HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-04-22 AgendaSubject to change as finalized by the City Clerk. For a final official copy, contact the City Clerk's Office, 356-5040.
AGENDA
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
April 22, 1997 - 7:00 p.m.
Civic Center
ITEM NO. 1.
CALL TO ORDER.
ROLL CALL.
ITEM NO. 2.
ITEM NO. 3.
ITEM NO. 4.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS.
a.
Outstanding Student Citizen Awards - Weber Elementary.
(1) Anne Marie Cannon
(2) Tyler Carrington
(3) Megan G ugliano ~ ,~_g~.~-~/~/~
MAYOR'S PROC LAMA TIONS.
a. Arbor Day - April 25, 1997.
b. Days of Remembrance - May 4 - May 11, 1997.
c. Bicycle Month - May 1997.
CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED
OR AMENDED,
a. Approval of Official Council Actions of the regular meeting of
April $, 1997, as published, subject to corrections, as recommended
by the City Clerk.
b. Minutes of Boards and Commissions.
(1) Animal Control Advisory Board - April 3.
(2) Housing and Community Development Commission - February 18.
(3) Housing and Community Development Commission - February 19.
(4) Housing and Community Development Commission - February 20.
(5) Iowa City Board of Adjustment - April 9.
(6) Iowa City Planning and Zoning Commission - April 3.
(7) Iowa City Public Library Board of'J'rustees - March 17.
//2 page I
ITEM NO. 2 SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS.
a. Outstanding Student Citizen Awards - Weber Elementary.
Anne Marie Cannon
Tyler Carrington
Megan Gugliano
Nov/We have outstanding student citizen awards for three students from Weber School.
Anne Marie Cannon, Tyler Carrington and Megan Gugliano. Would you please
come up and stand up front on the podium.
Kubby/Nice tie.
Nov/We are going to do Anne Marie Cannon first. Where is Anne Marie? I will hold, you
read.
Anne Marie Cannon/The activities I do in school are safety patrol and the Weber News. A
few friends and I have a cooking show that adds charm to the news. I also helped
with the Special Ed PEa couple of times. The one activity I like to do after school
stuff is acting. I like being in plays with Young Footlighters. On my own time I
usually go and visit people at Walden Place and I like to bike, read and walk.
Nov/Very nice. Do you want to read yours?
Megan
Gugliano/I am a 6th grade student in Mrs. Kirk's Team 4 class at Weber School. I
am one of the editors of the TEAM 4 Weber Works, the school newspaper. I have
contributed articles to the literary magazine called Write Stuff. I am involved in
safety patrol and received the Patrol of the Month Award once this year. I have
served on student council, worked with school store and helped organize the
school's cultural heritage museum. I sometimes work at the library after school if
an extra person is needed. I am also teaching a craft sewing workshop at school. I
am a trumpet student of Ms. Frizo's and I attend the West Side 6th Grade Band
directed by Mr. Sims. Recently I was chosen as a Kennedy Honor Band
participant. My out of school activities are church confirmation class and youth
group, girl scouts and piano lessons. At the Iowa Music Teacher's Association
IMTA this year, I received the place of First Alternate in the regional competition
level B2 for piano. For the solo and ensemble festival at band I accompanied eight
people, band students, on the piano. I am trained and a responsible baby sitter. I
feel like my peers respect me and look upon me as a leader. Thanks.
Tyler Carrington/I am in 6th grade at Weber School. At school I participate in student
council, serving as the president. I am also involved in Conflict Managers. That is
where you go to another grades recess and if there is a conflict, then you help them
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#2 page 2
solve it. I am also involved in the school safety patrol. I am the weatherman for the
TV school news on TV and I write for the school paper. When I am at home, I
enjoy playing sports such as golf, basketball and football. I take private drum and
piano lessons and I am in band. The last five years I have done the paper route and
as a 5th grader I completed Cub Scouts and I received the Arrow of Light Award.
Nov/Very nice. All of these good student citizens are going to receive the same
certificate. I am going to read one of them. It says Citizenship Award. For her
outstanding qualities of leadership within Weber Elementary School and for her
sense of responsibility and helpfulness to others, we recognize Anne Marie Cannon
as an outstanding student citizen. Your community is proud of you. This is
presented by Iowa City City Council, complete with seal and mayor's signature.
Hold it this way so people taking pictures will- Let them see your face. We are
going to send a videotape to school. So we want to have everybody show up with
both faces and certificates.
Kubby/Congratulations.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
//3 page 1
ITEM NO. 3 MAYOR'S PROCLAMATIONS
a. Arbor Day - April 25, 1997.
Nov/Mayor's Proclamation. We have a proclamation for Arbor Day. (Reads Arbor Day
Proclamation).
Terry Robinson/I'd like to thank the Mayor and the Council for their support. I guess I
can use a clich6 and say I speak for the trees. I only have one plug to put in.
Saturday at Ryerson's Woods this week we have a 9:00 tree planting, tree give
away and talking about Arbor Day and why it is important with the Riverfront and
Natural Areas Commission. So you can all come out if you like to. We will sure
have a shovel for everyone if they want to help us plant the trees. Thank you again.
Nov/Thank you. I hope lots of people come and help plant trees.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
April 22, '1997 City of Iowa City Page 2
¢7- ,'/3
c. Permit Motions and Resolutions as Recommended by the City Clerk
(1) Consider a motion approving a Class B Beer Permit for Chill & Grill,
Inc., dba Chill & Grill, 206 N. Linn St. (Renewal)
d. Setting Public Hearings.
(1) CONSIDER A MOTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR
MAY 6 ON THE FY98 ANNUAL ACTION PLAN.
Comment: At their April 17 meeting, the Housing and Community
Development Commission recommended approval of the FY98
Annual Action Plan. The City Council will have final approval of the
FY98 Annual Action Plan on May 6. To receive our FY98
CDBG\HOME funding, this plan must be submitted to the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development by May 15.
The Annual Action Plan is part of the City's Consolidated Plan (a.k.a.
CITY STEPS) that is updated annually to reflect the allocation of
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME
Investment Partnership funds. Staff memorandum included in
Council packet.
(2)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR
MAY 6 ON PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT,
AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE
FIRST AVENUE IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT, BRADFORD DRIVE
TO MUSCATINE AVENUE, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH
NOTICE OF SAID HEARING, AND DIRECTING THE CITY
ENGINEER TO PLACE SAID PLANS ON FILE FOR PUBLIC
INSPECTION.
Comment: The First Avenue Improvements Project consists of
widening First Avenue to three-lanes from Bradford Drive to
Muscatine Avenue. Right turn lanes will be added to the. Muscatine
Avenue, First Avenue intersection. An 8 foot sidewalk will be
constructed along the east side, and the overhead electrical will be
moved to the west side. Storm sewer and drainage improvements
will be made from First Avenue west approximately one-half-mile to
Ralston Creek, generally along the railroad tracks. The total
estimated construction cost is $1,139,000, to be funded by General
Obligation Bonds and Road Use Taxes.
April 22, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 3
(3)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR
MAY 6 ON PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT
AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE
1997 CURB RAMP PROJECT, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO
PUBLISH NOTICE OF SAID HEARING, AND DIRECTING THE
CITY ENGINEER TO PLACE SAID PLANS ON FILE FOR PUBLIC
INSPECTION.
Comment: This project consists of construction and reconstruction
of sidewalk curb ramps to A.D.A. standards along routes prioritized
by JCCOG and special interest groups. The estimated construction
cost is approximately $100,000. This project will be funded by
Road Use Taxes and bond proceeds.
Motions.
(1)
CONSIDER A MOTION TO APPROVE DISBURSEMENTS IN THE
AMOUNT OF $7,992,538.74 FOR THE PERIOD OF MARCH
THROUGH MARCH 31, 1997, AS RECOMMENDED BY THE
FINANCE DIRECTOR SUBJECT TO AUDIT. DISBURSEMENTS
ARE PUBLISHED AND PERMANENTLY RETAINED IN THE CITY
CLERK'S OFFICE IN ACCORDANCE WITH STATE CODE.
f. Resolutions.
(1)
RESOLUTION APPROVING AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE
CITY OF IOWA CITY AND THE IOWA STATE DEPARTMENT OF
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOR STATE OF IOWA
HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP (HOME) PROGRAM
FUNDING, AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE AND
THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST TO THE SAME;
Comment: The Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED)
has agreed to provide Robert Burns and Greater Iowa City Housing
Fellowship (GICHF) $399,984 in U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) funding for a 16 unit affordable rental
housing project on Clearwater Court. This Joint Administrative
Agreement transfers administrative authority and responsibility for
the use of these HOME funds to the City of Iowa City for the
exclusive use by Robert Burns and GICHF for project
implementation.
(2)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK FOR
THE SANITARY SEWER, WATER MAIN AND PAVING
PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS FOR BOYRUM SUBDIVISION -
PART 4, AND DECLARING THE PUBLIC .IMPROVEMENTS
OPEN FOR PUBLIC ACCESS AND USE.
Comment: See Engineers Report.
April 22, '1997
City of Iowa City
Page 4
(3)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO
EXECUTE AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A
SUBORDINATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA
CITY AND UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION,
IOWA CITY, IOWA FOR PROPERTY LOCATED AT
42'1 CRESTVIEW AVENUE, IOWA CITY, IOWA.
Comment: University of Iowa Community Credit Union, Iowa City,
has requested that the City approve a Subordination Agreement for
the owners at 421 Crestview Avenue. On May 25, 1988, the
owners of the property received a loan in the form of a Low Interest
Promissory Note for a total of $22,000 through the City's Housing
Rehabilitation Program. The University of Iowa Community Credit
Union is about to refinance the first mortgage. The appraised value
is $109,140 which provides enough equity to cover the City's
second lien position, of which was the City's original position.
(4)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO
SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST THE RELEASE OF A
LIEN REGARDING A REHABILITATION AGREEMENT, A
PROMISSORY NOTE FOR CONDITIONAL NO INTEREST LOAN,
AND A MORTGAGE FOR THE PROPERTY LOCATED AT
FIRST AVENUE SOUTH, IOWA CITY, IOWA.
Comment: The owners of the property located at 521 First Avenue
South, received a $5,083.00 loan through the City's Housing
Rehabilitation Program on January 20, 1994. The financing was in
the form of a 5-year, Conditional No Interest Loan. The note was
paid off March 3, 1997; thus, the lien can now be released.
(5)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE HISTORIC
PRESERVATION COMMISSION TO FILE AN APPLICATION
FOR A HISTORIC RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
(HRDP) GRANT TO OBTAIN FUNDS FOR THE PURPOSE
OF CONDUCTING A PROFESSIONAL SURVEY AND
EVALUATION OF HISTORIC RESOURCES WITHIN A PORTION
OF THE ORIGINAL TOWN PLAT (PHASE II),
Comment: The Historic Preservation Commission is proposing to
file an application for an HRDP grant of approximately $16,450 to
continue its survey and evaluation project within the Northside and
Goosetown neighborhoods. Phase I of this project is.currently in
progress. The requested grant will require a local match of
approximately $8,615, which the Commission intends to provide
through staff and volunteer work, funds allocated in the budget for
historic preservation activities, and in-kind services and supplies.
The grant application deadline is May 1.
g. Correspondence.
(1) Nancy Stensvaag (Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity) - funding.
(2) Joe Murphy- stage in City Plaza.
(3) Suzanne Streitz (Downtown Association) - stage in City Plaza.
April 22, '1997
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
(13)
(14)
City of Iowa City Page 5
Monday Forum - stage in City Plaza.
J.P. Long - government/volunteer services.
Mark Edwards - sidewalks along Sycamore Street.
John and Margaret Clancy - Old Dubuque Road/Highway 1.
Gerald Clancy - North Dodge Street.
Barbara Ringwalt- Hickory Hill Park.
Randy Miller - city cemetaries.
Casey Cook (Friends of the Iowa River Scenic Trail) - Iowa River
Corridor Trail.
Cortney Daniels (Riverfront and Natural Areas Commission) - Iowa
River Corridor Trail.
John Castle (Corps of Engineers) - invitation to May 26 Veteran's
Trail dedication.
Civil Service Commission submitting certified lists of applicants for the
following position(s):
(a) Maintenance Worker II - Landfill
I~.---Applications for Use of Streets, Public Grounds, and City Plaza.
(1)
~f~r~3(3)
"~10.~x~(4)
(6)
(all approved)
Patricia Gingrich (Johnson County CROP Walk) - April 13.
Grace Trifaro (Vigil for Animals in Lab Liberation Day) - April 20.
Barbara Schelar (Willowwind School Downtown De-Trash-a-Thon) -
April 22.
William Patterson (The University of Iowa RiverFest - Stuart Davis
Musical Performance) - April 24.
Bill Summers (Kathleen Kelly Memorial Women's Heart Walk) -
May 10.
Julie Agan Monson (Irving Weber Elementary Spring Carnival Fun
Run) - May 10.
Opal Kennard (American Legion Auxiliary Chopek/Ott Unit #17 Poppy
Donation) - May 16-17.
Patricia VanEck (Memorial Day Services) - May 26.
Steve Grismore (Jazz Fest) - July 3 and 4.
CONSENT CALENDAR.
April 22, 1997
ITEM NO. 5.
City of Iowa City Page 6
PUBUC O~SCUSS~ON (~TEMS NOT O. THE AGENDA).~~?~ .
ITEM NO. 6. PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS.
ao
Consider a motion setting a public hearing for May 6 on a resolution
amending the Comprehensive Plan to increase the density from 2-8
dwelling units per acre to 8-16 dwelling units per acre for an approximate
2.38 acre area located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Scott
Boulevard and Lower West Branch Road.
Comment: At its April 3 meeting, by a vote of 6-0, the Planning and
Zoning 'Commission recommended approval of the proposed
amendment. Staff recommended the proposed amendment in a staff
report dated March 20.
Action:
Consider a motion setting a public hearing for May 6 on an ordinance
amending the Zoning Chapter by changing the use regulations from
RS-5, Low Density Single-Family Residential, to OPDH-12, Planned
Development Housing Overlay, for a 2.38 acre property located at the
northeast corner of the intersection of Scott Boulevard and Lower West
Branch Road to permit a 37 unit multi-family building for elderly housing.
(REZ97-0002)
Comment: At its April 3 meeting, by a vote of 6-0, the Planning and
Zoning Commission recommended approval of the rezoning and
preliminary OPDH plan. Staff recommended approval in its March 20
staff report.
Action:
#4 page 1
ITEM NO. 4 CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS
PRESENTED OR AMENDED.
Nov/Moved by Lehman, seconded by Kubby. Any discussion?
Thornberry/I would like to have f(1) taken out of the Consent Calendar and voted on
separately.
Nov/Where am I, f(1)? Okay. This is a resolution approving an agreement between the
City of Iowa City and the Iowa State Department of Economic Development for
State of Iowa Home Investment Partnership Program funding. Okay. You want to
discuss this?
Karr/That was the motion. Could we have a second?
Nov/Oh, that is true. We need a second.
Lehman/I will second it.
Nov/Okay, now, do we have any discussion?
Thornberry/I will be voting against this as I think that the housing projects in Iowa City-
Atkins/Is your microphone on?
Thornberry/My microphone is on. Am I not loud enough? I would like to see the city get
out of the housing business and part of this money is being provided by the city. I
want the city out of the housing business.
Kubby/What we are voting on is the Consent Calendar minus the HOME funds?
Karr/Correct.
Nov/We have a motion to remove this and that is all we are voting on now. All in favor of
removing this to a separate vote, say aye- (Ayes). Okay, motion carries.
Now, we will vote on the Consent Calendar with that item removed. Roll call-
(yes). Okay. Within the Consent Calendar, which we just approved, there are
several p.h.s and I would like to bring those to the attention of whoever is
listening. There will be a p.h. on May 6 for the FY98 Annual Action Plan for
Housing and Community Development. This is a plan in which we will spend
CDBG and HOME funds which are federal Department of HUD money. We will
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#4 page 2
submit this plan to them after we have had a p.h. on May 6. Also on May 6 there
will be a p.h. on plans, specifications, contracts for the construction of our First
Avenue Improvements Project from Bradford Drive to Muscatine Avenue. And on
May 6 there will be a p.h. on plans, specifications, contracts for our curb ramp
project. This is to construct ramps on curbs to make them accessible to folks in
wheelchairs.
Now, back to the item f(1) which was removed for a separate vote. Moved by
Kubby, seconded by Norton. Any discussion?
Kubby/This is a perfect example of public, private partnership with the private non-profit
housing corporation and I fully support it.
Nov/Okay, any other discussion? Roll call- (yes; Thornberry-no). Okay, the resolution
was approved by a 6-1 vote, Thornberry voting no.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#5 p~el
ITEM NO. 5 PUBLIC DISCUSSION (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA).
Nov/Public discussion. This is for items that are not on the current agenda and we are
asking you to limit your comments to no longer than five minutes. Step to the
podium and sign in and- John, are you going to talk about fraternities?
John Fitzpatrick/I am going to address an issue beyond that, I believe.
Nov/Okay because that is on the agenda and I am trying not to have it come up twice.
Fitzpatrick/I own residential property at 721 N. Linn. When I address council on April 8,
I represented a number of residents who own property in the residential block
defined by N. Dubuque, Brown, Linn and Ronald Streets. We voiced opposition to
the proposed code amendment addressing the conversion of fraternity and sorority
houses to rooming houses, citing as an example the particular hardship that would
be imposed on the 700 block ofN. Linn. I will not reiterate the issues we raised
then. What we said is part of the public record and hopefully has been given
consideration by council. Tonight, in addition to myself, I speak for other property
owners who could not be here including Duane Berret, Joan Lifring-Zug Berret,
and Tom Barton who is the Chapter adviser to the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity.
After I spoke to council it became obvious that the proposed ordinance was
prepared to specifically accommodate that property located in our block, the block
at 716 N. Dubuque and to accommodate Theresa Copatich to convert the property
into a specific transient housing program without having to provide parking that
present code requires for such a use. There would be only two legal parking spaces
to accommodate over 20 units. There is an irony in that this program with
potential to impose great hardship on our neighborhood would be defrayed
through public funding. I would suggest to council that there are dangers in
changing code affecting the entire city in order to accommodate one particular
entrepreneur for a specific use of a specific property in a neighborhood where this
issue has potential to create a hardship for those living in the neighborhood. What
happens if public funding is eliminated or decreased and the enterprise does not
succeed. If the program for which this ordinance has been written should fail, what
would prevent the property from becoming a general rooming house with the
potential for two dozen cars. Council has been lobbied on the consideration that
low income transient tenants do not have cars. What happens if the people in the
program do have cars. I, for one, find it difficult to believe that all people with
limited financial resources do not have cars. This council should also be aware of
the dangers inherent in imposing an ordinance with the potential to negatively
affect neighborhood without soliciting input from those affected. Many residents of
our neighborhood were not aware of the proposed ordinance until after the p.h.
was closed and the proceedings published in the Iowa City Press Citizen. The city
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#5 page 2
staff noted on query from council at the April 8 p.h. that the approach chosen to
accommodate this special use did not require input from the neighborhood
affected. A memo to the P/Z Commission of March 20 has recently come to light.
In that memo, city staff made it clear that the ordinance change was specifically to
accommodate this special program for the property at 716 N. Dubuque. It is an
affront to the citizens of Iowa City that city staff would attempt to railroad through
this ordinance deliberately circumventing input from the citizens most affected. We
deserve better than this. A more appropriate approach would be to follow the
procedures already established within Code for a zoning variance for the special
use. This procedure would allow for notification and input from those affected by
the change. In talking to individual council members, a number of different
agendas have been exposed. There are council members influenced by the possible
success Ms. Kopatichh has cited in other neighborhoods where parking has not
been the problem it is on N. Linn. She could be a nice lady and perhaps deserves to
be referred to as the Mother Theresa of Eastern Iowa. However-
Nov/Time.
Fitzpatrick/However, that is not the issue here.
Nov/John, your five minutes are up and you are talking about the ordinance change that is
on the agenda later and I hope you will stay and listen to the council discussion
later.
Fitzpatrick/May I quickly conclude my remarks? I want to address the north corridor.
Nov/15 seconds.
Fitzpatrick/There are council members concerned about another developer who has
purchased property on the west side of N. Dubuque Street. They want to prevent
that developer from purchasing land on the east side of the street. There are
council members concerned about any changes that might affect the appearance of
the streetscape coming into Iowa City on N. Dubuque Street. We would hope that
there is a concern for the people who live there.
Nov/(Can't hear).
Fitzpatrick/We have a wonderful opportunity for city council and the city staff to work
with the community to develop a plan-
Nov/Okay.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#5 page 3
Fitzpatrick/For the N. Dubuque Street corridor-
Nov/John, we heard you. We heard you. This is it.
Fitzpatrick/Okay. Well I would ask you please not do this-
Nov/We will discuss this later when it is on the agenda. Now, I will repeat, this is a time
for someone to talk about something that is not on today's agenda.
Jim McCaraigher/Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. I can't stand up here and
say my tie in anyway is better than Tyler's but I would like to take just a few
minutes of your time with regard to the First Avenue Extension. I think I have
spoken to many of you or left messages to talk to others. I just want to- I think the
new alignment that has been presented to the council with regard to this proposal,
C++, I guess it is referred to. I would like the council to give serious consideration
to that and reconsider the alignment from the C+. I think the C++ has three major
advantages over the C+. The first advantage is that I think it minimizes the
undevelopable remnant that is left. The C+ leaves a large undevelopable remnant
which then would be taken from the Press Citizen property and would likely have
to be sold by the City and returned to the adjacent owner which would be Mike
Gatens. I think C++ minimizes that remnant. The second advantage I think it has is
it has a greater opportunity of equally distributing the land taking. As indicated by
the C++, the road is moved closer to the Gaten's property and as the staff has
pointed out there is still more taking of actual land from the Press Citizen but they
don't object to that. But it does make it a little bit more equal than C+ which takes
almost nothing from the Press Citizen and leaves a large remnant which will be
unusable by the city and probably usable by Mike Gatens. The third item, I think,
the important of C++ is that north remaining property of the Press Citizen. That is
not the remnant that is being taken but the property that is remaining on the
property that will be owned by the Press Citizen there. At the present time with the
current setback requirements, there is grave consideration that if the road is placed
at C+ there will be not enough land left in that north area in order with current
setbacks and zoning to develop that property at all. If in fact you use C++, that
portion of the road is moved farther away from the remaining property, giving
more usable remaining property left and a better likelihood that it can be
developed. I think for those three reasons, I believe the C++ arrangement is better
than C+ and would ask the council to seriously take that into consideration and
hopefully have the staff work on C++ as the arrangement for the north First
Avenue Extension. Thank you.
Mike Gatens/Good evening. I have talked to everybody on council except for Larry. So I
am here to address some comments that Jim made and reiterate some of the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#5 page 4
comments that I made to the other six of you yesterday and today. The Gatens
family has already moved this east west arterial closer to our property in the C+
plan that we negotiated in good faith with the ACT, Larsons, the Press Citizen and
the city and we don't understand that why now in the 1 lth hour the Press Citizen
comes in and they were involved in this process all the way through and if they
weren't, it was their own fault. I monthly called Jeff Davidson to get updates on
what is going on here and this has been going on for three years. This just didn't
come up back in February as we all know. In fact the road went right through my
house. So this has been a long process. For the Press Citizen to come in after
everything has been done and to complain about .6 or .7 of an acre and that is
what it is. It is not the .9 acres because part of the .9 acres would be taken with the
C++. We only have 10 acres and who knows what our plans are for that 10 acres.
I am 42 years old. I could be long gone and there could still be 10 acres there with
the house. My father was born in that house. My grandfather came from Cedar
Valley in 1926 and bought that property. That is my home. Let's don't forget this,
okay. That road, we don't need it. And the C++, you take 5% of our land which is
a half acre. And C+ we lose part of our northeast and southeast corners. Excuse
me, northwest and southwest corners. So we are in a compromise giving some
corners to allow this road. In the C+ plan, the Press loses a half acre, around a half
acre on the east side of First Avenue which is on the wrong side of the road for
them which is 1% of their 40 acres that they have compared to 5% of their
properties. The Press has 40 acres, as I said, and this road is a huge huge asset to
them. My father and I went out there today. We measured- I don't know what the
setback is. I should know. I have been in the real estate business for 15 years here
in Iowa City. It changes too often it is hard to keep up. But we measured at least,
with the C+ Plan, on the west side of the east west arterial. We measured at least
300 feet of depth that they will have and that is just straight from the road toward
the Press Citizen building. That is not talking about the depth to the northwest
toward the corner of the new east west arterial Dodge Street. There is all kinds of
depth going back that way. So I don't buy it. Plus they spent six months to eight
months moving dirt when they bought that property from us to build the Press
Citizen. They moved dirt around. You know, you can move some dirt around and
create some more depth, too. So, under #2- The other thing is this road is no
benefit to us. We have got access out Dubuque Road. We don't need this road.
We are allowing it. We are trying to go along with the negotiations. We
compromised. Under #2 on your package from Jeff the other day, we talked about
a negative impact to the Clancys and one of the negative impacts to the Clancys on
Hwy 1 was their driveway if the intersection had to be pushed further toward them
and they were all concerned about that. That was one of the reasons they didn't
want to move that intersection. Well, if we go with C++, my driveway, my
entrance to my property is about 100 feet from the C+ Plan intersection of the east
west arterial Dubuque Road. If you move it it will be about 40 to 50 feet from my
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#5 page 5
entrance. I will never be able to get out. ACT is going to close the other entrance.
I will never be able to get out. This seems to be a small point .6 acres that will be
on the east side of the arterial. The press will still have more than all that depth
that I talked about. And the other reason that the road is such a great asset to them
is Jeff explained to you the 200 to 300 feet of frontage that they will have with the
C+ Plan to develop the southern part of their property and all the access there. He
said with the C++ he might be able to get 30 to 50 and he told me the other day he
is not sure they can do that. Again, this is my home and I plan to stay there for
many years. We really don't need the road and in good faith we negotiated with
the four parties and brought it closer to our property to begin with and in closing,
when I lef~ the meeting last night I got home and my children, I got a 7 and 10 year
old and a 14 year old and they came up to me after I got home and said dad, is that
road going to be closer to our home. I said I don't think so. They say well, you
know our dog is going to get killed and our house is going to get broken into. We
are going to lose out privacy anyway. I said well, let's hope not. But we have a
nice piece of property out there right now and I know there is progress in the
world and I am not against it. I am for it. I do it everyday. But to move that road
closer to my home real really disrupt the property that I have. And I also want to
thank Jeff Davidson for the job he has done. I don't think staff gets thanked
enough but I want to thank Jeff Davidson for what he has done because he has
been very good to all of us.
Nov/Thank you, Mike.
Gatens/Thank you.
Nov/Is there anyone else here who would like to talk about that particular street while we
have that on our minds?
Gatens/There is one other thing. I read about the cash crunch in Iowa City in the Press
Citizen.
Nov/Let's not talk about that now.
Gatens/I was waiting for the thank you from the city, the $20,000 in property taxes that
we are going to give for the building we are building on Mall Drive, First Avenue.
So if you want to thank us for that, it costs about $20,000. Are you waving
$20,000 away, Naomi?
Nov/No, I am trying to wave you away so we can let somebody else talk about First
Avenue.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#5 page 6
John Clancy/I live on the corner where the intersection is going to be enlarged. I have
written to each and everyone of you and I talked to a lot of you except the Mayor.
I just want to let you know that what I stated, I still abide by. Anything that could
possibly move the intersection closer to us will make it not just difficult but maybe
on certain days impossible for us to get out and turn right or left. I just want you
to know that I am here. I just want to register my objection. Thank you.
Nov/And we have decided not to move it. We are keeping it as it is.
Clancy/However, I give some support but I think it is needed. Thank you.
Nov/Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to talk about the First Avenue area?
Okay. Is there interest on the council to change anything that we would be able to
do in that area?
Baker/(Can't hear) the original proposal that we had two weeks ago?
Nov/We stayed with C+ last night and we have heard a little more input, a few more
comments and I want to know is there anyone who would like to change? I don't
hear anyone who would like to change. Okay. Is there someone in the audience
who would like to talk about something that is not on the agenda? Okay, seeing no
one, we are going to move into #6.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
April 22, '1997 City of Iowa City Page 7
Public hearing on an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled
orang, to provide elderly housing alternatives.
Comment: At its April 3 meeting, by a vote of 6-0, the Planning and
Zoning Commission recommended approval of the proposed amendment
as revised by the Commission on April 3. Staff recommended approval
of the elder housing amendments in a memorandum dated March 20.
Action:
Consider an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by changing the
use regulations on a 3.74 acre tract located on Mall Drive from
Community Commercial (CC-2) to General Industrial (I-1).
(REZ97-0001) (First consideration) ~ ~
Comment: At its March 6 meeting, by a vote of 7-0, the Planning and
Zoning Commission recommended approval of the proposed rezoning.
Staff recommended approval in its report dated February 20.
Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning,"
Article N, entitled "Off-Street Parking and Loading,"
Section 1, entitled "Off-Street Parking Requirements," to allow existing
fraternity/sorority houses to be converted to rooming houses without
having to provide additional parking. (First consideration)
Comment: At its March 20 meeting, by a vote of 6-0, the Planning and
Zoning Commission recommended approval of the proposed
amendment. Staff recommended approval in a report dated
March 20. Correspondence included in Council packet. ~: ~ .
Action~/_,~~//,~~ ,,~~ ;~~'
Consider an ordinance vacating the potion ~ the alley located south of
Lot 2 of the A.E. Stmhm Addition, generally located south of Bowe~
Street between Governor and Lucas Streets. (VAC97-0001)
(Second consideration)
Comment: At its February 6 meeting, by a vote of 6-0, the Planning and
Zoning Commission recommended approval of the vacation of this alley.
item in a report dated
The staff recommended approval of this
February 6.
Action:
#6c page 1
ITEM NO. 6c. Public hearing on an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled
"Zoning," to provide elderly housing alternatives.
Nov/P.h. is now open. Anyone who would like to talk on this topic, please come forward
and sign your name and address and limit your comments to five minutes.
Kubby/I have a question for Bob. From the information that we got tonight, looking at
the second page on the density comparison, I always thought that the RM zones
intended to be more dense than RS zones even though they were both 12 and how
that is is that the square foot per unit might be different. So on this chart it looks
like you can have more units on the RS-12?
Miklo/That is only the case for a very small lot. You notice as you go up the chart, the
bigger the lot- You are limited to a cap often units in the RS-12 zone. Whereas in
the RM-12 zone, there is no cap, so it goes up. Typically the newer undeveloped
RM-12 zones are going to be over an acre. So you are typically going to get larger
complexes, 20 units. Whereas the RS-12 zones lots are typically fairly small. So
you are likely to get 10 or fewer units.
Kubby/Still the number in parenthesis which are larger are ones that if there were not a
cap, that that would have been the number allowed.
Miklo/Right. So although the density per acre is greater in the RS-12 because of the cap,
the actual density in development is going to be less.
Norton/Bob, while you are there, could you comment about this accessibility in elder
congregate housing. It says all units in the common area must be accessible and
adaptable but does not require an elevator or lift. Now, I don't understand that the
common areas and I take it in elder congregate housing there are common areas,
social areas. In fact, there is a requirement of 20% common area. That, I would
assume, be on the ground floor. That is as distinct from-
Miklo/
It could be on either floor. I did review this with the Building Official today and the
point is that all of the units would have to have doors that were wide enough to
accommodate wheelchairs and walkers. The bathrooms would have to be designed
to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers and also the term adaptable means if it
was needed, features such as grab bars would have to be designed to be placed in
them. However, the hallways would also need to be wide enough to accommodate
wheelchairs and walkers. However they could be on the second floor and there
could be a stair going to them. There could be a lift or an elevator, that is an
option. The point being that there are some elders who aren't disable to the point
where they cannot go up and down stairs but they do prefer having a chair, a
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6c page 2
wheelchair, in their own unit or being able to get around easily with a walker. So
the idea is the individual units and the common areas would be accessible for
wheelchairs but there would not be a requirement that there be a lift from the first
floor to the second floor. Obviously, to meet ADA, the entire first floor has to be
wheelchair accessible.
Norton/There is no provision, no possibility that somewhere there is some percentage that
every unit be accessible. They all have to be.
Miklo/That is accessible but again it does not mandate a lift or an elevator.
Nov/You mentioned grab bars in bathrooms. This is not an issue for adaptable or
disability. This is just a safety issue for balance. You are going to have that in
every bathroom, aren't you?
Miklo/Not necessarily. It could be- According to this, it would have to be designed to
accommodate grab bars. I would think that most developers that are going to be
doing elderly housing projects are going to incorporate grab bars but it is not
required.
Nov/Sounds like it is not even a question.
Thornberry/The backing needs to be there in case they need to be put in.
Nov/I think they should just be there. I think-
Thornberry/They don't have to be.
Norton/I have another one-
Thornberry/You get out of the hospital, you don't want to feel like, when you get home,
that is looks like a hospital. If you want the grab bar, you can have it put on.
Nov/I think if you walk into a safely designed bathroom for people without disabilities,
they need something to hold onto to get in and out of the bath tub and the latest
bathroom designs are all putting in something to hold onto. I don't know if they
are called grab bars. If they are not, something.
Thornberry/I think perhaps the Homebuilders would say that is not quite accurate. not all
bathrooms are having grab bars put on their bathrooms.
Nov/I mean for elderly housing.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6c page 3
Kubby/The big thing is I don't want us to get into this accessibility feature will be present
and this one will be potentially present. I don't want to get into that kind of detail
in the ordinance. I like the way it is saying that it is adaptable and can be easily
installed for a specific situation. I don't think we should split that up into anymore
detail. That is really getting into-
Norton/Certainly to allow for the fact that if somebody is in there and then they shift to a
different category and need more than they had. What about any minimum
requirements for the social space and the elder group homes and the elder family
home? I understand that it is assumed that they are one household and they will be
but you didn't feel any requirement about-
Miklo/
Again, this will be a group of people up to eight, not necessarily eight, five to
eight. They would be living as a family in a house that would typically have a living
room, a dining facility and a kitchen.
Norton/Just assume that there would be enough.
Miklo/Right.
Kubby/But you don't require- We don't require certain square footage of living space in
s.f. homes, so that is why it is equivalent.
Vanderhoef/I have just a little question about the philosophy that we saw in the ordinance
and the explanation was this phrase of grow in place. When I think about elderly
housing I think about someone who comes in who has full accessibility and is well
able to use the stairs and they have either purchased their own little area or they
rent, either possibility. However, when you talk about accessibility and you don't
put in an elevator, they don't grow in place. There are times then that they
immediately have to get off that second floor and I started reading through some
of the ordinance on some of the state building codes about lifts and lifts are okay,
as I understand it here, when there is a space less than 3;000 square feet per story
which makes it real accessible if you need to put something like that into an
adapted house for instance. But in new construction I am wondering what the
thinking is and why we are skipping elevators in space that is over 3,000 square
feet.
Miklo/In terms of the- Is your questions specific to congregate housing and elderly
apartments?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6c page 4
Vanderhoef/It can be in the group housing, too, because you may have very small
apartments and you may have a social area only on one floor and they may choose
to have meals-on-wheels delivered daily. So if they live upstairs and the dining
room area is on the first floor, then it requires all of this movement up and down.
Miklo/
For some of the smaller projects the family group homes and the smaller
congregate facilities and s.f. homes, the expense of putting in an elevator may
make it prohibitive.
Vanderhoef/I understand that. But they can do that with a 3,000 square foot or less.
Miklo/The Building Official did identify the option of a lift and he is aware of facilities
which serve the elderly which do have chairlilts built in the stairwell. His advice for
any of these projects would be that the stairwell be designed so it is wide enough
to accommodate a lift in the future if necessary.
Vanderhoef/Is it legal then to use a chairlift in these larger? You know, say you have five
to eight units on the second floor and you are calling those accessible, is it legal to
only have a lift?
Miklo/That was my understanding for the building official this afternoon. I can check that
and at our next meeting we can go over that.
Vanderhoef/That is the thing that is not real clear to me here and I want to know.
Kubby/That is really difficult is someone is using an electric chair. A lift does not work
for someone with a heavy coaster scooter or electric chair.
Thornberry/Again, that is adaptable.
Vanderhoeff I am just concerned with the aging process that when you say grow in place
and once they are into a unit up on second floor and their capabilities change or
with a fall with a broken hip and so forth and they think they are in their total
retirement unit.
Miklo/
What we have found in the developers that we have spoken to, they are either
designing these as one floor type units or they are- Their building designs call for
elevators.
Vanderhoef/I would hope so.
Thornberry/I didn't think it was required to have elevators.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6c page 5
Miklo/Not as proposed by our ordinance.
Norton/But a elder group home could just be an ordinary home that use have to have
three kids, one in each bedroom. Now it is three elders, one in each bedroom,
right? And there is no requirement for accessibility vertical. Say, in other words,
those people are going to have to be able to walk up and down even in the elder
group homes. Some of them are presumably frail.
Nov/I think the Coldten House does not have elevators.
Miklo/They have a chair lift.
Nov/They manage.
Norton/So you had better convert a (can't hear) house to take a chairlift up and down
then.
Thornberry/When you get to that point, you might need more care than that also, Dee.
Norton/Well, I understood. But an elder group home is designed for people who are
already somewhat limited.
Thornberry/Yeah, 55 years old.
Norton/No, well-
Thornberry/55. I still can't get over that.
Nov/We all can't get over that.
Thornberry/I just became elderly overnight. A stroke of the pen.
Nov/Okay, thanks, Bob. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak before I
close the p.h?
Jim O'Brien/329 S. Lucas. I think staff has done a pretty good job. I am only concerned
about the RS-8 zone. They have three good break downs: congregate unit, family
home and group home. The difference we find in the three homes is we have
basically the well elderly in the congregate unit. We had the family home which is
more or less for people who cannot afford to own their own home. Then the group
home is classified for people who need care. The three really have different
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6c page 6
requirements on parking, on handicapped accessibility, and on the social areas and
I have some suggestions that maybe I would just listen to what you all have to say
and comment later.
Nov/Well, this is the chance to comment.
Thornberry/We would like to hear your suggestions.
O'Brien/Well, for the congregate unit, this is what we call the well elderly. I think
everyone does need a parking space and it is written well if you have one or two
bedrooms, it is required that you have a parking space. The question here is on the
tandem and stacked parking. And I don't care for stacked tandem parking but
sometimes it is a necessary evil. My concern is in the old neighborhoods if you
require too much parking, then you disturb the appearance of the general
neighborhood. One good thing about this, this does have to go to Board of
Appeals for special exception. So all of these units have to be approved. The thing
that must be done is that when you build these elder units, is that you try to fit in
with your neighborhood and you can do this. Again, if you are doing the family
home, you require less parking. if you do a group home, I don't see much
requirement for parking other than the owner occupant and basically the same way
with the family home. When it comes to handicap accessibility-
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 97-67 SIDE 2
O'Brien/The congregate unit I don't see much need for handicap accessibility on the
second floor. I totally agree with the first floor. But this is well elderly and I can't
see 100% need for it. However, this idea of grow in place- You know, if you are
on the second floor, if you own that congregate unit, you might want to get old
there and as Dee Vanderhoef says, you may have a bad day is your arthritis is
giving you problems or if you turn an ankle or something. There may be some need
to make the second floor handicap accessible but I don't know if it is 100%
handicap accessible. On the family home, I think that should be handicap accessible
to the point of 75%. On the group home, I think 100% because here you are
giving assistance in bathing, dressing, not disbursing medication but assisting the
person and these people are going to take some care and I would look at that as a
definite need of handicap accessibility.
Norton/Jim, can I ask you which 75% accessibility requirement on elder family which you
characterize as perhaps appealing to those who can't afford to buy a congregate
unit and if you made that 75% accessible. Now it only requires that the bathroom
is accessible for four people or at least that is the minimum. But if you made it-
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6c page 7
Wouldn't that increase the cost of that unit if you impose accessibility on those and
they are presumably not the frail elderly?
O'Brien/Well, ideally you find a location, terrain, and elevation to where you could build
your home on one level to eliminate the elevator, to eliminate the chairlift. It can
be done. In other words, you have everything- You have no reason to put in an
elevator or chairlift.
Norton/Do you think as new construction rather than as-?
O'Brien/Definitely because we have looked into trying to convert some of the older
houses. We run into staircases and around narrow hallways, small doors, very poor
bathrooms. It is so hard to adapt a lot of the older homes and then you run into
parking. You have to put in additional parking and you a lot of times have to put it
right up front which is going to spoil the appearance of the home. You are better
off to start from scratch. You end up with a much more efficient home and it is
going to be there to serve the people a lot better.
Norton/And do you really think two spaces parking for elder group homes is too many?
Requiring two per unit.
O'Brien/Oh no because the owner occupant is the person responsible for the caring of
these people. They live there. That is their home and I don't think two spaces is
too much.
Norton/Two is the requirement. So you think that is not bad, okay,
O'Brien/Yeah but is that correct? Two up to five people?
Norton/Two per dwelling, isn't that right as I understand it? Per group home, yeah. Two
spaces.
O'Brien/Okay because I wasn't clear because I could not find it in that-
Norton/Dee found it in a certain place.
Thornberry/The elder group home is two spaces. Elder congregate is one space for one
and two bedrooms; two spaces for three bedrooms and the elder family, four
residents, two spaces, five to six, three and seven to eight, four.
Norton/Do those seem rational?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6c page 8
O'Brien/Yes. I don't have that bottom- I don't have that part on the group homes.
Norton/It is our understanding, Jim, that those look pretty reasonable to you. We talked
about some of them, I know.
O'Brien/I think your concern is maybe on the accessibility. Everything else seems pretty
good. the social area, I don't know. The social area of the congregate unit is a
little bit overdone. It probably isn't going to stop anyone from doing it but it is
excessive.
Thomberry/20% of the living area.
O'Brien/That is a lot.
Thornberry/That is a lot. That is excluding halls and stairways.
O'Brien/Well, the reason it is a lot is these congregate units will run anywhere from 800
to 1100 to possible 1400 square feet and in there you have a bathroom, a large
bathroom, and a half bath. You have a large master bedroom. Most generally
either a second bedroom or a den, office, desk, study, whatever you want to call it.
You got your laundry facilities. You have-
Nov/Sounds like an apartment rather than congregate housing.
O'Brien/It is for the well elderly. The other thing I believe you brought up, Dean, the age
55 or 60. It doesn't really matter.
Thornberry/It does to me.
Nov/He will never never get over that. Thank you, Jim.
Thornberry/I have a question for Jim. Is an atrium is not a hallway? An atrium could be
like when you go into a hotel, you have got this big area with davenports, chairs,
and lamps. Could that be-
Miklo/
Without seeing a specific plan I couldn't say. But it sounds like it would be a
common open facility where there might be lounge chairs, etc. Something that Jim
has said is that the congregate housing is for the well elderly and that is not
necessarily the case. If fact the other developers we have talked to, they have
indicated that many of their clients are frail elderly. he also said that these would
range from 800 square feet up and again, some of the other developers we talked
to, these are efficiency units that are about 300 square feet. So that is why they feel
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6c page 9
it is very important to have- In fact most of them have had 30% or more of their
floor area devoted to social common areas. I just wanted to clarify that.
Nov/I was thinking more like 300 square feet also. You talk about 800 square feet, this is
an apartment.
Miklo/Right. And there is the provision for elderly apartments and there is a bonus
density for those but that is a different animal.
Nov/Thank you. Is there any other comment on the ordinance for elderly housing
alternatives? City council, anybody? Thank you. P.h. is closed.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 1
ITEM NO. 6e. Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning,"
Article N, entitled "Off-Street Parking and Loading," Section 1, entitled "Off-Street
Parking Requirements," to allow existing fraternity/sorority houses to be converted to
rooming houses without having to provide additional parking. (First consideration)
Nov/(Reads agenda item #6e).
Vanderhoef/Move to defer until we get more information.
Thornberry/Second, deferral.
Nov/Okay. Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Thornberry, to defer this vote. Is there
any discussion?
Kubby/I'd like to have John finish his statement before we vote and have this off the
table.
Nov/You'd want to say something more, John?
John Fitzpatrick/Thank you for the opportunity to finish my statement and I was almost
done.
Nov/But I did ask you to wait until it came on the agenda.
Fitzpatrick/We have a wonderful opportunity for city council and the city staff to work
together with the community to develop a plan for the North Dubuque Street
corridor from Park Road to Church Street. We already have a Northside
Neighborhood Association that would be very happy to work with city
government. There must be some provision for due process that solicit input from
citizens, conduct a study, engage professional planners, and develop a master plan
for that corridor from Park Road to Church Street. And my concluding paragraph
then was to request that you please not pass an ordinance that has been put
together to accommodate a specific property. We already have established
procedures for requesting a zoning variance, but rather to provide for the
opportunity to follow the procedures established and possibly put together a task
force that would look at the total picture rather than deal with the particular
property.
Kubby/You know, I would disagree that this ordinance is for one particular property,
because we have sororities and fraternities that would fall under this ordinance and
at least, the university maybe five sections in town. I can immediately think of at
least three and can think of a development that, of a conversion that might be
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 2
pending on the corner of College and Summit in the near future, that this ordinance
would impact one direction or the other. So I would disagree with that
characterization. And your other points, they still stand, but I don't, we usually try
to stay away from creating that are for an isolated incident and try to figure out
how to be flexible with it. And we do have an overlay plan on the pending list for
entrances into the city, don't we, Bob? That would-
Miklo/(Can't hear)
Nov/Well, we also have-
Kubby/(Can't hear) specifically but in terms of the entrances into town and the aesthetics
and the kind of overlay zoning that would maybe facilitate things and destruction
not happening up on Dubuque Street for example.
Miklo/
There's something that I would like to point out. We did notify the Northside
Neighborhood Association when this item was before the P/Z Commission as we
always do with our P/Z agenda. We also did send out letters to all property owners
with in 200 feet of the particular property on Dubuque Street. That's the same list
that would've been notified of a special exception before the Board of Adjustment.
So we did go above and beyond what's normally done to notify people that might
be affected by this particular amendment. And there's been reference to a possible
variance in this particular property and the other fYaternities and sororities that are
in the situation could not meet the legal test of a variance so that is not an option
that can be considered. Something else that the council may want to consider is the
current fraternity would've been required to have 24 spaces to legally meet the
zoning parking requirements. It has two spaces. Any residential use that requires
24 or fewer spaces could go into that fi'aternity. An example would be, it could be
converted to 12 three bedroom apartments, because that would require 24 spaces
under this zoning ordinance, the same as a fi'aternity. One of the considerations
behind this ordinance is that a rooming house would probably have less of an
impact in terms of parking than 12 three bedroom apartments. So again, just some
information I don't think was clear in our earlier discussion.
Nov/That is interesting. I thought in order to put in apartments instead of a rooming
house, they'd have to actually reconstruct the whole area. They don't have to do
that?
Kubby/They could convert.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 3
Miklo/No, as long as the number of units, apartment units, required less or equal amount
of parking as the fraternity, and in this case we're dealing with 24 non-conforming
spaces.
Nov/So any nonconforming fraternity or sorority can have absolutely no parking on site
and a new use, such as apartments, can continue there without any parking at all?
Miklo/Right, because their parking requirement's basically grandfathered in.
Thornberry/You know, that makes absolutely no sense to me at all and I don't know how
that came about. Maybe you can tell me or Steve can tell me. How in the world did
we ever get into the situation of having a fraternity or sorority with 30 or 40
bedrooms or places for people and not require any parking at all? There's one with
zero parking and one with two parking stalls. How in the world did we ever get
into that?
Kubby/It was built to keep college students who are going to be members of sororities
and fraternities did not drive the way people. Driving habits are crazy now. And
people are driving more frequently and on more kinds of trips.
Thornberry/Well where did they put their horses?
Nov/I'm not talking about horses. Daddy drove the person to college. All the clothing.
Dropped them off and they stayed there. And then at the end of the semester,
daddy came and took them home with the car. But the family had one car. They
didn't buy cars for the kids in college.
Norton/But there were still 24 living units and only two spaces? Was that the requirement
really?
Thornberry/One of them-
Miklo/It was- There was no requirement at the time this fraternity was built, probably
back in about 1924.
Thornberry/But I don't understand how old this grandfather can be when you (can't
hear). When you can convert this building which requires no parking to something
else into something else into something else and still require no parking makes no
sense.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 4
Miklo/As long as it requires less parking than the grandfathered use, that's possible. And
it also is permitted by, it would also have to be permitted by the zoning ordinance
in terms of the use that's allowed in that zone.
Norton/Bob, I want a couple of questions. I'm very uncomfortable with this, but I'm not
sure where to go if we were to defer. I'm thinking now about Dee's motion. How
many sorority houses or fraternity houses that were built before 1940, which is the
date I think called out December 31, 1940, isn't it? How many dwellings, I mean
sorority and fraternity houses are potentially could going to go this kind of
conversion?
Miklo/I don't have the number in front of me. We can have that at your next meeting, but
there-
Norton/(Can't hear) one case or is it fifty that we're looking at.
Miklo/There are at least
Vanderhoef/40.
Norton/At least 40?
Vanderhoef/I would think so.
Lehman/Oh, really?
Kubby/We need to get real information beside just guessing these numbers.
Norton/It seems to me it's germane to the question is this a case of more or less site
specific zoning.
Miklo/There are at least three other buildings that we are aware of, two of them that are
vacant that are in the same situation.
Norton/What happens after, let's suppose this goes into a rooming house with a proposed
use with presumed relatively limited cars. Suppose that operation goes belly up,
then what? It's a rooming house unrestricted in terms of the type of people who
are coming in there to whether or not they have a bundle of cars. Isn't it?
Miklo/
That's in terms of the rooming house, yes. It could continue as any other rooming
house, but our research showed that the occupants of rooming houses, a very small
percentage of them had cars.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 5
Kubby/Actually had-
Miklo/I think in terms of rooming houses even as income varies, the tenants of rooming
houses are generally not going to have cars.
Kubby/I had a few managers and owners of rooming houses of different sizes, on was I
think eight units and another one was 24 units, one that was close in to d.t., one is
not close in, that called me to say that their experience was similar to statistics that
you had read. That at a maximum with the 24 units that they had three cars in the
past 12 years that they've been managing it, and the other unit, place with eight
units had a maximum of two cars at any one time. So that-
Vanderhoef/I had one call that was of an opposite experience and that they were using
street parking and they were using at times a parking lot as a place to store cars
that were no longer running. They were using eight and ten for the same number of
units, so I'm not real clear that we have good statistics on all this, but part of my
concern, Bob, of this is you've done a real good job of notifying the Northside
Neighborhood and the fraternities in that little pocket probably know that this is
happening just because of conversation in the area. However I have talked to some
friends of mine that are affiliated with Greek housing in other areas of the city and
none of them had even heard about it or know anything about it nor do they know
that this is a possibility. And I think for me, this is going too fast without
notification of all of the neighborhoods that will be impacted in say the Washington
area, the East College area, the East Burlington area, the area up on the hill on the
west side of the river, and the Clinton Street area.
Kubby/But on your deferral though, you had said to get more information and last night
you had talked about shifting gears in the process to do this, so I want to be clear
about what our deferral means because if you just say for more information, that
means that we're heading in this direction with more notification and the
information that council needs.
Vanderhoef/I want information, but I also want, suspect that what comes out of this and
the direction that I am heading is towards taking this being special exceptions and
not across the board because I don't see how it's going to work.
Kubby/Is it possible to have a special exception where someone can ask that we can write
it so that you can ask, you're not limited to half the number of required spaces?
Miklo/Right now the zoning ordinance says you can reduce your parking by up to 50% of
the required spaces if you can show that your use is peculiar and will not require
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 6
the standard amount. You could change the zoning ordinance to increase that
percentage. I think it would require some study. It's not something I would
suggest doing.
Kubby/Do we get into legal problems if we wanted to allow certain considerations? 1
don't want just any building that is this density of zoning to be able to go into this
direction. But it makes sense to me to do fraternities and sororities that are of a
certain age to allow some flexibility. Can we allow them more flexibility in terms of
a special exception process for parking reduction than other kinds of structures?
Do we get into legal problems if we go that route?
Woito/If you can articulate a land use interest that you're trying to serve by doing that.
Nov/We could say that it's historic preservation interests.
Woito/Yes, you just need to articulate some interests.
Baker/It wouldn't be restricted to fraternity sorority houses then. It would be any house
built before 1940 that's converted is permitted to go through a special exception
process for parking reduction down to-
Kubby/I don't know that I want to go that far One the reasons this is attractive is it's very
very limited. You couldn't increase your bedrooms. It was only sororities and
fraternities of a certain age. It was very limited in its scope. And I don't want to
open that scope up. If we can go a special exception and keep the scope narrow,
the thing I wouldn't like about special exceptions-
Norton/Why keep it so narrow?
Nov/What if an old Victorian house could be converted to a rooming house? It hasn't
been a sorority and it hasn't been a fYaternity but it's large enough to be converted.
That wouldn't be a problem, is it.
Kubby/Because I think you have more problems to have negative impact on the
neighborhood at having more density there that sororities and fraternities I believe
you will have less people numbers of people and fewer people with cars living
there than in that house.
Baker/
It's a good point. You're going from the probability of a high density to a lower
density with the fraternity sorority where if you just take a large home, you're
going from low density to high density.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 7
Kubby/I want to keep the scope narrow no matter what process we use to deal with it,
special exception or an ordinance amendment. I want to keep the scope narrow.
Thornberry/I'm not sure that you're automatically going from a high density to a low
density going from a fraternity house to a rooming house, Karen.
Kubby/But this ordinance doesn't allow me to go higher.
Vanderhoef/Than the occupancy.
Baker/But the conversion of a large home into a rooming house certainly goes from low
density to a higher density.
Thornberry/From a what?
Baker/From a lower density to a higher, fi'om a lower use to a higher use.
Thornberry/From a fraternity to a rooming house.
Council/(All talking).
Thornberry/Sure, sure.
Nov/It would still have to meet the underlying zoning, so if you were in a RS-12 zone or
an RM-12 zone, you could probably do it, however if you were in an RS-5 zone
you could not. It wouldn't matter how big your house was.
Kubby/The reality is the density, the number of people living in that structure may
increase even though the underlying zone previously allowed more people in there.
That may have not been the real use.
Baker/
Let's send it back to staff with that specific question to be resolved. Can this same
purpose be accomplished with a special exception process restricted by one of
these sorority conversions?
Kubby/With the same narrowness of scope.
Norton/Also could we do anything about the turn over questions? Supposing, I don't
know how you'd keep that number done, I just think it's going to be a zoo down
there on Dubuque Street. I understand the threat is that the house is torn down.
And that would also be a shame. But I don't see how you're going to get along
with two spaces there.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 8
Kubby/They've been getting along as a fully occupied fraternity in the past with two
parking spaces. So you're not going to have an increase.
Nov/You're not going to increase the parking. The parking in that neighborhood is bad.
I've talked to several people who live there. I think at least the people who've
spoken to me, have some interest in reviving the permit system that we talked
about a few years ago. So, Bob, would you put that back on the P/Z list for further
discussion. Bring it to the neighborhood associations. Whatever we can do to
provide discussion.
Miklo/Is there a consensus of the council you'd like us to put the parking permit study
back on?
Thornberry/I just think something just because something happened 40 years ago that
didn't require any parking, now our mode of transportation has changed to the
point where it's now required parking. I can't see maintaining the same status quo
of saying, just because it's an old house, you don't require any parking. I just think
it's-
Woito/
When you- Iowa City's had a long-standing philosophy of you always grandfather
in residential properties, and we've been operating under that premise for many
many years. Now if you want to revisit that premise, which it sounds like some of
you're questioning whether you want to grandfather residential properties
including the lack of parking, but that would have broad-
Thornberry/Having 24 people living in one house, I think you need some parking. And
right now none are required.
Woito/Well, that will have broad implications throughout the city.
Nov/I
don't want to do that. No. I would revisit the discussion on whether or not a
person who does not live in the neighborhood may park there and then take the
bus into town because this does affect people who are current residents. I don't
know that it's going to make everybody happy but if the council is willing to have
this discussion come up, if the neighborhood associations, the people there may
want to talk about it.
Kubby/If they want to spur the idea as an association, let it come up to us. Our work
program for P/Z gets changed every week. We add and we add and we add.
Miklo/It actually wouldn't be a P/Z matter. It isn't a zoning issue.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 9
Nov/It would be neighborhood association issue.
Kubby/Well, they could bring it to us. There needs to be some initiative or if it is not
going to work anyway. So I would rather have the message f~el free to continue
conversation about it. Let it come to us.
Nov/Is there any interest in the city council to change the parking requirements for
fraternities and make the fraternities and rooming houses both have one space for
200 square feet?
Thornberry/Yes.
Norton/Yeah, there is interest in that.
Nov/Well, there was interest last night. I just want it out on the p.h.
Thornberry/I think there has to be parking for multi-family dwelling.
Council/(All talking).
Vanderhoef/That the sorority and fraternities that are presently in place can afford to buy
an adjacent-
Nov/They are still grandfathered.
Thornberry/As soon as that use changes, I think the parking requirement must change.
We need to get into the 20th century.
Nov/Right.
Kubby/We need to look forward to the 21st and get back to the -
Council/(All talking).
Norton/That is another way,
Thornberry/People are no longer walking apparently.
Nov/There is someone else who would like to speak to us.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 10
Stanly
Ziewacz/I live on the corner of Ronalds and Linn and I would like to address one
line of thought that is expressed in the memo to the P/Z Commission that is
approved by Robert Miklo March 20. The paragraph is on page 3 and it goes this
way. Staff is not comfortable with simply reducing the required parking for
rooming houses to equal the standard for fraternities without doing more extensive
research on the subject and surveying other existing rooming houses within Iowa
City. In a situation where a building is converted to a rooming house, spill over
parking that may occur in the surrounding neighborhood would likely be a
continuation of a situation that has existed there for some time. In the case of a
new rooming house, any spill over parking that may occur as a result of the
reduced parking requirement will be a new situation within that neighborhood and
will not be as easily accepted and I like take exception to that line of thought. We
have a problem and we would like to have it addressed. We don't want to continue
with the problem and the discussion seems to be that well, we don't want this
problem to occur in other part of the city but as some councilors said, well, we
have been existing with this problem, we will let it continue. And I would like to
suggest that people consider solving the problem, considering the problem as
something people in the neighborhood are not accepting easily now and go ahead
with that line of thought. Thank you very much.
Lehman/One method you might look at, obviously we have problems associated with
these houses in several different areas. I don't think it would be uncommon that if
a use changes, the grandfather clause perhaps could be altered or amended. Now
we are talking about change from a fraternity house to a rooming house or from a
fraternity house to apartment house or whatever. And we are talking about
grandlathering in the parking requirements for that fraternity house. I don't know
that it is incumbent upon us to grandfather in those requirements for a different use
and basically we are talking about a different use.
Woito/But it is still a residential use as defined on the zoning ordinance.
Lehman/So is a s.f. dwelling and an apartment house. They are both residential.
Woito/Correct. So your underlying zone is going to dictate some of that. All I am
suggesting is that if you want to re-visit the grandlathering in of residential
properties, then we need to look at the bigger picture.
Lehman/I am just saying that when the use changes, you know, you remodel your house,
you got to bring it up to code. You bring it up to current code, not the code when
your house was built, it was approved, you got an occupancy permit and whatever.
And we do this throughout the city. When we do something, we change it, we
bring it up to code. We bring it up to standards. Now we are talking about
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page ll
changing a use without remedying a problem that exists. I don't know how you
remedy it. I am not saying that you require, you know-
Woito/You change your grandfathering requirements for different residential zones.
Lehman/But would it be conceivable where you don't have the availability of parking that
you require that the resident not own a vehicle.
Nov/I doubt that you could do that.
Lehman/I don't know. I am asking.
Bakeff
That is the problem with the grandfathering concept on this particular issue,
parking because you have got a finite space you always have to deal with. It is not
like wiring, it is not like a lot of the other physical (can't hear) that you make. It is
very hard to knock grandfather in parking because they only have a certain amount
of space to deal with regardless. If you change the parking requirements, say all
right, now a different use, you got to have 24 spaces. Then basically you have
rendered the property unusable.
Thornberry/I think perhaps it may not be adjacent property but maybe a block or two
away would not be-
Kubby/So you tear down a house to put the place of a parking lot. (Can't hear) a lot of
our community values, too.
Thornberry/I am not saying that you have to buy a house and tear it down. I am just
saying look for another place to put these houses for the people who are living in
this place to rectify a problem that is existing.
Norton/What happens to this house is a question. And ones like it. It strikes me that there
is not way for anything to happen there. If you insist on more than two parking,
right, the place can't operate. We're in a real bind here.
Kubby/In the short term what we are really deciding at this point at this meeting is are we
going to head in the direction of an amended Zoning Ordinance or do we want to
head in the direction of a special exception, keeping the scope as narrow as
presented?
Vanderhoef/I am not sure about keeping the scope but I want to (can't hear).
Kubby/We need to solve that before we end tonight.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 12
Greg Rockow/I am from Iowa City. I am the real estate agent that has the property listed.
One of the things that we looked at in trying to sell this was was it possible to buy
a lot and provide parking. We were told no. So I am looking to you, if that is the
case that we can't buy the additional property where maybe there is a house that is
in disrepair to provide parking, what kind of a problem are we in.
Norton/You mean 720?
Rockow/I am not saying 720. I am not saying anything in particular. I was told there is
directly east of this property line is a property that runs from Brown all the way to
the alley. I suggested at one point in time we approach the owners of that property
to try and buy some of that for parking. We were told that that was not a viable
alternative, that you can't buy a house to tear it down to provide for parking.
Whether that is true or not, I don't know. I am just saying that was what I was
told, no, you can't do that. And I really, Dean, think that you need to think about
every time you change a use in a residential thing to bring it up to code for
parking. You are going to affect a lot of houses in this town that are duplexed,
three-plexed, four-plexed rooming houses. If those get converted back to a s.f.
home, three years down the road the people try to sell it and somebody wants to
convert it to another use or back and forth, you are impacting not just this
property but a whole host of properties around town that I don't think you- If you
think there is dissent on this issue, wait until you enact that one and hear the cry
coming at you.
Th0rnberry/Right now we are talking about fraternity houses and rooming houses.
Rockow/But you said residential properties and a change in use to require-their parking
requirements be brought up to date. You can't just say one particular use, you
have got to say it is for all residential uses.
Thornberry/Why can't we say and I am brainstorming here and I don't know how to
rectify the problem. But you know there is a problem.
Rockow/When I moved here in 1975 there was a parking problem. There still is. I have
read clear back in the 60's there was a parking problem, maybe before that. You
will never solve that problem.
Thomberry/I know but why exacerbate it by not-
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 13
Rockow/But that is the point. You are not going to exacerbate it based on the
information that I have from talking to people. You are actually going to be
bringing less cars into the area.
Thornberry/When you have a fraternity house that was built prior, what? December 30,
1940 whatever. And they didn't require any parking because morn and dad brought
them to school and they had one car. Now they don't have. Things change, times
change and when the uses changes from a fraternity house to something else- We
are not saying that the fraternity house has to now come up to code. If you were to
build a fraternity house now, I don't know what the requirements would be for
parking.
Rockow/If I am not mistaken, in this zone, transitional housing is allowed provided that
the transitional housing meets some definition that the people are only going to be
there up to two weeks. The parking requirements for that transitional housing is
basically what this place is asking for right now. I mean, the transitional housing
with a one week or two week stay is allowed to have I think it is 1/6th of the
required parking or maybe even less than that. So, should I go out and find and
acceptable transitional housing unit that can go in there and not require it to have
parking. This issue wouldn't even have to come up then. There are uses that are
allowed there with that maximum density not requiring the parking.
Thornberry/I just see a problem that I would like to see rectified and I am not exactly sure
how to do it. I need some help with it. But a fraternity house that has got 24 guys
staying in it with zero parking is impacting the neighborhood.
Rockow/It has been there since 19- I had a gentleman look at that house that said he use
to photograph the fraternity members in 1955 there and it was a parking problem
then. It is a parking problem today. It will probably be a parking problem 20 years
from now.
Kubby/Maybe we could re-focus our conversation to the two issues for us to move
forward and-
Nov/I
would like us to get back to this parking issue for just a minute. Bob, did anyone
ever say you could not tear a house out and put in parking if you could afford to
do it?
Miklo/
This particular property, the adjacent property, is referring to a zone RS-5 and it is
also in a historic district. So, yes, it could be torn down, it could be converted to a
parking lot. That would require rezoning and also approval of the Historic
Preservation Commission.
This represents only a reasonably accnrate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 14
Thornberry/(Can't hear).
Miklo/You can, by special exception, provide parking within 300 feet I believe. But
again, it requires a special exception. So there might be another property on
Dubuque Street.
Norton/Are we going to defer or are we going to proceed?
Thornberry/There has been a motion and a second to defer but-
Nov/Karen, I am sorry that I interrupted you but I wanted to get that issue out of the
way.
Kubby/I can't vote on deferral until I know what direction we are giving staff in which
the deferral is going to go somewhere instead of into-
Norton/Limbo.
Thornberry/I think it is a continuation of discussion.
Kubby/Well, if we have some agreement. If we can figure out what the scope of
discussion is that we want and what process we want. If we want a Zoning Code
amendment or special exception process. That will give staff some direction.
Otherwise we are just deferring it and we will have this same discussion in two
weeks.
Vanderhoeff I am not sure that that is true because I still would like to hear from people in
the other neighborhoods to find out which way we can go with this and what is
going to serve the neighborhoods and the Greek houses however it looks. So for
us to define a scope of how to go with this right now, I am not ready to do that.
Kubby/The Greek houses are not going to be affected as Greek houses because the only
way this is going to affect- I mean, they are going to be gone and this ordinance
will then kick in.
Vanderhoef/What will affect them is the value of the property. So they do have some
interest in this location.
Kubby/So what I don't want to have happen is to say we need more input and in two
weeks from now we have this similar conversation with more input and then we
defer it again because we want a different kind of process.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 15
Vanderhoef/We are getting information from the various neighborhoods. I don't envision
that happening in two weeks, Karen. I can believe that is-
Kubby/Okay, forget the time frame I stated.
Nov/We are talking- At least I am hearing that we want to consider the possibility of
doing this by special exception which would require that we re-write the special
exception for parking in some other fashion. I think that we can probably get that
done and then schedule a p.h. on that particular change if we define what kind of
change we want.
Kubby/So that we have two choices in front of us so we can keep moving forward?
Vanderhoef/I am sure that this needs to go back to P/Z.
Woito/It will have to go back to P/Z.
Vanderhoef/For any kind of special exception.
Kubby/I am very torn about it because I really believe in public process, especially with
potential or at least perception of change in the neighborhood. On the other hand a
lot of council members talk about streamlining the process so people can do their
business. And a special exception is not a streamlining option. I don't have a
problem with doing a special exception. I think that that is con to doing a special
exception and I think this council needs to acknowledge we are going to place
another process for people to provide housing.
VanderhoeffWe may.
Kubby/If we go with the special exception, it will be a-
Vanderhoef/We don't know that.
Baker/The advantage of a special exception is that it allows-requires neighborhood input
of directly affected property.
Nov/Only within 200 feet.
Baker/You will hear from people beyond the 200 feet.
Norton/That is true but none of that will change the actual status of 716 N. Dubuque.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 16
Kubby/It is going to put things on hold.
Norton/It will just have to sit there.
Kubby/As well as another one that may be pending.
Norton/So that is the problem. I don't see any of these processes changing that condition
down there and we are saving that house.
Kubby/Are there time frames?
Vanderhoef/The perception is, Dee, it would depend upon what the special exception is
and what kind of input we have into re-writing a special exception. We don't know
what it's going turn out.
Norton/But it's not going to invent more parking spaces.
Vanderhoef/It isn't going to invent more parking spaces, but it may invent some other
ideas and alternative uses for the house.
Kubby/Are people uncomfortable with, I mean are people saying that it's just a different
process that you want, or that you're not sure about that?
Baker/My question is, does the majority of the council disagree with the ordinance
proposal in front of us? Do they think it will have a negative impact on the
neighborhoods and create a bigger problem?
Thornberry/I personally think, no.
Norton/No, it won't.
Thornberry/It is the time and inequity.
Norton/As things now stand it will presumably (can't hear).
Woito/You know, maybe, we need to have a session on zoning and what property rights
go with zoning. I mean, you're talking about taking away people's property rights
that they enjoy as virtue of a grandfathered provision in the zoning ordinance that's
been in place 60 years.
Kubby/You don't have a majority say-
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 17
Nov/I think we have only one.
Thornberry/I just didn't think it was possible. I know it's possible, but I don't think it's
right to sell a grandfather.
Woito/The law provides that you do sell a grandfather as a property right.
Nov/We understand your feelings but I think we can move along and vote on this.
Baker/There are two issues here. One is the process that was taken to get to this point
and the result. Do we disagree with the result or disagree with the process?
Personally, I don't have that many concerns about the result.
Kubby/I agree.
Baker/I think it will be more probably and improvement in parking problems there than
not.
Norton/Will that be true if it turns over from the protected use, from just a rooming house
period without the qualifications that we know are involved with previous use?
Kubby/Yes the information that Bob has given us is not all been people coming out of
shelters moving into rooming houses. They've been a variety and Dee has said she
has an example that doesn't do that. Most of the examples are that there are the
cars per unit in an apartment building or fraternities and sororities.
Vanderhoef/This particular use has some real merit to it. I don't argue that at all. What I
am saying is that to change our ordinance at this point in time because we see one
possibility for one house in one use right now, I'm not sure that this same thing
will follow in all of the other areas that I mentioned over the town.
Baker/I'm just saying that empirically, the little hard evidence that we have about these
kinds of conversions would indicate that this is a good change in the ordinance.
Intuitively it also makes sense. _
Norton/If that's the case, why don't the neighbors embrace it?
Baker/I've seen-
Thornberry/Good point.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 18
Baker/- changes in neighborhoods that have problems. Psychologically, any change
potentially creates a bigger problem. Logic doesn't have to always be necessary.
Nov/Can we hear what Teresa has to say?
Teresa
Kopatich/Thank you very much. I just want to say a few things. The point that
Mr. Baker made, I applaud you because we have gone through so much to get to
this point. And I think we were at special exemptions one and they sent us this
way. I think that the things I want to point out is that the research that has been
done has shown that rooming houses, not just rooming houses that are for
transitional, but rooming houses in general have less parking. Have very very
parking. So again I come back to this point that I don't think we're going to
increase the parking problem. I realize it may not solve the parking problem but
we're not going to change it or make it worse. that's my opinion. The other thing
is, when this started I personally sent letters to everybody-
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 97-68 SIDE 1
Kopatich/Rooming unit we'd be putting in there. Three of the neighbors contacted me
personally and said that it's great. Go for it. One neighbor, Mr. Fitzpatrick, I got a
letter and a complaint from one person. A couple of other people called me, said
they had signed the petition about parking issues but they were told a halfway
house for a prison was going in. And this made a really big difference to them
when they found out what was actually going in there. So I think we do have some
neighborhood support. One neighbor even said, Teresa, if you need it you can have
one of our parking spaces. So I think we need to kind of keep focus. Mr.
Fitzpatrick is here. He has concerns. I understand that, but there's not like there's
all the neighbors here either. And again like I said, we are looking at limiting these
spaces. On this particular property, we do have a deadline, and I don't think that
this particular property is what this whole (can't hear). It may have accelerated this
process, but this is here. It's been here. It's something that needs to be addressed.
Kubby/What's your time frame around?
Kopatich/There was a closing date of June 1. June 1 anticipated on this particular
property at 716 North Dubuque.
Kubby/Could this be renegotiated?
Kopatich/I don't know that. I really don't know. They've gone, it's been renegotiated so
much that I don't know. And I think, like I said, a rooming unit is a natural
conversion for these fraternities and sororities and if the neighborhoods don't like
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 19
the fraternities and sororities, that's almost what it's going to go back in there now
because what else can they put in there?
Norton/Is there any chance can you get, you can park quite a few cars behind 716 at an
angle if you could get there, couldn't you.
Kopatich/Pardon me.
Norton/You could get angle parking behind 716.
Kopatich/Sure.
Norton/But you can't get to it
Kopatich/There's actually six places there. Two that are actually legal or accessible. But if
you had more than that, yes you could. And the type of rooming unit that's going
in there is a very monitored. It's a transitional. It's monitored. There's very close
supervision in there. There's usually always somebody around in charge. It's not a
thing like somebody can park their car and just walk off and you don't know who
the heck's car it is or what happened. Things can happen, yes, but this particular
type of rooming unit, like I said is very closely monitored and it would be a
workable situation.
Kubby/I'd like to be more clear about the purpose in deferral and what will be done in
between now and whatever date we defer it to.
Norton/I'm beginning to get apprehensive about deferring now because it seems to me if
we don't see exactly where we're going to end up down the road, there's an issue
here of general, but that can be taken up independent of this case. We're just
sitting here twisting in the wind with this. We're not going to change the situation.
Nov/Okay. Please sign in and go ahead.
Larry SvobodaJ I've owned some property on North Dubuque Street and I just wanted to
pass a couple of comments along tonight that I find some ideas that people have
are kind of interesting. First of all, I've torn more houses down on the north end of
North Dubuque Street probably then any other developer and put up new
buildings, and I've had to put the parking in according to code. I've did it. It's
been very expensive and I haven't complained about it. I think it's necessary and
essential. I would, I took a look at the building that you're talking about, the frat
house on North Dubuque Street. 716 1 believe is the address. When I saw the sign
go up in front of it, I would've like to own that property. I would not have like to
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 20
torn it down because it's too nice a building. I would've like to convert it into
apartments and now when I hear tonight from Mr. Miklo that you can grandfather
the parking in for apartments, that's the best kept secret that I've ever heard in this
community and I've been here for 20 some years doing-
Kubby/(Can't hear) that northside.
Svoboda/That's what I'm saying. I couldn't believe. In fact you all have copies of letters
where I said why would you limit this to a rooming house. Why not allow
apartments go in there because this is news to me. Secondly, nobody's going to go
in and tear that house down. They'd be crazy for two reasons. First of all the lots
too small and you couldn't rebuild. You couldn't rebuild and furnish parking on
there. And you couldn't purchase that property for the cost because of the size of
the lot and do anything but declare bankruptcy when you got done with the
project. And a lot of these frat houses and sorority houses are like that. If they are
big enough, they already have plenty of parking on the grounds. I think you're
chasing a fly with a shotgun here. I don't think that the worry that's being created
that these houses are all going to be bought and torn down is a valid worry. One
thing that I'd like to say too, the Sigma Nu across the, the Sigma Nu fraternity
house across the street, I believe currently is operating without a charter which
means it doesn't have a fraternity in it. The house is currently leased out as a
rooming house. And beside the Sigma Nu house there's a large parking lot. And
just don't take my word for it. Don't take all this research that you've been hearing
about. I'd like to see more proof on that, but go look at the parking lot and see
how many cars are in there when you go home tonight. I think you'll find the
parking lot's loaded. So there's a classic example of a frat house that's being run
as a rooming house. It's got a parking lot beside it and that parking lot is full every
night. And to the best of my understanding, it's the people living in that house as
roomers, I can't buy the argument that rooming houses don't have cars.
Everybody has cars. And everybody has to have a place to park them. I've seen so
many policies come through this city. I've got a building at South Clinton Street
where there's two large apartment buildings have been built on South Capitol
behind it. Neither of them have any more than one parking space per unit. Most of
them are three, two to four bedroom units. We could keep the police department
busy down there every day ticketing and towing the cars and getting them out of
the alley so that my people could get in and out of my legal parking spaces because
right now they are denied. They're denied access because of that bad policy of
insufficient parking. And I've got some girls in apartment 10, I'm not going to tell
you their names right now of course, but they called me last night pleading with me
to come down and do something about access. I've talked to the police department
about this parking problem. They said the boys in that apartment building across
the street won't let us in our parking place. When we complained, they came down
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 21
and keyed our cars. So you get vandalized. My building's been vandalized when I
had cars towed from these other buildings. And so if you're going to cave in on
parking, I've got a couple of places that I'd like to sell back to somebody and get
rid of my parking, too, and let's keep it a fair playing field for everybody.
Kubby/You know, another option is Naomi's suggestions of just making the requirements
the same and that would take care.
Nov/Well, I don't know that it would solve this problem, but I still do believe that making
the requirements for parking the same for both uses the next step.
Norton/But how will that change anything?
Nov/It will not change this problem. It will not change this problem, but it will create a
different future.
Rockow/Can I ask a question? This could be converted to three apartments. Can I sell
them for apartments for these people as opposed to rooming units?
Miklo/(Can't hear) the number of parking (can't hear) as long as the number of parking
spaces for the apartments does not exceed the 24 that are grandfathered for the
fraternity.
Rockow/So they can convey this to apartments and put these people in and we can forget
the issue of rooming house. Okay. Then and I'm clear of it. We can do it as
apartments. We just can't do it as a rooming house. Okay.
Kubby/This doesn't solve our dilemma for other areas of town where this issue is a
legitimate, continues to be an issue all over. We need, I can't think of deferring
unless I know what we're deferring for.
Miklo/On paper, if fraternities and sororities were required to have the same number of
parking spaces as rooming houses as they once were by the zoning ordinance, the
grandfather would have applied to the rooming houses and they could be
converted.
Nov/They could-
Kubby/(Can't hear) cleaner (can't hear) quickest way to get this result.
Nov/If they can be converted to apartments, why can they not be converted to rooming
houses? I just don't see why we're going through all this.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 22
Miklo/Because rooming houses require more parking than fraternities.
Nov/Than apartments also.
Miklo/If the number of apartments is less than the grandfathered number of spaces, that's
true.
Kubby/Or if the number of rooming house units were reduced so that it was at 24 in that
example.
Miklo/That's right.
Thornberry/If you were to build a new rooming house, Bob, how many parking spaces
would be required?
Miklo/It's one space for every 200 square feet, whereas for fraternities it's one space for
every 300 square feet, so about 1/3 less.
Norton/Geez. I don't know where to go.
Kubby/At this point, unless council members are articulating directions for staff, I cannot
vote for deferral at this point. But I need to hear from the other council members
to understand the direction we're taking.
Nov/Can we change the parking to 200 square feet for fi-aternities? Is there any
agreement on that issue?
Baker/That's what it is.
Kubby/It is. You mean to change-
Nov/No. Fraternities now have 300 square feet. If we reduce the requirement to 200
square feet will make it a level playing field.
Vanderhoef/Only for the new construction.
Nov/Right. The grandfathering clause is still in there. However the conversion would not
have to be quite as lengthy a discussion.
Norton/There's no particular reason to do that tonight.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#re page 23
Nov/We can't do it tonight. It would require an ordinance, but we have to direct staff to
write an ordinance if there are four of us who want to.
Norton/But it wasn't there on this particular issue.
Nov/No, but it bears on the future.
Thornberry/They're selling fraternity houses now. They're not building them. I don't
know whether that would solve anything because they're not building new
fraternity houses. They're converting other houses to different uses.
Nov/But it would allow a easier conversion without this much discussion.
Thornberry/It wouldn't if it was grandfathered.
Nov/The fraternity house that is under discussion that Teresa would like to purchase is
grandfathered. What makes the discussion so complicated is the fact that
fraternities and rooming houses do not have the same parking requirements.
Thornberry/I understand.
Nov/If they have the same parking requirement, don't you think it would make life
simpler?
Thornberry/Not if it continues to be grandfathered. I mean if the grandfather stayed with
the residence forever, then it would be whatever it is. With the fraternity with zero
parking requirements and that doesn't have any parking, that would just continue
forever. I don't think that would change, would it?
Nov/Okay, are we ready to vote on the motion for deferral.
Karr/Can I clarify the motion to defer indefinitely or is there a day specific?
Nov/It was Dee's motion. I think it was not a question of date.
Karr/Indefinitely.
Nov/Okay, indefinitely and for the purpose of-
Vanderhoef/More information.
Thornberry/Information and direction.
Tiffs represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 24
Vanderhoef/And notification of neighborhoods and to look at the possibility of using it
producing a special exception ordinance.
Lehman/But Dee didn't you also say how it would impact other fraternity and sorority
houses throughout the community?
Vanderhoef/That's right. I'm asking for the additional information from the different
neighborhoods and these Greek houses.
Woito/And that motion indefinitely would kill this ordinance. I mean you would have to
start over. Does everyone understand that?
Kubby/I think a date specific helps the process move along and then if this comes- And it
would better to vote this down if another process comes up that the group feels
more comfortable with. But having this indefinite date.
Vanderhoef/Okay, if we put a date on it, say four months or five months from now, that
allows time to get neighborhoods input or whatever.
Thornberry/I don't think-
Kubby/It is too long.
Nov/That is too long.
Vanderhoef/All right. So two months and we found out you need a third month. Can we
defer for another month?
Karr/You can continue to defer.
Vanderhoef/Continue to defer, okay.
Nov/Can we say one month? Bob is nodding at one month.
Thornberry/You could do that, Bob?
Karr/So do you want it to be the 20th of May or do you want it to be the 3rd of June?
Lehman/20th of May.
Nov/20th of May.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 25
Norton/You got to deal with this situations.
Nov/20th of May.
Kubby/20th of May is closer to a month.
Vanderhoef/And you could get it on P/Z?
Nov/Yeah, okay.
Atkins/Council, before you vote, so I can understand the obligate- Bob, will you come to
the microphone? You're deferring this proposed ordinance for the purposes of
communication with other neighborhoods and I think we are pretty well set on
that. In other words, that is similar houses, similar circumstances, you want to
make sure that they are aware of it. And you want them, in effect, to either write
or appear before you to give them your opinions. Is that the general thinking?
Kubby/But the other part that Dee said was the possibility of a special exception process
to meet the same goals.
Atkins/And I want to go to the second. If you need ~nore information and/or some sort of
revision in the ordinance, does that not inevitably send it back to the P/Z
Commission. Do you wish for them to review your discussion, your debate and
modify this ordinance in some fashion and bring it back to you again and in sending
it back to you, have that ordinance reviewed by these other neighborhood groups.
I just want to make sure we understand. I am a little lost.
Nov/No, we are talking about either this ordinance or this result from special exception. I
don't think there will be a different ordinance unless it is an ordinance which
revises the special exception process.
Atkins/Then I think you need to say fairly clearly to the P/Z Commission that you wish to
see incorporated into this ordinance, a special exception component and however
that is legislatively put together. There is no basic disagreement. That is an
understatement. There is no- I have to re-say the same thing There is no basic
disagreement with the ordinance as proposed. You just simply wish to have the
special exception process applied to it. That is what you are giving to your P/Z
Commission.
Karr/May I suggest that if that is what you are giving, that instead of deferring this
ordinance to allow for modification, you may wish to refer this ordinance back so
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 26
that if it comes back in a different form, you do not have to vote this one down. Of
do you wish to put both of them on at the same time if timing is of the essence? By
deferring this, this will go on in this present state on May 20 regardless of another
ordinance.
Kubby/And what is the process if we want to allow some changes in this?
Karr/If there are substantial enough changes, then you are going back to the p.h.
Woito/Then you will have to start over with the p.h.
Baker/Keeping in mind this is first consideration. And if you want more input, you can
stretch out that third final vote. Start the process of receiving information.
Thornberry/But it still makes no change.
Norton/We could proceed-
Council/(All talking).
Atkins/You can proceed with this existing ordinance directing the staff to communicate
this ordinance to all the folks that you want it communicated to and basically tell
them to come on down and tell you how they feel about it. Then when you hear
that, is it that point that you wish to send it back to the P/Z Commission for
making recommendations on changes.
Norton/That would be my preference.
Nov/No, I would like to move it a little bit differently. I really think that if we are going to
consider a special exception, we should say we will have that on the agenda on
May 20. We will have the p.h. on May 20. We will listen to people on that change
because we have already heard everybody on this issue.
Atkins/No, you have not. That is my point is that you are saying you have not heard
enough people on this issue.
Norton/And we need a chance to talk. I should think one of the things we should do in
the interim, I would argue that we ought to not defer, pass this one tonight or
whatever assuming is does and then between now and then, I think we ought to
talk with P/Z. We are going against their recommendation. They have thought
about this. I would hate to slow this whole process down but we can get that
information before the next hearing.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 27
Kubby/Good plan.
Baker/Let's vote on this.
Norton/And vote on this and let's say if we pass it, that doesn't preclude further
discussion of other options.
Baker/(Can't hear).
Kubby/Including a special exception option.
Nov/We could do that. We could vote first consideration and if we approve it, then
amend it to put in the special exception.
Vanderhoef/Say that again, please.
Kubby/That is a substantial change though.
Woito/Yeah, that is a substantial change.
Kubby/Then we vote this down and we have had that work done and on its way.
Norton/And nothing is slowed down.
Baker/It may not be the majority wants the special exception to proceed.
Norton/Well, we have to first vote down the deferral.
Baker/Let's vote down the deferral.
Kubby/Let us vote on the deferral.
Atkins/My point-
Vanderhoef/Vote down the deferral and then get more information.
Nov/And move this one along and if we vote it up today, we say we approve first
consideration and then we get more information, we can vote negatively on second
consideration and drop the whole thing or change it.
Norton/We run it parallel in other words rather than sequentially.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 28
Nov/That is what it sounds like.
Atkins/Significant divergence of opinion both publicly and on the council. We have some
harsh language about what the staff has done and not done. I want to make sure
very clearly what you want us to do with this vote so that there isn't any
misunderstanding from anybody.
Baker/
Is there two things? Solicit more information about this ordinance. Have the staff
and P/Z investigate a special exception, either an amendment to this or (can't hear)
process allowing this to be case specific. Same result but case specific.
Norton/And one other thing is I think we ought to find some way to talk more extensively
with P/Z on this matter then perhaps we have. I have talked to a couple of them.
Baker/I don't think they want to hear from us.
Nov/Well, we have had a policy that if we disagreed with their recommendation, we
would talk. But I don't know that we necessarily have a majority who disagree.
Norton/Well, we could individually do it.
Kubby/Steve is still not clear.
Atkins/I am still not clear on what you want done.
Baker/Two things.
Nov/I thought Larry said it well.
Atkins/We have a motion and support of the floor for deferral. You are going to deal with
that. And if it is deferred, right now on the deferred motion it disappears into never
never !and.
Council/(All talking).
Atkins/Okay, it goes to May 20. Then my question to you, so what?
Kubby/I am hearing that whether the deferral passes or fails, we want P/Z to look at two
things. One is to gain input from other neighborhoods that have fraternities and
sororities under a certain age and secondly, to discuss and bring before us a special
exception process. To have this result but have it be on a case by case basis so
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 29
there is some public input process to each case. Whether the deferral passes or not.
So if we don't want to do the ordinance but we want to do special exception, we
are moving forward and we can vote this down and vote for the special exception
or we can not have it come before us and vote for the amendment.
Norton/It is better if we don't defer, right.
Baker/Not defer it-
Kubby/Is that clear?
Woito/Yes. I understand.
Atkins/See how the vote goes on deferral, then we can figure-
Nov/Okay. The deferral is a motion which does not require a roll call. All in favor of
deferring this to May 20, say aye-. All opposed to deferring to May 20, same aye-
I think the motion failed.
Karr/5 to 2.
Nov/Okay.
Norton/Voice vote, you don't count.
Thornberry/Then we consider this ordinance.
Nov/Moved by Baker, seconded by Kubby (first consideration). Is there any other
discussion? Roll call- (yes; No: Thornberry, Vanderhoef).
Atkins/You we now have first reading.
Nov/We have first reading.
Atkins/That is finished.
Nov/And it passed on a 5-2 vote. Okay.
Atkins/The information process, special exception, Bob understands that.
Nov/I was going to say let's take a break after the P/Z but-
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#6e page 30
Karr/Could I have a motion to accept correspondence on this?
Nov/(Moved by Kubby, seconded by Norton to accept correspondence). All in favor of
accepting correspondence, please say aye- (ayes). Okay. Considering the hour,
could we go to the p.h. on non-motorized vehicles because we have some
youngsters here who would like to talk about this.
Karr/Madam Mayor, we need to motion if we are going to- An act of a motion to take it
out of order.
Nov/All right. Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Norton that we now consider item #7
and after #7 we are going to take a break. Is there any discussion of this change in
agenda. All in favor, please say aye- (ayes). Okay. Back to the p.h. on non-
motorized vehicles.
This represents only a reasonably accurate trauscription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
.April 22, '1997 City of Iowa City Page 8
Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning,"
City Code, by revising Article N, entitled Off-Street Parking and Loading,"
to change the required number of off-street parking spaces for
commercial uses in the CB-5 zone. (Second consideration)
Comment: At its February 6 meeting, by a vote of 4-1-1 with Jakobsen
voting no and Chait abstaining, the Commission recommended approval
of the proposed amendment. Staff recommended approval in ~a
memorandum dated January 30.
Action:
Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, "Unified Development Code" of
the City Code by amending Chapter 9, Article A, entitled "Parking
Facility Impact Fee" to exclude. commercial development.
(Second consideration)
Comment: At the City Council's direction, this ordinance eliminates the
parking impact fee for all commercial development in the Near Southside
parking facility impact fee district.
^c, io :
Consider an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by conditionally
changing the use regulations of approximately 140.5 acres of property
located on the east side of Scott Boulevard, north of Highway 6, from
County M1, Light Industrial, to C1-1, Intensive Commercial (38.93 acres),
and I-1, General Industrial (101.57 acres). (REZ96-0021)
(Pass and adopt)
Comment: At its February 6 meeting, by a vote of 5-1 with Ehrhardt
voting no, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval
of the proposed rezoning, subject to conditions, consistent with the staff
recommendation contained in its January 16 report.
Action: ~
#6h page 1
ITEM NO. 6h. Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, "Unified Development Code" of'
the City Code by amending Chapter 9, Article A, entitled "Parking Facility Impact Fee" to
exclude commercial development. (Second consideration)
Nov/Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Lehman. Discussion.
Baker/When do we get to the discussion of residential impact fee?
Thornberry/Before third consideration.
Baker/Okay but next meeting?
Nov/Okay.
Norton/(Can't hear) talk about residential impact fee.
Baker/Okay. (Can't hear).
Nov/Okay. Roll call- (yes; Baker- no). We approved second consideration on a 6/1 vote.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
April 22, '1997 City of Iowa City Page 9
Consider a resolution approving the preliminary and final plat of a
Resubdivision of a Portion of Lot 3, West Side Park subdivision, a 1.24
acre, 2-lot residential subdivision located on West Side Drive.
(SUB97-0008)
Comment: At its April 3 meeting, by a vote of 6-0, the Planning and
Zoning Commission recommended approval of the preliminary and final
plat. Staff recommended approval in its April 3 staff report. Staff
memorandum included in Council packet.
Action:
Consider a resolution approving the final plat of Court Park Subdivision, a
1.69 acre, 6-lot residential subdivision located at 2729 Court Street.
(SUB97-0009)
Comment: At its April 3 meeting, by a vote of 7-0, the Planning and
Zoning Commission recommended approval, subject to the provision of a
drainage easement for a swale along the south end of the property, and
approval of legal papers and construction drawings prior to Council
consideration. Staff recommended approval in its April 3 staff report. A
drainage easement has been shown on the final plat, the construction
plans have been approved, and it is anticipated that the legal papers will
be approved prior to Council consideration on April 22.
Consider a resolution approving the amended preliminary plat of Windsor
Ridge Parts Seven and Eight, a 22.05 acre, 41-1ot residential
subdivision located north of American Legion Road and west of Taft
Avenue. (SUB96-0011)
Comment: The Planning and Zoning Commission will be considering the
amended preliminary plat on April 17. In a report dated April 17, staff
recommended approval, subject to Grading Plan approval prior to Council
consideration of the preliminary plat.
approved.
Action: 4~ / ~~
The Grading Plan has been
April 22, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 10
mo
Consider a resolution approving the final plat of Windsor Ridge - Part
Eight, a 13.31 acre, 25-1ot residential subdivision located on the north
extension of Barrington Road. (SUB97-0007)
ITEM NO. 7.
Comment: The Planning and Zoning Commission will be considering the
final plat on April 17. In a report dated April 17, staff recommended
approval, subject to approval of legal papers, construction plans and an
amended Sensitive Areas Site Plan prior to Council consideration of the
final plat. The construction plans and amended Sensitive Areas Site Plan
have been approved. It .is anticipated that the legal papers will be
approved prior to Council consideration on April 22.
REGULATING NON-MOTORIZED VEHICLES.
Comment: This public hearing is to receive comments on a proposed
ordinance which will amend the City Code by repealing the regulations
regarding "toy vehicles" and setting forth new regulations regarding "non-
motorized vehicles."
This proposed ordinance will amend the City Code by repealing the
regulations regarding "toy vehicles" and set forth new regulations regarding
"non-motorized vehicles." In addition to defining "non-motorized vehicles",
regulations 'include prohibiting non-motorized vehicles in the following
locations: on streets and alleys (except in RS-5 and RS-8 zones), on
sidewalks in the Central Downtown Business District, within Chauncey Swan
Park, within the City Plaza, and in parking lots and ramps. This public
hearing is continued from April 8.
PUBLIC HEARING
Action: ~ ~
CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
#7 page l
ITEM NO. 7 REGULATING NON-MOTORIZED VEHICLES.
Nov/(Reads Agenda #7). I also want to say that we are not going to vote on this tonight.
We re going to continue the p.h. to May 6. So we will open the p.h., we will hear
comments and then we will need a motion to continue the p.h and defer the first
consideration.
Kubby/And before the p.h. I want to explain why we are deferring it and it is because we
want to get a group of you all who are here, who are skateboarders or in-line
skaters together.with our City Attorney and some other staff to look at some
possibilities of using, as well as our Parking folks, to look at the possibilities of
using the parking lot behind this building, the Civic Center, with some obstacles at
certain times of the night except maybe Tuesdays because so many people come
down here for our meetings and the possibility of the top floor of Chauncy Swan
for rollerblade hockey with putting a cable around it so that it is safer. And so in
order to talk with you we need more time and that is the reason for the deferral.
Some study is going to happen only if you all get involved with us about this issue.
Nov/And we are not sure that stuff is going to happen or changes are going to be made.
We are saying we will defer in order to discuss changes in order to consider the
possibility of changes. P.h. is open. Please sign in, state your name and address,
limit your comments to five minutes.
Heath Klahs/You might remember me from the last meeting you had. Thanks for letting
me speak tonight. First off, I would just like to say that as far as the deferrai goes,
that is excellent. I think that is one of the first steps we need to take in
correspondence between us that partake in the sport and the city council that
makes the rules and I am firmly behind that and I think you will have a very easy
time getting a hold of the people that would be willing to get together with the
City Attorney and the people that would be able to help us make this proposals. 1
come here tonight, I spent the last two weeks talking with various skaters and
trying to come up with some sort of plan and I actually designed a proposal
myself. If you mind me approaching, I would like to hand that to you right now.
Nov/Okay, if you hand it to the City Clerk, she will just pass it around and you could talk
about it while we are doing that.
Woito/And would you also talk among yourselves and figure out a way to contact my
office so that Assistant Dennis Mitchell can arrange a meeting with you.
Atkins/Linda, I have a suggestion after Heath finishes on that very item. Makes his
comments and I can suggest an idea of how to pull it together for you. Okay.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#7 page 2
Woito/Wonderful.
Klahs/I think that would be possible. Well, if you would like to take the time, just for a
quick run down through this. I understand, you know, I am not writing a law here.
Just is just an idea and these numbers, times and such are workable. It was just a
thought that we had come up with which would probably be the least expensive for
the city since basically anything the city would have to pay for would be a couple
of road blockades. Everything else would be self supported and self designed by
ourselves. Again, this is just a proposal. It is just one idea. I am sure the city
council can come up with quite a few themselves as well as a council of
skateboarders with the city council. The thing is we don't feel that a parking
garage or parking lot would be a permanent, I don't know what the word would
be. I guess a permanent decision. We are not looking for a permanent decision
right now. We would just like city council to find a way to give us a place to
skateboard for now while we organize ourselves and look for private donors or
even public funding through various actions such as petitions. We do have one
here and you know, other venues and conversation to get to the point we are
looking at and I understand that every year skaters come in front of you guys and
it is almost a head to head battle on whether or not we are going to get a skate
park and when we are going to get it and you guys don't understand and things are
going to change this year. We are going to try to organize ourselves into a more of
a stable unit so that there is a definite dispersal of information from you guys to us,
to everyone, so that we can all have a better understanding of what is going on as
well as you guys having the information and the needs that everyone else is trying
to convey. There is a lot of us here tonight. There is 101 different ways to explain
it and not everyone is going to have the time to listen. The thing is we just want to
have a place to skate. That is it. We just want to enjoy our sport. We don't want to
have it made more legal than it already is. It is tough when it is nice outside and
there are so many nice obstacles and architecture in Iowa city. It is a beautiful city.
And it is just a matter of we want to find a halfway point. And that is what we
came in force tonight to show you that we are here to communicate. We are not
here to cause problems, we are not here to make it you this, me that kind of
situation.
Nov/You have an excellent idea. Getting organized and getting together with
representatives from the city is the best idea. And I assume that the other
skateboarders who are here with you who have been consulted and they agree that
they all want to get together?
Kubby/Shakes of heads.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#7 page 3
Nov/Shakes of heads.
Kubby/I see lots of shaking heads.
Vanderhoef/Maybe we can get them all to sign a paper, get their names and telephone
numbers, something like that as you leave.
Klahs/
Well, you will find my name and my address and my phone number on the top of
this and if at anytime any council member would like to ask me questions or even
has an idea themselves, feel free to call at any time.
Nov/I
think it would be a good idea if you would organize 3-4 people who want to meet
with you and the Assistant City Attorney and the Parking Facilities Managers and
people like that. If you could come up with a nice committee, I think we would
appreciate that.
Klahs/I think that is very possible and I think that is very near in the future. Other than
that, I really don't have much else to say.
Nov/Okay.
Kubby/Thanks for coming. Thanks for all of you coming down. Sometimes I get really
cynical about things and you being here helps me not be so cynical about the way
things could be.
Nov/Okay.
Kubby/I am optimistic. You can still be cynical and optimistic.
Nov/It is a little tough but you could do it.
Atkins/Heath, what I would like for you to do- In the back of the room is Mr. Dollman,
beard and a dark blue jacket. If you and say 4-5 of your friends give Bill names,
addresses, phone numbers. Sort of form a little working committee. Because Bill is
going to be participating. Bill is the manager of the parking ramp. Put that working
committee together. Second thing we would like to have is names and addresses of
folks because I think at the very least we are probably going to want to put a little
mailer or something to let folks know what is going on. The third point is that I
would like for you to do whatever you can to solicit these ideas. The sooner we
can get these all together in one spot. You sit down with Bill and Dennis from
Linda's office and other city representatives, we can move through the things that
are the good, the board, and clean it up and get the issue focused better, clearly. If
This represents only a reasonably accurate trauscription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#7 page 4
you can do that yet tonight by meeting with Bill out in the outer lobby, I think we
can move the thing along pretty quickly. If that is okay with you all.
Klahs/I would be happy to do that.
Kubby/Thanks for coming down.
Nov/Is there anyone else who would like to talk about this before I close the p.h.?
Woito/You want to continue it.
Nov/Yeah, okay, we will continue it.
Brian Getting/I don't know if I recognize some of you but Heath worked hard on this.
You know, a lot of people think it is good but it won't work. It simply won't work
and you know, I guess the city council has been really irresponsible and almost a
little bit, you know, completely against this on this while thing. Five years ago we
came up in front of you with a plan for a skate park. We solved your insurance
problems. The only problem, the whole problem with the entire thing was cost and
yeah, it was a lot of money but- To tell you the truth, I got a ticket for
skateboarding yesterday for $28. I don't know if this new law is going to- What is
the point of this new law? What do you hope to solve?
Thornberry/We hope to give you a place to skateboard.
Getting/With this law it says it will be illegal everywhere including the only place left to
skateboard.
Thornberry/I don't know if you understood. The City Manager requested an organization
be put together to work out a place where you can skateboard legally. That is what
we are trying to do and five years ago there was a different council here. Okay.
Give us a chance here.
Atkins/We are not going to satisfy each and everyone of you.
Getting/I understand that.
Atkins/As long as you understand that.
Getting/The basic facts, your town is a skate park. That is just the way it is. Like he said,
it is beautiful. You can't beat this town for skating right now and to give us a
parking lot in the middle of the best skate park I have ever seen that is just by
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#7 page 5
itself, it just doesn't seem- It is not going to working. And I mean for- On this
ticket, you know, the surcharge and court cost, when you take away that, $10.00
goes to the city. I mean, we had 3-4 cops chasing us yesterday for a long time and
they don't like it, we don't like it. we all laugh at it in the end. But $10.00 to the
city. We used up at least $10.00 in police money and man hours just trying to
catch us. And this is a daily event whether they catch us or not, you know, they are
still chasing us.
Atkins/Don't break the law and then there is not a problem We are trying to come up
with a solution. Now five years ago you may have been upset with us. I think we
just put on the table-
Getting/I am not upset with you. I am sorry, I don't mean to interrupt. I am not upset. I
just think that the city is pretending to do something when they are not. What you
just proposed is a great thing and you know, more power to it but five years- It has
taken five years to get us in the lobby talking to a guy to get names and addresses.
That is all that is going to happen here.
Kubby/To answer your question directly, the purpose behind the proposed ordinance is
safety.
Getting/For the downtown businesses.
Nov/No, for the pedestrians.
Getting/Well they are the ones backing it because obviously they don't want-
Nov/No, we are backing it. We are talking about safety tbr pedestrians. If we provide a
parking lot in which the skateboard, any one who is on the sidewalk will be
ticketed and will be ticketed much more strictly than they are now.
Kubby/But the reason we are- I mean, you are right. This has come up maybe 2-3 times
since I have been on council and usually what we have done in the past is ask
Parks and Rec- Ask you to go to Parks and Recreation and they said this is low
priority. We don't want to deal with it.
Getting/Actually they tell us to come back to you. I mean we have been going around in
circles for awhile.
Kubby/And so what is happening this time is that people are saying there is still a safety
concern and some of us had said you can't say you basically have no place to go
because it is still going to happen and it is not fair to a large group of people in a
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#7 page 6
growing sport as well as a growing transportation mode. Those two things are
connected. And so we are trying to step back a little and it may not come to
anything. This ordinance may be back in this form. But it is worth a try because
you all are going to be creative because you have some motivation to make this
happen in a good way. I agree, when there is talk about putting obstacles out and
taking them back, if it is going to be your responsibility and that may or may not
happen.
Getting/I guess there is a misunderstanding. I am under the impression that you guys
think that that means that people aren't going to skate downtown, they are not
going to skate on the sidewalks. It is not going to stop. If it is going to be between
giving me- I mean $28.00 is nothing. I will pay $28.00 everyday of the week if you
want me to. But to a 15 year old kid who just wants to learn how to skate and he
gets caught one time, it is intimidating. I have been thrown in jail countless times. I
have been roughed around by police, you know. I don't even need to get into it
but it is enough to make somebody quit if they don't have the money and it just
seems like if you are going to make it more illegal in the places that we already
skate and give us one little spot, it would be my opinion and I would ask you to
seriously consider leaving it the way it is because-
Norton/You mean you think sidewalks downtown ought to be fair game for skating?
Getting/You know, the hours thing is nice and if you could put hours on the entire town.
There is times in this town, I mean, most of the time when I go skating and don't
get hassled with it is 3:00 Am. There are times when nobody is in town. You
know. There are still times at 3:00 AM when I have half the police force chasing
me all through town, running through buildings for no reason at all. You know.
Norton/But I understand the mechanism that is being proposed tonight with a committee
to represent you, there is no requirement that that speaks only to the focus use of
one particular place in town. Maybe you can discuss any other aspects where you
think-
Getting/(Talking at same time).
Norton/You can certainly consider other aspects of this ordinance. And we got to try to
expand beyond skateboards. We haven't talked with the in-liners, I guess, yet.
Getting/That was my other question.
Kubby/Don't let our beginning comments I made about what we thought a solution might
be limit your thinking. Don't let us limit your thinking.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#7 p~e7
Getting/My other question was it says here you are going to define non-motorized
vehicles. How far does that go? Does that include bikes and-?
Norton/In-line, unicycles.
Nov/It does mention bikes. It says bikes aren't allowed on the sidewalks and bikes aren't
allowed on the pedestrian mall as well as skateboards. It does mention bikes. It
eliminates things like a babystroller, wheelchairs. Those kinds of non-motorized
vehicles are allowed on sidewalks. A copy of this ordinance is available if you
come into the City Clerks Office during the daytime.
Getting/I think it shows another thing too about how it is being regulated. That the only
people here are- I mean, granted there are probably a couple of in-liners but there
are only skateboards here. I have never seen a biker get a ticket. I have lived in this
town for a long time. I have a stack of these things.
Nov/We guarantee that the bikers are getting tickets. Don't worry about that.
Getting/You don't have four cops chasing a biker fi'om the east side of town to the west
side of town doing everything they can to get him. I have never seen that happen. I
have never seen a rollerblader get caught. They ask them to take it off and they ask
them to leave. When I get grabbed, I get grabbed cuffed, thrown in jail and then
they tell me. You know, it is not the same.
Nov/We understand. Is there anyone else who would like to talk about the skateboarding
or in-line skating or anything that applies to this ordinance?
Ben Hartley/I live at 1126 Sheridan Avenue. I am in-liner. I am- Heath mentioned,
somebody that came up with a petition, and hopefully other people. I am part of
that little group. Mainly just to get input on both sides of in-liners. I know the city
is perfect for skateboarding. The city is perfect for rollerblading, too. There is a lot
of perfect things in this city and like he was saying, that is- We can come up with
these different laws or whatever and it is still going to be really hard to come up- It
is going to be really hard to stop it. I know, the closest skate park for us for
rollerbladers, bikers, BMX bikers, skateboarders is in Davenport. That is Rampage
and they charge $7.50 or whatever it is to go for the day and that is the closest
thing that is legal for us to skate besides now the parking lot and really what I am
saying is- I don't even know what I am saying now. As long- It is- You are not
going to be able to stop. I mean, we pay $7.00. I go up there. We use to go up
there every weekend, as much as we can. Sometimes Friday and Saturdays. And
$28.00. I have been warned many times. Another thing, me personally, I haven't
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#7 page 8
gotten a ticket. I have been chased by University cops and people, me personally.
A couple of my friends have been ticketed and everything. But the $28.00 or
whatever, it is pretty much to me that is paying to use the facilities that we have
and like you were saying, it is just going to mean, to me, I mean it is not going to
stop otherwise. That is what I am trying to get at mainly. And I think it is great
that we are trying to get it and our odds of coming up with committee to decide on
places to do which- I mean it does need to happen and once it does happen, I think
it will be so much better everywhere else. It will cut down on the use of other
places but mainly we are still going to use everything else and that is about it. I am
just saying it is a good thing that we are doing this.
Nov/Is there anyone else who has something to add, something different that we have not
already heard?
Dave Johnson/I like to ride skateboards. I don't have any solutions to any of this, any of
these problems, because I am really not willing to compromise my rights as a
skateboarder. To me this is a sport that it is the complete embodiment of freedom
and youth and playfulness. It is like when was the last time you saw a businessman
and say hey, I know a great bench where we can go eat out lunch. A skateboarder
comes by and he sees this bench and he comes flying, all he is on the bench and
slides across and pretty soon you got a group of kids, enjoying this bench for
hours. And I am not going to quit. I got chased by a cop on the way to school and
I don't really like saying this to you but it made me smile all day to know that I
outran this cop. I walked into class and like yeah. You know, this is my thing, this
is my freedom. I turn this city into my playground and I am willing not to skate on
marble benches. Like I spoke with a gentleman in Boulder, Colorado over spring
break and he asked me not to ride on his benches and I was like why. He said well
we spent a lot of money redoing this place and we have people coming into here to
look at it and we rely on them for grants. I was like okay, you know, this is- You
paid for this and you are relying on other people, to come and see how beautiful
this place is and keep it. But then there is this other aspect like Pappajohn. You
hire people to come and watch the cement so that it stays beautiful. Sounds funny
to me. Cement, you know. To outlaw skateboarding and to tell kids that they can't
skateboard, well, they are not going to quit. You are going to create 150 outlaws
in this town because it is just more than just a sport. It is a way of life for a lot of
these kids. It is the only positive outlet that a lot of people have, for angst and
confusion and a lot of aggressions, something that we can do with our bodies. Put
it in motion and do something just totally beautiful andunique and nobody else can
do it and that is really all I have to say. Thank you.
Nov/Okay folks. We are going to continue the p.h. to May 6. I hope everybody will get
together-
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#7 p~e9
Kubby/We have a couple of other people who would like to speak.
Sandy
Shaw/I am sorry for not jumping up. You were going to close it but I am Sandy
Shaw and live at 2806 Eastwood Drive and I am the mother of skateboard
enthusiast and I just have a couple of issues I haven't heard the young people
mention. This is a tough town for young people to grow up in and there are a lot
of temptations to use alcohol. That is the primary social interaction downtown for
many of our citizens. That is illegal for many of these kids that are not old enough
to be doing that and they found an activity to do that isn't using drugs, isn't using
alcohol, and isn't a random act of violence around our community. And we should
be applauding that. We should be providing them options for that, not restricting
that. but my main concern is the semi-constitutional kind of issue. I think when we
are making an ordinance to restrict rights of our citizens, we need to take extreme
caution in doing that and the first thing I would ask you to answer for me is there
documented need for this restriction?. Do we have more than a perception of
safety issue? Do we have documentation? And if your answer to that is yes, then I
say let's proceed to answer the next question. If the answer is no, then this
ordinance should fail on that merit alone. If the answer is yes, then we should look
at is this the minimum restriction of these individual rights in order to meet the
need that you have addressed. And I would say no to that as well and especially
when we look at business district, the downtown area and banning it all together.
That is pretty restrictive. And I have some information from New York City where
they did not choose to restrict it and ban it all together and there is no argument
that that is a much more populated and dense business district than our own. And
instead of restricting and banning it altogether, they chose to make an ordinance
that made reckless use of skateboards and in-line skates a traffic violation. And
you know, you hear these kids talking about police chasing them around for a
recreational activity. That disturbs me. That is not- I guess it is an illegal activity if
you make it an illegal activity. But I question that we are, as citizens, protected by
our police going after these kids for some recreation that looks to me like healthy
recreation. So I do have a press release that I would like to share with you and
have you look at about Mayor Giuliani's proposal for New York City Ordinance
that is much less restrictive than what you proposed here.
Kubby/I think the University of Iowa, part of their guidelines has to do with behavior
rather than the fact of skating.
Nov/No, that is not-
Kubby/I am not saying totally. I am not saying totally but there is a section of it that talks
about reckless-
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#7 page 10
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 97-68 SIDE 2
Kevin Shannon/(Can't hear).
Nov/Come forward. Let's get one more comment here. You, please. We are not going to
talk about the University's restrictions because we have no jurisdiction. They may
or may not restrict this as much as we do but we have no-
Kubby/We could use it as a model, as another example.
Nov/Okay, please state your name.
Kevin
Shannon/From Iowa City. A life long resident. I saw you all a couple of weeks ago.
I am not too nervous tonight. I will make this short and sweet. ! know it is getting
late tonight. Anyway, I have to point out there are well over 45 kids here tonight,
not kids, young adults, college age students. And I am glad they came down
tonight. I had nothing but favorable comments from the general public and I know
a lot of people in town. I am sure you all do, too. From the last television debut
here and some people caught it like a Sunday morning or Thursday evening or
whatever it was on and I was almost afraid to look at it the first time but stage
fright got me back. Anyway. But it was favorable comments they said. Try to get
something for the kids someplace if not over in the parking lot, someplace. And I
was glad to hear tonight that you have an open suggestion to work with the group
and come up with a possible working solution to this whole problem. So that
solves a lot ofq,uestions and things I had lined up. So we won't solve anything
until we work together. So that is a good idea if we are not shut out altogether. So
that sounds good. I did walk through the parking lot over here tonight and there is
some damage over there on a park bench that I noticed and it was very possibly
probably was a skateboard that took a chunk of concrete or whatever that is made
out of, fiberglass mixture or whatever. That could be repaired. The fact is is that it
is there and there was also some black marks or paint marks, fiberglass marks on
the edges of some of these benches. They can be removed and I can go do it
myself and that brings up an idea. Maybe once a month, until we get something
taken care of for a solution to this, maybe a band of these kids and myself or any
adult that wants to, go over and clean up the area. Scour it down a little bit and
make it look like it was until we get whatever we are going to have someday.
Anyway, an idea something in the City Park. City Park closes at 10:30. There
would have to be an amendment or something or something changed the law there.
So that would be a problem and everybody wants them go someplace else. Well, I
don't want them next door to me because the clip clop at night. It is a residential
area but downtown is kind of a commercial, you know, noise type area anyway. So
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#7 page 11
anyway, just a thought. I won't rattle on too much longer here. Anyway, that is-
As far as vandalism and painting and things like this, I don't know if these guys
and gals are painting anything over there or not. I looked in the elevator areas over
here. There is some writing over here but they probably didn't do it. So I think
they are getting the blame for some of this stuff but they 'are not doing it. Just
because they are there, they are a victim of circumstance. They are not all perfect
angels but- Anyway, one little note here. I believe back in 1954, the original Rec
Center down here where the current one is at. It burned to the ground and it was
10 years later before the next one opened up. To me that is good old fashion foot
dragging. And we don't know whose fault it was. I know, I don't have access to
newspapers. I suppose ifI did my homework I could go down and find out to the
archives. But why was there a 10 year span where there was nothing but just kids
go someplace else, go to gymnasiums. There was other efforts made but the
building finally up is a nice building. A nice facility. But where did they go for 10
years. It is like go someplace else. I don't know. Anyway, I haven't heard of
anything or any cars getting vandalized by the kids. I heard stories about
somebody bumping a car or something but actual proof~ I haven't heard anything.
Not to say it didn't happen or hasn't happened or that it won't happen. It seems
like sometimes we are thinking of things that could happen and the next thing you
know it did happen but not really.
Nov/We are going to have to think abotu these kinds of things. We may have to say that
if skateboarding is allowed after a certain time, that parking is not allowed after
that time. We will work on it.
Shannon/Anyway, I realize the kids are not wanted on the ped mall. That is understood
and I think these 45 here or so and all of their friends, they know that and you just
have to abide by the law. That is how we all survive in a society like this. So
anyway, and I do have to tell you I was awarded a couple of years ago with a free
pizza coupon for having a helmet on, lights, and everything at night by a police
officer in the community. So it was delicious. Thank you for hearing us and me
again and thank you for working with us.
Nov/I
have to say that I saw children on bicycles today as I drove into down, both of
whom were riding on the sidewalk in a residential area, which is fine. It is legal in
the residential area. Both of whom were wearing helmets. Then I passed two
adults on bicycles, riding on the street, and not wearing helmets. So I have to give
the credit to the kids on that one.
Could we have a motion to accept correspondence? Moved and seconded
(Kubby/Lehman) that we accept correspondence. All in favor, please say aye-
(ayes). Okay. P.h. is now continued to May 6.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#7 page 12
We need a motion to continue. Moved by Lehman, seconded by Vanderhoefthat
we continue to May 6. All in favor, please say aye- (ayes).
Kubby/I would like to request some information because some of the questions was do
we have information about safety issues which is the motivation and I haven't seen
any. We could easily go through recent police records for the last year, whatever is
computerized, to see any kind of car pedestrian skater collision or property
damage just to see what those are if there are any.
Thornberry/How much time and effort are we talking about here?
Atkins/I think we have to do it to substantiate the issue. Another thing to keep in mind is
that it could be the problem is your liability coverage. And the insurance agencies
are usually very good about collecting data on accidents. We will that together for
you. That is no problem.
Kubby/Thank you.
Nov/It isn't just that we have say this is dangerous because somebody fell down and
broke a leg or something like that. It is dangerous because of all the near misses.
People have almost been hit by the child on a skateboard or the adult on the
skateboard. It is just not the way we want pedestrians to be treated.
Norton/The New York Ordinance is interesting. I think we ought to take a look.
Nov/Let's take a look at it. We need a motion to defer first consideration to May 6.
(Can't hear). It has been moved and seconded (Lehman/Kubby) to defer first
consideration to May 6. All in favor, please say aye- (ayes) Motion carried. We are
going to take a break.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
April 22, t997
ITEM NO. 8.
City of Iowa City
Page
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS,
FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR CONSTRUCTION
OF THE RAW WATER MAIN PROJECT - CONTRACT l IN CONNECTION
WITH THE WATER SUPPLY AND TREATMENT FACILITIES
IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT, ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID
SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO
PUBLISH NOTICE TO BIDDERS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR
RECEIPT OF BIDS.
Comment: This project includes installation of a raw water pipeline from the
existing plant to Foster Road and construction of the Iowa River Trail from
Park Road to Taft Speedway. The raw water pipeline, when extended to the
peninsula from the new plant site, will provide additional well water to the
existing water plant prior to the start-up of the new water plant. After the new
plant is constructed, this line will transport raw water from the existing Jordan
well and the Burge wells to the new plant. The estimated construction cost is
$995,221 and will be funded from water revenues.
PUBLIC HEARING
Action:
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING
Action: ~ '~~/' ,~~
#8 page 1
ITEM NO. 8 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING PLANS,
SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR
CONSTRUCTION OF THE RAW WATER MAIN PROJECT - CONTRACT 1 IN
CONNECTION WITH THE WATER SLIPPLY AND TREATMENT FACILITIES
IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT, ESTABLISHING AMO'UNT OF BID SECURITY TO
ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH NOTICE TO
BIDDERS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS.
b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING
Nov/Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Norton. Discussion.
Kubby/I am really goad that we are doing this. Our new treatment plant won't be on line
for 5-6 years and this will allow us to have a better raw water source sooner than
that to at least partially deal with some of our problems. Our choices are dilution
with a better water source or chemicalize the water to deal with some of the regs
and I would much rather have a better raw water source. I am ready to do that.
Nov/This is our first step, new water.
Norton/Where does this actually connect at Taft, from Park Road to Taft Speedway?
Where- Does it hit right at the edge there? Like adjacent to the road?
Nov/You mean the trail?
Norton/Yeah, the trail and the line, the water line. Does it go right along the edge of the
road?
Chuck Schmadeke/It will be in the Terrill Mill Park.
Norton/How far back?
Schmadeke/At the north end there are Taft Speedway it is just to the left of the parking
lot that is off of Taft.
Norton/So it is well back from the road, yeah, right.
Nov/Roll call- (yes). The resolution is approved.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcriptiou of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
April 22, t997
ITEM NO. 9.
City of Iowa City
Page '12
CONVEYANCE OF A TWELVE-AND-A-HALF-FOOT WIDE, SEVENTY-FIVE
FOOT LONG (937.5 SQ. FT.) PARCEL OF VACATED F STREET RIGHT-OF-
WAY LOCATED ALONG THE SOUT~HERN PROPERTY LINE OF
839 S. FIRST AVENUE TO CHESTER AND RETTA PELSANG.
Comment: In January, 1997, the City Council considered and passed an
ordinance vacating a twelve-and-a-half-foot (12.5') wide, seventy-five foot
long (937.5 sq. ft.) parcel of right-of-way along F Street located
immediately adjacent to the southern property line of 839 S. First Avenue.
The Pelsangs have redeveloped the adjacent property and, after City
approval, constructed a handicapped parking space within the vacated F
street right-of-way. The Pelsangs now wish to purchase the vacated right-
of-way so that their entire parking facility is located on their property. The
Pelsangs have offered to purchase the 937.5 sq. ft. parcel of vacated right-
of-way for the sum total of $2,559.38, which mirrors the assessed value
per square foot ($2.73 sq. ft.) of their adjacent property. All utility
easements over the parcel will be retained. After the public hearing and
due Council consideration, this resolution authorizes conveyance of the
vacated property to Chester and Retta Pelsang.
PUBLIC HEARING
Action:
ITEM NO. 10.
b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING
^c,,on:
CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 2 OF THE CITY CODE,
THE HUMAN RIGHTS ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, IOWA,
TO MAKE IT SUBSTANTIALLY EQUIVALENT TO THE FEDERAL FAIR
HOUSING AMENDMENTS ACT OF 1989. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Comment: The Iowa City Human Rights Commission has recommended
enactment of amendments to the Iowa City Human Rights Ordinance that will
make the ordinance substantially equivalent to the federal Fair Housing
Amendments Act of 1989. A certificate of substantial equivalency from the
Department of Housing and Urban Development will allow the Iowa City
Human Rights Commission to investigate complaints of housing
discrimination in Iowa City and will provide federal funds to the Commission
to facilitate such investigation.
#9 page I
ITEM NO. 9 CONVEYANCE OF A TWELVE-AND-A-HALF-FOOT WIDE,
SEVENTY-FIVE FOOT LONG (937.5 SQ. FT.) PARCEL OF VACATED F STREET
RIGHT-OF-WAY LOCATED ALONG THE SOUTHERN PROPERTY LINE OF
839 S. FIRST AVENUE TO CHESTER AND RETTA PELSANG.
b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING
Nov/Moved by Lehman, seconded by Thornberry. Any discussion? I like the price. I think
the exact per square foot is really neat. Roll call- (yes). Okay, we have a 6-0 vote,
Kubby absent.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#10 page 1
ITEM NO. 10 CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 2 OF THE CITY
CODE, THE HUMAN RIGHTS ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF IOWA CITY,
IOWA, TO MAKE IT SUBSTANTIALLY EQUIVALENT TO THE FEDERAL FAIR
HOUSING AMENDMENTS ACT OF 1989. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Nov/Moved by Lehman, seconded by Norton. Discussion.
Norton/Well, I just want to remind- I am sure now we are recognizing that the City is
accepting some risk in this process, right? Of absorbing some court costs of cases
that a complainant decides to take to court. Is that correct?
Nov/Well, we will let Heather answer that.
Norton/We don't know exactly how big but I presume that is a possibility.
Heather Shank/According to HUD, we can take some of the start up money that comes
to us as a result of being substantially equivalent and funnel it into a special
account for litigation that comes up. But, you know, the funding, the start up
money is for two years and I don't know what will happen the second year in
terms of the funding. We are guaranteed $100,000, I think, for the first year. And
so depending on what Congress does the second year-
Norton/And that liability would only be for cases in the housing area?
Shank/That is correct.
Norton/So the ones that they have the option to go to court.
Shank/Just in the housing area if they choose to elect to go to district court.
Thornberry/Heather, is this going to allow you to have another person on staff for this-
just for housing?
Shank/That is correct, right. According to HUD, they want an individual that works
substantial amount just exclusively in housing.
Thornberry/Okay.
Shank/And that start up money is suppose to fund that person's position.
Thornberry/Do you are saying after the first year the funding is no longer available.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#10 page 2
Shank/Well, I think it would be available in the second year but I don't know how much
depending on what their budget is, how much they are allotting. They guaranteed
Cedar Rapids $100,000 for two years. I don't know if the rules will change given
that Quomo has taken over or what they will do in terms of the budget next year.
So-
Thornberry/Have you seen much problem in this area?
Shank/Actually the state generally gets the complaints regarding discrimination in housing
in Iowa City.
Thornberry/You don't know how many that the state gets from the Iowa City area?
Shank/Actually I think since 1994 they received 11 and the women in Washington D.C.
who is influential or important at HUD indicated that based on the fact that people
do outreach, then there is many more complaints generally filed after there is
education of the public.
Norton/Invite is what you mean, yeah.
Shank/As to what their rights are.
Thornberry/So if we have an average of two per year, the person isn't going to be real
busy.
Shank/
According to Loretta Dickson from HUD in Washington, she says that when
Cedar Rapids ordinance became substantially equivalent, they actually received
quite a few complaints that keep two people busy. So I think there is probably
chances are highly likely that there would be more than two.
Kubby/And when this person is not working on the current case, they can do education to
prevent discrimination.
Shank/Right, that is the second half of their job is outreach. It is really intensive outreach.
It has had great success. According to the city attorney in Dubuque, he thinks that
this is a great program and have benefited greatly from the funding and the whole
process because it has really helped things.
Thornberry/Thank you.
Nov/Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#10 page 3
Shank/You are welcome.
Norton/Good luck.
Shank/Thank you.
Nov/Any other discussion? Roll call- (yes). We have approved first consideration.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
April 22, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 13
ITEM NO. 11.
CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 9 OF THE CITY CODE OF
IOWA CITY ENTITLED "MOTOR VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC," BY
AMENDING CHAPTER 3, SECTION 6C THEREIN TO EXTEND THE
SCHOOL ZONE ON BENTON STREET FROM BENTON DRIVE TO
HUDSON AVENUE. (SECOND CONSIDERATION)
Comment: A request has been received from the MilledOrchard
Neighborhood Association. The pedestrian crosswalk across Benton Street
for Roosevelt School is mid-block between Miller Avenue and Hudson
Avenue. This is outside of the designated 20 mph school zone, and traffic is
not required to slow down to 20 mph until after passing the crosswalk. The
request is to extend the school zone to Hudson Avenue to incorporate the
pedestrian crosswalk into the zone. The length of the extended school zone
is consistent with other school zones in the area. Staff has evaluated this
matter and concurs with the request. Staff recommends expedited
consideration of this item.
ITEM NO, 12.
lZ.~
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE FY98, 99, 2000, 2001, AND
2002 OFFICIAL REPORT OF MUNICIPALITIES FOR THE STREET
CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM FROM JULY 1, 1997, TO JUNE 30, 2002.
ITEM NO. 13.
Comment: The Iowa State Code requires that cities receiving allotments of
Road Use Tax Funds submit a five (5) year program of proposed street
construction and reconstruction to the Iowa Department of Transportation for
their review. This report must be submitted to the IDOT by May 1 of each year.
The report in no way binds the City to these projects or the timing, and
modifications can be made. A copy of the report is included in Council packet.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION OF
TEMPORARY CONSTRUCTION EASEMENTS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF
THE WYLDE GREEN SANITARY SEWER REPLACEMENT PROJECT.
Comment: The City of Iowa City must acquire permanent easements and
temporary construction easements to construct the Wylde Green Sanitary
Sewer Replacement Project. This resolution authorizes City staff to negotiate
and the Mayor to sign these documents, including authorization of
condemnation if necessary. Every effort will be made to negotiate acceptable
agreements without resorting to condemnation. Prior to proceeding with
condemnation, staff will notify Council.
#12 page 1
ITEM NO. 12 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE FY98, 99, 2000, 2001,
AND 2002 OFFICIAL REPORT OF MUNICIPALITIES FOR THE STREET
CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM FROM JULY 1, 1997, TO JUNE 30, 2002.
Nov/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Norton. Discussion.
Kubby/I will be voting for this but I do want to go on public record that Project #16 First
Avenue Extended I object to and the timing of it and I am glad that this doesn't
bind us.
Nov/I have to tell you I like the idea that we finally got River Street on the list. I drove on
River Street today and it is in bad shape. Okay, roll call- (yes). Okay, we have
adopted the resolution.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
April 22, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 14
ITEM NO. 14.
ITEM NO. 15.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING
MAYOR TO SIGN AND CITY CLERK TO ATTEST CONTRACT FOR
CONSTRUCTION OF THE '1997 ASPHALT RESURFAClNG PROJECT.
Comment: The bid opening for this project was held April 15, 1997. The
following bid was received:
L.L. Pelling Co., Inc., North Liberty, IA
Engineer's Estimate
$731,711.70
$707,612.00
Public Works and Engineering recommend award of the contract to L.L. Pelling
Co., Inc. of North Liberty, IA. Funding for this project will be from Road Use
taxes.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING, AUTHORIZING AND
DIRECTING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE AND THE CITY CLERK TO
ATTEST AN AGREEMENT BY AND BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY
AND NNW, INC. OF IOWA CITY TO PROVIDE ENGINEERING
CONSULTANT SERVICES FOR THE DESIGN OF THE RECONSTRUCTION
OF WOOLF AVENUE BETWEEN NEWTON ROAD AND BAYARD STREET.
Comment: This project involves the removal and replacement of existing
WooIf Avenue pavement between Newton Road and the WooIf Avenue bridge,
and between the WooIf Avenue bridge and Bayard Street, along with sidewalk
improvements, and the installation of water main and storm sewer facilities.
Contracted engineering services including concept statement phase,
preliminary plan phase and final plan phase will total $35,700 and will be
funded with road use tax revenues. The design of the WooIf Avenue bridge
was contracted to NNW, Inc. in 1994. Construction of the project (bridge and
roadway) is tentatively scheduled to begin in January 1998 and will take
approximately 12 months to complete.
Action:
ITEM NO. 16.
97 -/_%0
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION CERTIFYING UNPAID MOWING AND CLEAN-
UP OF PROPERTY CHARGES TO JOHNSON COUNTY FOR COLLECTION
IN THE SAME MANNER AS A PROPERTY TAX.
Comment: This resolution authorizes the filing of a lien against properties
for unpaid mowing and clean-up charges. On April 7, letters were mailed
to each property owner listed in Exhibit A notifying them of the date for the
Council's consideration of the resolution. After the resolution is moved for
adoption, property owners should be permitted to be heard concerning the
unpaid charges. ~,~./¢~,
Action: ~'~'/-/~,~.2//~~ /~~~- ~,
//14 page I
ITEM NO. 14 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND
AUTHORIZING MAYOR TO SIGN AND CITY CLERK TO ATTEST CONTRACT
FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE 1997 ASPHALT RESURFACING PROJECT.
Nov/Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Lehman. Discussion.
Thornberry/Only one bid was given on this project. Nobody else wanted to do it?
Atkins/It is not uncommon on this one because of the size of it.
Kubby/It is because L.L. Pelling is so big.
Fosse/
Well, no it is not that. It is economics of bringing an asphalt batch plant to Iowa
City. They are the only one locally. The prices were climbing on us. We were up to
$41.50 per ton in 1984 and that is when we decided to begin doing this project
every other year and it changed the economics and it allowed the possibility of
somebody else bidding it and the price now is at $34.81 a ton. So we are lower
than we were in the mid-80's. If you go back 20 years, we were getting a price at
$27.50 per ton. So we have only gone up just a shade over 1% per year on a 20
year average. So I think we are getting a good price and we definitely get a good
product from Pelling. So I am comfortable with this.
Thornberry/It was close to the engineer's estimate.
Fosse/It was the traffic control that was a killer on this. We estimated $40,000 for traffic
control and they bid $60,000.
Norton/They bid what?
Fosse/They bid $60,000 for traffic control.
Norton/And you counted how much?
Fosse/$40,000. All of these projects, all of the streets that we will do will be under traffic
and it is very difficult thing to accomplish, especially when you consider we are
getting some arterial streets done.
Thornberry/When you say traffic control, does that mean somebody standing out there
will a little sign?
Fosse/That is one component of it.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#14 page 2
Nov/I think there must be more than that.
Fosse/Yes, there is.
Atkins/There is set up, take down, all of the-
Fosse/Arrow boards, pilot cars.
Atkins/They set it up and then take it all down. You lose- I mean it is a day just to set up
for a job.
Fosse/Part of that, too, is just phasing because you can't just get in and do it. You have
got to split everything up to keep the traffic going through there.
Atkins/Flag guy is the best job in the summer time, isn't it?
Thornberry/At least they don't have to follow vehicles down the road for eight miles, wait
while the car comes back.
Nov/Okay.
Kubby/Thanks, Rick.
Nov/All right, any other discussion? Roll call- (yes). We approve this resolution.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#16 page I
ITEM NO. 16 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION CERTIFYING UNPAID MOWING AND
CLEAN-UP OF PROPERTY CHARGES TO JOHNSON COUNTY FOR
COLLECTION IN THE SAME MANNER AS A PROPERTY TAX.
Nov/Moved by Lehman, seconded by Norton. Is there any property owner who has a lien
for mowing charges? No, okay.
Thornberry/Linda, how many are there outstanding?
Woito/Two.
Kubby/Usually there are a lot more than that.
Woito/Yes.
Nov/There is no person here to speak. Is there any council discussion? Roll call- (yes).
Karr/Could we have a motion to accept correspondence under this one?
Nov/Moved by Norton, seconded by Thornbetray to accept correspondence.
Kubby/What correspondence did we get?
Karr/You got something distributed late.
Norton/Oh, the was the second one, wasn't it?
Karr/Yes.
Norton/Because there was only one in our packet, yeah.
Nov/All in favor, please say aye- (ayes). Motion carried.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
April 22, 1997
ITEM NO. 17.
ITEM NO. 18.
ITEM NO. 19.
City of Iowa City
Page 15
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND
THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A LEASE FOR BUSINESS PROPERTY
WITH THE JOHNSON COUNTY AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION FOR
RENTAL OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY 4-H BUILDING IN IOWA CITY,
IOWA, FOR PURPOSES OF STORAGE OF CITY EQUIPMENT.
Comment: The City of Iowa City, Iowa, has leased a portion of the
Johnson County 4-H building for storage of Streets Division Equipment
since 1976, which lease shall expire on June 30, 1997. A new lease
with the Johnson County Agricultural Association has been negotiated for
the sum of $400 per month for two (2) ten-month periods with an
automatic one-year renewal and optional one-year renewal. This
Resolution authorizes the execution of the Lease for Business Property
with the Johnson County Agricultural Association.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION CALLING A SPECIAL ELECTION.
Comment: This resolution calls for an election to set before the voters the
question of whether the City should issue bonds not to exceed $22 million for
constructing and equipping a multi-purpose cultural center including an
expansion of the Iowa City Public Library, a 500-seat performance
auditorium, gallery and exhibit space, and a 100+ space parking garage.
The date set for the election is November 4, 1997. Staff memorandum
included in Council packet.
Action: ~/,c~/~t~
ANNOUNCEMENT OFVACANCIES.
a. Previously-Announced Vacancies.
(1)
Historic Preservation Commission - One vacancy to fill a three-
year term ending March 29, 2000 (Term expired for Douglas
Russell). (3 males and 3 females currently serve on this
Commission.)
This appointment will be made at the May 6 meeting of the City Council.
(2)
Board of Library Trustees - Three vacancies to fill six-year terms
ending July 1, 2003. (Terms expire for Stephen Greenleaf, Philip
Hubbard, and Margaret Cox.) (3 males and 3 females currently
serve on this Board.)
#17 page 1
ITEM NO. 17 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN
AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A LEASE FOR BUSINESS PROPERTY WITH
THE JOHNSON COUNTY AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION FOR RENTAL OF
THE JOHNSON COUNTY 4-H BUILDING IN IOWA CITY, IOWA, FOR PURPOSES
OF STORAGE OF CITY EQUIPMENT.
Nov/Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Thornberry. Discussion.
Vanderhoef/What do we store in there?
Arkins/Trucks, big heavy equipment. It is a real good deal.
Nov/And I assume that we take them out for two months in the summer time or
something like that?
Arkins/No, rotating a lot of the equipment, things we put in there.
Nov/Why does it say ten months?
Arkins/I couldn't tell you. I don't think we have anything in the real warm weather
months. In other words-
Karr/Take them out for the fair.
Atkins/That is it, they have to come out for the fair.
Kubby/So when we redevelop the airport land and we have a Public Works yard-
Atkins/Well, it doesn't look like we are going to have a Public Works yard on the airport
land. We have to come up with some more options.
Kubby/Well, we need to be hearing about that.
Atkins/I know you do. We are preparing a report for you. There is evidently some soil
problems and things beyond our control. Go ahead, I didn't mean to-
Kubby/Whatever-
Atkins/It just needs to be incorporated into the plan the fact that we would have
equipment storage.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#17 page 2
Kubby/All right, so will we be able to get out of this lease whenever we do wherever we
move out Public Works equipment.
Atkins/Given the schedule and the extensions on this thing I think we are okay.
Kubby/We re okay in being flexible for our purposes?
Atkins/Yes.
Kubby/Thank you.
Atkins/And I will fill you in on the other one. We have some difficulties there and we will
prepare a report. A report is being prepared for you.
Nov/Any other discussion? Roll call- (yes). All right, now, do you want to tell Karen why
you are laughing?
Thornberry/No.
Nov/Good, thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#18 page 1
ITEM NO. 18 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION CALLING A SPECIAL ELECTION.
Nov/Is a motion calling a special election for a bond issue for a multi-purpose expansion
of the public library, cultural center. The city council would plan to defer this
motion to June 17 and we will plan a special discussion work session for June 4 at
7:00 PM right here. So we are adding June 4 special discussion to the agenda and
this will be a deferral of the resolution to June 17.
Kubby/Is there a question about a date?
Karr/The date was firmed up for June 4 but I didn't know we firmed up the time. There
was some interest to start earlier in the day and maybe not go as late since this is
your third night in a row.
Baker/What day of the week?
Karr/It is a Wednesday.
Nov/It is a Wednesday but I thought that somebody said it had to be evening.
Vanderhoef/(Can't hear) until evening.
Karr/Okay.
Baker/I can't do it in the evening, I teach Monday and Wednesday nights.
Karr/I only had you down for Monday.
Nov/Oh.
Kubby/You got to tell Marian, it is very difficult.
Nov/All right, pool your calendars everybody and let's see if we can-
Kubby/No, this is going to be an hour conversation.
Norton/Tricky because we want to announce this publicly. Isn't it going to be a televised
work session basically?
Lehman/It is also going to be in about six weeks.
Norton/Naomi, are we talking about a televised work session?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#18 page 2
Nov/I am not sure that we are talking about televised. It is just a work session. But I
would like to get us moving along and we would like to have this meeting in June.
So let's find a June calendar and think about this quickly.
Baker/(Can't hear). I can do it in the late morning or early afternoon.
Kubby/I can't. What about Thursday.
Nov/All right, what day of the week?
Karr/Ernie leaves on Thursday. What time do you leave, Ernie?
Lehman/We leave early.
Kubby/This is like the option last night.
Nov/Yeah, it really was.
Thornberry/And Larry wasn't here.
Kubby/I think people who were gone need to wrestle or something to choose who is not
going to be here.
Nov/Wrestle?
Kubby/Or paper, rocks, scissors, best three out of five. That is probably the fairest.
Nov/All right, what if we move backwards. The date was the 4th. If we move back from
the 4th, based on the fact that Ernie is gone. We have a possibility of earlier on
Tuesday, the same Tuesday afternoon is a possibility.
Thornberry/How much time do you want to take?
Nov/Two hours.
Kubby/Two hours.
Lehman/That is fine.
Nov/That is okay?
This represents only a reasonably accurate trauscription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#18 page 3
Kubby/So are we looking now at the 27th of May?
Nov/No, Tuesday June 3.
Karr/That last week won't work. I have two people gone.
Nov/I am working backwards, day by day. Tuesday, the 3rd; Monday, the 2nd.
Thornberry/Tuesday the 3rd we can't do?
Nov/Tuesday the 3rd, two hours in the at~ernoon?
Thornberry/How about Tuesday the 3rd starting like say, if it takes two hours, starting at
4:00?
Nov/4:00 to 6:00, take a break and then do the regular meeting at 7:00. Does that work
for everybody?
Lehman/Yes.
Vanderhoef/(Yes).
Norton/There is not a meeting that night I take it?
Kubby/Yes, there is. Take a break and then start in at 7:00 again.
Karr/So it is Tuesday the 3rd, 4:00 to 6:00 and then a formal at 7:00.
Thornberry/Yes.
Baker/We can have dinner with that, won't we?
Karr/We could have dinner brought in.
Baker/That is just my suggestion.
Kubby/And the purpose of this meeting is to talk about costs, both capital and operating.
But mostly operating.
Thornberry/Maybe somebody could fill us in on the meeting that is held that Dee wasn't
invited to.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
/318 page 4
Nov/Karin, do you want to fill in? What that meeting did was basically assign projects to
various people who are suppose to report back by the end of May and I don't
remember exactly which projects and which people. So, if you, I don't have my
notes.
Kubby/Some of us weren't there and have no idea what you are talking about.
Franklin/Okay, what is being referred to is a meeting which the Chamber of Commerce
called in which they invited three members of the city council, myself, Susan Craig,
members of the Library Board, Chuck Trau from the Library Board, members of
the CenterSpace Committee as well as predominantly executive board or board
members of the Chamber of Commerce and it focused on some of the questions
that have been brought up within the Chamber of Commerce about the project.
The 64-1A project. And the idea of the meeting was to get people together to try
to articulate what the questions were that people had about this project. And this is
the packet of questions that came out of polling Chamber members and then also
discussion at that meeting. As I say, the Chamber hosted it. One of their goals is
for the Chamber to reach a position on this particular project. However, many of
these questions also are questions that one would expect anyone might have, any
voter might have about this project and the outcome of the meeting is an effort to
put together an information piece that concisely clearly articulates the various
components of this project and tries to answers these questions. We assigned
either people from the CenterSpace Committee, myself on behalf of the City, the
Library Board to come up with answers to these questions. I will be working with
these other two groups throughout the month of May to try to bring all of this
material together to have it done by the end of May. And that was the reason to
put off some of your discussion or at least your resolution, your decision until
June. To allow time for me to put that material, for all of us to put that material
together to get it to you so you have a clear idea of what the project is, what this is
about. Some of the questions have to do- Some of the major questions have to to
with the governance, management, and operating costs of the cultural center
performance auditorium because that is a new entity as opposed to the library
which is a known quantity. However there are questions also about the library,
such as the branch question. Well, these are questions that are still out in the
community. For those of us who have been discussing this project over a number
of months and in some cases over a period of years, all of this may be very familiar
and may be very redundant. However, there are a lot of people in the community
who know nothing about this, who haven't our familiarity. And so we have to step
back, try to put something together that anyone can understand. So people will
know what is going on. So that information will come together and be available to
you prior to this June 3 session. The June 3 session is for you to have a time to
discuss this issue and this issue alone in a period of time prior to June 17 when you
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#18 page 5
will vote on the resolution to set the bond referendum. You may also- You should
also during this month of May take the opportunity to reflect on the financial
issues that were raised last night, both in the larger sense of the city operations as a
whole and then obviously in so far as this project has any impact on that. To be
able to come to a decision as to how you are going to approach this financial
question. The ideal would be that you reach that decision on what your financial
plan is, that is how you will pursue the financial aspects of this project. To come to
that decision at the same time as you come to a decision on setting the bond
referendum.
Norton/Is the Chamber, did they get any tasks?
Franklin/No. The information- Well, I say no.
CHANGE TO REEL 97-69 SIDE 1
Franklin/In the interest groups that are part of this. So in that respect, yes.
Norton/They are not directly involved in, for example, thinking about private component
of this whole enterprise.
Franklin/Thinking about it. They are involved in thinking about it. However, in terms of
providing any information, that will come from us and I think that basically has to
do with going our for RFPs which we will be talking about at your next meeting.
So we will have some peripheral discussion- We will have some discussion of
issues that are related to this whole project, to the financial aspect of it, to the
private development in the month of May. However, your decision time is June 17
with a preliminary meeting or initial meeting on that June 3.
Baker/
Karin, it wouldn't be a problem for those members who were not at that meeting
to at least not have to wait for the questions to be answered. They can see the
questions.
Franklin/I can give you- I will get a clean copy.
Kubby/If possible, that our formal meeting and our packet that weekend not be as full as
usual.
Franklin/Oh, that is hard.
Kubby/Some of the things that are on that agenda can be spread out in non-council weeks
in May and have heavier reading during the lighter time.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the l. owa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#18 page 6
Karr/It is going to be really tough because you just postponed two major things today to
May 6. You have got the Animal Control coming up and you have got Non-
Motorized Vehicles, you got Elderly Housing and all of that stuff is coming up.
Franklin/That is for May. You are talking about the June meeting, aren't you.'?
Karr/Yeah but it is going to to-
Kubby/There will be ripple affects throughout the month of May because of that.
Nov/We will do some expedited considerations in May.
Kubby/To me this is another example of how there is so much going on. I think that we
need weekly informal work sessions to take care- I think we should have weekly
informal work sessions.
Norton/I wouldn't be at all surprised to keep up with it better, yeah.
Kubby/We would have, I think, more productive conversations if they were 2 to 2 1/2
hours on focus one or two issues and it is another example of where it would be
workable.
Nov/We also canceled some summer meetings. So we may have to re-schedule some
work sessions if we can. We will see. For now, June 3, 4:00 PM.
Baker/Only one mayor's proclamation. ,Just a joke, Naomi, Just a joke.
Nov/We only had one tonight. At least one that we read.
Moved by Kubby, seconded by Thornberry, that we defer this to June 17. is there
any other discussion? All in favor, please say aye- (ayes) Motion carries.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
April 22, 1997 City of Iowa City Page '16
(3)
Design Review Committee - One vacancy to fill a three-year term
ending July 1,2000. (Term expires for Randy Rohovit.) (4 males
and 2 females currently serve on this Commission.)
Note: Philip Reisetter's term also ends July 1, 1997, but will not be
filled. The number of members of the Design Review Committee
were to be decreased according to Resolution 96-264.
(4)
Historic Preservation Commission - Two vacancies to fill three-
year terms ending March 29, 2000; one representing the East
College Street District and one representing the College Green
District. (These are new positions on the Commission.) (3 males
and 3 females currently serve on this Commission.)
These appointments will be made at the May 20 meeting of the City
Council.
ITEM NO. 20.
CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS. ~Co trowel Adv
a. Consider one appointment to the A~imal isory Board: To
fill a three-year term ending May 4, 2000. (Term expires for Dennis
Cowles.) (1 male and 3 females currently serve on this Board.)
Consider'one appointment to the Civil Service Commission - To fill an
unexpired term ending April 1, 2000. (Susan Dulek resigned.)
(1 male and 1 female currently serve on this Commission.)
Consider one appointment to the Historic Preservation Commission
To fill an unexpired term ending March 29, 1999. (Sue Licht resigned:)
(3 males and 3 females currently serve on this Commission.)
Consider one appointment to the Planning and Zoning Commission -
To fill a five-year term ending May 1, 2002. (Term expired for Jane
Jakobsen.) (3 males and 3 females currently serve on this Commission.)
#20 page 1
#20 CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS.
Nov/Now, Marian, did we receive another application? Okay, no applications for Animal
Control Advisory.
We have no applications for Civil Service Commission.
We have one applicant for Historic Preservation, Lars Anderson.
We have two for P/Z and we have to choose somebody.
Lehman/I nominate Tom Scott.
Nov/Yes, thank you. Tom Scott didn't apply.
Council/(All talking).
Baker/Do we do Historic Preservation first?
Nov/We decided this one applicant would be appointed.
Norton/The Shive nomination.
Nov/Okay, we have had two people say okay to Philip Shive. I would go along with that.
Is there any further discussion? We appear to have a majority for Philip Shive. We
need a motion to appoint Shive and Lars Anderson. Then we can vote.
Moved by Lehman, seconded by Thornberry that we appoint Lars Anderson to
Historic Preservation Commission and Philip Shive to P/Z Commission. All in
favor, please say aye- (ayes). Motion carries and we will re-advertise the
commissions that did not receive appointments.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
April 22, 1997 City of Iowa City Page t7
ITEM NO. 21. CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION.
ITEM NO. 22.
REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY.
a. City Manager.
b. City Attorney.
ITEM NO. 23.
ADJOURNMENT.
#21 page I
ITEM NO. 21 CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION.
Nov/City Council Information. Mr. Norton, do you want to star?
Norton/I will cut a few of these up. What do we do with this request for open burning?
Kubby/I would like to make a suggestion and because we have specific exemptions in the
ordinance. That we refer this to our Fire Marshall or Fire Chief to see if it meets
the exception and if it does-
Woito/I have already referred it to Sarah Holecek who has talked to the Fire Marshall
about it and asked Sarah to call Bill Meardon and talk about the ordinance. There
are exceptions. This does not appear to fit in with any of the exceptions but we
will communicate that to Bill Meardon.
Lehman/How much property- How big a parcel are we talking about here?
Woito/I am not sure. I think they only would qualify if this were an agricultural land-
Nov/And storm damage and fire damage and things like that.
Woito/We will follow up.
Norton/The only other thing I have, Naomi, I know that we have some evaluation
sessions coming up and last year we promised ourselves we would perhaps follow
a little more systematic procedure which I am not sure we are ready to do but I
was sure hoping we would get some kind of a checklist or guideline of some kind.
I read one in one of the PM magazines about a few months ago but it somehow
got away from me and I went through the pile. Do you have it?
Kubby/I have it.
Norton/I think I will get it and send it around. In other words, something that we could
use as a bit of an outline to guide our consideration.
Nov/Do you remember the date because we have it?
Norton/Well, I went through all the ones over here and it somehow is missing.
Kubby/I have it. I know that I have that one at home. I will get it to Marian or Lisa for
our next packet.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
p~e2
Norton/So we could take a look at it. It might be useful. I think that is all I have. As I say,
I will restrain myself as usual.
Vanderhoef/Thank you.
Nov/Karen.
Kubby/We had a couple of letters in the packet that I feel merit some specific response.
One of them is from the DTA via Joe Murphy for a temporary stage downtown
and asking for city funds. And I am kind of hesitant to do it because we know we
are going to be doing work on the ped mall and even though they tried to design it
so that the materials are re-usable, I just- Especially with thinking about money
crunches. Even a couple of thousand dollars to do something that we know is
going to get removed.
Nov/I would be inclined to tell them that we have allocated $5,000. We have not told
them how they must spend it and if they choose to spend it in this fashion instead
of some other fashion, it is their choice.
Norton/I talked to some representatives-
Kubby/They need our permission to do it.
Norton/They said they could do it- In other words, the proposal that Joe had was maybe
more elaborate than they needed. We are talking about something pretty temporary
here and not with all the beams folded in that way but a platform that is built kind
of on top of that with 3/4 inch plywood or something properly braced a lot of the
work volunteered. I think it would be considerably less. But you need to get an
outlet under- For the light that is there rather than dragging a cord across the
street. We could do that I suppose.
Nov/I
think they can do that. I think that there is no reason why they could not construct
something in sections that they could pick up and store and put down again. I think
all of those ideas are doable. I am just not inclined to allocate anymore money.
Kubby/Even for electricity?
Nov/Well, we pay the electricity. Whatever electricity they have is our bill. We have
already paid that.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#21 page 3
Kubby/I am not talking about the cost of electricity but the putting the electrical
improvements. There is a lot of flowing of circuits. They have got to find a circuit
box.
Norton/I would put a little trying to get a platform, not $5,000. They want $5,000 just for
the platform.
Kubby/No, it was, I think, for the combination of the-
Helling/Their first estimate was about $5,000, split about 50/50 between the cost of the
stage that they were going to build and the cost of getting the additional electricity
back in there.
Norton/I am looking at a temporary, right.
Helling/Right row it was mentioned at the DTA this morning that they are looking at
some alternative, 3/4 inch plywood, 2 X 4s, 2 X 6s or something much more
temporary and-
Norton/And much cheaper. How much money did they need for that?
Helling/I think somebody throughout the number $500. I am not sure it would even be
that much because the labor can be donated.
Kubby/I guess I want to challenge them to figure out how to do this 100% voluntarily
and that we would allow them to do it.
Nov/I
would give them the permission to put in the electricity to put in whatever they
need. But I am not inclined to allocate more money. I think we have allocated
what we can afford to do.
Lehman/I think the other thing- I think, Karen, your point is well taken. We are talking
about re-doing that in the very near future and to spend money on something that
is going to be dismantled and we know will be dismantled soon, I think is probably
not money well spent. The other thing is I don't know how many years we have
had these concerts and I realize that dragging cords across the brick or whatever is
not as desirable as having the wiring in or whatever. Again, we are talking about a
very temporary situation and to my knowledge, these concerts have been
extremely successful. People love them and if we can just kind of work our way
through this summer or as you say, the DTA is willing to poll their members or ask
those of us downtown to contribute to the cost of building a platform, I have no
problem with that. Like Naomi said, we put $5,000 in.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#21 page 4
Norton/And they can get the light from out of that light pole. They can tap onto that.
Kubby/So the basic answer is no. I think we should respond to them. Say if they can do it
under their own abilities, we will allow them to make those improvements, those
temporary improvements, but no financial help from us.
Nov/I will send them a letter.
Kubby/The second letter that we got that I wanted to bring up is from Mark Edwards
requesting even some temporary sidewalks along Sycamore because so many
families walk down that way as well as all the soccer traffic going down there on
foot as well as there is more conflict between pedestrians and this particular traffic
going down to the soccer fields and I guess I would like to know what kind of
options there are for temporary facilities.
Norton/What does a temporary sidewalk look like. I was out there.
Atkins/It is tough, some sort of an asphalt surface we could put down temporarily. It is an
extension of one of our contracts. The difficulty is the roadway, the swails along
the edge, if we have to get on private property, public property and Mr. Edwards
who wrote a real nice letter deserves an answer.
Nov/He deserves an answer.
Norton/He is only talking about a block, right? Down to Lakeside or a little beyond?
Kubby/No, he is talking to the city limits. That is his specific request, I think.
Norton/I looked at that the other day and it is hairy. The kids were riding along there and
it is very narrow. There is ditches on both sides.
Atkins/His observation is correct. It is just a matter of trying to accomplish it in a
reasonable fashion. When the road is improved, then we will take care of all of
that. We will get him an answer.
Kubby/Thanks. We had at out last meeting appointed Dee Vanderhoef and Dean
Thornberry to represent us in out SEATS negotiations as council members and we
have not yet talked as a council about the issues in order to guide them in their
negotiations and so I feel like we need to do that because things are going to be
moving along here pretty soon. So I would like to request that that be part of our
next informal session and any advance reading we need to do to prepare for that.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
/321 page 5
Atkins/We had a meeting with staff with Dee and Dean and they have been briefed on the
general issues and asked us to prepare some information for them and it is being
done.
Kubby/I guess I want it scheduled so that we-
Norton/I would like to see that, too.
Atkins/Okay.
Nov/Okay.
Kubby/There are a couple of things in the meeting that we had with the school board and
county. We got something from the Nutrition Committee with three requests and I
want to make sure that we just do follow-up on that and don't let these sit. Some
of them seem fairly easy like asking the council to ask the Council of Elders at the
Senior Center to have a person who participates and uses the nutrition program to
be part of their Nutrition Committee.
Norton/I heard this is a long standing problem and that request has gone to the
Commission before. They tend not to want to deal with that set of volunteers.
They got many others. I understand it is kind of hung up.
Atkins/I spoke with Linda and asked her to get it to the Senior Commission to get these
issues up in front of them and report back to us. I have not checked on it.
Kubby/Okay, the three of them from the Nutrition Committee? There was also parking
and to just recognize the Nutrition program as a basic program at the Senior
Center.
Atkins/I will check the status.
Kubby/So that will come back to us from the Senior Center Commission?
Atkins/I asked Linda-
Norton/They want parking on Iowa Avenue as well as Linn. Complicated.
Kubby/My last item and it is referring to a memo frmn Joyce Carroll from the Recreation
Department about a thing that I think is really great. That she is trying to put
together during the Farmer's Market, which starts May 7 which is very soon I am
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#21 page 6
happy to say, through October 19. To have some kind of lower key entertainment
that is seem at the Friday Night Concert Series on Wednesday nights at the
Farmer's Market and we are not sure that we will be able to schedule every
Wednesday. So also we are also putting a call out to the community all levels of
proficiency and different kinds of music, string quartets, solos, contemporary,
different kinds of ethic music that is not real rocking. That would work well in the
parking ramp and not reverberate everywhere and we are talking about starting it
at 5:00 even though the Market doesn't start until start to 5:30. So you have half
hour of social time and cool out time after work to listen to music and then you
can start buying stuff at the Farmer's Market at 5:30. So if you want to get a hold
of Joyce, you can call her at 356-5100 and see if you can get scheduled to be part
of this entertainment.
Norton/Couldn't they play out in the lot, I mean out in the parking?
Kubby/I guess I just said that. I don't know that it is in-
Norton/I think it is very nice idea. We were talking last year about making it more lively.
Atkins/Vegetable shopping music.
Norton/But you still can't buy a bratwurst or something at the-
Kubby/Nor an eggroll.
Atkins/It is a farmer's market.
Kubby/That is all I have. Thank you.
Nov/Ernie.
Lehman/All I have is that sidewalk deal.
Nov/Okay, we all have a sidewalk deal.
Nov/Dean.
Thornberry/I have nothing this evening. It is late. It was a lot later last night.
Nov/Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#21 page 7
Vanderhoef/Okay. I have one that about a month ago we had a review, a memo from staff
on Case File Reviews from the Police Department and on April 14 and again on
April 18 we had a couple of more memos and it appears that the review of the
sidearms in police files is nearly completed for 1995. I asked Steve for some
additional information and what I wanted was what it has cost the city up to this
point to conduct this review. And his guestimate was roughly $8,000 for
temporary clerical help to pull this information from the files. At the same time I
started reviewing what we had and I have personally enough information from
these files. I do not see a pattern of any use of firearms that points to any trend or
over use of these firearms or sidearms. They are primarily being shown with
injured animal disposal and also in cases where there were other weapons in sight
or reported. In talking to Steve, I also asked about that third year of information
that we had requested earlier this year and the 1994 information is now on
microfiche and it will be a lot more difficult to sort out and his guestimate on cost
to do that is in the neighborhood of $16,000. I am ready to say let's close this
investigation of previous police files at this point when we complete the 1995 year
review.
Kubby/It makes sense.
Norton/I would say so.
Nov/Sounds fine.
Vanderhoef/Thank you.
Nov/We will continue the future review and future statistics.
Atkins/Yes, we are going to give you Use of Force Report every two months. Seems to
be okay with you unless you want monthly.
Vanderhoef/Yeah, that is fine. There is one other thing I was going to ask Steve to alert
the public about this memo on Community Service Workers.
Atkins/Community Service Workers. Is that the term I gave it?
Vanderhoef/That was what I saw.
Atkins/Those are individuals that go through the Magistrate Court process and are- I
don't know the proper legal term. Convicted of numerous misdemeanor types of
crimes can have their form of punishment and records ultimately expunged by the
performance of community service work and we have worked with the Magistrate
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcriptiou of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#21 page 8
and his office and our Personnel Office will administer it. We will be able to
provide worksite environments for these folks for a variety of tasks to try to make
the task at hand fit the particular circumstances the individual may have been
charged or convicted with.
Norton/I think it is wonderful that you got that far. Thanks for your cooperation.
Vanderhoef/I appreciate all of the work.
Nov/I
had an interesting comment from a library employees, I went to their volunteer
reception. They said that they have been using these folks, these workers to do
work at the library in order to work off their community service hours and some of
them had such a good time they continued for years afterwards. I have no idea
what they were convicted of but there were convicted legally in a court and
assigned community service duties and they put in their hours at the library and
decided it was fun.
Atkins/I can't assure you the environment will be as pleasant as the library at all times.
Nov/So we are not going to give them library duty.
Vanderhoef/That is all I have.
Nov/Larry.
Baker/Yeah, two things. One very quick and since Karin is here, I have a question for her
in just a second. I want to alert the council to a letter that is going to be coming to
you probably from a representative of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program which
comes out of a meeting last week by the JC Juvenile Crime Prevention Task Force.
Last summer the Iowa City Transit has a program for kids. They could buy these
fanny packs and use them as proof as a ticket for the whole summer and I
understand they are going to do a similar program with a different- Like a keychain
or something.
Atkins/Keychain. The thought now is that the keychain- A I to of these keys are latchkey
kids. It will actually be the bus pass. So they will hang their key on it and they can
show that to get on the bus with.
Baker/
Last year they had enough money through some of the service agencies to
purchase 30 to 50 of those fanny packs. This year they don't think they are going
to have the same budget allocation or same source of revenue or funding and they
are requesting that the city provide/donate a certain amount to this program,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#21 page 9
various youth programs that the service agencies handle. They like it because the
kids are not identified in any way different than other kids. So the request will be
coming for a certain number of passes free and I individually said I wouldn't have
any problems with it. I would just alert the council.
Atkins/Traditionally the council has granted me a great deal of discretion in those types of
programs. We will provide bus passes to the Crisis Center and to those folks. I
would assume it is somewhat an extension of that whole thought process. I can
alert you to whatever we choose to do. That is generally what I have been doing in
the past.
Baker/
Now, Karin, you are the only person from the Planning staff that is here. I have a
question about the procedure on the CDBG funding and how- what is going to
happen in the next couple of weeks and how it might be amended. Specifically if a
majority of the council wants to change a budget allocation that has been
recommended. Two things: .1- At what point do we make that known? 2- Are we
obligated to reallocate immediately or can it go back into the process or when is it
picked up again, the money that might be taken out.
Franklin/Well, in answer to your first question, I think probably as soon as you know, if
you know what you want to do tonight and can express that, it then gives the
agency or the entity that you are talking about an opportunity to respond because
the schedule is that you will have a p.h. May 6 on the CDBG HOME Plan which
includes the budget. We will have some time on the work session on May 5 for
you to discuss the budget again and make any changes that you would like to
make. But whatever you know, as soon as you know it, that is preferable. Now in
terms of the reallocation- Sorry there is a bug here. I would suggest that what you
do is either- Well, you can do either this. You can put it into contingency. You can
put it into contingency and earmark it if there is-if there are issues that are
outstanding around a certain project. Or you can make suggestions for reallocation
into any of the other categories. The one that you cannot reallocate to is public
service because it has that cap on it. But you could look at the other projects that
were not fully funded and decide if you want to do that. Now, that is a little bit
more complicated. We do need to get something to HUD by May 15. And if you
were going to do extensive reallocation, taking a chunk of money and divvying it
up, I think it is only fair given HCD's work that they be apprised of that and can be
part of it so that they would be here at your May 5 session. The simplest thing to
do is to move something to contingency and earmark it or not.
Baker/I mean I personally have serious problems about one of the proposed allocations. I
will be making suggestions at that next meeting.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#21 page 10
Franklin/When you move it to contingency and earmark it, that does not mean that that
entity is not going to get that money ever. It means that you will then have more
discussion of it. HCD will have more discussion of it. At some point you have to
resolve what you are going to do with that money that is earmarked. But it gives
you more time.
Baker/You can move it to contingency and earmark it, you are not obligated to spend it
for that eventually. You can indeed-
Franklin/That is correct, yes.
Baker/I will let you know that the one that I had the most concern about is the River City
Housing Cooperative. I think we need to talk about it. There are some real issues
there that have been discussed at length. I had used the word intuitive again.
Intuitive concerns about it when it first came up and I have finally been able to
really understand myself what my real concern is and I would like to discuss that
with council and suggest that perhaps that is not a program that should be getting
CDBG money.
Norton/Shouldn't that discussion or your point, it seems to me, should be raised. Will
HCDC representatives be here for sure on the 5th?
Kubby/Larry is not going to talk about it until then, they should be.
Franklin/Yeah, we will make sure that somebody is here from HCD.
Kubby/As well as the Collective.
Baker/I can talk about it anytime but I thought with everybody else involved to be fair.
Franklin/I think it would be most prudent to talk about it when you had HCD people
here, when you have River City people here.
Baker/That is fine.
Nov/Karin, is there an upper limit on the amount that we are allowed to put into
contingency?
Franklin/I don't know the answer to that.
Nov/Well, we should check on that.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#21 page 11
Kubby/There are guidelines for administrative moneys. There might be for contingency.
Franklin/Yeah, there might be. I will check on that.
Norton/When does HCDC meet next? Do you know off hand?
Franklin/No.
Kubby/Another alternative to start thinking about things is that since you can now
articulate your intuitive concerns about it, is to put it on paper so that both HCDC
in advance can think about it and respond and we can do that and the Collective
can do that.
Baker/I got a project for tomorrow but I will do it before the meeting.
Kubby/Great.
Norton/I have some questions. Larry, do you want me to put my questions in your
hopper or separately. I will talk to you about it.
Baker/I suppose if anybody has any concerns about any of the other allocations, they all
should express them as well.
Thornberry/I have a follow-up question to Larry's question about the Cooperative. I
think, Karen, you said the other night and maybe I misunderstood you. That you
pay a fee and you are a member of a coop and then - Is that correct? And then
once you have paid that fee you are a member of the coop forever?
Kubby/Right.
Thornberry/Are you a member of the Coop?
Kubby/I am.
Thornberry/Will you be voting on their allocation?
Kubby/(Yes). I have no- I am not on the Board. I make no decisions. I have not financial
interest. It is like if you give money to the DTA and do business with them and
allocate them money for Friday Night Concert Series. You can still participate.
Thornberry/I am not a member.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#21 page 12
Kubby/Ernie is.
Lehman/Do you want to join?
Nov/They will accept your dollar.
Thornberry/A dollar? Am I a member forever?
Nov/No, not that one. All right, is there anything else, Larry?
Baker/No, that was it. Thank you. Thank you, Karin.
Nov/I
have a few announcements. Kind of urging people to get involved kind of
announcements. At the Public Library on Saturday morning our local legislators
will be having a forum. 9:30 AM this Saturday, the 26th. Come and think about
the state issues, taxes or anything else that you have on your mind.
And on Sunday, April 27, we have a Crisis Center Breakfast on St. Wenceslaus
Church from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM. You can go and eat an excellent breakfast and
support the Crisis Center.
Norton/Well, you can also serve.
Nov/Well, we are invited to serve but I am thinking of the general public. I am hoping to
get some people there and buy breakfast.
Vanderhoef/Serve on Sunday.
Nov/If you feel like volunteering to help serve, call the Crisis Center, talk to Ellen
McCabe and tell her that you can come at this or that hour.
Norton/I became so expert with that thing that makes pancakes. Well, I have a skill.
Nov/You are marketable again.
Nov/Okay, moving on. April 29 there will be a special work session here at 7:00 PM. We
will have a proposed ordinance for a Citizen Review Board to receive complaints
about the Police Department. We will have council discussion of the proposed
ordinance and we will have public discussion of the proposed ordinance and it will
be televised.
Kubby/One small correction, 6:00 PM.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#21 page 13
Nov/We changed to 6:00.9 Sorry, I have it still written 7:00. I didn't change that. I must
change it. Okay. Revision, April 29, 6:00 PM, here.
The University Opera is coming again Friday, May 2 and Sunday, May 4. They are
doing two excellent operas. Italian one act operas.
The Historic Preservation Awards are May 14 and they will be at the County
Courthouse. Refreshments at 4:45, program at 5:15. And everyone is welcome.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#22a page 1
ITEM NO. 22 REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY
ATTORNEY.
a. City Manager.
Nov/City Manager.
Atkins/Yes, one item. Good news. The CBDG staff through work with HUD has secured
$400,000 in federal aid for the Wylde Green Sewer Project.
Nov/Very nice.
Atkins/Part of the flood program. I don't ask. We have $400,000 of money to help fund a
$600,000 project.
Kubby/Good deal, we need that kind of news.
Council/(All talking).
Atkins/That is all I have.
Nov/Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
#22b. page 1
ITEM NO. 22 REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY
ATTORNEY.
b. City Attorney.
Nov/City Attorney.
Woito/
I wanted to let you know that you now have the revised version of the Police
Citizen Review Board Ordinance. You should have it in front of you. I have made
it available to the Public Library. I have given extra copies to the City Clerks
Office. We are in the process of sending the ordinance to the professors, Professor
Perez and Walker. And Professors Sculnick and Fife who wrote the book that I
was so impressed with. And Professor Bauldus has his own copy and-
Kubby/Did we send it to Matt Glassen, the lawyer for the police officer's union?
Woito/I have been providing Dan Dreckman with copies. But I can send it to-
Atkins/Matt already has it, Linda.
Woito/Oh, he already has it.
Norton/You can copy it on most things I thought.
Woito/Yes. And so we will be prepared to discuss it on the 29th.
Nov/Very good. Thank you.
Woito/That is all.
Nov/That is all.
Norton/I noticed we had Lieutenant Wayne Stagg in the Fire Department retiring after 29
years, Thursday afternoon, 1:00 to 4:00, if you want to stick your head in.
Nov/Good idea.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of April 22, 1997
F042297
City Council Meeting Schedule
and Tentative Work Session Agendas
April tt, 1997
7:00 p.m.
REGULAR COUNCIL WORK SESSION Council Chambers
Review Zoning Matters
First Avenue Extension - ACT/Press Citizen
Shamrock/Friendship Creek Channel Improvement Project
Stepping-Up Project
Home Builder Codes
Non-Motorized Vehicles
Sand Point Wells
Cultural Center/Library Project: Ballot Issue and Operating Costs
Consider Appointments to the Following Boards/Commissions: Animal Control
Advisory Board (1); Civil Service Commission (1); Historic Preservation
Commission (2); Planning and Zoning Commission (1)
Council Agenda/Council Time
7:00 p.m. REGULAR FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers
7:00 p.m. REGULAR'COUNCIL WORK SESSION Council Chambers
7:00 p.m.
REGULAR FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING
Council Chambers
7:00 p.m.
SPECIAL FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING
Executive Session - Evaluations
Counci/ Chambers
7:00 p.m.
SPECIAL FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING
Executive Session - Evaluations
Council Chambers
PENDING ITEMS
Animal Control Ordinance
FY98 Community Development Block Grant & HOME
Budget Proposal
Iowa River Power Dam Renovation/Iowa River Corridor
Trail Project
Iowa River Corridor Trail Project Burlington to
Sturgis/Napoleon
Graffiti Ordinance
Multi-Family Residential Parking Requirements and
Impact Fees
Peninsula Development - Field Trip
PIN Grants
Hickory Hill West
Water Project Costs
DARE Program Review
Waste Pickup - 4-Plexes
Cemetery
Elks
Landfill Master Plan
Transit Route Study
CITY OF IOWA CITY
City Council Meeting Schedule
and Tentative Work Session Agendas
April t7, t997
Telecast Live on Cable Channel 4
REGULAR
7:00 ~.m.
7:30 ),m.
7:40 ).m.
7:55 ~.m.
8:05 ).m.
8:25 ).m.
8:30 ).m.
9:30 ).m.
::" ~ '. ,.::: .';i:'.: . ;i'. .~ .. ~', · ~.~,'.",,: ,., ~.~.f.[,:'.:l'!.~
COUNCIL WORK SESSION Council Chambers
Review Zoning Matters
First Avenue Extension - ACT/Press Citizen
Iowa River Corridor Trail Project Burlington to Sturgis/Napoleon
Shamrock/Friendship Creek Channel Improvement Project
Home Builder Codes
Non-Motorized Vehicles
Cultural Center/Library Project: Ballot Issue and Operating Costs
Consider Appointments to the Following Boards/Commissions: Animal
Control Advisory Board (1); Civil Service Commission (1); Historic
Preservation Commission (1); Planning and Zoning Commission (1)
Council Agenda/Council Time
9:40 p.m.
6:00 p,m,
7:00 p.m.
SPECIAL FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING
Executive Session - Land Acquisition, Litigation
REGULAR FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING
· . · .: .' ..., .:' ~: i,:j~!.;', .' i
Council Chambers
Council Chambers
7:00 p.m.
· .. .... '. . ' .'· ,i' 'i :' .i".' ~ · '. ,' '. ' .! ':; ~. '.', ~ ~: ,.','""! i
SPECIAL COUNCIL WORK SESSION Council Chambers
Public Input regarding Proposed Police Citizen Review Board Ordinance
REGULAR COUNCIL WORK SESSION
...... ,: ' ~ i ':! '; ": ~,'4~!"~'??,
Council Chambers
.,:; .~..,,.:,~, ~{.i'.,L~4,,;%,,: :.
7:00 p.m.
REGULAR FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING
Council Chambers
, , :' ;; ,' :'~.~i~:': ii~'?'." .:;':
.','~¢~'~ ,f,;;~t;¢~.,,~!",;·
7:00 p.m.
SPECIAL FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING
Executive Session - Evaluations
Council Chambers
.:~.;',, '.: .i .(/:[i: ' :'.f"' '
7:00 p.m.
SPECIAL FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING
Executive Session - Evaluations
Council Chambers
PENDING ITEMS
Stepping-Up Project
Animal Control Ordinance
FY98 Community Development Block Grant & HOME Budget Proposal
Iowa River Power Dam Renovation/Iowa River Corridor Trail Project
Graffiti Ordinance
Multi-Family Residential Parking Requirements and Impact Fees
Sand Point Wells
Peninsula Development - Field Trip
PIN Grants
Hickory Hill West
Water Project Costs
DARE Program Review
Waste Pickup - 4-Plexes
Cemetery
Elks
Landfill Master Plan
Transit Route Study