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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-09-16 TranscriptionIowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. [00:00:20] All right, we are going to move into our city of Iowa City's work session for September 16, 2025. The first agenda item is clarification of agenda items. [00:00:35] 1 was going to ask what the conference board was all about, but we already did that, so. [00:00:41] Okay. Great. Great, great. I will- I don't know who up here would like to read the expedited action request by an applicant on 9A and 9B. But if someone could be prepared to do that, that'd be great. [00:01:02] I'm prepared to do that. [00:01:03] All right. Great. In the past, there was always one counselor that always [LAUGHTER] was all reliable, so, all right. Thank you. Anything else for the agenda today? Hearing none. We're gonna go on to item Number 2 Information packet discussion for September 4th. We're going to move on to September 11th, and we do have one item IP6, which is the council direction needed on- on this item. So I'll turn it over to Shawn- our Councilor Shawn Harmsen. [00:01:47] Yeah. Thank you. So this is- and thank you, too, also to city staff and members of the public that helped put this together. Basically, what this is is just a letter of support for the Iowa City facility of the State Archive, just saying that recognizing the various ways in which it helps both members of our city in general and our city government in particular, a couple of things to highlight is, um, with our, you know, we look at historic preservation and planning and zoning and want to answer questions about the historical character of a particular area. The local archive is- is a very important resource for that. It also provides a place for the city, such as the Public Works Department to have space to put documents, which they think will be of future historic value. Uh, both of which are- are directly related to city government, and, of course, multiple ways in which the facility is important for education and research opportunities for students at all levels, uh, and also for faculty, also informal education and research. A lot of members of the public who are interested in things like history or maybe their family genealogy take advantage of that. Um, it also becomes a repository for the history of the city. And they're also- in addition to, um, city of Iowa City, but also residents of this land before there was a city of Iowa City and for indigenous people. So for all of those reasons, this just requests that the state reconsider plans to close the facility and recommit to fully supporting those operations. So all we're really looking for, this is a letter of support, um, and just if the council is amenable to directing city staff and the mayor to send this letter off, um, with the- with the slight correction of the very first paragraph, it was just a cut and paste error about the Federal Transit administration. So it would actually go to Governor Kim Reynolds and director of Department of Management, Craig Paulson, not Tarik Buchan. So that would be the one Page 1 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. thing. If anybody else has another thought or anything they think needs to be fixed, now it would be a good time to mention. [00:03:52] 1 don't have any corrections to make, but thanks very much for doing this. I strongly support us signing this and saying, yes, we want this to stay here. And if at all possible, let's keep this community resource here. So thanks for doing the work. [00:04:06] Agreed. [00:04:07] Agreed. [00:04:07] Yeah. I think there's maybe a partial sentence missingjust under the numbered Item 1 on page 2. The last part of that says, with the University of Iowa and its vibrant history. [00:04:18] Oh, thank you. I totally miss that with the- with the reedit. And probably just that looks like just a I think you just I delete that sentence fragment. I think it would be just fine. [00:04:36] Thank you for doing this. [00:04:37] Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much. I want to just, kind of, see where council is on supporting this. All right. Well, that's our direction. Done and dusted. [00:04:49] Thank you. All right, we're gonna move on to item Number 3, University of Iowa government updates USG. Mayor Ti, can I real quick just highlight one other IP on this? Oh, absolutely. [00:05:01] Yeah, I know, I just wanted to suck. Thanks to our transportation director for writing the letter about the bus stop study that's forthcoming. We've had people come in here and ask about that during our council meetings, I know I've received emails about it. The letter that's in the IP, er, information packet indicates that yet this year, we will start a study to place those bus stops in the best places. I think, probably the most bang for a buck, kind of, thinking, right? So, thank you. [00:05:31] Any other items from September 11th? Page 2 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. [00:05:34] Just on that same item, can we make sure Mary Gravitt gets a copy of that? [00:05:38] That's a great idea. [00:05:39] Okay, thank you. [00:05:40] Great. All right. Item Number 3, University of Iowa Student Government USG updates. And I do not see them present. We're going to move on to item Number 4, update on the city's study for repositioning public housing units. And welcome Tracy Hightshoe. [00:06:01] Hello. Thank you, Mayor. As many of you aware, the city has 86 public housing units, and we face many challenges with those units. And we are not alone all across the country. Public housing authorities are facing challenges with public housing due to uncertain or reduced lack of funding. The available revenue resources to us are not huge. And well, at least for us, we have aging housing stock that we need to maintain and invest in. Uh, last year, we- we relied on or we worked with the Harvard Bloomberg fellow student to look at how we could reposition our public housing into ways that we could sustain it financially. We could continue to own it and manage it. Unfortunately, the way they recommend it is no longer a viable option through HUD. So the- the exercise did confirm the importance of why we need to proactively plan for our future and how we maintain those units sustainably. To move this work forward, we have hired Quadel. They are a consulting firm with extensive experience in affordable housing and repositioning public housing programs. The role is to evaluate the- the methods that we have available to us and how we can proceed on that path to preserve permit affordability while making sure we're financially viable at the same time. So with us today remotely is Tracy Rudy and Helena, ah, Woodfield from Quadel, and they will take us through this process and their recommendation. [00:07:19] Great. [00:07:21] All right, Tracy. [00:07:22] All right. Welcome, Tracy. [00:07:27] Page 3 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Pardon me, if it took me a second to get off mute there. I do have a presentation I would like to share. No, sharing is not turned on. [00:07:49] One second. We're working on that. [00:08:04] You should be able to now, Tracy, if you try again. [00:08:08] Okay. Oh, yeah, it works good. Success? [00:08:23] Yes, we can see it. [00:08:25] Excellent. Well, again, thank you for having us with me today. Also is my colleague, Helena Whitfelt. She is here to support, and perhaps chime in, if possible, there she is. Okay. [00:08:39] It's not sure. [00:08:39] Um, but we've been working with Iowa City Housing Authority since April ish for an onsite visit to evaluate the repositioning options that are available, as Tracy had mentioned, the- the need or the desire for repositioning. So just to quickly run through a few slides here for you to, um, try to frame this conversation as we move forward, I think it's important to know what we're looking for at this time is general support of the plan because there will be applications that will have to be submitted to HUD, and for those, we will need formal resolution and approval. But at this time, it's just general support and moving forward is what we're hoping for. So just a little bit about Quadel. Quadel has been in, uh, the business of affordable housing consulting and training and direct management for 50 years now. And as I said, we were engaged by ICHA to really look at the- the repositioning options available and what makes the most sense for ICHA at this point in time. And in coming up with this plan, we did visit. We did an in -person site visit in April of this year, where we toured the properties and had an opportunity to meet, um, pretty much one on one with all of the housing authority and- and some of city staff to talk about current challenges and mission and vision for the future to- to fold into the plan for repositioning. What is repositioning, you may or may not know, but repositioning really is essentially the conversion of public housing to a Section 8 platform. And what HUD and many PHAs across the country have discovered over the years is that on a national level, there's a growing backlog of capital needs. We've seen that. We've known that for a while. But by allowing this conversion to Section 8, it facilitates the preservation of affordable housing by allowing PHAs to take on debt, essentially, and- and/or secure other funding sources because in public housing, um, restrictive covenants that you can't take on any Page 4 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 202S (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. additional financing on what is a- a true Section 9 public housing property. We don't think Iowa City necessarily needs to take on any debt, which is a great thing, but it is one of the ways across the country that PHAs are finding that this really is essential and- and important moving forward for the viability of the housing. Additionally, Section 8 historically has been a more stable platform in terms of funding from the federal level. So in- in addition to that, when you convert to a Section 8 platform, you at least stabilize your rental revenue because as Tracy mentioned, in all of the options that we are considering and/or recommending, ICHA will retain ownership and management of the property, so that rental revenue, which is a pretty stable funding source, will be going directly to ICHA and/or its affiliate. So really improving the financial position overall into the future is the goal. As it relates to the residents, the residents are in no way negatively impacted by- by this action. In fact, while change can be difficult, it is important to note that ultimately our goal is to serve the residents better by increasing the availability of affordable housing, increasing choice when it comes to housing, by improving flexibility, and your rent calculations, rent amounts will all remain the same. So there's no financial implications to the residents. This is just a quick graphic to show all of the different options that HUD allows in- for PHAs to consider repositioning. We did evaluate all of these. We left no stone unturned in determining what recommendation was best for ICHA to put forward to counsel and ultimately to apply to HUD, because we have to do- we do have to get HUD approval before moving forward. So when- when we visited in April and as we came back and- and really looked at all of these options, what we found was 86 units of well maintained public housing, not- not a significant capital need at this point, but it is going to get worse if we don't do something. Uh, we have a nice mix of different building types from single family homes to multifamily developments. And we looked at, you know, all of those and the demand for all of those, uh, a strong occupancy of public housing indicating a true demand in the jurisdiction. What we're seeing- uh, what we saw and what ICJ staff have- have seen is that the single family homes are the most desirable makes sense. Uh, what is the most challenging to rent are some of the multiplex or multifamily units, specifically the units at the Chauncey. The units at the Chauncey are less appealing for residents. Uh, in that, you know, they cater to- at least our units cater to elderly disabled units, and yet the amenities of the building are not easily accessible for the elderly and disabled. Uh, you know, we have garbage bins and parking issues. Uh, at the same time, uh, they're a financial burden for ICHA. Quite frankly, we're paying condo fees, parking fees, condo fees are continuing to increase. And so, therefore, the per unit cost to manage and own these units is continuing to increase. So as we looked at all of those factors, uh, in addition to the demand for the units at the Chauncey and the demand- as compared to the demand for other units, you know, we really took all of that into consideration when developing recommendations to put before ICHA and then ultimately, uh, before you this evening. We also took a look at the funding, you know, the current funding and financial position of the agency, which is fairly strong. Despite this ongoing and years and years of underfunding by the federal government, um, ICHA through solid management, city management has managed to keep their heads above water up until now. Uh, we've developed an unrestricted net position based on 24 audited numbers of $3.1 million. We call those unrestricted, but they're not really. They're unrestricted within the housing authority. They're not restricted to public housing specifically. So they're- but they are restricted to affordable housing initiatives going forward. But from our perspective, that gives us a lot of leeway in how to leverage, uh, those reserves towards a repositioning effort. Buildings and land valued at $8 million. And despite all of that, we ended Fiscal Year 2024 with a- a net loss of $261,000, which, of Page S Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. course, is just not sustainable. We're going to continue to dip into those reserves to offset operating loss, um, rather than be able to use them for furthering affordable housing if- if we're- if we're not careful and if we don't do something sooner rather than later. So based on all of that information and conversations with leadership at the housing authority level, what we have proposed is, kind of, a three prong approach or three phase approach. First being the sale of some units through Section 18 disposition. I know that means nothing to you, but it would be going to HUD to request approval to- to sell these particular units, convert the remaining 81 under a repositioning option called the RAID Blend, and then utilizing the additional proceeds, the additional operating income, and some authority - reserved authority under HUD rules to ultimately expand affordable housing within Iowa City jurisdiction. Not necessarily just Iowa City, but the three county jurisdiction. [00:17:49] The goal of this plan was to generate revenue from valuable assets that's not currently serving the best needs of the residents. The approach being to sell the five units at the Chauncey at current fair market value. Um, as I said, the demand is not there for the units. The- the cost to operate and maintain those units is significant and rising, and so we would recommend that the housing authority, um, submit an application to HUD to sell the- to sell those units at fair market value in the open market, and then we would turn around and then utilize the sale proceeds, potentially combined with some other funding sources, to then further develop affordable housing. So we would be required to replace at least those five as part of the approval to dispose of them, but we would be looking during the planning phase of this engagement to really, how can we leverage those proceeds to, um, increase affordable housing in a meaningful and impactful way, um, for the residents that we serve. So we're ass- we're assuming estimates- based on current estimates, uh, we're assuming proceeds of, uh, a little over two million. Anywhere from 2-4 is what we're kind of seeing, but that value is, um, dependent up- largely upon when all the approvals that are necessary have been received and we can put that on the market. Uh, it also results in a tenant protection voucher, so it would increase the, um, the availability of vouchers by- by one, and- and not significant yet, we're going to- we're going to get more. So- but- but tho- those are the benefits of that approach. Phase 2 would be to reposition the balance of the units, um, utilizing the RAID blend. So 73 units would receive rents at 110% of fair market rent, while eight units would receive what we're calling a RAID rent- a I- a I- a lower rent, but we could boost those. And- and this combined effort, we're anticipating based on 24 numbers would increase unrestricted revenue, about 47,000, close to $50,000 a month, and generate 73 tenant protection vouchers. Those vouchers would be utilized initially, to serve the current residents, but they would generate rental income for the agency. So just, you know, a quick graphic to illustrate the increase in revenue based on the blend from- to about $115,000 a month from 68,000. So what essentially we're proposing, we're going from assisting 86 families, and project revenue of about 820,000, with a net operating loss to assisting right now, just based on through Phase 2, assisting the same number of families, no less, um, with project revenue of 1.3 million, um, at- with an additional two million in cash for future development. So that would be the - the results of through Phase 2 of this- of this recommendation- pardon me, of this recommended plan. And then Phase 3 is- definitely I mean, Phase 3 has a lot of opportunity. Phase 3 is where we want to really look at, um, partnerships, uh, with developers, uh, what's available in the city, what's available in the jurisdiction as a whole, to leverage reserves, proceeds from sale, to not only replace the Chauncey Page 6 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. units with other hard units, um, but to potentially replace with a lot more, um, than five units. So the overall benefits of repositioning at this point would be additional unrestricted income, which creates fungibility within the housing authority to meet the needs of the residents in a way that makes sense, um, streamlining operations by transitioning everything to a Section 8 platform. Right now, we have public housing in Section 8. So we'd be operating one affordable housing program, which would streamline operations. Uh, the other is Choice Mobility. With this- with this plan, all residents would no longer be only assisted if they remain in that public housing unit, stuck, if you will, in a public housing unit, they would have the option of mobility after the completion of one year. So it- there we are increasing housing of choice for our residents. Increasing the number of hard units in the jurisdiction and potentially some strategic partnerships to serve, um, vulnerable populations, if that makes sense. So that is all, you know, to be determined. What we're really looking at right now is Phase 1 and Phase 2, which gets us to be able to look at Phase 3. So with that, I will see if anybody has any questions. [00:23:37] Thank you for that. Um, I have one question based on, um, both what your studies showed and what the preferences were, um, for, uh, single family homes, right? Do your projected numbers about, wha- um, how in the various phases you can leverage the sale of units at the Chauncey to, um, move into other hard units? Are single family homes potentially in that mix or are you looking more at, um, apartments and multifamily? [00:24:16] Single family could absolutely be in the mix. There- there's nothing off the table when we begin to evaluate the best use. And you're right. We've already indicated that that's the strongest demand, so it makes- it makes a lot of sense to start looking there. [00:24:33] Thank you. [00:24:35] Um, thank you very much. Uh, I was wondering. I saw the numbers of our current, um, revenue stream from these units goes from $860,000-1.39 or something in that fall, park million potentially plus two million to be reinvested into, uh, public housing. Uh, I'm wondering exactly, just to go over it again, in case I missed anything, the, uh, mechanisms that save us that money or that, um, provide us that money? Like, what specific parts of the repositioning, uh, gives us an extra $500,000? [00:25:21] Okay. [00:25:21] UM, currently, you're operating with whatever operating subsidy and capital funds that HUD allocates within a year. And that is the federal funding that we're talking about continues to decline. So every year when they, um- through through their calculations, they say, "This is the operating subsidy you have to Page 7 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. work with, and it's a percentage basis," and that's it. We have- we have no say in that. We- we just have to work with what we're given. By repositioning to Section 8, we get the two million in cash estimated by the sale of the units up the Chauncey. And then the additional revenue comes because when we convert to Section 8, we then as the owners of those properties, we realize rental income. So in addition to the administrative fees that we receive from HUD, we also are the owners. So the HAP, housing assistance payment that's paid on- by HUD on behalf of the resident, is paid to ICHA as the owner of the unit, as the landlord. So there is, uh, rental revenue that we're generating. [00:26:41] Okay. That makes- that's clarifying. Thank you. I was- I would just be remiss not to ask, even though I don't think this is the case when, one of the slides, we're talking about 70 something of the units being 110% of fair market rents, that is different than AMI, correct? [00:27:00] Correct. [00:27:01] Okay. Go on. Yeah. [00:27:01] That is- but that means that's the rent we can establish, not what we charge the tenant. The- the- the resident ultimately will still pay 30% of their- of their-. [00:27:18] Income, yep. [00:27:20] Adjusted income. Thank you for escaping me. Their annual adjusted income towards rent. [00:27:26] So I- if- I'm not- if I'm remembering correctly, sometime in the past few decades, I think it was during Reagan, probably, that, um, it went from net income to gross adjusted income. Is that currently what we're using? [00:27:44] For determining eligibility, you are correct. It's AMI. So it's percentage of- of AMI. The income limits are published by HUD annually. [00:27:57] Okay. [00:27:57] Page 8 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. Er, yeah. That it's either you're- you're low income, very low or extremely low 30, 50, 80, something like that. Um, so that's determining eligibility to be housed. Once you're housed, how much your portion of rent is determined by calculating the family's annual income based on their family size, adjusting that for all, you know, allowances that they qualify allowances and deductions, and its, um, total tenant payment is 30% of annual adjusted income. [00:28:34] And- [00:28:35] Okay. Sorry, go ahead. [00:28:38] Then whatever the- half the contract rent is for the unit, which is where this rent boost, we're saying, "This is what we would get in rent, because rent would be based on FMR and/or this 90/10 blend, trying to find the correct slide." But 71 of the units would receive a rent based on Section 18 rules, which is 110% of FMR. [00:29:06] O kay. [00:29:06] Ten percent of the units would receive a rent based on RAID rules, which is less, um, but we can blend those and boost the rents with some of the reserves in order to generate this projected rental income of 115 K. [00:29:27] Okay. And I'm really sorry I'll just get all of these out while I'm here. Um, so technically, we gain a little bit more authority into- with this acquisition to charge whatever we want, basically. Is- is that true or are there still HUD regulations that say that we can't, let's say, you know, because the 30% rule of thumb historically is, kind of, arbitrary anyways. So let's say we decide, you know, our residents, it's 20 or 25, like it was under Nixon, do we have the authority to do that under this, uh, repurposing or this- [00:30:04] Yeah. [00:30:05] This reposioning. [00:30:07] Rachel Carter with the Housing Authority. So we're still following Section 8 of housing choice voucher guidelines because these will just be regular housing choice vouchers. So we'll still be 30% of adjusted Page 9 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. income is what the tenant's rent is. And our rents are still going to be set at whatever our payment standard is, which by federal rule, is between 90 and 110% of fair market rent. So we have to still keep our rents within the typical federally declared payment standard range. So exactly what we've been doing in the housing choice voucher program. [00:30:40] 1 figured I just thought maybe more cool authority would come with the repurposing, you know. Uh, and one more thing I promise is it- our- our fair cloth limit is 99, is that correct? [00:30:54] That's accurate. [00:30:55] Okay. Sounds good. [00:30:57] 1 think what we understand from this is still, this is going to be, I guess, the city owned housing, but Section 8 vouchers. People who have Section 8, they can't live there so adding more housing to the community to use voucher because now even we have killings of the people who can rent for the people with Section 8. So this is still but is not a public housing anymore, but it's a city -owned housing that will be rent for the people who have Section 8 voucher, which is going to increase the Section 8 voucher that currently the, you know, the housing already have. Am I getting that correct? [00:31:44] Sort of. Um, it would be owned by the city, the housing authority, actually, the affiliate. Um, the rent would be stream to the housing authority, but the voucher- when you talk about the voucher, that voucher would be permanently on that structure. [00:32:07] Oh, you mean? Even if the tenant moved out, you know, we have to have another tenant with voucher. [00:32:19] That's where that voucher would stay with that unit. If the tenant moves out, they get a voucher, but the- the voucher stays on the unit, as well. [00:32:29] 1 see. Like, we- we will be win more voucher if the people who live there find another house with their voucher that they live there with, right? For example, I live there, and I move out, I'm going to take my voucher with me. And, like, private landlord rent for me with a voucher, but still, we can put somebody who doesn't have a voucher on that house? [00:32:59] Page 10 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. Yes. [00:33:02] Okay. Is this means we're getting more vouchers? [00:33:04] But- but let me- let me make sure I'm clear. HUD is not gonna give us a new voucher to support that. We have to do that with our current allocation of vouchers. [00:33:14] That's what I mean. We- if somebody left, we get that house for rent, but it's only rented for the people with Section A. [00:33:24] Uh, let me see if I can explain this better. So when we project base a voucher, when we take one of our vouchers and project base it, we are signing a contract for 20 years-ish that that unit will be supported by a project -based voucher for that entire 20 years, for that entire contract term. [00:33:44] Mm-hmm. [00:33:45] The choice mobility option, HUD says, if the housing authority has an available voucher in their current allocation and you live there and you want to move, they have to give you a different voucher out of their existing voucher allocation, but still keep that voucher on that unit. [00:34:06] Mm-hmm. [00:34:07] Rachel, are you gonna help me hare? [00:34:08] Yeah. We definitely have- we would have to update our administrative plan, and it would come before all of you to look at what that looks like. But essentially, we do get 74 additional vouchers because- 74 tenant protection vouchers, that's 74 more than we have right now. So right now, we have 1,595 vouchers. So, uh, I'm a social worker, but that's 1,668 vouchers is what we would have. And it just happens to be that 74 of them are attached to our units. Similarly, how we project base vouchers at 501 and Cross Park with Shelter House. So we would just administer and manage it. And one of the regulations federally with project based vouchers is that if somebody's in our project based unit, say, we have a house at 110 Main Street, that we have a project based voucher at, and they live there successfully for a year, and they would like to go somewhere else in our jurisdiction or outside of our Page 11 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. jurisdiction with that voucher. They get to take that voucher as long as we have an open in the housing authority, and we have about 250 vouchers that open up just through attrition in the housing authority annually. So that's very typical, um, that we would have one available, and they can take that voucher and go wherever they like with the voucher, and there's still a voucher attached to that unit at 110 Main Street. So it is a net increase of 74 vouchers for us. [00:35:30] Yes. [00:35:30] And we don't have to navigate having different waiting lists. So right now we have a public housing waiting list and we have a Housing Choice Voucher waiting list, and those do not talk to one another. And in this case, we would have a Housing Choice Voucher waiting list, and we could have more flexibility in how we administer that wait list for project -based vouchers in these units. [00:35:51] Mm-hmm. So just a couple of vocabulary questions. The, um, tenant protection vouchers are a project - based voucher. Is that right? [00:36:02] So tenant protection vouchers don't have to be project -based vouchers. This is a HUD's speak- term they use for whenever we get vouchers during an action like repositioning. [00:36:13] Okay. [00:36:13] So these are tenant protection vouchers, but in this instance, they will be project -based vouchers attached to the unit. [00:36:18] Means attached to the real estate? [00:36:20] Okay. [00:36:21] Page 12 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. Okay, another question was, I think I was trying to ask about when- when you said in the presentation that, uh, we will have 86 family, and we're still going to help 86 family. How is that gonna be possible with losing five housing- five apartment in Johnson? [00:36:48] We have to- it's part of- [00:36:50] Because we had 86 public housing. That's why we were serving 86 family. And now, when we sold those five public housing, you say still the family will be remaining the same, 86, uh, family, how- how that will be possible? [00:37:09] Yeah, we, for sure, have to replace those five units in kind. We will have to replace five one -bedroom units in some way. That's gonna be a HUD requirement. If we're gonna sell five one -bedroom public housing units, we're going to have to replace it with five one -bedroom units somewhere. [00:37:24] Sure. That means- um, you mean with the money we got from housing, we can buy five additional? [00:37:29] Mm-hmm. [00:37:29] Okay. Thank you. [00:37:31] Or more, potentially. [00:37:33] Of course, more would be cool. [LAUGHTER] [00:37:36] So, um, I'm not sure this is- is this you, Rachel. Um, but I am curious about the amount of tenant -based vouchers in our city that don't get used. I know intermittently, we hear about people who have a voucher, but were unable to find housing. Does- do we- is there an- uh, a sort of quantification of that? In- in my mind, this actually alleviates that, or is a small alleviation of that, where there would actually be a house that the city is not going to deny housing because of somebody's, uh, status of income or type of income? Am I making an incorrect connection and- and tying those two things together? [00:38:10] Page 13 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. No, you're not making incorrect connections. Certainly, uh, we had- we do have a fairly high success rate nationally compared to other housing authorities for Housing Choice Voucher lease up. However, we always have room for improvement, and those households who can't find a place to use their voucher really struggle to find anywhere. It's- it's seems to be anecdotally some- they find a place or they don't, and there's not a lot of- there's not a lot of, I looked for six months, and I found something. it's someone found something within 90 days, or they spend the entire year. They have their voucher looking for a place and aren't successful. And you can see, even in our affordable housing units that are not in our public housing portfolio that we own and manage as a city, we have 24 of those currently, and we have 23 voucher holders in those 24, just as naturally selected as a landlord who accepts vouchers, and we are fairly low barrier. [00:39:02] Right. The other question I had might be more for the consultant, and I don't know how germane is this conversation, but I am curious to hear how we benchmark compared to other cities. I know that, uh, you'd commented that our- you know, that our quality of the units is good and our mix is good, but I'd be curious if there's more than just good. And also just any comments on numbers, like 86 units for the size of our community. I'd like to- you know, how many of these projects do you go through each year? And maybe with a little bit more context, how do we stack up? [00:39:40] 1 would love to do that analysis for you. Off the top of my head, I could not give you truly accurate numbers, and I wouldn't want to- um, to mislead in any way. [00:39:53] Okay. [00:39:53] Elena, I don't know if you have any other thoughts. [00:39:57] Yeah. I think anything we could share off the cuff would be very anecdotal. I'm not sure that I have any of those facts or figures at the tip of my tongue here, um- [00:40:06] Okay. [00:40:07] But I will say, just to go back to some of the earlier comments from Tracy provided, were, you know, that, um, the units are in good shape from everything that we were able to tour, but we do know that HUD year -over -year underfunds public housing. So that trend is not going to improve. So I think that's sort of where, you know, kudos to the housing authority, they see that coming down the line that at some point while they're in good shape now, it's not going to continue to be a sustainable approach. Page 14 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. Um, so I think that- that they're not alone as a public housing authority looking to reposition public housing? That is- that is for sure. [LAUGHTER] [00:40:42] Yeah. [00:40:43] And just to -just to add more context around that word good, you know, when you compare those units to, let's say, New York City Housing Authority, they're excellent. When you compare them to somewhere else, they might be great. So it is all relative, but, you know, overall, from as many public housing units I've been in over my career, um, I- I would probably step up to they're in great shape from good shape for- for start. [00:41:17] Okay. Thank you. [00:41:19] 1 have a couple of questions. So don't need to be answered now, but the Chauncey for those five units that people will be, uh, moving, we'll probably want to know how will that take place, um, because you know, historically, we have not, you know, asked people to move before they've desired to move. So that's something to think about. Um, you were at the IFA Housing summit, along with Councilor Alter and 1, and I see Naomi out there as well. We were all there, um, at the- at the summit. And there were some concerns, of course, about HUD and the changes as it relates to the, um, tenant or Section A vouchers. So we know that HUD, I believe it was, um, there was going to be a reduction of non -defense discretionary funds, um, of billions of dollars, which would affect Section A housing, um, the funds that go to Section A housing. There's also a two-year limit proposal on folks that live in Section A housing. And so I want to know if any of this is coming into play in our decision. At this time, I heard Tracy Hightshoe at the beginning, mention that last year, you know, when we had our Harvard Bloomberg, um, a person kind of go through this transitional phase for us and what it could look like, that is no longer the opportunity that we have. And so with the current federal administration, things are shifting. Um, and I want to know if we're taking that into account. The other question I have is related to our current public housing, what requirements outside of our own- um, are there any federal state requirements that we have to abide by? [00:43:14] 1 can answer those in whatever order you'd like. [00:43:17] You go for it. [00:43:18] Page 1 S Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. Uh, public housing- I'll take the easy one. Low hanging fruit here, Mayor. Uh, public housing abides by many federal regulations. It is more regulated than the Housing Choice Voucher program, which is one of the reasons administratively, it's not an efficient program to run. Um, we do the same income documentation in public housing that we do in the Housing Choice Voucher program. And we have to meet federal physical property standards, which is- which is frankly, part of the reason our units are in as good a shape as they are is because we continue to strive to meet those federal physical inspection standards. And we- you can see, if you look at our budgets over the last six years, uh, 5, 6 years, once COVID happened and the prices of materials and contractors went up, the prices we were paying for maintaining those units went up exponentially. And we can see that, and it doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon. So many regulations tied to public housing, many more than the Housing Choice Voucher program. And I know you're very aware of the regulations in the Housing Choice Voucher program. So many of those, that was the easy question. [00:44:24] Got it. [00:44:24] Um, as far as looking at the federal landscape, we are always very aware that our federal landscape is shifting and trying to make sure that we're making decisions that put us in the best possible place to withstand any changes that come down the pike. We are very rarely privy to any information before it's released nationally in the midi- in the media. Um, part of the reason we are looking at the public housing repositioning even before this year last year when we started to look at it is that we can see how it's going. And we can see that for- as Tracy mentioned in her presentation, for many years, decades, even public housing has been chronically underfunded at a national level, and we don't anticipate that's going to change. Uh, even with current proposed budgets for the next several years, we're not going to get a sudden increase in public housing funding. So we know that's a concern, and we know that's a spot that we have to do something about if we want to maintain our units. As far as Housing Choice Voucher viability, what we've seen traditionally, historically, is that funding source is a lot more stable. As I think we're all aware, we can't know for sure what's going to happen federally. And certainly, there has been some interesting things you've said, like, a two-year time limit. Uh, we have not heard anything officially from HUD indicating those things. So we're in a position where we're trying to protect our assets and our program the best we can with limited information about what's going to happen in the future with those things. [00:45:56] Sure. [00:45:57] Which is not a great answer. [00:45:58] Yeah, no, I- I mean, it's out there, right? And so I just wanted to at least, you know, talk about it. Page 16 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. [00:46:06] 1 think you talked about the timeline. I don't know. I didn't hear it maybe. [00:46:08] Did you- [00:46:08] Like, when the timeline because I know that there is- there is somebody just moved to Chauncey like two months ago. [00:46:17] Um, semi -recently, for sure, in the last year, someone moved there in one of our units. Um, the timeline is a little bit dependent on submitting an application to HUD and HUD approving it. What we have learned is that we don't have a lot of control over what HUD's timeline is as they navigate through policy and staffing changes themselves. And so it'll be a little dependent on that. I think that Mary also asked about how we do relocation, and I might rely on Tracy at Quad to answer that a little better because they have a lot more experience in relocation for public housing tenants in these situations, kind of what they do. We we keep saying this, we're only going to do this once, but they've done this many times. [00:47:02] Yes, we have, and certainly the residents would be relocated with assistance, absolutely. Um, relocation assistance in the form of security deposits, moving expenses, all of that would be provided. Um, so in housing search assistance, whether or not we need to provide coaching, even if it's, you know, how to get their credit rating up to qualify for some of these other units, we would work with all factors, um, collectively with ICHA to make sure they are successfully relocated to a home apartment where they are- are happy and assisted with the- with the voucher. I don't know if that answers your question, um. [00:47:53] Tracy, the other thing I would just add too, um, we didn't touch upon this, was, um, for these submissions to HUD, um, resident consultation is part of that process. So before we can even make a submission to HUD for the sale of the Chauncey units, we- we will be engaging residents, in that, having a conversation with them about what the plan is, what that would look like for them, the impacts on them. You know, um, hopefully at that juncture, we'd have a better sense of the timeline for submission of an application. Um, so, uh, HUD has a lot of protections and requirements around relocation in terms of supporting the move, but also ensuring that residents are a part of that conversation. [00:48:33] Mm-hmm. Thank you. [00:48:37] Thanks, Elena. Page 17 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. [00:48:41] Council, I do just- I suspect that Council is probably aware of this. I know staff is. It's been a subject of, uh, quite a bit of discussion in the last recent weeks, but just for the benefit of the public, there's been a lot of discussion about, you know, the increased revenue and that we would, you know, benefit from that and make the program more sustainable. I just want to be clear that this would involve, uh, creating a non-profit, that is, the city would create a non-profit. These units, other than the five, which would be handled separately, would be sold to the non-profit at fair market value, presumably seller -financed, us being the seller, financed to the non-profit, and then the non-profit would, uh, run it. Um, and, of course, they would get the increased revenue, and hopefully they would continue to grow in their ability to provide affordable housing to the public and so forth. But I just thought it would be important that that is stated out loud, um, and also that we would have to spend some time working through the complications that come with that, particularly balancing, um, the fiduciary duties of whoever is appointed to that board and the interplay between that board and the city to manage those units or to provide whatever services that board found was- was fit and suitable. So I just want to raise that to make sure that everyone understood. [00:50:01] 1 don't know if I'm expanding too far beyond this conversation, but at the same time we're working with, is it Baker Tilly to also act- the city act as developer of housing units. Would the not -for -profit be the developer or would the city be the developer who then in turn would sell to the not -for -profit? How would that mechanism work? [00:50:20] Yeah, we're still working with Baker Tilly to develop an implementation plan for what that development looks like for the city. I think that we're expecting our, uh, formal feedback from them in plan in November. So that will come before all of you with details on their recommendations. [00:50:38] Sure. [00:50:40] 1 think they're still exploring. [00:50:41] Sure. [00:50:46] That was my question. Okay. [00:50:49] Page 18 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. You know, I really don't get that. I wasn't aware that all the public houses will be sold to a number of it because I was kidding say, this will be city owned, and nobody correct me. [00:51:01] That's why I thought I'd better jump in. Right. Uh, yes, it would not be technically city owned. It would be a nonprofit that our consultants indicate would to the best of our ability, and that ability is a little questionable, would you have to work through that, but that would be controlled by the city. That is the board members would presumably be those appointed by the council. Uh, or at least perhaps three of five. I've been speaking with outside counsel who does work with non profits to kind of decide how that could work. It could work like the city appointing three board members with two independent board members so that there would be more than one independent board member to make a decision should the three council appointees be, um, conflicted out from decision. For example, if the decision is how much to pay the city for management of these units, how much should we pay? What is the fair market value? What kind of interest rate should we pay for the seller financing? There's a number of things. I think they're manageable, but there would be some complications that we'd have to work through. But yes, to be clear, it would not be the city that owns these properties. It would be the nonprofit. I think the consultants referred to it as the affiliate, but it would be a nonprofit entity that owns them. [00:52:23] Interesting. I wasn't thinking about it that way. But can you now, since it will be like, not the city, you mentioned this is supposed to be like section kind of- like section will be attached to it, even if somebody like move for how long? [00:52:44] How long would Section eight be attached to it? [00:52:46] Yeah, because you mentioned something. This is- HUD required that this is to be like a Section eight kind of housing for how long? [00:52:54] At least 20 years, but I think that HUD's intention is in perpetuity that we would continue to renew that contract. [00:53:01] And that means after the 20 year, this public housing now owned by a number of the organization, and they can, like, rent it to somebody who have, you know, voucher or not. Like, their QOS, of course, right? After 20 years. [00:53:20] Yes, and I think that as City Attorney Goers mentioned, we have some flexibility. We have some decision points to make ahead of us and what that affiliate looks like. And part of it is that we're at the very Page 19 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. beginning of exploring it, and City attorney's office has done a lot of work in looking into this. And what we know also is that this nonprofit entity doesn't have to exist forever. Our Baker Tilly consultants are telling us that we could also dissolve this nonprofit if that nonprofit board chose to in five years and sell all those units back to the city and be back to city owned. The affiliate is a mechanism that HUD requires to dispose of the units. This is a HUD requirement that we have an affiliate. So many housing authorities have used the same structure. They're usually not municipally owned housing authorities. So that's, I think the legal structure that we're working through trying to figure out what it looks like. But this is because of the HUD requirement to dispose of to an affiliate or nonprofit. [00:54:19] And this a new nonprofit that is being created because I think I heard you saying that we have to think about creating the nonprofit or some. We cannot give it to existing nonprofit or, you know, who run those type of things, or have to be created a new nonprofit. And is this nonprofit you talking about affiliating? Is this like affiliated with the city? Is this going to be owned by the city? I don't understand that. Can you just talk more about right. [00:54:45] It's a good question, and I'm sorry, I'll let Tracy jump in here in just a second, too. I think I haven't been researching that question specifically, but I think the answer to your question is probably yes. You could just sell the property. Again, it's got to be at fair market value to an already existing nonprofit with the ability to run it. The one significant difference being there is that you- you as a council, we as a city, don't control that nonprofit at present, the existing nonprofit. But if we were to create a new one, we could incorporate the- well, the articles of incorporation could be written in such a way, and the director's appointed in such a way to make sure that the city still has functional control over what's done there. [00:55:29] Okay. And that's the way we can if you want to keep it forever, it will be that. Okay. Yeah. No, that's make me feel better. [00:55:39] Good question. [00:55:41] Tracy, can I jump in here unless you're going to? [00:55:44] Go for it. [00:55:45] Yeah. So the- the RAG rules on the 71 units that we would be doing under a blend a RAID blend, the- the RAG rules require that the PHA retain control, um, of the former public housing units. So you really Page 20 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. couldn't. Theoretically sell it to another nonprofit. And- and our recommendation, even if we're not the consultant on that particular side, our recommendation is that the affiliate is set up to be within the control of the housing authority and ultimately the city. So that's what we always recommend is what we call interlocking boards, which I think was being described earlier as, you know, three appointees, but two. And again, this is Baker Tilly's true area of expertise. But from an operational perspective, that is absolutely what we recommend, and to some extent, what HUD requires for RAID conversions. [00:56:43] Okay. Thank you. [00:56:49] All right. Any other discussion? [00:56:54] 1 think we were just hoping for a general- again, you're gonna have some formal actions to take, but as we take the next steps, are you generally comfortable with the direction that we're going, knowing that there's several touch points down the road? [00:57:07] Yes- yes. Thank you. [00:57:09] All right. Sounds good. Great. All right. We are going to move on to Item number five. [00:57:14] Thank you. [00:57:15] Plan action item, presentation on the Ballers and bike lanes. We have Kent. [00:57:26] Thank you. [00:57:28] Welcome. [00:57:33] Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I just wanted to take Kent Ralston, transportation planner. I just wanted to take a quick 30 seconds, uh, introduction before we turn it over to the consultant for this particular project. Um, in your strategic plan, you have the idea for protected bike lanes or protected bike lanes project, and that's the strategic plan that you all updated and then approved last winter. As part of that project, uh, you have, uh, we have had the fortune to hire as our consultant tool design Page 21 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. tools widely accepted as one of the foremost biked planning groups, I would say, in the country, arguably. Uh, we've been working with Tool design and their staff for about the last six months or so on this project, and we've also been working with our local bike Advisory Committee, uh, which is comprised of about a handful of local bike advocates. Uh, partially to make sure that we're on the right track, but also to make sure that they agree with the information that we'll be presenting to you tonight. So with that, uh, just a quick t up for the project, happy to be here and excited that we'll be able to share our work with you. With that, I'll turn it over to Shaun Murphy Lopez with Tool Design. Thank you. [00:58:45] Thanks. Mr. Murphy. [00:58:47] Okay. Thank you, Kent. Nice to see you, Mr. Mayor. Nice to meet you all on the council, as well. Uh, my name is Shaun Murphy Lopez as Kent said, I work for Tool Design, and I'm a planner. Uh, I'm going to run through our first agenda. Um, actually, I'll probably try to make this full screen here. So we have five things to cover today with you all, first, just to go over what the project purpose is, the prioritization process that we went through, the corridor recommendations that we have for the council to consider some decision items that are upcoming and then possible next steps. So, as Kent mentioned, you all have a strategic plan, and in that plan, there's an action to consider adding or retrofitting bike pathways that are separated from streets or protected utilizing flexible bollards. And then the purpose is listed in that bullet point below. So I'm going to talk about the prioritization process that we went through. You all have a lot of streets with bike lanes in Iowa City, which is great. And so what we did is we started with all of those streets. Um, we looked at six different factors when we were prioritizing potential projects to transition from a standard painted bike lane to a protected bike lane. And the six factors were, what's the available bike lane with out there on that street without moving curbs? Where are the existing bicycle vehicle crashes being reported by local enforcement agencies? Where's the most demand? Where are the driveways, especially if there are more driveways that can sometimes be challenging with protected bike lanes, although there are ways to mitigate that. Is there already a parallel side path or trail along that particular street? Some of your streets have both bike lanes and side paths along them. And what are the traffic volume? And then we rated each one of those. It's a little hard to read. But within that red box at the top of this chart, we ranked each of those based on those factors, and we tried to be really clear about when something got a higher score versus a lower score. So for example, if there were fewer driveways, a project got a higher score. If there was more demand for bicycling along a particular street, it also got a higher score. So it just depended on what the factor was. And then, um, I just want to just highlight one of those factors for you, probably one of the key ones that a lot of people are interested in. Where's the most demand for bicycling? Because, of course, if you're going to do something like this, you want to make sure people are going to be out there using it. Um, and so we took a look at six different factors. And actually, this is an update of your 2017 bicycle plan, I believe it was, if I've got the year correct. This demand analysis was done back then. We updated it with current information. And the darker spots on the map that shows where you have higher demand for bicycling and the lighter spots lower demand. But that's based on these six factors here. And then we basically split each of your streets in Iowa City that have painted bike lanes into three categories. So the ones in Page 22 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 202S (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. green, those are the ones with the highest demand, the ones in red, those are the ones with the lowest demand, according to this analysis. And it's just one tool to look at potential demand. So looking at that demand factor and the five other factors that I mentioned briefly, we split the projects into three overall categories, high priority, medium priority, and low priority. And the purpose of this is so we could take a deeper dive into just some of the corridors, not every corridor in Iowa City to look at how would these protected bike lanes actually look? What are the issues that would have to be dealt with in order to implement a protected bike lane along these streets? So we chose eight projects. Those are in the high category to look at. We also included two projects from the medium category. And the reason we chose those two projects to also evaluate, um, were two separate reasons. Governor Street is obviously a pair with Dodge Street, and we wanted to make sure we were looking at those streets together. And then Sycamore Street, you'll notice in our list of factors for prioritization. We did not use equity as a factor. And since Sycamore Street goes through a neighborhood with a higher Black population, we also included it so that we could consider that, as well. So the ten selected corridors, you've got all 23 streets here listed where you have bike lanes currently. The ones that we did some planning level evaluation of are highlighted in red, and arrows also point on the map to where those are located. You'll see that most of these are located in the core of Iowa City. Uh, there are a couple exceptions, one being Mormon Trek Boulevard on the west side, and the other being Sycamore Street that I mentioned on the previous slide. And this is a little closer, uh, view of them. So the blue lines on this map, they show where you have bike lanes today. These were our candidate projects. So first of all, I just want to take a step back. This is a very high level when we go through planning and design. Uh, we obviously have engineers involved as well. We had a staff team here at the city of both planners and engineers. Um, I'm a planner. We have planners and designers at tool design. And so we want to make sure we're thinking about what are the steps that would need to be taken to implement something like this. The first step is what we're doing currently, planning level design guidance, but then preliminary engineering and final construction plans would need to come in the future. And I'll just explain what each one of those are. So our work focused on looking at high level opportunities and challenges. So we made a map. I'll go through this map of a sample project. And then we also did existing and proposed cross sections. You have so much width to work with on each one of these streets. What is the width, and what could you do if you change the way the street operates? In the future, and this has not been done yet, so I just want to be really clear that this would come in the future if Council in the city decides to move forward is preliminary engineering plans. This is where you assign lane uses on images like this on the right hand side. You're very clear about the widths on a block by block basis and the pavement markings that would go on the street. It also looks at, you know, would there be any driveway changes, any curb structures, uh, that are added, any traffic signals that would need to be altered. So we did not do that level of analysis here because we're not at that stage. We're at an earlier stage. And then finally, what has to come after that preliminary engineering process, this is the third step in the process is final construction plans. This is where you come up with quantities, you figure out how the project is going to be staged, how the construction work is going to get done out in the field, and then detailed signing and pavement marking plans. There's a lot that goes into this. But back to what our work was, um, for each of those ten candidate projects that we prioritized, we created this sort of a document. We titled them with each street name and then opportunities and challenges. So we identified the project location in the context of the existing bike lane network. So in this red box here, we have existing trails shown in blue, existing Page 23 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. bike lane, shown in green, and then where is the possible protected bike lane project located? Then we looked at a scan of what are the challenges along this street that would need to be resolved if we decided to move forward with a protected bike lane on in this example, Madison Street. Following that, if you look at the bottom of this document, we've come up with, uh, you could say opportunities or the solutions to those design challenges. And then finally, um, for each one of these projects, we're showing that existing cross section. Where are the bike travel and parking lanes currently? What are their widths? And then what is it proposed to look like? So as we went through ten projects, we came across all sorts of issues and topics on those streets. There were 14 categories we came up with. I won't read through them all, but I mentioned driveways before. For each one of these, we came up with. What are the best solutions to deal with the issues that each of these bring up? So we defined each one of them. We talked about the benefits of this sort of a treatment, which is green pavement markings at driveways, and then we talked about what their recommended uses. [01:08:30] So when we looked at the whole city, you know, we did this evaluation of, you know, all 23, we narrowed it down to 10. One of the things that we looked at in this process is where are the upcoming street construction or some sort of operational change projects that are out there along these streets, because that could really affect what the recommendation is and where the city wants to go. So the pink lines on this map, each one of them is called out with what project is out there and what the current projected years are for construction. This, you know, we were working with staff, this really jumped out. We reviewed this like Kent mentioned, with the Bicycle Advisory Committee, the center part of the city where you have projects upcoming on Burlington Street, with the bridge reconstruction, Market in Jefferson with a one-way to two-way conversion, and, uh, then a reconstruction project also on Dodd Street. Those really jumped out at us. And one of the challenges, of course, that you all, I'm sure, are very familiar with is East-West movement in Iowa City because of the university, um, and the river and all the challenges that that brings. When we looked at this sort of combination of- if you zoom in almost a little bit, uh, and look at West Burlington Street, Madison Street, and Market and Jefferson, that really provides an East-West connection connecting both sides of the community across the river. And we know Burlington and Market and Jefferson, those are coming up as projects that are already going to be happening. And our goal with this evaluation was really to look at what could a pilot project be? Where could this be put out there for folks to look at, for the community to experience, um, for staff to get some experience doing this? And Madison Street really jumped out at us as a potential solution or as the most likely, um, street that we would initially recommend that council consider. Um, Market and Jefferson, you know, that is really part of that. And obviously, discussions are already happening about Burlington Street and how that bridge will be reconstructed. Um, but Market and Jefferson, the one-way to two-way conversion. I just want to give you three slides here, just to give you a sample of the types of things we looked at. It doesn't mean that these are the only potential solutions for Market and Jefferson, but these were some of the ideas we just looked at to see what the implications would be. We came up with three general options for how to deal with Market and Jefferson, um, when this project is, uh, when the planning is underway in, you know, upcoming months, um, in the next year or two. Option A could be to move the bike lanes from the left side to the right side of the street. Um, with the two-way travel and imagining, um, in this image right here, I'm on Jefferson Street, and it looks like what I'm - Page 24 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. where I'm standing, if you imagine yourself, say, at the intersection of Clinton with Jefferson, you're looking, um, down the hill toward the river here, toward the Union. And so that upper photo, um, you see the bicyclist coming up on the left side of the street. And imagining that Jefferson Street is going to become a two-way street. Now you have motorists not just coming at you as you're looking down the hill, but you also have motorists going down the hill. And to keep that bicyclist on that left side could be a little challenging. So that's why in this scenario, we move the bicyclist to the right side of the street. So that's one option. Another option would be to consolidate the bike lanes on Jefferson Street. Right now, there's, of course, one on Market, one on Jefferson, um, and that would entail removing parking on Jefferson and adding parking on Market Street, potentially. And then option C, um, and the reason why we do this is just so we can look at the trade-offs and the balances that would have to be made, and the discussions that would need to take place. Um, you could consolidate the two-way bike lanes on Jefferson Street, but make them two-way or facing each other on one side of the street. That way, you could retain some parking. That's one nice option of doing a two-way protected bike lane. It gives you a little more width to play with. You need less bike lane width total on the street when you put them together, and then still, you could add parking on Market Street where that bike lane currently is located on the left side. [01:13:16] 1 have a question about, um, traffic speeds if you do kind of the illustration at the bottom where you put the bike lanes together, is probably not a part of this, but do you know if that slows cars down if there's parked cars on the side because there's no buffer, or nothing that'll be I guess in the middle, like, separating the bike lanes from the traffic- the moving traffic. [01:13:47] Yeah, in general, when you narrow the travel lanes, it slows motorists down. Um, so there are a lot of tools for doing that, of course. Um, they might involve parking. sometimes, they might involve bike lanes, and sometimes they might involve that protection and that buffer. So those three factors can really narrow those travel lanes and slow motorists down. [01:14:11] So kind of following on the mayor's, um, what he's pointing out maybe, too, is that the drive lane and the proposed moves from 12 foot to 10 and- is that 10 feet or 10.5? [01:14:24] 10.5 with this particular option. That's correct. Um, and by the way, we have, um, all of the documents loaded up here. So if you have any questions about those others, we can- we can, of course, look at those, as well. Um, we just wanted to highlight what we think the most likely corridors are that are going to make sense, um, from staff perspective. And when the Bicycle Advisory Committee weighed in, they generally agreed with that direction, as well. Um, so, some upcoming decision items that would need to be made after a particular street is- is chosen if- if the city moves forward. Most of this is infrastructure. Um, the very top one is not infrastructure. It's how will the city communicate or message around this? Um, you should prepare for mixed public reception, of course, with something like this. Page 25 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 202S (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. Um, and especially with some of these photos that I've shown, these look kind of like construction zones because you have construction -type delineators standing up and- um, so that's one thing to think through and make decisions around. Um, I won't read through all the rest of these, except I'll point out maintenance. Uh, I did come during a snowstorm, um, I think it was in February, just so I could visit with different staff and see what equipment is already out there, what the city already has. So this is an example of a piece of equipment. Um, with maintenance of protected bike lanes, it can't be done by regular street plows. They have to be done by narrower equipment. So this is another piece of equipment. Um, you could only use this on a two-way protected bike lane. You couldn't use a pickup truck in a one-way protected bike lane. There just wouldn't be enough space. That's why you would need to look at something like a bobcat or a similarly sized piece of equipment. That's one decision piece that would need to be made, and not only the equipment, but the staffing. Um, I also want to mention that a big part of our work, and- and I think we all learned a lot through this process, um, you know, staff Bicycle Advisory Committee, ourselves, just to get to look in detail at the college towns, um, we selected six other college towns, mostly in the Midwest, we picked one in the South. Um, there's one out west as well. Um, and if you look at the student enrollment, you know, we tried to pick big college towns where you have a lot of students. Um, and we also tried to look at communities that have snow. So we have some that have lefts, um, several that have more snow. And, um, you know, there were a lot of lessons through this, and we're happy to share what those are, of course. But the main thing is, this is oftentimes the first step in a process that communities use. So when they start doing one of these projects, um, for example, in Ann Arbor, this is one of their streets where at first they just put up Ballards, um, they added, you know, they already had, you know, you all have some buffered bike lanes where you have the wider stripe separating the travel lanes from the bike lanes. You just put the bollards in the middle of those. But then what they did is, this is the same street. So if you look at the buildings on the right side of that photo, the upper two photos, those buildings are the same, and just a few years separate this. And they added concrete to give something more permanent, um, it reduces the burden on maintenance staff because oftentimes people are going to run into those bollards if there aren't concrete curbs. And then the lower two photos, um, you know, sometimes what happens is a community will start with a regular street where they just have a bike lane striped, and then they will go to a more permanent solution right away. That usually happens in communities after they get some experience with these, and it can be- and those can become built as standard practice. So, that lower right-hand photo from Minneapolis, um, the street, what it looked like before, uh, I don't even think that one had bike lanes. They added bike lanes, and they did it permanently during a reconstruction project. Um, so that's something that also should be considered, um, in this process. [01:18:44] Is the bike lane shared with a city bus? [01:18:48] Um, so the bike lane is not shared, but there is a crossing of the bike lane for pedestrians who are going from that sidewalk on the right, Mr. Mayor, and then going to that transit shelter. So that's definitely, uh, one of the issues and challenges that that has to be thought through with these projects. You know, so if we think about Madison Street, which is- which is obviously, uh, a project that we thought would be Page 26 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 202S (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. a good one, there are some high -use transit stops along there. You have to make sure especially people with disabilities, um, can get to the bus still. And so, oftentimes, um, there will be transit stops that will be built at the level of the sidewalk, and oftentimes, bicyclists are ramping up, and then they're going back down in more temporary installations. And I can share a photo of- of something like that if that's helpful. But what they did here is more permanent. And you'll notice on the right side of the bike lane or the left side of that sidewalk in Minneapolis, there is that detection material, so people with visual impairments, um, know that they're crossing a bike lane before they're crossing it. So, um, there's a lot of good guidance out there about how to do these right so that people with disabilities still have accessibility. This is also an issue we looked at with several, um, disability parking zones along bike lanes. That also has to be thought through. Um, and there's some design decisions that need to be made in upcoming steps, uh, to make sure that that is all being carefully thought out. So some of the next steps, um, you know, should the city decide to move forward, is to work towards solutions on, uh, Madison Street as a potential pilot, and then how would that connect into Burlington and Market and Jefferson, um, during the design of those upcoming projects, uh, gathering input, um, from the public on these streets, staff would need to go through that process. Funding would need to be established to do this, and then the project would need to be designed. And with that, I'm happy to take any- any further questions for the discussion. [01:21:11] So, um, you're aware that the Burlington Street Bridge is a project that the city is currently designing. And there's a survey available to the public if you'd like to go online, and they actually ask you, how would you like to see bike? There's a survey on how would you like to see buffering on this new bridge. So it's kind of interesting different options. But another option on that survey is, what do you feel about this project lasting, uh, many years and leaving the bridge open, versus closing the entire bridge down? And the reason I bring that up is I imagine Madison Street ends up having a completely different traffic load if, in fact, the Burlington Street Bridge is just shut down for a year. Does that influence how you would think about recommending that? I- I just- IN- in my mind, I thought, yeah, Madison Street is kind of an interesting place to try this out. And then I was thinking how it interacts with people crossing the river and having to find a new place to cross the river, either because it's really a pain- pain because of- of- of Burlington Street Bridge, or because it's just completely closed for some period of time. And- and is that- does that kind of harm the experiment, or maybe make it not the best experiment? [01:22:31] Yeah, I'll say something, and then I'm sure staff will have some thoughts on this as well, but I've just pulled up what the existing cross-section of Madison looks like. And with what we looked at, you know, what we pitched out there, um, for further thought and evaluation is keeping the three turn lanes, and just- I'm sorry, keeping the three travel lanes with that center left turn lane. And then basically just consolidating the bike lanes on one side of the street. And the bike lanes would be consolidated in this image on the east side of the street, so closer to the Pentacrest, um, and away from the union. So, um, I think that one other option we thought through at one point was keeping bike lanes one on each side of Madison Street, but making those protected. But the challenge with that is, um, you need a little more width. And the way Madison is currently configured, that would basically mean you'd lose that center Page 27 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. left turn lane. And so we ended up not drawing out that option because, um, you know, to your point, traffic flow could be an issue with these upcoming projects. And so, um, you know, staff gave us a direction, it was important to maintain that left turn lane, um, for traffic flow. So that's why we didn't look at that other potential options. So I think it does affect, you know, the possibilities out there. [01:23:54] Okay. [01:23:55] Yeah, and I would just add quickly, we certainly would not want Madison to be under construction when Burlington's under construction, right? So we would either want to complete this project ahead of Burlington Street Bridge, assuming we know what the design will be as it's constructed, so it coordinates with it, or the Burlington Street Bridge is constructed, it's complete. We go in the next year when traffic is back to normal, and then we would do a project on Madison Street. But yeah, we certainly wouldn't want it under construction at the same time. [01:24:20] Yeah. [01:24:21] Yeah. [01:24:23] 1 was going to ask, just because I kind of realize I don't know, generally what city policy- not just our city policy, but city policies in general when it comes to what can- what the bike lane actually encompasses. Does it encompass through policy just bicycles, or are we talking longboard skateboards, the weird thing with the one wheel, um, unicycle, what have you? You know, I just don't know if that's, uh, something that's thought about or that you have experience with. [01:24:53] Yeah, I don't know what the city policy is on that, but I do know typically that- what you expect in communities around the country is you expect those other people to be using the bike lanes. And that's how people functionally use them. They'll use scooters or other unusual modes of transportation, or less common I should say. [01:25:11] Yeah. Sorry. This is fun. So I would also add- so our current policy would allow that same thing. So if you're on any of those other devices, you're welcome to use the bike lanes as it stands. You're also welcome in the travel lane per current policy. But that also doesn't mean that the city couldn't change our policy with some of these projects if we saw the need to do that. [01:25:28] Page 28 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. Okay. I did get yelled at by UIPDL officer for riding a longboard in the bike line, so maybe tell them that. Um, I would also- speaking of the university, when it comes to Madison Street, one thing I'm thinking of is there's parking, you know, along the IMU. I think there's a little bit of parking on the street next to the university library. Do we as a city have the authority to say, Sorry bro, these are not parking spots anymore to the university? By the- no, the university library. Going down Madison towards Gilbert. Maybe I'm remembering curly, but I know that there is some by the uh,-. [01:26:10] The IMU. [01:26:11] University. [01:26:11] By the IMU. [01:26:12] By the IMU. Yeah. [01:26:13] Yeah, definitely by the IMU. Um, you know, we mapped all the on street parking that was next to bike lanes as part of this evaluation. And I think what we always assumed, um, you know, there might be an exception in some cases, but we spelled that out. But otherwise, we assumed that parking would remain in these locations. We were trying to figure out, you know, if parking remains, how do you handle it? You know, how do you make sure that, um, for example- for example, loading zones, we looked at several of those as well. I mentioned disability parking before. Um, it just has to be thought through and planned for. But there are cases where you might- might remove it as well, and I don't know what the policy or what that relationship is like with the university. [01:26:56] Okay. Um, one more thing that I have written down, uh, is I'm sure this exists in some form, but I would just like to see something like pulling of bicyclists of what types of protected bike lanes they prefer or what's like, generally considered the safest and most liked by because I personally, I would rather go with that option, even if it meant less parking, even if it meant a narrower street, you know. So I- I don't know if that type of data exists or- [01:27:33] Yeah, absolutely. So I have- okay, so I've been doing this for about 20 years- this line of work. And most - oftentimes we'll do this, especially during bicycle planning. When a city's creating a bicycle plan, we'll do that detailed, uh, we'll give people a lot of visuals and ask them to rate their comfort on different types of facilities. And the trend you always see is people want more protection. That's what they're most comfortable with. Sometimes you might hear some people pretty loudly saying that protections not Page 29 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. safe, but when you get the numbers, hundreds of people taking the survey, in general, the public likes that protection. Um, we asked this question at the Bicycle Advisory Committee for Madison Street. What if it was one way versus two way? And there was a little debate on that. And usually, what happens is people end up being generally split. People who like bicycling, it's just they want the protection. Um, and you can really design these either way. And actually, today, your bike facilities in Iowa City and in most communities are designed this way. You have bike lanes oftentimes one way on the street, one way pairs. You have trails or side paths. They're two way. They're on the side. So there are things we can do to make sure that motorists are aware of bicyclists no matter where they are on the street. And that's what we've really emphasized with our work here. You know, if you just look at these images, going across from left to right. They all have green to show those conflict zones where motorists or where pedestrians, in the case of the very left photo, which is a floating bus island, where they should be aware that that conflict is at. We always want to raise visibility and awareness, and this also really gets people to be using one part of the street. It brings more predictability, so people can expect bicyclists in one spot. I got a little off track. I don't remember the original question. [01:29:34] No, that was- that was exactly what I want to thank you. [01:29:37] O kay. [01:29:38] Given the interplay between the Burlington Street bridge reconstruction and potential closing or definite partial closing of that piece of the corridor and the recommendation for Madison to be kind of a pilot. Um, are there recommendations for, like, beyond that, like you would recommend in general, that a city build out, you know, based on the scoring that you did, or, you know, are there other metrics that you would recommend that we use as far as, like, well, maybe Madison doesn't make sense right away because of the Burlington Street bridge. If we came to that conclusion, we just kind of go down the list, or are there other ways we should be looking at that as far as, like, a viable pilot or another project that might be easier to tackle. Or maybe just say a little more of what got you to Madison. [01:30:33] Yeah, so, you know, I think one of the- I was just in La Crosse, Wisconsin last week for a conference, and they're also a college town about the same size as Iowa City. And they've put up one protected bike lane, and the complaint we heard from planning staff at that conference that they're hearing from the public is that they aren't used. And, um, they have one street right now, and it's not maybe as central as Madison. It's a little bit of- a little more off the beaten path, I'd say. It doesn't go through their college campus. And so that is one really key factor to think about, because you all are, you know, as elected representatives of the public, you're going to hear that complaint from people, and staff will hear it, as well. So that's definitely probably top- one of the top things. Um, you know, I think there are some projects out here where you could do something more simply and quickly, maybe not as complex in the middle of, you know, a lot of changes happening. Dodge and Governor definitely, you know, jump out as Page 30 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. one of those because you already have- you already have the width there because you have buffers on those bike lanes, and you could pretty much just add the delineators and you could have that separation. You might add some conflict zone markings at intersections and driveways. But in general you know your signals are already set up for that. So it could be a lower cost project might not get as much use. You know, I think with Madison Street, one of the things to think about is, you are going to have bicyclists using Madison Street during that construction, and some protection might be beneficial if traffic flow gets a little harrier, especially north of Iowa Avenue. So just a lot of things to think about, you know, but in general, um, you know, I think, as long as you all are taking steps and thinking about, you know, get some experience with it first. Let maintenance folks get some experience on top of other folks in public works. Um, let the public have experience with it. But, you know, in Ann Arbor, and I'll just flip to one of those. This is from Ann Arbor right here. Ann Arbor was really good about- they really- they created a loop first of protected bike lanes in their downtown. Their downtown sits right on their campus, as well, the University of Michigan.) got a chance to ride this this spring, and so it took a lot of photos there. That's probably the closest example to Iowa City. They really- they really tried to not create a one off, like, say, La Crosse did. They almost tried to implement a lot at once so that it made sense to the public. [01:33:21] 1 want to make sure that council knows what staff is asking from us at this time with this presentation. [01:33:31] Well, the general recommendation is to look at, excuse me, that Madison piece as the pilot and, um, with the thought that it would no- not the continuous loop as in the Ann Arbor, but that East-West connection using Market Jefferson Dodge and then on the other side, Burlington as we plan those projects, that's where we're focused now. Um, but if there's a quicker implementation that you desire, you'd like to see a test elsewhere we can- we can certainly reprioritize that. [01:34:06] 1 kind of want to jump back in. I think I didn't fully form my question or statement about Madison Street. I like it as an idea. I think it's smart to have safety during a really disruptive construction project, but I really question the wisdom of making the newest safest example place drop you off in what will be a real problem. So, like, we have this really nice new corridor on Madison Street, where it's going to direct you in the safest way possible to get to a really disruptive construction zone. That's why I was concerned about that being maybe a test case that could lead us to more frustration and resistance than support. Th- that is why because I think this is the direction to move. I'm just moving towards the next step of Madison Street really that one where we want to try it? Because I don't bicycle that often, but the thing that makes me most uncomfortable is when you are riding along somewhere, you feel safe- you feel safe, and all of a sudden, that stops, and you're in the middle of nowhere. And I notice that most when you're on Burlington Street and you're staring up Grand Avenue and you're like, Oh, crap it is the scariest place to be, I think, in Iowa City on a bike, and we're now creating a corridor that's going to get people really right there to what I think is the scariest bike place in the city before that thing gets fixed. Page 31 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. So that's why I'm making an argument against Madison Street being our example project, but that we ought to find well. [01:35:34] Yeah, there are a lot of good potential projects out here, you know? Um, so I, you know, I think you could do it somewhere else, too. I don't think it has to be- it has to be done there. I mean, you know, Madison Street in this particular example, we did look at it going south of Burlington Street one block, but, you know, traffic really does drop off down there. It's just going to the- is that the, um, I don't know the name of the new building they put up there since I was here as a student, but the gym is [inaudible 01:36:06]. [01:36:06] The campus rec center is-. [01:36:07] Thank you. [01:36:08] -pretty busy place and a great place to make it safer. Yeah. So that's where we envisioned it going just to that point and then north to basically the point where Madison Street dead ends along the river connecting to that river trail. So that was the extent of that particular project. But, I mean, there are definitely other segments in the city. You know, I mentioned Dodge and Governor, you know, we talked about Clinton Street a lot in detail. That one actually probably took a lot of most of the time to look through and think through because it's so complex and it changes so much. But I'd say north of Jefferson, it's a lot simpler than south of Jefferson. And, you know, that would entail parking changes because you have a lot of parking on that street, but, you know, you'd have a lot of the on that street, too, because you've got all those students in the dorms up there. So they difinite- definitely other potential um, candidates. That's why we looked at ten of them so that, you know, we didn't want to necessarily prescribe it and come out real strong. But that was our initial thinking was Madison, but, you know, definitely other possibilities as well. [01:37:18] Uh, anecdotally, from bicy- people who ride bicycles a lot, they tell me Clinton Street is the most irritating for them to ride because 90% of the time, there is just people parked on the bike lane next to old Cat mall, you know, and it's just people trying to do their jobs and get, like, you know, Uber eats or whatever. So, you know, but that would be something that I think for both ends of the spectrum, if you're gonna be pissed off about something like this, it would make them really mad. But if you are a biker, who would love this, it would make you love it a lot. Um, so I don't know, in terms of impact and things that anecdotally I've heard that bicyclists in Iowa city talk about a lot, it's that street. It's Clinton. Yeah. [01:38:08] Page 32 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. So, council we're at the end of our time for this part of our council work session. I guess the question is, um, how do we want to proceed with some pilot programs. Are we wanting to throw this back to staff to kind of identify what the streets are based on conversation that's happened so far? Or what we like to. [01:38:38] We can could come back to you with a memo. If the goal is, let's get something outside of the Madison area. Let's prioritize something. We could come back with a few more ideas just in memo form and let you talk about it as an IP item, or we could, you know, get through it with our CIP budget review, uh, meeting in January, too. [01:39:00] 1 would appreciate that. I'll actuallyjust send an email to council, so it'll be open for all to see since we're out of time, but I- I do have a thought and suggestion, and it could be potentially easy. It might also solve some problems and- and- but it didn't make the cut. So and it's also anecdotally from people that I've heard that, um, have some frustrations and do not feel safe, and it might help with some connectivity of people to be able to get onto campus. [01:39:28] So it sounds like honestly, IP would be the best route at this point because we can have another discussion. So if council is amenable to IP, we'll get information packet at some point from staff. At this point, I'm going to we're going to go into recess of our work session, and we'll come back to the work session after the formal meeting. We are adjourned- we are in recess. So returning to our work session from on this day of September 16th, 2025, we had a recess. And now I think we were essentially done with Number 5, moving on to Number 6, which is the fiscal year 2027 budget priorities. I guess I'm going to just ask the fellow councilors, um, what are thoughts at this point? What people wanted to do continue conversation tonight, which we would take a break or adjourn and pick this up next time. [01:40:35] Uh, I guess I would just ask if staff had any objection. [01:40:39] Yeah. [01:40:39] It's mine. [01:40:40] 1 really want to-. [01:40:41] It depends how long your list of notes are for the budget. We are working on the budget as you know, as we speak. So if any of you have a lot of new thoughts, ideas, projects, changing priorities for the budget, Page 33 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. I'd just assume get it done tonight. Um, most years, we don't get a whole lot from this discussion, which I don't take is a bad thing. It means that your expectation is we're continuing to invest in the strategic plan priorities. So that's my best non answer that I can give. It just depends on how big a changes you might want to pursue. [01:41:16] So what I might suggest is certainly we can certainly adjourn. If there are topics that folks want to mention for proposal, maybe that can be mentioned now, and then we can determine if it is something,um, that we'll continue to discuss or we'll adjourn and pick up later. [01:41:40] 1 have two. One is to echo conversations that we've had earlier about getting sort, whether it's a crisis councilor or a social worker on the jack- on the 911 floor to do that kind of triaging and to help the 911. So to get that position, whether it's a pilot or- or [01:42:03] Sustainable. So that's one that I'm interested in pursuing. The other is, um, and this is relatively small dollar. I do consider this a pilot ways to, um, in- in addition to I know we have, uh, plans to sustain the wage enhancement program for childcare. But I'm interested in looking at, um, what else we can do. Um, and to that end, I was thinking about it's very nascent, but maybe, I don't know, 2020 $5,000 somewhere in there for being able to help with, um, apprenticeship program efforts, um, not necessarily all housed within four Cs, but maybe having a- a conversation with Childcare Coalition to see if some kind of, uh, a program like that. Um, but seed money, essentially, for some further childcare effort. [01:42:57] Thank you for your two topics. Anyone else? [01:43:00] You go ahead. [01:43:02] Yeah, I- I want to talk about the winter shelter. So I, 1 really want this time to focus on making it like year around for at least, uh, like, a pilot programs for two years until we figure out, while we figure out, like, Bernard affordable housing for the people. [01:43:22] Well, I think if we go that route, we should have conversation with the county. [01:43:26] Yes, exactly. With year. [01:43:29] Page 34 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. And, of course, we shelter house, but partnership with the county. [01:43:31] Yes, yes, definitely. I agree for that, yeah, but, you know, just start the conversation. [01:43:36] Many things that I would bring up. You know, this is my first time doing this. So if I say something stupid, I'm sorry, everybody. Um, uh, or step outside of the box of what usually is done. So let me know. Um, uh, I most of the things that I would bring up are probably already covered in the strategic plan, but in terms of asking for, um, uh, maybe options for, uh, in- increased, uh, than usual investment in things. And I know we're gonna have a work session about this with the county on October 7th, but, um, but permanent supported housing, uh, and other, um, uh, increase in homeless prevent- prevention services. Um, so that goes with the winter shelter as well. Um, something completely off the rails. Well, not off the rails. I don't think so. Um, is, um, the looking into what it would take to, uh, incorporate into our animal shelter, um, a wildlife rehabilitator, a specific, um, someone whose specific job it would be to rehabilitate wildlife because we have lots of wildlife rehabilitators in the state of Iowa, but they're all kind of either non profits or mostly independent people who you kind of just have to go through a list and call. So if you find, um, an injured rabbit or bird or deer, um, you're very limited on who you can call. And so, myself, I've been disapp- and other constituents who I've talked to about it have been very disappointed when they have to just, like, leave an animal to suffer and die, you know, because they get hit by a car because they hit a building. Um, and this would be something that would be a little bit more permanent and, uh, uh, more give us the ability for something more firm, so you're not just kind of calling someone who might pick up, or you might have to drive to Waterloo to, um, help out a raccoon or something like that. Um, that's one thing. Thank you. [01:45:40] Uh, I'm I assume that money will be in the next budget year for a study for the Iowa River, 'cause it's in a strategic plan for next year? [01:45:55] 1 wouldn't assume anything. [01:45:56] Okay, well, it's a priority to. [01:45:57] Tell us. [01:45:57] So it is, it's a priority for me that we have, uh, a vision of what that looks like. Um, the other thing that is in our strategic plan that, um, maybe it happened, but it wasn't the way I, uh, assumed it, and that would be, um, the facilities wide, the municipal wide facilities plan. And I know that I have continually Page 35 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. referenced the 2010 report that gives an overview of all of our facilities, how old they are, how big they are, even some, some data on how they're used. I find that information really, really helpful for me, but also it's out of date. And to- for me to think about, how should our CIP dollars be prioritized? That is a really helpful document, and a document also that I can sort of share with others to say, Hey, this is how old this building is, how needy it is. Um, I don't know if others are interested in that. Um, it was a strategic plan item for 23/24. So I don't know whether that just gets reupped or if we can revitalize that old study in some way. [01:47:09] Um, some great ideas here, uh, uh, would throw out their one other thing and this isn't really a big ticket item. Uh, but, uh, in my mind, we would be due to do another more intensive strategic planning process as a council and city staff that we did, uh, uh, well, by next summer, it would be four years ago. Uh, so that was just I just think that's a really beneficial thing. We used the strategic plan, you know, quite a bit. Um, you know, that'll be it's something that again, I don't think that's a big ticket item. I know we got an outside consultant last time, and I was pleased with the way that went. Uh, and I think it's been really beneficial, um, you know, for us as a city to have gone through that process. So. [01:47:50] Yeah, I benefited from that. I think Councillor Dunn and I got to go through the process with you all. [01:47:54] The short version. [01:47:54] Yeah. [01:47:55] The short version of it. [01:47:56] The update. [01:47:57] Councillor Weilein should have that same opportunity, too, and. [01:48:00] Yeah. [01:48:00] Yeah. [01:48:01] Page 36 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. Along. [01:48:02] Getting [01:48:03] Oh, sorry. Sorry, Mayor. [01:48:05] Already. [01:48:05] No, I was just going to say and maybe in the fourth year, I finally learned that you all want to hear ideas about diversion and prevention now instead of in April, right? Yeah. So, um, what, uh, Councillor Alter said as far as the idea of a crisis councillor in the GEC, I would love for us to just be looking a little more holistically than that, like, making sure that if we're gonna make that investment that we think that's the priority. Um, but I think we have a lot of really good ideas, and I know this, um, potential, uh, field mediation response, um, would be great. And if there's an opportunity to if we get the technical assistance for that, and then, um, there may be some opportunity to juice that up, fund it, help support it, um, that seems like that would be a good fit with our strategic priority of, um, enhancing mobile crisis, which we haven't helped fund since the first ARPA grant. [01:49:04] 1 love those ideas. My question is, are those the specific things that you would want, um, our mental health efforts to be at this point, um, or the diversion, um, or is there $1 amount that you would be thinking if all the thoughts are shut out. [01:49:26] Er, yeah. I mean, I think, you know, just for my opinion is that we've talked about wanting to support different kinds of things, and in the investment, to me, like, the proportionality of the investment is what I'm looking for in a budget is like something where we can say, this expenditure, you know, is actually towards this end, which I do believe the million dollar ARPA grant was absolutely that, right? But when we're talking about having, um, you know, a position or partially funding a position, something like that, I don't know what exactly the dollar amount would be mayor, but I think, um, something significantly more than nothing is will be great. [01:50:12] And what I was referring to is if we, if there are specific things that, you know, you're proposing, which you just mentioned. [01:50:18] Yeah. Page 37 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. [01:50:18] If that is- I don't want to use the word sufficient because we know we have a long way to go. But if that is what the goal is to work towards in this budget, and we're comfortable with that, at least for, you know, one step, maybe we'll have extra money in the budget to go beyond that. Um, but if, if, if, if there was, um, you brought up the million dollars, right? [01:50:42] Yeah. [01:50:42] Where you know, it was $1 million effort. And here we go, you know, there. But I just want to ask if, if you're comfortable with what you just mentioned, um, that this council is the next step that will be kind of in the budget that is identify with a line item and to be considered, right? [01:51:01] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just, I think the last couple of years, we haven't seen that where we can point in the budget to say, This is prevention and diversion from the armed response. Like, that's kind of the main issue that I keep bringing up that I don't think we can. [01:51:19] 1 don't wanna help address it. [01:51:21] Yeah, okay. Excellent. So, I mean, I don't know. Like, $18 million a year Seems about right. [01:51:28] Yes, yes. [01:51:28] It would be proportionate. I think, I think whatever number I name is going to feel unrealistic to some of you. But- but really, when I say proportionate, it's like, if we're spending this much on the punitive part of the system, we should be spending that much on the preventive part of the system. That's what I fundamentally believe. I know that's not possible right now, but yeah. Something. [01:51:53] One foot infront of the other. [01:51:53] Yeah, something towards that. Does that answer your question, mayor? [01:51:57] Page 38 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. Yes. [01:51:57] Okay. [01:51:57] Thank you. [01:51:58] $1 is technically 100% increase. [01:52:00] That's right. [01:52:02] We've done better than that. [01:52:03] Alright. [01:52:04] We have, we have. [01:52:04] I'm joking everybody. [01:52:05] We have. [01:52:06] And how are- we gonna have, uh, you know, I've been asking about the goal of affordable housing for a long time. I've really, this, this year, I want to both a number. Like really a number, and that will encourage us to really work hard towards that number. [01:52:21] Yeah, and I kind of wish that we, uh, no, no fault of anybody, but the shelter houses study that they're going to bring us at some point. Um, uh, I- I would love to have that number because they're going to give us probably within that they're gonna give us a certain number of permanent supported housing units that the study suggests we strive to in order to have functional zero homelessness. So, uh, I mean, I would love to if we get that number, um, to set. [01:52:48] Page 39 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. Yeah. [01:52:48] To like, goals, you know, um. [01:52:50] 1 agree, but don't forget, we're going to use that number for a permanent supporting house. But still, we have a waiting list for affordable house. [01:52:58] Yeah. [01:52:58] For other people. We need to use both number and come up with something. [01:53:02] And when we're talking about it, just also, we're talking about an entire spectrum, just to remember our- our land use work is, you know, I mean, affordable housing, we're talking about the most vulnerable right now. I mean, are, that so much of it is on that, and it's absolutely true. And we need for workforce. I mean, we all types. So I'm just, I'm- I'm just using the. [01:53:26] What do you mean for, for workforce? [01:53:28] For people who have jobs and, like, 60% and 80%. [01:53:33] Yeah. But, but we will start with the most vulnerable people and work our way up. [01:53:38] Mayor Pro Tern, I'm agreeing. I'm simply piggybacking to say, we need all types. But I am absolutely agreeing with you. It's just I'm using the- I'm using, I'm using your words to be able to say, and we need this, as well. [01:53:51] Exactly. [01:53:52] Both. [01:53:52] Page 40 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. Exactly. [01:53:53] One hundred percent. [01:53:54] Yeah. We are in the same big. [01:53:56] Ye p. [01:53:57] Yes. Um, I'll just say that what you said, what you said, what you said, I'm all. That's I'm with you. Alright. So anything else for today, um, from council and want to just have staff, um, Geoff, if you any, have any responses, or certainly this can be brought up at another work session. Um, should you, um, should we need to have further discussion on any of these? [01:54:28] No, I- I appreciate the heads up on these, and, um, I think the need for a future work session only is dependent on whether you all feel that, uh, need is there. So we'll take some- some marching orders here. We'll do our best to, uh, work our magic on the budget, and, uh, and, uh, see what we can bring you in January. [01:54:49] As, as you build the budget, how do you accommodate or think about local option sales tax? Do you build the budget around assuming it does not happen or do you? [01:54:58] Correct. [01:54:58] Okay. [01:54:58] 1 think you assume, espe and you know especially in the first year, you assume it doesn't happen, and we make adjustments if it does. Um, you know, we- we won't be collecting those dollars until July. They won't be received until several months after that. So, um, if it passes in November, what we bring you in January, we'll have a plan for using, uh, those dollars. Um, but the charge to departments and how we're building it right now is, uh, under the assumption we won't have it. [01:55:28] Yeah. Page 41 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 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. [01:55:32] All right. Any other discussion on the fiscal year 2027 budget priorities? Hearing none, um, we'll do number 7, which is council updates on assign boards, commissions, and committees. [01:55:46] Um, Comp Plan Committee met a week ago. Um, attendance was low, um, but just we are moving towards understanding notjust community needs, but land use and also, um, the thing I keep talking about, which is, I thinkjust should make you happy, um, Mayor Pro Tern, goals, like specific goals for all housing types across the spectrum. And trying to sort of use that process to indicate, alright, we know just to keep static, we need 365 units, as I think the number, maybe a little bit more granularity on how many of those are geared towards which segments might be helpful for us as we make decisions. But that process is coming along, uh, really nicely, I think, so. [01:56:35] Um, I got, uh, uh, the student government reached out to me because they wanted me to get them in touch with Councillor Moe about, um. [01:56:47] River. [01:56:47] Riv- the river. They, they want to help work, uh, with, uh, Councillor Moe on, uh, some river cleanup stuff, I think, or some river planning. Uh, so, yeah. [01:56:58] All about anyway. [01:57:00] I'm good. I'm very happy to be river guy. [01:57:04] Nice. [01:57:06] 1 did join the University of Iowa community rowing team, too, so I have yet another. Yet another river feather in my hat, so. [01:57:16] Alright. Anything else for the good of the cause? If not, we are adjourned. Enjoy the evening. [01:57:23] Page 42 Iowa City City Council Work Session of September 16, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at htLps://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. Thank you, mayor. [01:57:23] Thank you. [01:57:24] Yes. [01:57:24] [MUSIC] Page 43