work session. We'll be back at 6:00 PM. [01:19:05] [MUSIC] Page 40