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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-01-30 AgendaIOWA CITY CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REGULAR COUNCIL IVlEETING OF JANUARY 30, q 996 7:30 P.M. COUNCIL CHANIBERS, CIVIC CENTER 4.10 EAST WASHINGTON Subject to change as finalized by the City Clerk. Clerk's Office, 356-5040. For a final official copy, contact the City AGENDA IOWA CITY CITY COUNCIL REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING - JANUARY 30, 1996 7:30 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS ITEM NO. 1 - CALL TO ORDER. ROLL CALL. ITEM NO. 2 - SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS. a. Presentation of Citizenship Awards to students of Robert Lucas Elementary School. ITEM NO. 3 - MAYOR'S PROCLAN]ATIONS. ITEM NO. 4- a. Salute to Hospitalized Veterans Day - February 10, 1996. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. Approval of Official Council actions of the regular meeting of January 16, 1996, and of the special meeting of January 23, 1996, as pub- lished, subject to corrections, as recommended by the City Clerk. b. Minutes of Boards and Commissions. I1 ) Board of Adjustment meeting of January 10, 1996. Consider a recommendation by the Board of Adjustment to approve the Board of Adjustment procedural rules dated 1/10~96, and amended by Board members on January 10, 1996, following review of these proposed procedural rules by the Council Rules Committee. Council is requested to refer the proposed procedural rules for the Board of Adjust- ment to the Council Rules Committee for review and comment. (2) Airport Commission meeting of December 14, 1995. (3) Civil Service Commission meeting of December 18, 1995. (4) Human Rights Commission meeting of December 3, 1995. (a) The Commission recommended the amended by-laws to the City Council at the last meeting. Ms, Shank announced that the Council's Rules Committee approved the by-laws the deletion of one sentence. The sentence stated that the Commission would meet on the fourth Monday of every month. That sentence has been deleted. Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting January 30, 1996 Page 2 (5) Permit (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) {7) (8) (9) (10) Broadband Telecommunications Commission meeting of Decem- ber 18, 1995. Motions and Resolutions as Recommendod by the City Clerk. Consider a motion approving a Class "C" Liquor License for R.T. Grunts, Inc., dba R.T.'s, 826 S. Clinton St. {Renewal) Consider a motion approving an Outdoor Service Area for R.T. Grunts, Inc., dba R.T.'s, 826 S. Clinton St. (Renewal) Consider a motion approving a Class "C" Liquor License for Mike's Place, Inc., dba Mike's Tap, 122 Wright St. (Renewal) Consider a motion approving a Class "C" Beer Permit for Clyde R. Seaton dba Seaton's Cash & Carry Market, 1331 Muscatine Ave. {Renewal Consider a motion approving a Class "E" Beer Permit for QuikTrip Corp,, dba QuikTrip //509, 323 E, Burlington St. {Renewal) Consider a motion approving a Class "~" Liquor License for Hy- Vee Food Stores, Inc., dba Hy-Vee #2, 310 N. First Ave. (Renewal) Consider a motion approving a Class "E" Liquor License for Hy- Vee Food Stores, Inc., dba Hy-Vee #1, 501 Hollywood Blvd. {Renewal) Consider a motion approving a Class "C" Liquor License for Vanessa's of Iowa City, Inc., dba Givanni's Italian Care, 109 East College. (Renewal) Consider a motion approving a Class "C" Liquor License for Motif, Ltd., dba Bo-James, 118 E. Washington St. {Renewal) Consider a resolution issuing a Dancing Permit for R.T.'s, 826 S. Clinton St. Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting January 30, 1996 Page 3 d, Setting Public Hearings. (1) CONSIDER SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR FEBRUARY 13, 1996, ON AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14, CHAPTER 3, "CITY UTILITIES," ARTICLE E, "WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS INDIRECT DISCHARGE" FOR THE CITY CODE BY ADDING PROVISIONS TO REGULATE HOLDING TANK WASTE TRANSPORTERS (LIQUID WASTE HAULERS) The City of Iowa City Wastewater Treatment Plants, known as Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) under federal law, have bean requested by the IDNR and the EPA to adopt regula- tions concerning holding tank waste transporters or haulers of liquid waste or "honey wagons." Public hearing is required under City Code prior to adoption of the ordinance. e, Resolutions. (1) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK FOR THE ROHRET ROADs.PROJECT, STP-7-3715(1 )--70-52, Comment: See Engineer s Report. (2) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK FOR THE SANITARY SEWER AND WATER MAIN PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS FOR LOT 152 AND LOTS 168-179 INCLUSIVE OF COURT HILL- SCOTT BOULEVARD ADDITION, PART IX. Comment: See Engineer's Report. This item was deferred from the January 16, 1996, meeting. Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting January 30, 1996 Page 4 (3) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST THE RELEASE OF A WATERMAIN EASEMENT AND A PORTION OF A PRIVATE STREET, UTILITY AND ACCESS EASEMENT LOCATED IN COURT HILL-SCOTT BOULEVARD ADDITION PART IX, AND TO APPROVE AND EXECUTE A SUBSTITUTED PRIVATE STREET, UTILITY, AND ACCESS EASEMENT AGREEMENT FOR THE SAME PROPERTY. Comment: The City currently possesses a 15' watermain easement on lots 173, 174 and 152, Court Hill-Scott Boulevard Addition Part IX, Iowa City, Iowa. During construction, the watermain easement was not used for the placement of watermain, and the "hammerhead" private street was changed to a cul-de-sac. Public Works has recommended the release of the existing, unused watermain easement and the reconfigured private street, utility and access easement, and has recommend- ed the execution of a substituted private street, utility, and public access easement to conform to the actual construction. This Resolution authorizes release of the existing, unused watermain easement and the reconfigured private street, utility and access easement, and authorizes the execution of the substitute private street, utility and public access easement agreement for this property. f. Correspondence. (1) Letter from the Johnson County Board of Supervisors regarding the Fringe Area Policy Agreement. (2) Letter from Johnson County Social Services regarding night bus service. (3) Memoranda from the Civil Service Commission submitting certified lists of applicants for the following positions: (a) Treasury Cashier (b) Parking Enforcement Attendant (4) Letter from 0id Capitol Criterium regarding hotel/motel tax. (5) Letters from Ed Barker regarding water/waste water rates. Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular CouncilMeeting January 30,1996 Page 5 ITEIV1 NO. 5 - (6) Letters regarding budget requests from: {a) (b) (c) Iowa Arts Festival END OF CONSENT CALENDAR Annie Huntington Tucker Parks & Recreation Commission PUBLIC DISCUSSION (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA). ITEM NO. 6 - PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS. Consider setting a public hearing for February 13 on an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning," Article K, entitled "Environmental Regulations," Section 1, entitled "Sensitive Areas Ordinance," Subsection I, entitled "Steep Slopes," to allow development activities under certain conditions on protected slopes that have been previously altered. Comment: The Planning and Zoning Commission will consider this item at its January 25 meeting. It is anticipated that the Commission's recommendation will be available for the February 13 Council meeting. Action: City of iowa City MEMORANDUM To: Mayor, City Council and General Public From: City Clerk Date: January 30, 1996 Re: Addition to the Consent Calendar Item No. 4f(6)(d) Mark Ginsberg regarding funding for the Iowa City Jazz Festival. #4 Consent Calendar page 1 ITEM NO. 4- CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRE- SENTED OR AMENDED. Nov/ Next item is the adoption of the Consent Calendar as amended. We have amended here item e., Resolutions. We are going to defer #2 and #3 under Resolutions for two weeks because-the legal papers are not yet in order. So we need a motion. Moved by Lehman, seconded by Thornberry. Any discussion on the Consent Calendar. Kubby/ Yes. We have one item which is on page 3, the first one on p.h. about honey wagons and I would like to make sure that any of the honey wagon operators, make sure they get a copy of this ordinance and that they get a chance to give us some feedback before it comes. Baker/ Now, be fair Karen, explain what a honey wagon is. Kubb¥/ Go ahead, Mr. Baker. We are now having to adopt some regulations requested by the DNR and EPA about liquid waste haulers and those are called honey wagons. Nov/ And the ordinance says waste water treatment works indirect discharge. Kubby/ I just want to make sure they have a chance to give us feedback and they can't do that unless they get a copy of the ordinance. Thornberry/ Good definition, Karen. Nov/ Okay, any further discussion on the Consent Calendar? Roll call- (Yes). Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa OW counc,t meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 #5 page 1 ITEM NO. 5 - PUBLIC DISCUSSION (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA). Nov/ Public Discussion. This is for items that are not currently on the agenda, not items that are listed later and we are asking to please sign in and please limited you remarks to no more than five minutes. Harold cozad/ I ask the council to bear with me a few minutes here. I've had a very interesting evening this evening. The reason why I wanted to address the city council is the concern with the towing situation that happened today. My wife got home from school today. I got home from work today from the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. Our car had been towed. There was no notification by the city of any kind to our knowledge that they were going to be doing clearing of particular streets today. When they originally cleared the streets, they blocked our car in. Then when they wanted to further clear the streets, five cars in our neighborhood on Douglas Court were towed. No notification was given. I was arrested this evening and paid $130 in bond because we went, because of the misinformation that was given to us from the time that we realized that our car had been towed up until the time that we tried to retrieve our vehicle. An overzealous police officer arrested me for disturbing the peace because my wife and I were very very upset with the miscommunication and the fact that our car had been towed in the first place without any notification of snow removal. The street that we're on, there were no signs posted on particular times for snow removal in situations like this. Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, and Cedar Falls, and Dubuque all advertised on the nightly news two days in advance giving their citizens and opportunity to remove their cars from the streets so they could be cleared without them being towed. And they were warned that they would be towed if they were not removed. The explanation that the police department had given me on this was that the city has a ordinance that if a car sits more than 48 hours, they have the right without notification to remove that car. We have been living in Iowa City for nearly six years. We have been living at our address for nearly three years at this point. Our car has always been parked in the same spot at various times for the past three years. We've had no problems before and all of a sudden, our car has been towed without any notification. We are law abiding citizen's. I used to work for this man that's sitting on the council right now. I am currently an EMTD in this town doing ride time for Johnson for Johnson County. I work for some of the police in this county and sheriff's department. I found it very very humiliating This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa Ciw council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #5 page 2 what I went through this evening. And all that had to be done was simply a notification to the citizens of this town and cars would've been moved. And of course those people that did not adhere to that, then I can understand it. But we received no notification. And now we've spent a total of $190 this evening and we still do not have our car back° I was just simply wondering about an explanation of why there is no notification. Nov/ We'll check into it and get back to you. Kubby/ You need to put your address on Douglas Court on the paper. Cozad/ (Can't hear) Kubby/ Great. Thank you Harold. Bud Louis/ I want to address the subject tonight that's very dear to my heart. Betty and I have lived on the peninsula, everyone knows what the peninsula is, for 45 years. I remember about 35 years ago a deer came walking up the road and everybody ran out and took a picture of it and it was a big deal. And now we have, I counted today, we have 17 more deer on the peninsula than there are people living there. Last summer at one time we counted 90 deer and the problem is that they're eating everything. They've just eaten a 800 foot row of arborvitae that was six feet tall. They've eaten it down to the ground. They stand on their hind legs and eat the trees. I feel sorry for them, but my question tonight is if it's that bad this year, what's it going to be like next year and the coming years. They multiply because they have no place to go. The river's on three sides of us and they just keep growing and growing and multiplying and I don't suggest that we go out and shoot them. I'd a lot rather shoot a telephone solicitor or Washington politician if I could. But something's got to be done, you know. Is there anything the city plans to do about, I just talked to Tom somebody. He was working on Whiting Avenue and he walked up to the house and he said there was ten deer laying in a nest right outside the house where he was walking. And I know yesterday afternoon if I'd opened the door they'd have walked in the house. They're right up within five feet of the house and as I say, they're eating everything, everything that's green, every living thing. Dr. McDonald at the foot of the hill, their home is completely eaten and it's a bad situation. I know that the bow hunters got a few of them early in the year and that's not good either because they warned two of them a year ago but we found the carcasses that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #5 page 3 were wounded and then somebody the last year ago has shot two of them and left them laying and just taken the antlers off. But my question is, is there any plan to do something about the deer population? And I thank you very much. Nov/ We've heard this before and so far haven't found any good ideas. There was an article at one point about a deterrent that you could put on the shrubs. This would prevent them from eating it but it would not get rid of them. Louis/ But if they're hungry, they're really, the last couple of days especially, they're so hungry they're just trying to find something. Lehman/ But I think this is a problem that we're going to have to address and probably should have earlier. The solution, I really don't know. This is a very definite problem. It's going to be a bigger and bigger problem. It's something we're really going to have. Louis/ They've gone from that one deer 35 years ago to, last summer at one time, there was three groups of 30 each, 90 deer up there. And they say that's 17 more than the people that live there. Thank you. Thornberry/ Bud, maybe you missed one or two. I hope there was two deer when they started. Louis/ The other one was back in (can't hear). Thank you. Nov/ Thank you. Rodney Alber/ 400 1st Avenue. I apologize for not being here several weeks ago. We went to visit my soon to be wife's- got stuck in the state of Pennsylvania. So I apologize for not showing up a little bit sooner. My agenda issue was actually fielded about two weeks ago, and it had to do with the current plans for water renovation of the (can't hear). / Can you (can't hear) the mic. Alber/ Is that better? / Um-huh. Alber/ Okay. How do I begin? My girlfriend says an opening and closure must be stated. For an opening, we drove up 23rd Thisrepresents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of Janua~ 30,1996. F013096 #5 page 4 Avenue, I started basically upstream. I went to where the affluence began and which that would be the Coralville Sewage Treatment Facility. We walked in and inadvertently someone just let some information into our pocket so to speak. We ingested that. From there we talked to the operator, Brian Lamansky. He's fond of the Marshall Valley and getting that back on line to let nature start the up river process for us. I also talked to Professor Schnoor today and he felt that we shouldn't try any research in that area, that poplar trees might have the disadvantage of drawing up the marsh, which would be the opposite of what we want to do. Research like that needs to be taken in a very specific agenda level at this point. I would be afraid to even suggest that they allow the 27 acres that they'd like to donate to the marsh to be allowed to use the poplars which is what they are leading into. Nov/ Is this in Iowa City? Alber/ No. This is the up river. if I can walk us down the through in four minutes. (can't hear) make much more sense river, so to speak. I can get us Nov/ Okay. Thornberry/ You've got to be in front of the microphone. Alber/ (Can't hear) / Here, here. Wait a second. Take this one. Alber/ (Can't hear) Nov/ Picking that up? I think maybe it's not on. Alber/ To throw it back into the room, or to this side of the river so to speak. We started up stream. Camp Cardinal was actually where we started at, which is Iowa City. It's owned by the Rotary Club and a lot of refuse has been dumped up there. We got an organization plan to clean it up with the help of Hills Bank as well as the Hy-Vee across the street, a round about thing that Beth and I are doing ourselves. Then we went down the river and talked to these people about their function of land here which they want to donate to the marsh even though they're hardpacking day before yesterday. Enough said about that. But then we come down river. We had some problems with some of the commercial property owners in here who are doing a little bit of hardpacking. That was levied through DNR and This represents only a reasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa CiW council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 #5 page 5 Corp of Engineers. But then we come down to where they meet. Now this is where the real issue lies I feel. I don't know if the prior Planning Committee's really looked into this development quite as intensely as they should're. I walked into the Iowa City Treatment Facility today and talked to Craig° I spoke with him for several hours on different occasions now. And he didn't know off hand the USGS phone number. And it might not strike you as strange but they know where all the wells are. We got them on the phone and the reason I did that was there is a carbonic wellspring from the top of Blackspring Circle Drive which is a city park. Now we couldn't find any information today that the well's been capped since, I believe, 1906. So we have no raw data on this, but a carbonic well is a natural filtration. It's like the inline use you put on your counter top and run it through. To me this would seem like the first choice to draw water from. Now what the city has done and I'd like to use this expression lightly, misappropriation of funds. They started spending money up here at the rate of a quarter million dollars a well, capping dry wells. Now this doesn't meet community expenditures I wouldn't think. I have no fault with the nice building, giving people nice offices, upgrading, what not. But money well spent is better than money burned, and at this point we're burning money up, up here. The excuse I was given was that the 1-80 is here and there might be an accident. Well at that point, rational sense goes, what accident? Well the accident happens at the truck stop just down the street from 1-80. These honey wagons so to speak purge their tanks on the riverside. Now if we think we're going to get an ordinance in here and stop them from doing it here, what's it going to take them from going just up the stream on the back road and doing the same thing? Once again I'm not pointing any direction or trying to tell you where to put a building or what to do with anything, but at this point I'm stuck here at the river again. Now I walked across and I see that this has the premise of being the best water, but we don't want one water source, do we? I think that was the problem before. We had to close this down several times because of the tank purges. Now if we could get away from the treatment facility mentality, and do it a cooperative with the university, the university of course has their own water treatment facility that the students, the graduate students are working at. They have their hands in the water. This wasn't Professor Schnoor's idea by the way. Just to alleviate his name from, I mentioned earlier and I didn't really intend to but, we're going to give up on this facility. It's sounds that way. We're doing 4.5 million gallons on an average, up to six. You have a capacity for eleven. 2020, you Thisrepresents oniy areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 #5 page 6 know, if we get that much population by then, I'd be surprised but that seems to be a justifiable number. Why couldn't we somehow sell it to the university? It's an operating facility. They need research facilities. Then we'd have two in place, and perhaps we could put one somewhere down river so when we're not pumping the water up above, which pumping water against gravity is expensive. I think that's just a granted at this point. As far as sludge letting out, we've invested I don't know how many millions for a new sludge facility downriver and my understanding is we have the land. There's also an empty quarry and there's applications for quarries in sludge, but that's research facility information. Ah, let me go up the river, down the river. Once again, this is a large agenda issue. I just wanted to make sure everybody on the new board was aware of all the liabilities, I mean the jordan wells, the silurian wells. Silurian wells aren't any good. They've tested them. They're pretty certain they're not. You've wasted a quarter million dollars on a project up here which I find difficult in my own rationale now I don't point any fingers at that. Nevertheless it would be a little bit more cost effective to bring the project into the center of the map and perhaps in tangent use the universities which are state funded granted research institutes to bring some outside money. I thought I had a couple of mornings was that we were putting tax bases on individual incomes for the families that live here already on the premise that families will move here and then we'll have clean water for them. Well it's going to cost so much to get the clean water here and then it's the same water that maybe we should like get outside of our own community on this issue and take it off the map so to speak. Once again universities are state funded granted. I'm sure there's an amount, a price tag on this current water treatment facility. It's got to be worth something. I mean, you've already spent a quarter of a million dollars on dry wells, but you've got at least granted multimillion, several million. Nov/ Rodney, we understand. Alber/ Okay. Kubby/ I guess it s not as simple as all that. Alber/ Right. Kubby/ We have talked to the university. We invited them to discuss with us how we could work together to provide weather for our whole community. And at this point we were interested in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa C~ty council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #5 page 7 looking at this and they said we are not interested at this time. And they might have very legitimate reasons. I have not been privy to what their internal reasons are. So we tried to go down that road and it didn't work. So then we continued down the road by ourselves and I didn't- I mean some of the stuff you were talking about was in Coralville in terms of hardpacking land that was supposed to be marsh land and stuff but, when you're talking about Silurian wells. Alber/ Excuse me Karen, but up until 18 months ago, that was part of the Iowa City area. They annexed that land within the last year and a half, so- Kubby/ And activity on that land happened very recently, so if there's some violation, either it's a DNR thing or a Coralville thing or whoever is in charge of permitting and somebody's doing something without a permit or they're violating Coralville city law. Yes it was in Iowa City but it doesn't mean we can do anything about it if it's not in our city limits. Alber/ My understanding is that laws cannot be regressed, only taken a step beyond and if you allow the Coralville citizens to write their own laws daily, they will change them daily. I have seen that with my own eyes. Kubby/ Every municipality has that ability to change laws as long as they're not preemptive of state or federal statutes. Alber/ Thank you for the other side of that. Yeah. Exactly. And if you preempt it then you're writing your own laws, so I'll leave that at that. Lehman/ Have you talked to Chuck Schmadeke? Alber/ No, sir. Lehman/ We spent a lot of time and we spent a lot of money with supposedly and you're talking to real novice, the finest engineers we can find and this program we're undertaking is the program they've told us this is the best for us. You're talking about dry wells. They're not dry wells. They don't happen to produce quite as much on the first well as we thought we would. Alber/ You tested three wells. You had 14 to 17%. You wanted 37- 44%. I would call that a dry well sir. Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa C,tycouncil meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 'z #5 page 8 Lehman/ You have more information on that then I do. Alber/ I talked to Craig Meachum for four hours, two hours and two hours. He's been most forthwith with his information. I considered him my point of interest because he draws the water himself and puts it back into the lines. Now we're looking at the same situation, we're just going to move it up river. We're still only going to have one treatment center if we allow it to go the route that it's going and you'll still have the same problems and the same end result. Now I was just coming to present information. I'm not here to squabble, sir. Thank you. Thornberry/ Just one quick question. You say you discussed this with Jerry Schnoor. Have you also talked to Rich Valentine about this. Alber/ No sir. Baker/ You might want to. Alber/ Thank you. Nov/ And some of the things that you have mentioned have been considered. It's not as if- Alber/ Yeah. I was just. Nov/ It's been heard before. Alber/ There's so much there, Ma'am. I appreciate your patience with it, in fact. I get a little long in the wind. Nov/ It is a long term issue, and I think that we've probably been talking about various sources of water for four or five years at this point so we understand, you have your reservations. Alber/ I guess the largest (can't hear) of the information I was giving was that there is by chance the USGS did not confirm that it was a carbonic well. They're rare but it's the best spring water you can get and it would be the best tap source we can find locally. And I'm just trying to point you to the best water. I mean as far as where you draw it and how you get it and what you do with it after that, it's the city's money. It's the community's money. I'm trying to help get it in and then get it out safely. And if we only have one place to get it out from safely, then we only have one source. And I'd like This represents only a reasonably accurate transcripbon of the Iowa C,ty counc,I meet,ng of January 30. 1996 F013096 #5 page 9 to see it scattered up and down the river in small increments instead of one multi-structure. Nov/ Thank you. Alber/ Thank you. Nov/ Is there anyone else who would like to address the council on the topic that is not on today's agenda? Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa Ciw council meeting of Januaw 30,1996. F013096 #6a page ITEM Consider setting a public hearing for February 13 on an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning," Article K, entitled "Environmental Regulations," Section 1, entitled "Sensitive Areas Ordinance," Subsection I, entitled "Steep Slopes," to allow development activities under certain conditions on protected slopes that have been previously altered. Nov/ Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Norton. Thornberry/ The reason that we are doing this is because in the recent zone regarding sensitive areas there was no, as I understand it and correct me if I am wrong, there was no difference allowing on the protected slopes. That the difference between natural slopes and man-made slopes. So all man-made slopes under the current Drdinance are protected. What we are trying to do is if there are man-made slopes make available exceptions to this ordinance under specific criteria to allow construction on slopes that were man-made. Right now there is no difference so that is why we are having to do this. Nov/ And the Commission will recommend how to do this and then we will have a p.h. So, all in favor of having this p.h. on February 13, please say aye- (ayes). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting January 30,1996 Page 6 Consider setting a public hearing for February 13 on an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by approving a Sensitive Areas Develop- ment Plan for a 0.32 acre property located at 515 and 521 South Linn Street. //~/~ Comment: The Planning and Zoning Commission will consider this item at its January 25 and February 1 meetings. It is anticipated that the Commissions' recommendation will be available for the February 13 Council meeting. Public' hearing on an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by changing the use regulations of an approximate .3 acre property located at 1500 Sycamore Street from RS-5, Low Density Single-Family Residential, to CO-1, Office Commercial. (~A~ ~) Comment: At its December 7 meeting, by a vote of 6-0, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial of the requested rezoning. The Commission's recommendation is not consistent with the staff recommendation contained in the November 16 staff report. In a letter dated December 8, 1995, the applicant (4Cs) requests Council consider- ation of the rezoning. The public hearing has been continued from the 16 Council meeting. ~ Consider an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by changing the use regulations of an approximate .3 acre property located at 1500 Sycamore Street from RS-5, Low Density Single-Family Residential, to CO-1, Office Commercial. (First Consideration) ~'~ Comment: See Item C above. #6c page 1 ITEM NO. ~c. Public hearing on an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by changing the use regulations of an approximate .3 acre property located at 1500 Sycamore Street from RS-5, Low Density Single- Family Residential, to CO-i, Office Commercial. Nov/ The p.h. is now open. Anyone who wants to address the council on this issue, please step up. Karen Harris/ I represent the Church of Iowa City. And they are the back up purchasers for this particular piece of property and obviously my clients would like to go forward and exercise their purchase agreement and oppose the restrictive covenant that has been recently signed by the neighbors and as I think basically, as an attorney, I have a question and concern when zoning denies an application and then says all right, let's go and get restrictive covenants. Let's get a lawyer. Let's bind these neighbors and have the covenants run with the land. What concerns me here and I hope that I am not jumping around too much. Who is going to police these restrictive covenant? Do now the homeowners, if foresees breach their restrictive covenant, whose duty is it now to police it? Do they get a private attorney? That is going to have to run with the land. They have to come to someone like me to sue 4C's. Is the city going to enforce it by virtue of having the zoning be perhaps approved by tonight's vote? Nov/ No. Your first option. They will have to go to court. Harris/ They will have to go to court and I think that that is a way of skirting the issue of zoning and it defeats the purpose of why we have our Zoning Board and I think that is a concern that the concern that the council should really listen to. I think the neighbors, I don't know if there are neighbors here. However my clients have stated that they were unaware of certain issues in regards to restrictive covenants. For example, how is it going to be policed? Does it devalue their real estate? At what pint-what is the actual circumference in the future that this is going to apply to? And we have a back up offer, that has been accepted by the Lutheran Social Services, that is for full asking price, cash. So if you deny the rezoning, the Lutheran Social Services will not be prejudice. Just to reiterate, I think you owe it-To get a restrictive covenant comes outside and defeats the purpose of the Zoning Board and I think the Zoning Board denies an application or votes against it and I just think that that is a problem and if the council approves that then what is to say This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa C~ty council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #6c page 2 every time the Zoning Board just denies something, you just go out and get some restrictive covenants and you can come back in and say here, it is going to be okay. And I think Legally and this may be a stretch but I think that if homeowners came to me and said we would like you to enforce this, I would say well, I think the city has a duty to enforce this also because they approved of it or they incorporated it into the application for the zoning and I think that is a legal problem that is ahead and will surface and for that reason we respectively ask that the council deny this application. Thank you. Nov/ We understand your point but the city is not signature on this covenant. We have not part in it. Harris/ I understand but I am pointing out that I think enforcement, the police power of it, is you may say by not signing it that the city bears no responsibility but I think that it is a public issue that needs to be seriously considered. What are you doing, not you personally. But what will be done to the homeowners and subsequent homeowners when they have to enforce it? Nov/ We understand. Harris/ Okay, thank you. Sarah Holechek/ I would just lend to the council's consideration that all steps of negotiation between the private parties, the city has not be involved. The city has always advised both 4C's and the neighbors that they do not intend to enforce any restrictive covenants that is placed upon the property by the private parties and that it is merely a land use issue for the council to consider. Nov/ Thank you. Sandy Kuhlman/ Director of 4C's. I would just like to begin that 4C's became aware of the Lutheran Social Service building through our board of directors and learning that it had become difficult to sell due to the fact that it was an office structure on a residential zone and that because of that the price was reduced significantly. After viewing the building and its situation 4C's and Lutheran Social Services contracted a sale contingent upon a cooperative rezoning application to allow the property to be used for small office space. Finding a property that so perfectly suited our needs and was also Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting o! Janua~ 30,1996. F013096 #6c page 3 within our budgetary constraints made going through the rezoning procedure worthwhile option for us. The property is zoned residential but it was designed for and used as professional office space since the time that it was built in 1967. The fact that it is a commercial building in a residential zone, adjacent to properties which are more intensively commercial with pavement abutting the Sycamore Mall parking lot and looking out onto the Sears Automotive Center creates a lack of appeal for residential users. However, the situation allows for the property to act as a buffer zone between the CC-2 zone mall properties to the south and the east and the residences to the north and the west which is consistent with the city P/Z staff recommendation. P/Z staff have stated that zoning 1500 Sycamore as a co-1 property fits into the city's Comp Plan as well as positioning it between the Sycamore Mall and the adjacent residential areas. The property faces west to Sycamore away from the residences and is compliant with the traffic pattern conditioned to rezoning which directs traffic away from the neighborhood and to the south to the mall area. If the rezoning is approved, 4C's would operate the building as administrative office space with approximately 12 - 15 staff. The office would be open Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 5:30 and would have lower commercial traffic than that of Lutheran Social Services. Programs operated at the site would rarely involved walking clients as their primary methods of contact are by telephone, postal and home visits. At no time would the be children on site in this program and moving 4C's administrative offices to this location would free up space for increased programming and direct service for our clients at out current location. From the beginning of the process, 4C's has worked with the neighbors to address their concerns. The beginning of December we involved mediators to further explore a private covenant. We continued gathering the information. We met over 8 times for roughly 25-30 hours total. Through the meetings each side was able to establish respective concerns and needs. From there, 4C's and the neighbors worked with the 4C's attorney, Craig Willis, to draft, refine and complete the private covenants. The private covenant is a legally binding document which will further restrict the commercial use of this property if the rezoning is approved to allow only small office use. The covenant restricts retail use, mixed commercial and residential use and all uses listed in the provisional and special exception section for property zoned in CO-1 city code. The covenant will be attached to the abstract of this property and all the properties legally described in the covenant as outlined on This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa C~ty councd meeting of January 30. 1996. F013096 #6c Nov/ Paul Nov/ Van page 4 the map page. The covenant will run with the land in perpetuSty. So for example, a florist, a restaurant, a drive through bank, a meeting hall could never operate in this building. The private covenant will allow for sale of the building only to like the future for professional small office uses. The neighbors who have signed the covenant have withdrawn their formal objections to the rezoning of the property. All those who originally signed the formal objection have signed the covenantSwith the exception of one couple who is wintering in Arizona, lucky for them. In addition, two other families have joined in the process and had input and have signed the covenant. I would like to address some of the issues that Ms. Harris brought up and that is how it would be legally binding. One of the first things that it does is attach to the abstract of all of the properties. So if we were to, in the future, try to sell it to somebody inappropriate, say a florist, the first thing that is going to happen is when they do the title research it is going to come up that it can't be used that way. That is the first line of defense. Following it is incumbent upon them to seek legal means to do that. But first and foremost that title is not going to be clear. So that would be another piece. I would like to emphasize the cooperative nature of the process that we have gone through with two private groups finding a creative solution agreement in a situation that originally appeared in solvable. The objections and complaints of the neighbors have been addressed and resolved with their formal objections being withdrawn. The CZA has been signed by 4C's and Lutheran Social Service. And I would like to strongly encourage you to vote in favor of this rezoning application. Thank you. Is there anyone else who wished to discuss this? Van Dorpe/ 1802 Deforest which is right across the street from the property in question. I would like to ask-I delivered a letter yesterday to the city offices. Did you all get a copy? We did. Dorpe/ Well, I won't read the letter to you because you can read it for yourself. This has been a very confusing issue for us and long standing and I just briefly wanted to give you a tiny bit of background. There was another property at the end of deforest, the other end of the block which was vacant for a long time. I think a number of developers so it to one another and they were trying to develop it as commercial and every time they tried to do that the neighbors fought them and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #6c page 5 we finally succeeded, the city agreed with us several times in the process, but finally a residence was built on a residential street. This has been the same type of thing here although it has been more confusing and when I first moved in, having a building across the street was really no big deal because the neighbors assured me that hey, once it sold, it is going to be a residence and to be very frank about it, that is what i would like to see. But if you have ever seen the building and know what it is like, it is not built as a residence. It won't be used as a residence. It is obviously a commercial type building. That puts us in a dilemma. And we through the best choice is at the time, early December, and talked to P/Z. We thought the best choice was to leave it residential. And P/Z agreed unanimously with that. Since then 4C's say how about an innovative solution. I and my neighbors were willing to listen to what they had to say. We thought they had some good ideas and we finally decided, at least I decided for myself, as I stated in my letter, that my three priorities were safety., also use of the land and of course property values for my own house across the street. Since my son was hit by a car on Sycamore, he is okay, we are very interested in keeping the traffic down on both Deforest as well as Sycamore. And so, anything that increases the traffic is not what we want and now we don't have the choice of residences. We are stuck between a church going in or a very restrictive office and they way I weighed it, reduced traffic from an office with very limited access was the way to go. The church would increase the traffic to the area and if again, if the building were sold in the future, it looks like the only way it can be sold- CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 96-19 SIDE 2 Van Dorpe/ -is to another church group. I mean this looks like it is heading on into perpetuity if it is a residential but churches or something like that and as you know there are probably some different types of churches in the area and different circumstances each time it is sold. The land use. We want it obviously to look attractive. It is a residential neighborhood and we would like it to do that. We think that the covenant, the restrictions put in there, will restrict it more than if it was just left at RS-5 with a church going in. They could do whatever they want and turn it uglier than it is now. They would have complete freedom to do. If it were a home, obviously very few people rebuild their home and many many different times. Property values, just frankly if it were turned into something more commercial than just an office Thisrepresents only areasonably accu~tetmnscription ofthelowa City council,neetmg of Janua~ 30,1996. F013096 #6c page 6 building, that would obviously degrade the whole neighborhood in that area. So that is a little bit of background as to why I signed the covenant after filing a formal objection because I felt my choices were extremely limited and that this was the best way to go with severe restrictions. So, I hope that helps you in coming to a decision. That I really like to see the covenant in place because to us it seems to limit the property severely in the future. Nov/ Thank you. Kubby/ I move to accept correspondence. Thornberry/ Second. Nov/ Was that part of the Consent Calendar? No. Okay. It has been moved by Kubby to accept correspondence, seconded by Thornberry. All in favor please say aye- (ayes). Thank you. Duane Brenneman/ I represent the Church of Iowa City. A couple of things that haven't been addressed here yet that I would like to bring that up to you before you or after you have seen it before. Even if-As you know P/Z did vote unanimously not to change the zoning. As far as addressing what Paul just said about the property looking ugly with the church, that is not out intent to make that property look ugly. We do want to keep it neat and clean. The traffic issue would be no problem with us. Maybe with another one, I don't know. But the thing that really troubles me, I guess, is not so much the problem with you as it is with Lutheran Social Services that I would like for you to be aware of. That our offer, according to our offer, the way it was signed, was the zoning to be changed by the 3rd of January or there was suppose to be delay caused by the City of Iowa City and if the delay was caused by Iowa City then it could be delayed a little bit further. It was suppose to be our offer after the 3rd of January the way this is written. I have called the Board of realtors. We will pursue that further. We will pursue some other avenues even no matter which way-Well, if it goes against us tonight. As far as a property values, it seems to me that this is definitely going to limit that value of the property to go with the covenants and the value of that property is lower, seems to me the value of the neighboring property will also be somewhat lower. Also back to this matter of the offer. Just so you have a full understanding of why I am a little but upset to be honest about it is that when we gave out offer it was suppose to be returned to us by the 12th of November. They told us that the Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 #6c Mike page 7 person responsible to sign wasn't available. However, on the 17th, I recently found out he did sign something to give an extension for 4C's to work on something with you. However, they still didn't sign our offer until the 29th telling us he was unable to sign our offer. On about 28th of December we were notified that there was an extension in effect. That, you know, the other question I have is why did they tell us the offer would come to us on the 3rd of January when already on the 17th of Nov there was an extension in effect. There is something wrong. And since we weren't notified until the 28th of December that there was an extension in effect something is wrong some place. I am looking into the matter to see where it is. But I just present this to you. I realize this is not really your problem. Your problem is the issue of whether or not you are going to change the zoning. I just present this to you so you can see where I am coming from and we still want to buy the property. So- Cilek/ I have the property listed and I can give you a real long history to this property. I don't think I want to bore you with that. A couple of things I want to address. First of all Karen Harris mentioned that they had a full price contingency pre-offer. It is not a full price offer. It is an offer that Lutheran Social Service accepted, which is less than full price. It is contingent free but it is accepted as a backup offer to the first offer provided and agreed upon with 4C's. So I want to clarify that issue. Mr. Brenneman has gotten into some situations here as far as offers being accepted and not. The 4C's extension from January 3 until March 1 was agreed upon when they were told by the city- Originally they were told they would get approval by January 3. And then later Sandy found out that that was only P/Z approval and that it would go to council and it would be possibly the middle of February before we would know for sure. So at that time we extended this to March 1 and there was a communication problem back and forth between realtors but it had nothing to do with the second offer or any intention there to do anything with trying to play one offer against another. It was only granted because Sandy found out that we had to extend that. And I guess my feeling and Mr. Brenneman can talk later. Obviously he wants to talk to the Board of Realtors and that type of thing which is fine but I would like to stress one other point I guess and that is that I believe that 4C's has gone in really good faith to try to cooperate with the city with a piece of property that I started to work on in 1991 when Dick Hine was executive Director. I was told 2-3 different times over the last four years that this could be Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 #6c page 8 used as a small office building. Not until this year when we listed it did we find out that there was restriction of religious institution attached to it. It was originally listed as $150,000 and Lutheran Social Service reduced it to $79,9- once we found out that restriction was on there and I admire 4Cs for what they are doing. I am not speaking against the church. I think you have to look at the rezoning issue separate. But I think 4C's has tried to cooperate with the city and with the neighbors to try to do something in an agreeable way with a piece of property that is very much in demand for an agency such as 4C's, a small office building. And I guess I would encourage you to go for this based on the way they tried to cooperate with the city. I don't think that, basically the 4C's should be looked at because their offer was initiated October 3 and I believe the church offer came in around first of November. So the process had already started with 4C's and their effort to work with the city was started before the second offer ever came in. I really don't think one offer or two offers is the' issue here. Your job is to decide what is best for this piece of property with the 4C's application. Thank you. Nov/ Is there anyone else who would like to discuss this topic? Legal papers are all signed? Can we close the hearing? Holechek/ My understanding is that CZA has been completed, yes. Nov/ Okay. P.h. is now closed. Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa C~W council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 #6d page 1 ITEM MO. 6d. Consider an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by changing the use regulations of an approximate .3 acre property located at 1500 Sycamore Street from RS-5, Low Density Single-Family Residential, to CO-I, office Commercial. (First Consideration) Nov/ This is first consideration. It is the same topic we discussed prior to this. Moved by Kubby, seconded by Lehman. Discussion. Kubby/ Well, I am going to be supporting this zoning change because I agree with Paul that the zoning change, even though the city is not a party to the covenant, the practical end result will be a less intensive use of the land and will, in the long run, help us with live out the Comp Plan better of having a buffer between an intensive commercial zone and the residential zone. And it is-I am very interested in private parties working things out between themselves. I don't know what I think of this' argument of that process circumventing the zoning process. Just because a commission recommends something to us doesn't mean we always do it. It means we way the recommendation heavily. And in terms of P/Z, whenever we disagree with them we have a special meeting where they come and discuss what our viewpoint is of the council and what their viewpoint is and then you make a decision. So we have taken their recommendation very seriously but I think again for the neighborhood what is does is protect the neighborhood while still and maybe even helping us even more so live out the Comp Plan. Nov/ I also have to say that we considered the staff recommendation also. Sort of weigh them when they disagree with each other and eventually we have to decide. Norton/ I think it is worth noting that P/Z didn't know about the covenant at the time they were dealing with this matter. I am not sure, I don't want to prejudge how they would have- I am going to support the amendment, however, myself. But it wouldn't have been wise, I think, without the covenant. I, too, have some concerns about the precedence it sets. I think I said at the work session last night, it is like P/Z by referendum but in this particular case because of the original restrictions there, it could have gone on into very active religious uses and not subject to the constraints that now applies to such institutions in an RS-5 zone. So this gives me the best of all possible worlds assuming everything is okay Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa C~ty council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 #6d page 2 with the covenant and that we haven't set a precedent that we can't live with. I am going to support it. Lehman/ Well, I am going to support this but I have a real problem in supporting it because of the covenant because the city is not a part to any of these covenants. I don't think that should be a factor in making our decision. It is strictly a matter of land use and I think if you look at that land use, if obviously the CO is a buffer zone, that is a legitimate use and I have been listening tonight at the p.h. people talking about things that have nothing to do with land use and that is the basis upon which the council has to make their decision. Baker/ It is important to remember is that what we are doing is recognizing an ordinance that has existed in fact historically. Kubby/ In theory I agree too but sometimes real life doesn't follow that theory and this piece of land because of the history of it, it is an odd duck. It is not a situation that we find all over town. So that is why I don't think this precedent thing is really very powerful argument to me and I like to live by principle. I strive to do that in my personal and political life but sometimes you have to go beyond that and look at the practical results of your decisions. Lehman/ I agree with that but I would hate to see, as part of the public record, these covenants being part of our decision to rezone it. I think that is a big mistake. Baker/ And Ernie, I didn't say that as part of my decision. I am just recognizing by ordinance what exists in fact and it seems entirely logical the land use to be CO-1. Norton It was part of mine because it would not go for this CO-/ otherwise because P/Z didn't and they had good reasons to leave it RS-5. They didn't want to go CO-1 and I would have supported them otherwise. Nov/ Okay, anyone else? Roll call- (yes). Thisrepresents only a reasonably accuratetranscript,on ofthelowa Oty council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting January 30, 1996 Page 7 e. Consider an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by changing the use regulations for a .5 acre property located at 840 Cross Park Avenue from CO-1, Commercial Office, to CC-2, Community Commercial. (first consideration) (~~/) Comment: At its December 7 meeting, by a vote of 5-1, with Supple voting no, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended dental of the requested rezoning. The Commission's recommendation is consis- tent with the staff recommendation contained in the November 16 staff report, In a letter dated December 12, the applicants Tom and Mary Sundblad request Council consideration of the rezoning. Comments were received at the January 16 public hearing on this item. f. Consider an ordinance amen 4, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning," Article D, entitled "Residential Zones," Section 5, entitled "Neighborhood Conservation Residential Zone (RNC-12)," to clarify the number of roomers permitted in duplex units in the RNC-12 zone. (First Consider- ation) Comment: At its December 7 meeting, by a vote of 6-0, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial of the amendment to clarify the number of roomers permitted in duplex units in the RNC-12 zone. The Commission's recommendation is not consistent with the staff recommendation contained in the November 16 staff memorandum. Comments were received at the January 16 public hearing opposing the ordinance amendment. Action: , v__ #6e page 1 ITEM NO. 6e. Consider an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by changing the use regulations for a .5 acre property located at 840 Cross Park Avenue from CO- 1, Commercial Office, to CC-2, Community Commercial. (first consideration) Nov/ Moved by Lehman, seconded by Thornberry. Any discussion? Norton/ I am gging to live by principle and vote no here because I think you could get into this that there is a buffer feature there and I think P/Z and the staff won't recognize it and although the buffer doesn't extend all the way down Cross Park, I think it has a valid reason. I think we are going to have trouble now with this lot next to this one when it comes up for consideration and the people that went on the corner and went for the CO-1 and I don't want to see it go CC-2. So I am certainly going to vote against it. And that is consistent, folks. Nov/ No metals for consistency. Baker/ I am going to support this ordinance change. When I look at that property and look at what is there, the history of this. The idea that this serves as a buffer zone seems like a stretch to me. In reality it sounds good and logically and theoretically it is absolutely accurate but in practicality it doesn't seem to be applicable here and I see no problem with CC-2 on this lot. Vanderhoef/ I am going to agree with Larry and add one more thing that there were no comments from the public about the changing of this zoning. Nov/ There were no objections. Thornberry/ There were no objections to the rezoning. 60% of that block is already zoned commercial and I see no problem using that street as a buffer. Nov/ Any further discussion? Roll call- (6/1, Norton-no). Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30.1996. F013096 #6f page 1 ITEM NOo 6f. Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning," Article D, entitled "Residential Zones," Section 5, entitled "Neighborhood Conservation Residential Zone (RNC-12)," to clarify the number of roomers permitted in duplex units in the RNC-12 zone. (First Consideration) Nov/ Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Thornberry. Norton/ This is another no vote. Discussion. Nov/ Karin, can we clarify exactly what this amendment clarifies because the description that we have read does not say. Karin Franklin/ Clarifies. It is how we are going to treat roomers in this particular zone and it changes the number of permitted roomers so that it is consistent with the RM-12 zone which is what this area was previously rezoned and allows more roomers than what is allowed in the zone right now in duplexes. Nov/ RNC without this change would- Franklin/ RNC-12 zone now allows two roomers in s.f. and one roomer in a duplex unit. The change would allow two roomers in s.f. and two roomers in duplex unit. Norton/ So approval means that you are permitting two? Franklin/ That is correct. Norton/ Now it says they are restricted to one. Franklin/ That is correct. Norton/ Roomers per unit. Nov/ Thank you, Karin. Franklin/ You are welcome. Nov/ Any further discussion? Roll call- (no). First consideration was denied, 0/7. This means that there will not be second consideration. Correct? In the previous first consideration we will vote second and third time before these things are final. Karr/ Can we have a motion to accept correspondence on the last item? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa C~ty councd meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #6f page 2 (Kubby{Norton). All those in favor? (ayes). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 30. 1996. F013096 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting January 30, 1996 Page 8 -37/Z. h. Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning," to allow recycling processing facilities in the I-1, General Industrial, zone and related amendments. (Second Consideration) Comment: At its November 16 meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission, by a vote of 5-0, recommended approval of amendments to define and permit recycling processing facilities as provisional uses in the I-1 zone, and to allow outdoor storage of certain materials by special exception. The Cornmiss(oh's recommendation is generally consistent with the staff recommendation contained in the staff memorandum dated November 16. Public comments were received at the December 19 public hearing on this item. In a letter dated November 22, 1995, Ernie Galer has requested expedited consideration of this item. Consider an ordinance amending itl~e 14, Chapter 6, ' ' 'n ' enttled Zon g, Article N, entitled "Off-Street Parking and Loading," to reference the Parking Facility Impact Fee Ordinance in the off-street parking regula- tions section of the Zoning Chapter. (Pass and Adopt) Comment: At its November 16 meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission, by a vote of 5-0, recommended approval of amendments to reference the Parking Facility Impact Fee Ordinance in the off-street parking regulations section of the Zoning Chapter. The Commission's recommendation is consistent with the staff recommendation contained in the staff memorandum dated November 16. No comments were received at the December 19 public hearing on this item. #6g page ITEM NO. ~g. Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning," to allow recycling processing facilities in the I-l, General Industrial, zone and related amendments. (Second Consideration) Nov/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Lehman that we waive the second consideration. We need roll call- (yes). Moved by Kubby, seconded by Norton that we approve third consideration at this time. Roll call- (yes). Kubby/ I guess that we should say, too, that in the works already is an amendment to this ordinance so that current and possible future other recycling entities may not be so restricted by some of the storage issues, outdoor storage. Nov/ The outdoor storage issues are in the process of being amended but this is going forward on third consideration. Final approval has passed. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa C,ty council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting January 30, 1996 Page 9 ITEM NO. 7 - ITEM NO. 8 - ITEM NO. 9 - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION RESCINDING RESOLUTION 79-381, AND ESTABLISHING A DISCOUNT PROGRAM FOR CITY UTILITY SERVICES (LOW'~iNC, SEWER, SOLID WASTE, AND/OR RECYCLING) FOR QUALIFYING OME RESIDENTS. Comment: This resolution expands the existing low income policy discount for refuse/recycling to include a discount for water and wastewater fees. The current program allows for a 100% discount on refuse. The proposed discount program recommends changing the free refuse portion to 50% of the monthly base fee of $11.00. The water and wastewater proposal would give a 100% discount of the monthly minimum for each category. The discount per month based on the current refuse fee of $11.00/month and the 30% and 15% rate increases for water and wastewater would be $23.82 (½ of $11 or 85.50 + $8.54 + 99.78). There are currently 92 customers signed up for the discount. The estimated annual cost or decrease in revenue based on 92 users for the new proposed discount program is $6,077 for refuse, 99,428 for water and $10,797 for wastewater. Action= ~ / ~_~-~c~ ~ ~-~'~,~' ~ CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AIV1ENDING TITLE 3, CITY FINANCES TAXA- TION AND FEES, CHAPTER 4, SCHEDULE OF FEES, RATES, CHARGES, BONDS, FINES AND PENALTIES, SECTION 3-4-3 POTABLE USE (THIRD CONSIDERATION). Comment: The proposed ordinance increases rates for water by 30% effective on bills issued on or after March 1, 1996. The rate increases as proposed will be applied as a flat increase across-the-board to all existing rate blocks and minimum charges. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AiViENDING TITLE 3, CITY FINANCES TAXA- TION AND FEES, CHAPTER 4, SCHEDULE OF FEES, RATES, CHARGES, BONDS, FINES AND PENALTIES, SECTION 3-4-4 WASTEWATER TREAT- MENT WORKS USER CHARGES. (THIRD CONSIDERATION). Comment: The proposed ordinance increases rates for wastewater by 15% effective on bills issued on or after March 1, 1996. The rate increases as proposed will be applied as a flat increase across-the-board to all existing rate blocks and minimum charges. Action, #7 page 1 ITEM NO. ? - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION RESCINDING RESOLUTION 79-381, AND ESTABLISHING A DISCOUNT PROGRAM FOR CITY UTILITY SERVICES (WATER~ SEWERr SOLID WASTE, AND/OR RECYCLING) FOR QUALIFYING LOW INCOME RESIDENTS. Nov/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Norton. And discussion? Baker/ I just wanted a point of information for the public. It is not really a comment. I just want to identify those programs we are using to determine eligibility which they weren't listed in the resolution. We are using the Supplementary Social Security Benefit Program, the Title 20 Program, the Family Investment Program, the Food Stamp Program, and the Iowa Disabled and Senior Citizen Property Tax and rent disbursement Claim Program. That information will be distributed further but if you are currently participating in that program, you are eligible. Nov/ Any one of the programs. Baker/ Any one of the programs. You do not have to be involved in all of them, two of them, but any one of those programs. But you do have to participating, not just eligible for them. Nov/ Anybody else? Lehman/ Naomi, I think we have a little thing from you tonight. Nov/ I do want to protest slightly on a 100% discount. To me a waiver of these fees does not seem quite fair. I spoke with somebody today who is already participating in the waiver of the refuse fee. This person, according to the numbers here, currently would be paying $15.07. If we increase the fees and gave a continued waver, this person would be paying whatever one else is paying for this except for refuse. But we are talking about increasing refuse for that person. We are going from zero to $5.50 and we are talking about zero for water and waste water. Kubby/ Zero of the minimum which is a very important distinction because most households use more than the minimum. That household may not but most households use more than the minimum. Nov/ The people that we are concerned about, at least some of the people that we are concerned about are the elderly on fixed incomes. And for them they are using the minimum and if we are Th~s represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting o! January 30, 1996. F013096 #7 page 2 going to say that we are giving 50% off on everything which is the first handwritten column, we would then be charging this person $14.66 instead of $15.07 which is a very small decrease instead of a large increase. The very least column on the right I am proposing that we go for 50% on both water and sewer rates and 25% on refuse because that is a small increase on something that has been zero until now and that person would then pay $11.91. If we are going to reevaluate this and this is what we talked about yesterday, I don't want to put us in the position of reevaluating from zero and going up. If we find that there are many people who want this discount and we can't afford to do it and we are going to decide to increase it, we are going to be in a bad position with angry people. Lehman/ Nothing there. Nov/ Well, that is the refuse fee which are combined under one line. $2.35 is 25% of the refuse fee and recycling. The whole $11.00 fee is currently being waived. I would say that we ought to have some kind of refuse fee and I would propose that we can probably afford a 25% instead of 50% and the water and waste water- Norton/ You said 50% for water and waste water and 25% on refuse? You think from that we could go down. We could make an adjustment downward later if necessary. Nov/ If necessary. We may have many people who are not on our refuse system, they may be living in an apartment building with six units, with individual meters, they may qualify for this on the basis of income but we don't know how many there will be and I think our 92 is an unrealistic number because it includes just s.f. Norton/ It is too small, yeah. Nov/ I think if we were potentially going up to 200, for example, we would have a large loss to make up. I figured it would be close to $44,000 a y~ar. Lehman/ Don, can I ask you a question. What sort of problems or difficulties does it present to the city to use these kinds of percentages? Is there a problem? Don Yucuis/ I think it would be easy to administer whatever- If you are sticking with the minimums, I think it is easy to administer. Th~s represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #7 page 3 Kubby/ It is the same. 50% of the minimum and 20% on anything above the minimum. That is when it starts getting complicated administratively. Nov/ And I also think it is important to give a discount on the minimum and not on anything above that because it would encourage a large family to start saving water if they could somehow lower their costs on anything above the minimum. Thornberry/ Don, would it be possible, computers are wonderful things I am told, I am getting my first class tomorrow. But anyway- They hooked it up a week ago but I am getting my first class tomorrow. Don, would it be possible by the people that qualified, and Larry succinctly told us who they were, the qualifications for this. Would it be possible to put on bill that they would be getting on there less the deductions to show them their final bill? Yucuis/ It is probably possible. I would have to-I couldn't guarantee it. Kubby/ You mean to show them what they would have owed if they weren't on the program and what they are owing because of the program. Nov/ Yes. Yucuis/ You could structure something similar to that that we just have to set it up a little differently and- Thornberry/ To let them know that this is not the normal bill but that they are getting this discount. You see- We are letting them know that they are getting a discount. Yucuis/ I know what you are looking for. I will just have to-I can't tell you yea or any right now. Nov/ If it is possible that would be a good idea. The woman that I spoke to knew that they she was getting a discount on refuse but she did not know what the amount was. She said my bill has water and wastewater, it does not have refuse and that is all she knew. Thornberry/ But if we could put a total bill on there and then show a discount, I think that would be helpful. Kubby/ I am a little bit concerned about basing a change on what we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the iowa City council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #7 page 4 agreed on last night on talking with one person who is on the program that may or may not be representative of either the people who are currently on the program or who potentially could qualify the way the resolution is written and I like the idea of having this 100% waiver on the minimum because I think that helps create a greater incentive for conservation for families and households who are near the minimum. Lehman/ I think Naomi's point though and I don't disagree with you because last night we really did kind of agree that this was acceptable for a three month period after which we would analyze it. I think Naomi's point that if in fact it turns out that this is something we can't live with, it is going to be very very difficult to raise from the zero charge for a minimum to something higher. Kubby/ They are already getting raised 30% now. So- Lehman/ If you tell them it is free for minimum and three months you say oh, no, it is not free anymore. It would be much much easier to say hey, we gave you 50%, it looks like we can give you 75%. I am not advocating a position. Kubby/ I hear your point. I am just saying I don't think it is going to be that kind of a problem especially if we-As we talked about it a couple of years ago and Dee brought up again to look at this Project Aid style of people being able to give to the fund to help subsidize these rate payers, that that will offset any increase in growth in each of the programs. Project Aid is very successful. Nov/ I don't believe that this will happen. I think that most people will look at it and say this is a terrific amount of money. I am not giving you an extra dollar. Norton/ Well, we could give that option. Nov/ The option will be there. I just don't think that it will have a huge response. Norton/ I am confused. Do we have an amendment to the ordinance? Nov/ No, I am proposing it and if we want to we can amend this. Baker/ Also, Don, for the record, last night-I want to make sure these figures are right. We are talking about 92 customers, half of which qualify under the senior citizen program. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #7 page 5 Yucuis/ Elderly Credit Program. Baker/ Elderly Credit Program. 92 people out of 17,000 accounts? Yucuis/ Correct. Baker/ The astonishing thing to me was when we got out low income policy, we are helping 92 people. Lehman/ Larry, I think you are going to see a significant- Baker/ What I am saying is is I don't think the problem that Naomi is anticipating is going to be the real problem if indeed there is a problem in the future. I mean, we are going to have to look at not just the increases under these guidelines but there ought to be some discussion about are these guidelines themselves the only protected categories or included categories. The is going to be a much harder discussion. Norton/ We are to need some experience with this, there is no doubt. The question is whether it is safer to start with a more with Naomi's arrangement or the one we talked about last night. I guess that is where we are at, isn't it? Lehman/ I think, also down the trail, if in fact the rates go up as we anticipate to the year 2000. If the minimum rate is always a 100%- I think maybe we are getting ourselves into a hole there. If it were a dollar amount, I guess I could live with that a lot more than making it a 100% waiver. If you want to make it 100% and you include today's dollars, I have no problem with that. If we have to go up in dollars next year or the year after or whatever I don't think the minimum should always be or may not always have to be 100% waiver. Kubby/ But that is way in the future. A minimum might change in terms of the minimum amount of water that is the minimum. The minimum-We might totally change our rate structure in ten years to be upside down. I mean, it is so hard. I make a decision today about what could happen in ten years in terms of the rate structure° Baker/ I think the proposal in front of us now is a proposal that we ought to be comfortable- I am comfortable with. I think the council ought to be comfortable with. We are going to review it 3-4 months° I think we want to project into the future and talk about hypothetical situations, let's talked about a hypothetically positive situation which is if we talk about This represents only a reasonably accurate transcnption of the Iowa City council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #7 page 6 other sources of income that might be coming in in water and sewer rates. As part of that you could set aside part of that incoming income for a low income program. All sorts of ways you can decide the numbers here and we will have that discussion almost in conjunction with our review next time. Nov/ At that point we can discuss that. But at this point, if we are giving this zero to somebody on fixed income, they are budgeting every month and they are allocating that reduction to something else and it is not right to come back to them six months later or four months later and say by the way it is no longer zero. Kubby/ So we need to give people some notice. Nov/ No, we cannot. That person's income is not going to go up no matter how you give them notice. Kubby/ They are paying it now. They are paying 100% of their water and sewer bill now. Lehman/ What Naomi is saying is under our proposal they would be paying absolutely nothing for three months. Kubby/ That is right and they may change how they use their money and if we are going to change drastically how lower income households ought to budget we need to, out of respect for those individuals, we need to give them maybe a couple of months notice that there is going to be some change whether it is up or down even, any direction. Vanderhoef/ Already we are seeing that it is down as compared to what they are paying right now. They are paying $15.07 right now and under this proposal they would only be paying $11.91 and this is incorporated in the new rates of 30% and 15%. So I am real comfortable with this and I would propose that we accept this as an amendment to the resolution. Thornberry/ I will second that. Nov/ Moved and seconded (Vanderhoef/Thornberry) that we amend the resolution to include a 50% reduction in water, a 50% reduction in sewer and a 75% reduction of the current refuse and recycling. Kubby/ So why are the percentages different? Why not have 50% for everything? I mean, is there a rationale behind the number? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa C~ty council meeting of January 30, 1996. FO 13096 #7 page 7 Nov/ No. Kubby/ I think you should have a rationale. Lehman/ To keep the total down, I think. Norton/ What is it? 50% of the minimum and 25 for- Nov/ I think that is the that you were proposing- Vanderhoef/ 50, 50, and 25 on- Nov/ 50, 50, and 25 was the one that she was proposing. We can certainly go 50% on each but that wasn't what she said. Norton/ 50, 50, 25 is what is before us. Nov/ Yes. Kubby/ Of what has been- Norton/ In the amendment. Nov/ This is the motion, right. And do we have any further discussion? Lehman/ The only thing is this and I feel the same thing about the amendment as I fee about the original resolution that this really needs to be looked at very closely at the end of three months or whatever to see if it is accomplishing what we were trying to accomplish. Thornberry/ Like I said last night, I would like to see what the numbers come up with after that quarter whether it goes up or down from this 92. I am thinking that it will probably go up. If I were in that situation, I would certainly go for it. Kubby/ I will be encouraging people to apply. Norton/ We will get realistic data I presume. Kubby/ Another thing we are going to look at out of the instigation, I think, of Dee Norton which I am glad for is that we· have many different kinds of sliding scale fees or waivers throughout different city departments offering different city services. We-are going to try to consolidate those so that when people qualify for one kind of sliding Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcnpt~on ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30,1996· F013096 #7 page 8 scale program that they don't have to keep qualifying each time they go to get a different city service. i think that will be a real big service to people in the community and also make it consistent as to what we are saying we value in terms of low income households. Nov/ We all agree on that one. Baker/ My question from Don- Don, you gave us the figures on the amount of money that would have to be made up if this originally proposed discount were in place. What is the, off the top of your head, what is the anticipated total annual fees that we are going to be collecting from these water and sewer. Yucuis/ Close to $18 million. Baker/ So we are going to be collecting $18 million and we are talking about $28,000 here on a discount program on the proposal that was in front of us last night. Nov/ If only 92 people apply. Baker/ If only 92 people. $18 million, I mean. Nov/ There are 2,000 people who are using the minimum. If 25% of those apply, we are up to 500 people. Baker/ We are talking about- I have always wanted to make a difference between how much water you use and how much you can afford to buy. We are talking about low income, not low usage here. Nov/ But if those people are low income and I am suspecting that a great many of them are elderly, fixed income people. Then our numbers will change. My suppositions may be wrong. We can evaluate within six months and it is a lot easier to increase then or decrease then if we hadn't started at zero. So, have roll call on the amendment? Karr/ No, just a motion. Nov/ We need a motion. Holechek/ You need to vote on the motion to amend. Nov/ Motion to amend is an aye. Okay. Thisrepresents only areasonabiy accuratetran$cnption ofthelowa Citycounc,I meetingofJanuary 30,1996. F013096 #7 page 9 Baker/ 50, 50, 25? Thornberry/ Yes. Nov/ Yes, okay? All in favor say aye- (ayes). I think we had four on that. Kubby/ I would like to be on record as a nay. Karr/ 5/2 (Kubby, Baker). Nov/ Now the original resolution as amended needs a roll call. Kubby/ I would like to make another amendment that is just a language change just so it is really clear so that if people are using the resolution itself to help educate people about whether they would qualify or not. Under annual discounts it says be eligible under the low income criteria and participating in one of the following programs. I think it would be cleaner and more easily understood if it said participate in one of the following programs. Because if you participate, some else has already qualified you. I move that we strike "be eligible under the low income criteria and". Nov/ So we should say "be participating in"? Kubby/ Whatever grammatically suits Naomi will suit. Nov/ Karen said be participating in one of the following programs. Okay? Kubby/ That is what I move. Thornberry/ I already seconded it. Nov/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Thornberry. All in favor- (ayes). Okay. Any further amendments? Norton/ Do I take it the same change should be made in the next paragraph? Qualify and participate. Wouldn't it be again? Seems to me the sense of the amendment would cover that one as well. But maybe we need another amendment, to be participating- I move that we modify paragraph B. on the two year discount to make the wording consistent with that of paragraph A. Nov/ Okay, so we are going to delete qualify and just says Thisrepresents only a reasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of Januarv 30,1996. F0!3096 #7 page 10 participate in the reduction in the previous year's property tax for sewer, etc. Okay. Seconded by Thornberry. All in favor say aye- (ayes). Okay. Roll call? Holechek/ Roll call on the resolution as amended. Nov/ As amended. So the discount rates on the second page for water it says- CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 96-20 SIDE 1 Nov/ On the second page for water it says 15%, on wastewater 15%, on solid waste recycling it should say 75% discount. So they would be paying 25% on solid waste and recycling. They would be paying 50% for minimum on water and wastewater and normal charge on anything above the 200 cubic feet minimum. Thornberry/ That is 50% of solid waste and 50% of recycling curbside. Nov/ 75% because it is listed as a discount. Kubby/ And the minimum was 100 cubic feet. Just to be clear about what that minimum is. Nov/ Okay. Yesterday we kept saying 200. Kubby/ It used to be. I thought because we went to monthly billing that your minimums were cut in half. Yucuis/ No, we were always at 200. It was 200 per month. We billed twice, every other month. It was 400- on your every other month. Kubby/ Right. Norton/ 200 cubic foot minimum in both rates and water- Kubby/ It is good we clarified that. Nov/ No, this is for the existing rate per 100 cubic feet for everything over the first 200 and I should tell everyone that the first 200 cubic feet charge is a basic minimum. If someone is out of town for the entire month, they still pay that basic minimum even if they have used no water at all. Kubby/ I guess one final comment on my part is that I really- Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting ofJanua~ 30.1996. F013096 #7 page 11 Because there is no rationale for the 75, I guess I would like us, when we review this in three months or four months, whatever it is, that we talk about that because we are amending this and people are saying this number is arbitrary. I want to have some rationale for the numbers that we choose. Nov/ I would have no objection to 50% on the solid waste and recycling if somebody else wants to do it that way. We can still amend. We have to voted the final resolution. If people want 50% on the solid waste and the recycling. Lehman/ Just leave it alone. Norton/ There is a lot of details to work out. Kubb¥/ But if we want 50% we are going to be adding money to their bills, absolutely. Nov/ That is a valid point. Thornberry/ Are you now proposing the 50%, Karen? Kubby/ No. Norton/ We won't be moving from zero in any case. Kubby/ I am just bringing up an inconsistency. Holechek/ Roll call on the resolution that is thrice amended- (yes) . Kubby/ It is very important that we are doing this. I making decisions about public health and about environmental protection, we don't want an effect to be that low income households cannot afford to live here and this is one way that we can balance out all of those things that we want to do. Nov/ Very good comment. This represents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 #9 page 1 ITEM NO. 9 - CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE MENDING TITLE 3, CITY FINANCES TAXATION AND FEES! CHAPTER 4, SCHEDULE OF FEESv RATESI CHAR~ES~ BONDS, FINES AND PENALTIESv SECTION 3-4-4 WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS USER CH~R~ES. (THIRD CONSIDERATION). NOV/ Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Thornberry. Any discussion. Lehman/ Just a couple of words, Naomi. I think and I don't think anybody on this council agonizes anymore with anything other than these rates. I mean we really really care about what folks in this town have to pay for sewer and water. I think we recognize responsibility that we have to provide clean water. That we have to clean up the sewer water. And I also think that we have, at least what I have heard from us, unanimity. That we will still look at this every year before we raise rates again. So I think-I am going to vote for this. I am very reluctant to do it. I don't see that we have a choice. Nov/ Yeah, I think we all say we don't have a choice. Roll call- (yes) . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 30, 1996. FO 13096 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting January 30, 1996 Page 10 ITEIVI NO. 10 - ?/,5" ITEM N0.11 - ITEM NO. 12 - CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14, DEVELOPMENT CODE, CHAPTER 3, CITY UTILITIES. ATION). ENTITLED UNIFIED (THIRD CONSIDER- Comment: The proposed ordinance changes the meter required section from a refundable fee to a non-refundable fee, adds language to the code that allows access to meters, shut off valves and stop boxes of account holders and allows discontinuance of service if access is not allowed. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 5, "BUSINESS AND LICENSE REGULATIONS," CHAPTER 2, "VEHICLES FOR HIRE," OF THE CITY CODE BY AMENDING THE DEFINITION OF TAXICAB CONTAINED IN 5-2-1. (FIRST CONSIDERATION) Comment: This ordinance amends the definition of taxicab by changing automobile to motor vehicle. This will make it consistent with other portions of the City Code. Action: / CONSIDER A RESOLUTION RESCINDING RESOLUTION NO. 95-234 AND IN LIEU THEREOF SETTING FEES AND CHARGES WITH RESPECT TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF REGULATIONS OF VEHICLES FOR HIRE. Comment: This resolution sets out liability insurance amounts for vehicles carrying more than ten passengers. A memo from the Risk Manager regarding the~e recommeQdations is includ(~d,~n the pa~.ket.\ #11 page 1 ITEM NOo 11 - CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 5t "BUSINESS AND LICENSE RE~ULATIONSt" CHAPTER 2, "VEHICLES FOR HIRE~" OF THE CITY CODE BY AMENDING THE DEFINITION OF TAXICAB CONTAINED IN 5-2-1. (FIRST CONSIDERATION) Nov/ Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Thornberry. Discussion. Marian, we have had no objections on this kind of change from- Karr/ We have had no objections on this one. No, Madam Mayor. You have an objection on item #12 or a concerned expressed but not on this one. Kubby/ This doesn't functionally change how people currently operate. Karr/ No, it simply acknowledges a larger vehicle industry out there. Nov/ Okay. Roll call- (yes). Thisrepresents only a reasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30.1996. F013096 #12 page 1 ITEM NO. 12 - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION RESCINDING RESOLUTION NO. 95- 234 AND IN LIEU THEREOF SETTING FEES AND CHARGES WITH RESPECT TO THE i%DMINISTRATION OF REGULATIONS OF VEHICLES FOR HIRE. NOV/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Lehman. Discussion. Kubby/ The memo indicated that this was a much more functional and affordable way of providing coverage. So will you explain what the objection or the concern was? Karr/ The concern that you have before you tonight is not on that particular element. It is on the size of the vehicle. We recommend that the insurance be increased for anything-any vehicle carrying over ten passengers. The objection you have this evening is asking you to consider increasing it only for 15 passengers and over. It simply where you kick in that requirement. Kubby/ And our Risk Manager has determined that ten is the number that we should kick in to increase the amount of insurance? Karr/ The Risk Manager based his opinion, if I may say so, on the fact that automobile is defined in our City Code as a vehicle carrying nine passengers or less. So he used that to determine the ten or above. Kubby/ Thank you. Norton We have a rationale for something. Lehman/ Right. Nov/ Has there been just this one person objecting or is this an objection by all of the owners of ten vehicles-? Karr/ Two phone calls. One individual who wrote you from another company but of the phone calls is from the a letter and then the other one was he did not put it into writing. Nov/ And there are only two companies? Karr/ No, we license right now about five companies. Kubby/ So a van, the biggest van that you can get. How many can you stick into a big van? Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 #12 page 2 Thornberry/ Bunches. Karr/ This is part of our concern right now. we have had a lot of education on vans, min-buses and buses. And that is why a taxi cab is a motorized vehicle to cover that. Nov/ And is 15 about the upper limit on these motorized vehicles or- Karr/ No, we have three buses licensed. Nov/ Okay. Karr/ That carry far more than the 15. Nov/ And we are asking for extra insurance for 15 up to- Karr/ Anything over ten would be the $2 million and would go along with state requirements. Baker/ Just a point of clarification. You said you define a car up to nine? Karr/ We removed automobile-With your consideration in the vehicles for higher section. We moved automobile and replaced it with motor vehicle. However, in the portions of the traffic section of the City Code, automobile less than nine. Baker/ Less than nine and now we is defined as a vehicle carrying are requiring more than ten. Karr/ To have the increased liability. Baker/ Okay. So nine and ten, where do they fall in? Less than nine and more than ten? Karr/ $2 million. Baker/ Okay. So it is nine and above actually. Karr/ Ten and above. Nine and under would be- Baker/ It just says more then ten which seemed to exclude ten. Karr/ I would have to check the exact wording on the resolution/ I think ten was it. Thisrepresents onlyareasonablyaccuratetranscription ofthelowa Otycouncil meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 #12 page 3 Norton/ Madam Chair, I haven't had a chance to assimilate this correspondence and what is your judgement, Marian, about this? Karr/ The correspondence that you have before you this evening makes three points. The points are basically that 1- IDOT requirements defines their vehicles as 15 and under. It is simply a matter of where you cut off. It is an arbitrary number. The state does indeed go 15 and under. The other two points deal with the market. The fact that there are several manufacturers out there who do do a significant market in 15 passenger vans. We are acknowledging that by writing the ordinance removing automobile to allow the larger vehicles. We truly agree with that but we do not see that as being an argument for the not having increased liability. Kubby/ Is the any risk management information that shows that when they are more people in a vehicle and there is an accident, it makes sense that there is more liability there because they have more people and more property and damage. The vehicle costs more and etc. Karr/ Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. The more it carries, the more your coverage is- Thornberry/ The more liability there is. Karr/ Absolutely. Nov/ Okay. Now, the resolution says we want a liability of $2 million for a vehicle that has more than ten seats. Karr/ Okay, so ten and under would be at the $1 million current level. Current level right now is $1 million for all taxi cabs. We are recommending that taxi cabs carrying over ten people would be increased to $2 million. Lehman/ Where did this come from? Karr/ Twofold. It came from the increased market out there and more larger vehicles being licensed. And secondly, then in reviewing our code as far as what we would have to-where we would be as far as risk with the larger vehicles. It was reviewed by the City Attorney's office as well as Risk Management in Finance. Lehman/ I don't know what insurance costs for these vehicles. But I know for my automobile, the difference between $500,000 and Th~s represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #12 page 4 $1 million is minimal. It seems to me that $2 million for 15 people is very very minimal coverage. Real minimal. Karr/ As noted in the memo, our original suggestion would have been $100,000 per passenger and we found that that was a substantial increase. Researched it further and found the state did the $2 million and also that was much easier to get. Not only price prohibitive but easier to obtain. Lehman/ Do we know what the cost is? Karr/ I don't have those figures,no. I know our Risk Manager did check that out but I don't have that. Kubby/ We had a memo. It was like $400 a year. Karr/ I believe that is correct. Kubby/ I mean it seems this is a way to make sure the city is covered with the changing market. To do it in a practical way that doesn't put a. huge burden on the business. Karr/ I believe if council is not interested in increasing the rates that we should really take a look at restricting the size of vehicles that operate as taxi cabs. Kubby/ And then we are putting a restriction on the way the private sector does their business. Karr/ That is the choices we have right now. Certainly when the taxi cab ordinance was re-written, even with the new code. But certainly when it was re-written the first time we didn't anticipate the size of vehicles and the choices we have right now as far as taxi cabs. Nov/ I think the memo from the Risk Manager is certainly reasonable. So, we have a proposal. Any further discussion? Roll call- (yes). The resolution is adopted. Karr/ Can we have a motion to accept the letter? Nov/ Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Norton. All in favor, please say aye- (ayes). Thank you. Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting January 30, 1996 Page 11 ITEM NO. I3- ITEM NO. 14- ITEM NO. 15 - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION CERTIFYING UNPAID ~, WASTEWATER, SOLID WASTE AND RECYCLING CHARGES TO THE COUNTY FOR COLLECTION IN THE SAME MANNER AS A PROPERTY TAX. Comment: This resolution authorizes the filing of a lien against properties for delinquent water, wastewater, solid waste and/or recycling services. On January 10, 1996, certified letters were mailed to each property owner and tenant, if applicable, 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 conc_errj~g the unpaid charges CONSIDER A RESOLUTIO~ APPRO¥1~G AND AUTHORIZING ~XE~UTIO~ USE OY PUBLIC RI~HT-O~-WA¥ YOR PORTIONS O~ ~UR~IN~TO~ AND Comment: This temporary easement is to allow Ed & Mary Foraker to temporarily close a City sidewalk adjacent to their property along the south edge of Burlington Street and the east edge of Dubuque Street. This easement is requested in order to facilitate the safe execution of construction of a new apartment building located at 302 S. Dubuque Street and to secure the construction site from pedestrian traffic. This item was deferred from the January 16, 1996, meeting, A copy of letter from Attorney Holland is attached. Action: %%:~ ~'¢~'~/) ~/~ ANNOUNCEMENT OF VACANCIES. a. Current vacancies. (1) Planning and Zoning Commission - One vacancy for a five-year term ending May 1, 2001. (Richard Gibson's term ends.) (3 females and 2 males currently serving on this Commission.) This appointment will be made at March 26, 1996, meeting of the City Council. #13 page 1 ITEl4 NO. 13 - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION CERTIFYING UNPAID WATER, WASTEWATER, SOLID WASTE ~ RECYCLING CHARGES THE COUNTY FOR COLLECTION IN THE SAME MANNER AS A PROPERTY TAX. Nov/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Vanderhoef. on this that says water and taxes were want to explain that one? We have another memo not included? Do you Yucuis/ That is state law. State two years ago where water cannot do that. law added I believe a year ago or and tax is is not included. You Kubby/ So we just have to eat those unpaid bills. Yucuis/ Correct. Nov/ The resolution should have said unpaid wastewater, solid waste, and recycling. The word water should not have been there? Go back and look at the resolution. The descriptions are on the resolution. Holechek/ Would you like an amendment on that? Nov/ I don't know. Check it and see. Kubby/ While we are figuring that out. We got a letter from Don Kemp from Decorah who obviously is a property owner and who has a tenant who didn't pay their bills. We got a nice memo outlining what the procedure is, a sizable procedure. If we could send that to Mr. Kemp so he knows that it wasn't just two letters sent out over more than a year. That we do try very hard. That a person's name on the bill or the tenant or an owner occupied unit to recover the moneys that are owed to the city. We do it on parking tickets and we do it on water, sewer and waste water. Thornberry/ Don, could you tell me how much delay there is between the time there is an unpaid water bill and the landlord of the property gets notified? Yucuis/ When we notify an account holder, the person that is paying the bill that they're delinquent and they are renting the property, I believe that we notify the owner also at the same time. Thornberry/ How many days? Say, for example, the first of January This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 30, 1996. FO 13096 #13 page 2 you find they didn't pay their water bill for the month of December. So the first of January, say February, it is not a holiday. How soon after the first of February does the individual get notified as to the fact that he didn't pay his water bill and then a letter also goes to the landlord. Yucuis/ It is approximately 30 days from the original bill date. So it is almost at the same time we send out another bill that they will get notification that they are delinquent on their previous bill. And unfortunately that is our due process. We have to follow guidelines set up. Thornberry/ Then how long do they have to pay that bill after they are notified? Yucuis/ If we send them a notification that they are delinquent? Thornberry/ They are delinquent as of the first of February. And the first of March they get the notice that says, geez, you are delinquent. You have got what, ten days? Yucuis/ Ten days. Thornberry/ Ten days to pay this bill or what? Yucuis/ Or they are subject to shut off and additional fees are added to the bill. Thornberry/ Subject to shut off? ¥ucuis/ Correct. Thornberry/ How soon after-Say they don't pay their water bill and somebody left town and they didn't pay their water bill. The landlord is not paying it because it is not his water, it is the tenant's water. From the first of February, when do we go and shut off that water? Yucuis/ The first of February is the bill date? or first of January? Thornberry/ First of February is the bill date from January's month. Yucuis/ Approximately 45 days from the bill date they could be shut off. Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 ~13 page 3 Lehman/ Dean, the landlord is going to pay the water bill. Yucuis/ As long as we have due process. Thornberry/ Can the landlord request if the tenant does not pay the water within a five day period that they shut off the water? Yucuis/ I don't believe so. I don't think we can-I don't believe that we can do that from a landlord sake. Thornberry/ I have heard some landlords say it is not my water, I don't want to- Yucuis/ We have to have due process. We have to follow due process. Thornberry/ My response was geez, you rented it to them and you have got a deposit. But the deposit is a damage deposit. It is not- Nov/ This is financial damage to you, isn't it? Kubby/ That is a matter of tenant landlord law that - Thornberry/ The courts have already told me that it is for damage to your unit not for unpaid bills. So you can't hold any of that deposit back. But that is- Norton/ You could write it into your lease agreement I suppose. That would be the thing to do. Vanderhoef/ That is a matter for the landlord. Kubby/ We are not lawyers. I guess I would be hesitant to say yes, property owners can do that. Check with their own lawyer and check with the tenant landlord law. Norton/ I will send you my bill. Nov/ That is what we can do. I think that we have to somehow educate the landlord to require a forwarding address because if they would give the city a forwarding address we would just go ahead and send the bill. Thornberry/ I would like notification when they are going to leave. Norton/ Unfortunately it is not a city problem. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #13 page 4 Nov/ Not a city problem. Did we have a motion to accept this letter? Karr/ You still have a motion for the resolution. Kubby/Vandehoef. We have a motion on the floor for the resolution. You haven't adopted the resolution. Nov/ Then we can have another motion. Okay. Holechek/ I~ have a clarification. Are we adopting it, are we going to amend it to delete water? Nov/ That was my next question. Don, should we delete the word water? It is occurring several times in the resolution. Yucuis/ In the amounts that will be sent to the county as part of the lien, those fees are not added in there. If you want to clarify on the resolution that is doesn't- Nov/ We should. Kubby/ I move that we delete the word water from any place that appears to the resolution. Lehman/ Second. Nov/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Lehman that the resolution now reads that certifying unpaid wastewater and solid waste and recycling charges to Johnson County for collection in the same manner as property taxes. And we will delete the water several time within the resolution. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye- (ayes). Now back to the original resolution and we need a roll call- (yes). Moved by Kubby, seconded by Norton to accept correspondence. All in favor say aye- (ayes). Motion carried. Thisrepresents only a'reasonably accurate transcript,on of thelowa City council meeting of January 30.1996. F013096 #14 page 1 ITEM NO. 14 - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING AND AUTHORIZING EXECUTION OF AN AGREEMENT WITH J. ED AND MARY E. FORAKER FOR TEMPORARY USE OF PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY FOR PORTIONS OF BURLINGTON AND DUBUQUE STREETS. Nov/ Moved by Norton, seconded by Kubby that we adopt the resolution. Any discussion? Baker/ Yeah, Naomi. It is about this issue but I will do it under council time. Sorry. Nov/ Go ahead. Baker/ Well, this is for the construction of a new building on Dubuque Street which will be commercial first floor. Three stories of residential. It is in that block that the South Side Plan wanted to emphasize more intensive commercial development. I have looked at the plans for this particular building and I don't want to misrepresent those plans but it seems to me that this is an example of problem we had in other construction down there which is the purpose of the building is residential. They found a way to incorporate commercial to the minimum but the first floor is not totally commercial. It is partially commercial, partially parking. The frontage on Dubuque Street itself is basically an entrance into underground parking. That was my impression of the plans that I looked at. So I am wondering if there is an interest on the part of council to in the near future talk about, with Karin Franklin because I have talked to her about this, some way if possible to clarify or amend the ordinance that will discourage that sort of construction that is, again, primarily residential in a commercial zone. It is absolutely legal and- Kubby/ But doing commercial just to be able to fit in there. Baker/ There is commercial frontage on Burlington Street. But they have got an alley on one side. They have got Dubuque which is the major sort of entrance way there which is from what I remember of the plans, that wall with some windows and a big hole for cars to go in. So that pedestrian walkway is just simply an access to parking. Again, just a question for the council. This is not a major item right now but I hate to see us lose that block without addressing it sometime in the near future if indeed there is a way to sort of discourage that. Norton/ Are we too late? Thisrepresents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30.1996. F013096 #14 page 2 Baker/ For that particular parcel is done. Again, it is an absolutely legal, follows all of the rules, is not asking for tax abatement, doesn't have to do design review. Nov/ We can certainly consider the possibility of discouraging future similar things but not today. Kubby/ In terms of that particular building, is there a way that we can just talk to the designers of the building. If indeed there is kind of a blank solid wall. Baker/ Not solid but so much space, a few windows, and basically an entrance to parking. Norton/ It means the people from South Capitol Housing are going to have to walk right across the entrance to the parking. Baker/ Sure. Nov/ Well, they do that anyway. Norton/ Got to do it someway, I guess. Nov/ They do that anyway. Lehman/ I would assume that they have gotten a building permit and approval of plans. This is a done deal. Baker/ This is a done deal and I am not asking for any sort of action on this building because he has followed the rules. I want to talk about the rules for the future. Nov/ Okay. Add it to the list. Baker/ Add it to the list. Nov/ Yes. Baker/ But Karin Franklin and I had talked it and it is a concern. Norton/ We need to move it up on the list, I guess. Nov/ It is one of these complex issues on our long list of complex issues. Any further discussion? Baker/ I thought I would bring it to your attention. This represents only areasonabl¥ accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting o4 January 30,1996. F013096 Larry. We all agree. #14 page 3 Nov/ It is a good point, Baker/ One every meeting. Nov/ Okay. Roll call- (yes). Okay. Resolution is adopted. Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting January 30, 1996 Page 12 ITEIVI NO. 16 - a. b. Previously announced vacancies, (1) Civil Service Commission - One vacancy for a six-year term ending April 1, 2002. (Lyra Dickersoh's term ends.) (1 female and 1 male currently serving on the Commission). (2) Planning and Zoning Commission - One vacancy to fill an unexpired term ending May 1, 2001, (Eric Engh moved out of state.) (3 females and 3 males currently serving on the Commis- sion,) (3) Riverfront and Natural Areas Commission - One vacancy for an unexpired term ending December 1, 1998. (Jessica Neary resigned.) (4 females and 6 males currently serving on the Commission.) These appointments will be made at the February 27, 1996, meeting of the City Council. CITY COUNCIL APPOINTIVIENTS. Consider an appointment to the Airport Commission to fill one vacancy for a six-year term ending March 1, 2002. {Howard Horan'sterm ends.) {Four males and no females currently serving on this commission). Action: Consider an appointment to the Historic Preservation Commission for three-year terms ending March 29, 1999: (1) One at-large representative (Sue Licht's term ends). Action: (2) One Brown Street District representative (Kay Irelan's term ends). Action: ~(~/~.. /./,r/.~/ p~_~_v/ Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting January 30, 1996 Page 13 (3) One Moffit Cottage Historic District representative. (This is a new position.) (Two females and three males currently serving on this commission.) Action: Consider an appointment to the Broadband Telecommunications Commission to fill two vacancies for three-year terms ending March 13, 1999. (Terms of Cordell Jeppsen and Roger Christian end.) (One female and two males currently serving on this commission)~,t~,~.~ d. Consider an appointment to the Human Rights Commission to fill one vacancy for an unexpired term ending January 1, 1997. (Ken Gatlin resigned.) (Six females and two males currently serving on this commission.) Action: e. Consider approving recommendation of Project GREEN to appoint Bruce Haupert as Trustee of the Green Fund for a three-year term ending March 1, 1999. Action: ITEM NO. 17 - CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION. #17 page 1 ITEM NOo 17 - CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION. Nov/ City Council Information. Baker just had a turn. Anything else to add, Baker? Baker/ Yes I do, Nov. Last week's budget meeting we had asked Steve to prepare a very short memo about the ranges of salary obligations for the Human Rights Coordinator Investigative position, 1/2 time, 3/4 time, full time and you haven't done it yet, right? Lehman/ Yeah, we got it. Arkins/ The memo is prepared. I haven't given it to you. It will probably go in your packet on Friday. Baker/ I just didn't miss it. Arkins/ I did not- After I prepared the memo I forgot about carving it up into the 1/4 time, 3/4 time. What I did was I took all of the Boards and Commissions, totaled up what they requested so you had some idea what the total was. And you will have that in a couple of days. Baker/ Good. Great. Thank you. Thornberry/ I would like to commend the Street Department for their timely removal of snow from the majority of our streets. we got a lot of snow in a hurry and I think they have done an admiral job. I will get a lot of phone calls tomorrow but the arterial we got around right away and it was quick and we didn't have near the problems that the northeast had. We are use to the snow, I guess, more than they are. I would like to pursue that the problem that the gentleman had earlier. He would not have come here, I know him. He would not have come here had he not thought that he had been wronged in some way. I would like to get to the bottom of that if you could check with the Police Department or whatever. Kubby/ He even talked about some kind of flexible way of enforcing the 48 hour street removal when there has been a big snow storm and lots of cars are trapped. I mean, I don't know what the solutions are. Maybe Steve can outline some. It seems like we should be more flexible in extenuating circumstance. Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meet,ng of January 30,1996. F013096 #17 page 2 Norton/ Notice on t.v. We put a lot of things on there. We can certainly put the notice on when they are coming. Thornberry/ I am going to be working with some of the different departments, Steve, to see what they do and how they do. I am going to take the time to walk in their shoes for a day or two. One of them is going to be a snow truck plow to see what problems they have. I know when it is snowing real hard they can't see very well and if someone is walking along in white clothing or light colored clothing or playing along side the roadway where there are snow banks, they sometimes can't see these kids and these people. There is a problem. I know. My son went to school in Appleton, Wisconsin for four years and they had a snow removal policy saying that when it snowed there will be no cars on the street. None on the streets and there snow was removed rather quickly without anybody being blocked in with snow drifts. We may not be able to do that but there has got to be a policy that everybody knows about regarding the plowing of streets. And again, we have an ongoing educational process with all of the new freshman coming in every year and the transfer students and the people from out of the country. So we need to let them know quite regularly what the policy is. That is all I have. Atkins/ I encourage you to do that. You understand they roll them out about 4:00 AM to get started. Thornberry/ There is a weather service that says when it is going to snow. Kubby/ He doesn't have to go on the 4:00 AM one. He can go on the 7:00 AM. Atkins/ It is better at night. Norton/ I want him to go in the 4:00 AM. Baker/ ¥eah and I want to know when he is going to do with the wastewater crew orientation. Thornberry/ I did the water plan treatment-The water. I got treated to the water. Atkins/ I think it is Please feel free tours. Thank you. a good idea and I would encourage you all. to talk to department directors and arrange Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City councd meetmg of January 30,1996. F013096 #17 page 3 Nov/ While we are on this topic I had a phone call about somebody whose street was not cleared at 5:00 AM on Saturday morning and he had to get to work and he couldn't get his car out and he had to walk to work because there wasn't a bus, etc. But I did talk to Bud and I did call this man back and explain to him how flat residential streets are at the bottom of the priority list. Atkins/ They are. Nov/ That is the way we do it and he wasn't happy with it but that is the way we do it. Thornberry/ They moved an awful lot of snow in a hurry. Nov/ His little street was done by noon on Saturday which I thought was not bad. Atkins/ Unfortunately with snow removal, somebody gets it first and somebody gets it last. We do have a written policy, extensive policy, that spells our the routes, how they cover them. I would be happy to share it with you. We do it for our own liability protection. Kubby/ I get it last. Thornberry/ I think I get it next to last. Baker/ I get it first. Nov/ It is a bus route. That is why you are first. Kubby/ Longevity has nothing to do with snow removal. Thornberry/ Ride the bus. They get through. Nov/ The bus routes are certainly first priority and arterial streets are certainly first priority and this man said but the streets that are was walking on were cleared. I said well, they were obviously arterial or they were collector. They were not residential and that was the way- Thornberry/ Streets were cleared before the sidewalks. Nov/ Yes, definitely. There has been more than one winter when have walked in the street because it was safer than the sidewalk. Okay, moving on. Ernie- This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa CiW council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #17 page 4 Lehman/ Well, Steve, I won't belabor the point but I really was impressed with the way that our city folks handled that snow removal. Fortunately those folks who were first and last with very little difference in between. I think we did an admiral job and I would like to think that not just the department heads but the folks who are out there busting their buns in the middle of the night get told that we appreciate it. Atkins/ Whenever you say these things, as you know, I usually post a notice and I will note the time on the clock and I encourage them to see it on cable on the re-play so they can hear about it themselves. I tell them about you. Kubby/ The city is involved in the Council on the Disability Rights and Education and I am a member of that organization's Housing Subcommittee. And one of the things that we have been working on for close to over a year is doing some housing surveys that will help property owners and managers market their accessible features to people with disabilities and how that is done is through a survey where a survey team of people with different kinds of disabilities come in and go through a checklist and it is not meant to be a policing type of thing. It is meant to be a information gathering type of thing because every person with a disability needs different things to accommodate their situation in a rental unit and the hope is to create some kind of document. So if I know I need these three characteristics of a unit I can look on this chart when all this wonderful information is compiled. The problem we are having is property owners and managers not knowing about the availability of this free information gathering or being a little hesitant, feeling like it is part of our HIS program and it is not connected. And so I am putting a call out to property owners and managers to get involved and they can call me or they can call Rita at the Evert Conner Rights and Resources Center. Maybe Dean would be willing to get on board. I will talk to you. I just thought of that tonight and I should have thought of it at our meeting this afternoon but I will talk to you later about that. Thornberry/ I am a landlord and geez, we work real well together Karen. We came to a conclusion on our last project, very amiable, we worked well together. Kubby/ But you wouldn't arm wrestle me. Thornberry/ I wouldn't arm wrestle you. Kubby/ Watch out. I am a potter, remember. The second thing is we Thisrepresents only a reasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meet,ng of Januaw 30,1996. F013096 #17 page 5 got a memo from Steve about-We got a memo from Steve in our packet about the former S & G Materials site and their being a potential petroleum release or spill saying that such a spill did occur and that it is basically no big deal. I guess I don't want to just leave it at that. That even though it may not meet some kind of DNR EPA criteria to dig things out and clean it up, we should clean it up and we did. Atkins/ And it is. I am almost positive it is cleaned up. Kubby/ I guess I interpreted your memo wrong, I am sorry for that. I had a couple of Transit things. One is I am interested in us placing a display ad in the four daily and weekly newspapers to advertise the p.h. I know that we are doing it on Public Access and that we will have the regular kind of little notification in the paper and that there will be something on the bus. I think we should also put some kind of creative attention drawing ad so that people will know that it is happening. I would like concurrence from here. Nov/ I would say a display ad instead of a little thing in fine print. Kubby/ We have to do that public notice. Karr/ That is a legal publication. We have to put- And that is in today. Atkins/ Some sort of a 1/4 page or something like that? Kubby/ I don't know is it has to be that big but something that will-our graphics folks can work on that makes your eye go to it so we can do a smaller ad but still have it be noticed. Thornberry/ Advertise our work session? Kubby/ No, the p.h. on February 6 at 6:30 here. Atkins/ It is fairly common practice. We have done it for other hearings. Some special-we will try to do a little more than just a routine ad. If it is fine with you all I will try to do it right away then. Kubby/ In my mind, ICON, Gazette, Press citizen and the Daily Iowa. Nov/ Do it large enough- Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of Janua~ 30,1996. F013096 #17 page 6 Lehman/ How about the Advertiser and the Ad Sheet. Kubby/ Well, those are- Nov/ Not the Ad Sheet but the Advertiser might be. Atkins/ Okay. I will take care of that. Kubby/ The other thing I wanted to let and I know I have told the council but to let the community know that as an individual council member I am hosting what I am calling a Transit Teach In on this Saturday, February 3, at the Iowa City Rec Center in Room B and the purpose of the Teach in is really to make sure that people have good information. I am getting a lot of calls from people who think that we are still talking about complete elimination of night service after 7:00 PM and council has outlined some other alternatives to what was proposed in the budget before us and so I want to get people some good information about Transit, funding trends, ridership trends and the alternatives that we talked about during our informal discussions about this, understanding that nothing has been decided. To prepare people to give us really good solid feedback at the p.h. If there is enough time after answering those kind of factual questions, I am hoping to kind of break up into small groups so people can talk among themselves in a more informal way and maybe come up with some other kinds of creative ideas that will help us deal with our budget shortfalls in a real creative way but still serve a lot of people. So I invite people to come to that. In terms of council members coming, we have to make sure there aren't four of us there at any one time. So just be aware of that. Atkins/ Karen, you didn't give the time. Kubby/ Saturday, February 3, 3:00 PM, Iowa City Rec Center, Room B. You have to come in the east doors because the west doors are locked. The east doors are the downstairs parking lot. There is a ramp, a door opener, and an elevator if you are a person with disabilities. The is no problem getting upstairs. Nov/ Why is the door locked on the west? Kubby/ It just is on the weekends. The office isn't open and if you need assistance, you need to go to the game room which is located downstairs. I don't know if that is the relationship but it is just- Maybe Dee can answer that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcript,on of the Iowa C~ty council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 #17 page 7 Vanderhoef/ It has just been a long standing practice. It is probably a safety kind of thing because- I suspect it was a safety situation originally because the person at the desk downstairs is in charge of the building at that point and being aware of people going upstairs. Arkins/ Securi%y. It makes it easier to run the building. Norton/ Just one thing. Jeff Davidson told me last night that they were doing the bus surveys tonight and I don't know whether it is going to be a very typical set of data. I hope they will have an opportunity to do maybe more than one night but they are presumably collecting their data this week so we will have some new information I hope for the hearing on the 6th. Kubby/ Thanks for working on that. Nov/ Last night at the work session Dee Vanderhoef said she wanted to have council-discuss the intersection of First Avenue and Muscatine b~fore we went too far in our plans. Steve, do you think that our next work session could give that issue a few minutes. Arkins/ That is fine. It is really easy to package it back up and bring it back to you. That is fine. Kubby/ If we do that, I would like the two neighborhood associations that were involved in the discussions to be notified so they could attend and listen to that discussion at the informal. Atkins/ That is fine. I will arrange that. Nov/ Please tell them that this is not a meeting for public input. It is to explain to council what we have already decided to see if we want to change it. Arkins/ I will take care of it. Norton/ May I ask in that regard. We don't have any drawings yet, do we, what it would be from the railroad to Muscatine? Atkins/ CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 96-20 SIDE 2 Kubby/ Maybe Dee can answer that, D.V. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City counc,I meeting of January 30. 1996. F013096 #17 page 8 Atkins/ I suspect we have sketches, Dee. Norton/ They weren't in any of our materials? Atkins/ Probably we are only dealing with the one portion of it. But I am pretty sure we have- Vanderhoef/ Yes. Nov/ We would probably have the board type of thing that we saw with Rick Fosse. Norton/ We certainly need something because that is one of the concerns. Vanderhoef/ That is the big concern is to look at the whole picture. I also talked with the City Forester today and I would like concurrence from people to just ask him to sort of itemize the trees that we are talking about on that First Avenue stretch. Norton/ Just do it. Kubby/ Right, we should do that if we are going to look at both sections. Then we should look at the trees in both sections. Vanderhoef/ Yeah. What I was talking with him particularly was from Ralston Creek down to Bradford Drive. That section. Atkins/ I will take care of that. Vanderhoef/ Thank you. Nov/ I have a note that Project Green won an award called the Golden Leaf Award from the International Society of Agriculture, Midwestern Chapter and this leaf award is in the Civic Center display case and Project Green is going to borrow back again for the Garden Fair in May. Otherwise, anyone who would like to see it may walk over to the display case and see it. Norton/ Naomi, I had one more item I can't resist. Somebody up town said they brought a pickup truck with a snow blower to clean out some parking places right in front of their store and including cleaning ut the handicapped spot there and while they are doing so, they got a ticket on their truck. So I said I will see if we can ask for a little more humanness here. Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meet,ng of January 30, 1996. F013096 #17 page 9 Arkins/ Encourage them to appeal the Norton/ It was a Nov/ Well, okay, ticket. wonderful story, by and large. at least it wasn't towed. Norton/ Just a ticket. Nov/ Just a ticket. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa C~ty council meeting of January 30, 1996. F013096 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting January 30, 1996 Page 14 ITENi NO. 18 - REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY. a. City Manager. b. City Attorney. ITEM NO. 19 - ADJOURNMENT. #18a page 1 ITF2~ NO. 18a - REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY. a. City Manager. Nov/ Reports from the City Manager. Atkins/ Thank you for allowing me to do a little tardy. The concert went well. Nov/ Good. April played all the right notes at the right time. Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of January 30,1996. F013096 #18b page 1 ITEM NO. 18b - REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY M~NAGER ATTORNEY. b. City Attorney. Nov/ City Attorney. Holechek/ Nothing from the City Attorney's Office. Kubby/ Sarah, thanks for being here tonight. Nov/ Okay. AND CITY This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 30. 1996. F013096 City of Iowa City MEMORANDUM DATE: TO: FROM: RE: Janua~ 24,1996 City Council CityManager Work Session Agendas and Meeting Schedule January29,1996 5:30 p.m. 5:30 p.m. 6:00 p.m. 6:15 p.m. 6:25 p.m. 6:30 p.m. 7:15 p.m. 7:35 p.m. 7:50 p.m. 8:15 p.m. 8:25 p.m. January30.1996 7:30 p.m. February 6. 1996 6:30 p.m. February 7. 1996 9:30 a.m. February 12, 1996 February 13, 1996 6:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m. Monday City Council Work Session - Council Chambers {TIMES APPROXIMATE) Review zoning matters Highway #965 Alignment Council agenda, Council time, Council committee reports Consider appointments to Airport Commission, Broadband Telecommunications Commission, Historic Preservation Commission, and Human Rights Commission City Conference Board Meeting - Council Chambers Separate agenda posted Court Hill Condominiums property acquisition Low-income water rate discount Abbey Lane sawer update Public Works design standards FY97-99 Financial Plan Tuesday Regular City Council Meeting - Council Chambers Tuesday Special City Council Meeting - Council Chambers Public hearing on proposed reduction in transit service Adjourn to City Council Work Session Discuss FY97-99 Financial Plan Wednesday City Council Work Session ~ Council Chambers Discuss FY97-99 Financial Plan Monday City Councll Work Session Cancelled Tuesday City Council Work Session - Council Chambers Agenda pending Regular City Council Meeting - Council Chambers