The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About1996-02-13 AgendaiOWA CITY CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 13, 1996 7:30 P.IVI. COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CIVIC CENTER 410 EAST WASHINGTON Subject to change as finalized by the City Clerk. Clerk's Office, 356~5040. For a final official copy, contact the City ITEM NO. I - ITEM NO. 2 - ITEM NO. 3 - AGENDA IOWA CITY CITY COUNCIL REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING - FEBRUARY 13, 1996 7:30 P.M. COUNCIL CHAiVIBERS CALL TO ORDER. ROLL CALL. SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS. a. Presentation of Citizenship Awards to students of Regina Elementary School. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. a. Approval of Official Council actions of the regular meeting of January 30, 1996, and of the special meeting of February 6, 1996, as published, subject to corrections, as recommended by the City Clerk. b. Minutes of Boards and Commissions. (1 } Planning and Zoning Commission meeting of January 25, 1996. (2) Planning and Zoning Commission meeting of February 1, 1996. (3) Iowa City Board of Appeals meeting of October 30, 1995. (4) Iowa City Board of Appeals meeting of December 11, 1995. c. Permit Motions and Resolutions as Recommended by the City Clerk. (1) Consider a motion approving a Class "C" Beer Permit for DellMart, Corp., dba DeliMart #2, 1920 Lower Muscatine Rd. (Renewal) (2) Consider a motion approving a Class "E" Beer Permit for Hy-Vee Food Stores, Inc,, dba Hy-Vee Food Store #1, 501 Hollywood Blvd. (Renewal) {3) Consider a motion approving a Class "E" Beer Permit for Hy-Vee Food Stores, Inc., dba Hy-Vee #2, 310 N. First Ave. (Renewal) (4i Consider a motion approving a Class "E" Beer Permit for Hy-Vee Food Stores, Inc., dba Hy-Vee Food Store #3, 1201 N. Dodge St. (Renewal) (5) Consider a motion approving a Class "E" Liquor License for Nash Finch Co., dba Econofoods #473, 1987 Broadway. (Renewal) #2a page 1 ITEM ~O. 2 - SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS. Nov/ Presentation of Citizenship Awards to students of Regina Elementary School. We have two presentations for fifth grade students at Regina Elementary School. Will Julie Dwyer and Rick Kron please come up. Okay. Which one is Julie? Okay, I am going to read Julie's first. Julie Dwyer is a six grade student at Regina Elementary is an outstanding candidate for the Citizenship Award. She consistently goes above and beyond the normal requirements and takes full responsibility for all of her actions. She is reliable in fulfilling her role whether it be friend, student or leader. As a student, Julie accepts all challenges eagerly. She gives her full effort no matter how trivial the task may seem. As a friend she is willing to give support and guidance whenever possible. As a leader, when volunteers her time, including recess, to help improve things at school such as keeping the sidewalks clear of snow and ice. That is terrific this year. You worked hard. Julie demonstrates a strong awareness of right and wrong. This plays a pivotal part in tying all of her roles together as one, that as an outstanding citizen. This is written by Tyler Shoppa, the 6th grade teacher in her class. Now we have the award. Thank you. (Reads award). Congratulations. Rick Kron, sixth grade student at Regina Elementary is very deserving of this honor. Through his everyday actions he demonstrates outstanding leadership quality. He is always there to offer his help to his fellow students as well as his teachers. He has even spent time chipping the ice away on the school sidewalks to make them safe for students. We have two ice chippers here. Terrific. His actions come from the heart. Rick is also an enthusiastic learner. He is very responsible when it comes to completing his homework and preparing for tests. he gives 110% effort 100% of the time. Rick's sense of responsibility as well as his dedication to Regina and his class make him an example of an outstanding leader and this is written by Kris Boulund, his elementary school teacher. This represents only e reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of Februar~ 13, 1996. F021396 City of Iowa City MEMORANDUM To: Mayor, City Council and General Public From: City Clerk Date: February 12, 1996 Re: Additions to the Agenda item ~~nsider a motion approving a Class C Liquor License for Daverse, ., ~ba The Fieldhouse, 111 E. College St. (New) I~m..N.o. 3c(9) C/)nslder a resolution to issue a Dancin Perm t to Darer . I ?~ ~' ..... _~'g~ The Fieldhouse E. College St. g se. nc., Item No. 3f(6) Request and petition from Helen Letoroe PTA Safety Committee and concerned Lemme parents regarding adult crossing guard. Item No. 3f(7) Letter from Michaelanne Widness regarding design for First Avenue Improvements. Item No. 3f(8) Letter from Rodney & Bethann Alber regarding Iowa City water supply & facilities project. Item No. 14a(5) Senior Center Comm. - One vacancy for an unexpired term ending 12/31/97. (Walter Shelton resigned.) (5 females and 3 Males currently serving on the Commission. This appointment will be made at the March 26, 1996 meeting of the City Council. #3 Consent Calendar page ITEM NO. 3 - CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDARAS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. Nov/ Moved by Lehman, seconded by Norton. Is there any discussion on the Consent Calendar? Kubby/ Does anyone know if the liquor license for the Fieldhouse is new because there is a new owner? Karr/ Yes, there is. There is a new owner again. And you will be getting an application for a refund shortly from the present owner. Nov/ And are we still following up on some of these that have long lists of violations? Karr/ Yes. Nov/ (Can't hear). Good. One item of p.h. interest on the Consent Calendar is the p.h. for a three year Financial Plan and this will be next meeting which is February 27. This will be available for public inspection on February 16 which is this Friday. Anything else. It has been moved and seconded. We need a roll call- (yes). Okay. Thisrepresents only eraasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting February 13, 1996 Page 2 {6) Consider a motion approving a Class "E" Liquor License for John's Grocery, Inc,, dba John's Grocery, 401 E. Market St. (Renewal) (7) Consider a motion approving a Class "B" Beer Permit for D & R BARBQ, Inc., dba Fries BBQ & Grill, 1940 Lower Muscatine Rd. Setting Public Hearings. (1) (2) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING TO DISCUSS THE PROPOSED OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 1996 THROUGH JUNE 30, 1997, THE PROPOSED THREE-YEAR FINANCIAL PLAN, AND ALSO THE SEVEN YEAR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM. Comment: This resolution sets a public hearing on the FY97 Proposed Operating Budget, the three year Financial Plan and seven year Capital Improvements Program (CIP) on February 27, 1996. Detailed information on the budget will be available for public inspection on February 16, 1996. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION SETTING PUBLIC HEARING FOR FEBRUARY 27, 1996, ON PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORIVl OF CONTRACT AND ESTIMATED COST OF CONSTRUCTION OF THE 1996 CURB RAIViP PROJECT. Comment: This project consists of the construction and recon- struction of sidewalk curb ramps to A.D.A. standards along routes prioritized by JCCOG and special interest groups. The estimated construction cost of the 1996 Curb Ramp Project is approximately ~ 100,000. This project will be funded by road use taxes and bond proceeds. e. Resolutions. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORI( FOR THE SANITARY SEWER AND WATER N1AIN PUBLIC IMPROVEIVIENTS FOR LOT 152 AND LOTS 168-179 INCLUSIVE OF COURT HILL- SCOTT BOULEVARD ADDITION, PART IX. Comment: This item was deferred from the January 30, 1996, meeting. Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting February 13, 1996 Page 3 fig- ~O (2) 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. This item was deferred from the January 30, 1996, meeting. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST THE RELEASE OF A LIEN REGARDING A PROMISSORY NOTE AND A MORTGAGE FOR REHABILITATION OF THE PROPERTY LOCATED AT 434 CRESTVIEW AVENUE, IOWA CITY, IOWA. Comment: The owner of the property located at 434 Crestview Avenue received financing through the City's Housing Rehabilita- tion Program on December 20, 1994. The financing was in the form of a Conditional Occupancy Loan for the amount of $4,730, which was amended to the amount of $4,277 on October 20, 1995. The note was paid off on February 1, 1996;thus, thelien can now be released. Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting February 13, 1996 Page 4 (4) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST THE RELEASE OF A LIEN REGARDING A MORTGAGE EXECUTED FOR PROPERTY LOCATED AT 416 SOUTH DODGE STREET, IOWA CITY, IOWA. Comment: The owner of the property located at 416 South Dodge Street received assistance through the City's Housing Rehabilitation Program on September 8, 1988, in the form of a mortgage for the amount of t~11,000. This mortgage was inadvertently overlooked when other lien documents were released on August 3, 1993. The remaining principle on the mortgage was paid off on July 19, 1993; thus, this mortgage should now be released. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST THE RELEASE OF A COMMON AREA ACCESS EASEMENT AND A WATER MAIN AND UTILITY EASEMENT LOCATED ON LOTS 3 AND 4, D & L SUBDIVISION, IOWA CITY, IOWA, AND TO APPROVE AND EXECUTE A SUBSTITUTED WATER MAIN EASEMENT AGREE- MENT FOR THE SAME PROPERTY. Comment: The City currently possesses a 20' water main and utility easement along lots 3 and 4 of D & L Subdivision, Iowa City, Iowa. Public Works has recommended the release of the existing easement and the execution of a substituted easement to allow the construction of a building as outlined in the proposed site plan and construction plans. The substituted easement facilitates the development of the property under its current zoning, and relocates the water main outside the area of proposed building construction, while continuing to provide water for fire protection. Further, the Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended the release of the Common Area Access Easement currently existing under the property's Conditional Zoning Agreement in order to facilitate the development of this property under the proposed site plan. Although an Amended Conditional Zoning Agreement will be executed, this Resolution authorizes the execution of a release of the existing Common Area Access Easement for title clarification purposes and also authorizes the execution of a release and replacement easement agreement for the relocated water main easement. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK FOR THE IOWA CITY LANDFILL LEACHATE CONTROL SYSTEM PROJECT. Comment: See Engineer's Report. Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting February 13, 1996 Page 5 ITEM NO. 4 - f. Correspondence. (1) Memorandum from the Traffic Engineer regarding parking on south side of Pepper Drive from Birch Street west to Sandusky Drive. (2) E-mail from Larry Molnar regarding the transit public hearing. This e-mail was previously furnished to the City Council and is now being placed on the agenda to be officially received and placed on file. (3) Letter from Dave Couchman regarding transit issues. This letter was previously furnished to the City Council and is now being placed on the agenda to be officially received and placed on file. (4) Letter from Annie Tucker regarding funding for mediation. (5) Correspondence regarding transit system from: a. Rockne Foreman b. Jason Moritz c. Marsha Hucke d. Julie Talbot e. Chris Roberts f. Val Mowry g. Sara Beth Schneider h. Kir.st e~n Phillips END OF CONSENT CALENDAR PUBLIC DISCUSSION lITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDAS'. City of iowa City MEMORANDUM From: Date: Re: Mayor, City Council and General Public Cl~y Clerk February 12, 1996 Additions to the Agenda Item No. 3c(8) Item No, 3c(9) /et~m No. 3f(6) Item No. 3f(7) Item No. 14a(5) Consider a motion approving a Class C Liquor License for Daverse, Inc., dba The Fieldhouse, 111 E. College St. (New) Consider a resolution to issue a Dancing Permit to Daverse, Inc., dba The Fieldhouse E. College St. Request and petition from Helen Lemme PTA Safety Committee and concerned Lemme parents regarding adult crossing guard. Letter from Michaelanne Widness regarding design for First Avenue Improvements. Letter from Rodney & Bethann AIber regarding Iowa City water supply & facilities project. Senior Center Comm. - One vacancy for an unexpired term ending 12/31/97. (Walter Shelton resigned.) (5 females and 3 Males currently serving on the Commission. This appointment will be made at the March 26, 1996 meeting of the City Council. #4 page ITEM NO. 4 - PUBLIC DISCUSSION (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA). Nov/ Public Discussion. This is for people to discuss any item which is not listed on the current agenda and prior to speaking we ask you to sign in your name and address or use a address label. I am reading my direction. Rodney Alber/ My name is Rodney and this is Bethann Alber. We live at 400 First Avenue. Last time I was here, I spoke a little too quickly for everyone. In review of my actions, I apologize for that a little bit. I was a little flustered. I was out of state and kind of got snowed in. This time around, I insert a proposal to the city clerk and I believe it's in all your packets previous to your meetings, but to alleviate my talking too fast, Bethann's going to read it. She was an integral part of the information (can't hear) here so. Nov/ I'm going to add a little bit here. We did not receive this until this evening, so none of us has read it before the meeting, and you must not speak longer than five minutes, so though we may not get through the whole thing as I've looked at it, it may take a little bit. Rodney Alber/ It's just a page and a half. Nov/ Okay. Bethann Alber/ [Reads statement]. We have- we'd like to find out what questions you have, because after having looked into a number of the different problems and issues surrounding the water issue that's going on right now, we found that we have quite a bit of information and it's difficult to come across for us as presentable because it seems that people are as confused as we were when we started, because it is very difficult to sound legible when you can't, when you're talking about so many different things. Rodney Alber/ I talked to the gentleman who had been drilling wells on the ground itself. I talked to Ed today, and at this point, your Silurian- your technical engineers are going to come back and suggest that you dynamite those wells to achieve the water table levels that you'd like. That's seems a little biased at this point when there's Silurian wells set in town that might be accessible a little bit closer then you, and if it's over at City Municipal Water Supply, a thinner bundle of sticks it's been explained to me, we have the rights for that vicinity. While if we go up north and we're sort of stealing our bundles of rights away from our neighbors that are already Thlsrepresents only eraasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of Februa~ 13,1996. F021396 #4 page 2 using them. And since they aren't part of the municipality yet, that's somewhat unfair. The other concern issue that we pointed out in the proposal is that the sludge ponds at this juncture are still just going to be uphill from our wild water source. And in the engineering draft itself, that's ill- advised. So we've got a question of a report that says it's a bad report and I don't want to point fingers again but these are important matters that should be addressed and I'm just trying to bring out a more venued discussion on this and I have maps and general information that would perhaps be the processes back on the time frame that we were looking at. I know that the monetary dividends, we're looking at a $400,000 expenditure for moving a pipeline and we haven't accepted- uh, contracted bids on moving the- routing through the interstate yet, but expect a large ticket item on that one too. Those are kind of unjustifiable numbers when we could just move it back a little bit to the park. into town and then skip those numbers and start over without starting because we know there's water there. From there, we would appreciate any questions. Nov/ We probably cannot discuss this today, but we'll read what you've written and see if we can find an answer for you. Baker/ I assume that you're going to have to direct Dave and the engineering staff to specifically address these questions and give us some detailed response and we can get back to you and talk it out if you like that. Thank you. Kubby/ I guess with in that, in terms of the wells that have been cited but already within city limits, to know what we know about these wells because that's going to be a big question. Atkins/ That's being reported. Norton/ I just want to add, I met about an hour with these folks the other day and I have a good set of notes about some of their concerns and add it to what they have and check it out. Nov/ Okay. Is there anyone else who would like to address the council on an item that is not on the agenda? Kubb¥/ Thanks for your time on this. Mike Finley/ 715 S. 1st Street. Madam Mayor, Honorable Council members. I attended your work session this evening regarding the widening of First Avenue and having spoke with many of my Thisrepresents onlya masonablyeccuratetranscription oftheloweCitycouncilmeeting of Februaryl3.1996. F021396 #4 page 3 neighbors on First Avenue and business persons on First Avenue, at this time, there's not a single person I've spoke with that favors expansion to four lanes. Our chief concerns are safety of school children. At this time I didn't hear a great deal discussed at your work session regarding safety of children with the exception of Dee Vanderhoef stating that perhaps children need to be taught better to be more street wise. But having been a long time resident of First Avenue, I have seen so many accidents at Friendship and First and I would like to see you as a council talk and speak to the issue of controlling that traffic in such a way that the needs of the school children are thoroughly addressed. Furthermore, I would also like to state that I myself personally as well as my neighbors would certainly not like to see First Avenue extended to Highway 1 or out to Interstate 80. We feel that Scott Boulevard was designed and built for this purpose and we would like to see your focus turn to Scott Boulevard for that purpose. Thank you very much. Kubby/ Thank you, Mike. Finley/ Thank you. Nov/ Anyone else? Judy Ploessl/ 134 Raven Street. I was informed Monday that were put on the agenda for some correspondence but I haven't seen it on any of the agendas that I have. Nov/ The agendas include correspondence as far as the consent calendar so if you have something that you've written to us about, but it is not on the rest of the agenda, you may talk about it. Ploessl/ Okay, well what I'm saying is I'm not sure if you have it or not. Nov/ Okay. Ploessl/ It is a request from the Safety Committee. I'm Judy Ploessl from the Safety Committee of Helen Lemme PTA and we've requested a crossing guard at Dartmouth and Washington. Karr/ Yes. They do have it. It was distributed this evening. Ploessl/ Thank you, then I'll wait till then. Thisrepresents only areasonsbly accurate transcription oftbelows City council meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #4 page 4 Nov/ Well, no it isn't on the agenda except as received correspondence, so you may talk about this. Would you please sign your name and address and then say it out loud for us. Ploessl/ Before you is a request for a crossing guard at the corner of Dartmouth and Washington Street. Nov/ Once more please. Say your name and address. Ploessl/ Judy Ploessl. 134 Raven Street, Iowa city, Iowa. Nov/ Okay. Thank you. Ploessl/ First time. Sorry. Before you is a request for a crossing guard at the corner of Dartmouth and Washington Street and a petition signed by concerned Lemme parents. I would like you to know that the traffic engineer has informed me that they will be doing a survey this week. He hopes that they will be able to get in three or four days of the survey. I'd like to emphasize several concerns regarding this petition. During inclement weather, the children who walk to the school are having a 10-15 minute wait due to the increase of parents bringing their children. We have one entrance into the Lemme school, and this has caused double concerns because the patrol boys who are sixth graders are not allowed to get out and intervene in any way in the flow of traffic. They are also not allowed to let the children cross if there is the presence of traffic. Like I said, a lot of times children are out 10-15 minutes waiting. With an adult crossing guard, he or she would be able to intervene in the flow of traffic which would allow the children to cross. And this is taking into consideration also using the natural gaps in the traffic to allow the children to cross. We also have the 8:20 Rochester bus that pass a the bus which is two minutes before the first bus comes. This is a concern because there is hill that as the bus comes over the hill and then goes down past the school it's basically visual is blocked, until it passes the hill an it's fully up. With the weather, especially when it's icy, we've been lucky and nothing has happened but there has been times when the bus has been forced to stop because there have been children who are in the crosswalk. They thought it was okay to cross. They started halfway through. Here comes the bus. Several children have also taken to crossing at different areas and instead of coming to the Dartmouth/Washington area and when questioned, it's just because they don't want to wait that long. It's too cold and it's too rainy or it's whatever. They've found another way and they can get by with it and so ThlsrepresentsonlyareasonablyaccuratetranscriptionofthelowaCi~ councilmeetingofFebruary 13.1996. F021396 #4 page 5 far an accident hasn't happened. And so I hope that you will take some positive action for us or at least help me in some way to be able to ensure that we can get a crossing guard for the safety of our children. Thank you. Nov/ Thank you. Kubby/ So Steve, our process once the traffic control studies or the traffic count and speeds has been done and at once it, if we decide to do it, then we have the challenge of finding someone who will take the position. And I know that that's been hard in the past, to find someone to do that kind of split shift. Atkins/ That's right. Jim will do the report,the traffic counts you were just talking about, will prepare a report, will respond to you. If you do choose to hire an additional crossing guard, that's an amendment to our table of organization. That is adding an employee and thereby by adding that employee, it's your obligation to make a budget amendment if you want to do that. Kubby/ It might be incumbent upon the people on the safety committee that once you see the traffic counts or if you are going to be lobbying us to also be having someone in mind maybe that can do the job. It's really been hard for us to find people that even when we do make the decision to add that position, to find someone who can work those interesting hours. Nov/ And it is often a parent who's not otherwise employed. It Would help at the school really needed somebody to look for somebody with those talents. Ploessl/ (Can't hear) Kubby/ Judy you need to come to the mic if you're going to speak. Ploessl/ We have in a way been informed that there might be the need to advertize for this position and if we could do anything to fulfill the position in which the person that applies through the police department, we have like kind of started something, but we're waiting to find out basically what the council's doing as if the position's open enough to advertise for one. Nov/ We'll let you know what the report looks like. Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscrlptlon ofthelowa City council meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #4 page 6 Ploessl/ Thank you very much. Nov/ Is there anyone else who would like to address the council on a topic not on the agenda? Okay. Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of Februa~ 13,1996. F021396 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting February 13, 1996 Page 6 5 ITEM NO.~ PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS. a, Consider setting a public hearing for February 27 on an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, "Zoning," Article H, "Industrial Zones," to allow the outdoor storage of recyclable materials in the I-1 zone as an accessory use to a recycling processing facility by special exception. Comment: At its February 1 meeting, by a vote of 4-0, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the proposed amendment concerning outdoor storage of recyclable materials. The Commission's recommendation is consistent with the staff recommendation. Consider setting a public hearing for February 27 on an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, "Zoning," to allow temporary real estate sales centers in residential zones. Comment: At its February 1 meeting, by a vote of 4-0, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the proposed amendment concerning real estate sales centers in residential zones. The Commis- sion's recommendation is consistent with the staff recommendation. Action: Consider setting a public hearing for February 27 on an ordinance amending the Conditional Zoning Agreement for the D&L Subdivision, located southeast of the intersection of Highway 1 and Sunset Street, to eliminate the requirement to provide access to property to the south. Comment: At its February 1 meeting, by a vote of 4-0, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the proposed amendment of the Conditional Zoning Agreement for the D&L Subdivision. The Commission's recommendation is consistent with the staff recommenda- tion. Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting February 13, 1996 Page 7 Public hearing on an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning," Article K, entitled "Environmental Regulations," Section 1, entitled "Sensitive Areas Ordinance," Subsection l, entitled "Steep Slopes," to allow consideration of development activities within areas containing previously altered slopes. Comment: At its February I meeting, by a vote of 4-0, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of an amendment to the steep slopes section of the Sensitive Areas Ordinance. The Commission's recommendation is consistent with the staff recgm. men-/. dation contained in the staff memorandum dated January 1 Action: Public hearing on an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by approving a Sensitive Areas Development Plan and changing the use regulations from PRM, Planned High Density Multi-Family Residential Zone, to PRM-OSA, Planned High Density Multi-family Residential Sensitive Areas Overlay Zone for a 0.32 acre prope~y located at 517 S. Linn Street. Comment: At its February 1 meeting, by a vote of 4-0, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of ~ Sensitive Areas Development Plan and Sensitive Areas Overlay rezoning of the 517 S. Linn Street prope~y, subject to approval of amendments to the Sensitive Areas Ordinance pe~aining to previously altered slopes. The Commission's recommendation is consistent with the staff recommen- dation contained in the staff repo~ dated January 18.~ ~/~ Action: ~ ~ ~ , 8~cnmo~ 8~me~ Iro~ ~8-~, Low ~sff~ 8~nO~-F~ ~es~d~d~. #5d .page 1 ITEM NO. 5d. Public hearing 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 consideration of development activities within areas containing previously altered slopes. Nov/ The p.h. is now open. Kubby/ He brought an address label. Nov/ Obviously that is why my notes. We knew somebody was bringing address labels. Richard Rhodes/ I live at 2014 Rochester Avenue. From your informal meeting earlier tonight I see that most of you or all of you seem to have read the letter that I sent to P/Z Commission, and I would like to indicate that even with the amendment to the amendment Sensitive Areas Ordinance of which makes this amendment hopefully ensure that the intent of any develop consistent with the entire ordinance. Even with that change, I still strongly oppose the amendment to the Sensitive Areas Ordinance at this time. And briefly my letter indicated and I feel these things, that this amendment will make the standards less objective. I feel this will give the parties who propose development the opportunity to claim favoritism because someone else has been able to develop in a similar area. This amendment makes a determination of whether development is allowed approaching steep slopes much more of a judgement call. This goes beyond flexibility in my opinion. Secondly and I'm not sure how recent the minutes were from the P/Z Commission meeting. The staff made presentations that these altered slopes were not as valuable for habitat as natural slope. This simply is not correct because forested slopes of any sort are valuable for such things as our more appealing urban birds. Birds don't care whether the trees they're nesting and eating in are growing in concrete rubble fill or virgin soil. Thirdly, artificially cut slopes are not that easy to recognize and I was pleased with the discussions in the informal meeting that this was going to be a professional determination. But again this opens up the window to a lot of argument and discussion and frustration on the part of developers and people who advocate (can't hear) and rational development like I feel I do. Fourth, there's some hazardous materials that are better left buried. Hey, I'd like to see them all found and trade away and disposed of properly, things Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #5d page 2 like old batteries, hydrocarbon drums and stuff like that, but one of the materials that's relatively benign if it's left undisturbed is asbestos. One of the common building material used in the first half of this century was asbestos siding shingles. Construction debris sure ends up in a lot of these old rubble fills. I guarantee because I poked around in a few and it's much better if we don't tear that up with front end loaders and equipment like that because I seriously doubt that equipment operators are going to be alert enough for the eight hours or more a day they're working to recognize these materials when they excavate them. With that I'll just say thank you very much for your attention on this matter and if you have any questions about my letter, please feel free to address me now. Nov/ I think the letter was certainly self explanatory. Rhodes/ Thank you. Nov/ Do we need a motion to accept correspondence? Moved by Norton, seconded by Vanderhoef and- Kubby/ We need a vote. Nov/ Oh, I am sorry. I lost count here. Yes. All in favor say aye- (ayes). Thanks. John Moreland/ I served with Sandy on the Sensitive Ordinance Committee. And when Tom Scott came to me and asked me about serving on it, you know I had some second thoughts, but he said, you know, the majority of the council really wants something like this passed and if you want to have a say in it, you should be on the committee and represent yourself. And so I agreed to do it and I was glad I did it. It's a lot of hours and a lot of meetings. I think in our first meeting there, my first question to Bob Miklo who kind of led us in this thing, I said, now Bob you know this stuff's kind of new to us, can you show me another ordinance that some other city's passed similar to this so we've got a model to work off of to make it easier for us. He said, well John you know there isn't any other ordinance in any other city in the state of Iowa. And I said, well let's do the best we can. And you know we set in a lot of meeting with Sandy and I and had a lot of discussion, a lot of things back and forth, and i don't think through all the meetings we ever went to, there wasn't one time or another in one of the meetings where somebody said, you know we can't name ever specific incident that's going to Thisrepresents onlyareasonablyaccuratetranscrlptlonofthelowaCitycouncil meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #5d page 3 come along. Let's try to be as good as we can about it. Set some parameters for developers, and let's protect the environment. And we all had that goal in mind, but you know we ¢ould've made this thing 1500 pages if we wanted to, but I think we ended up with something that was pretty workable in my opinion. A lot of developers in town (can't hear) for being on there, but I think it was time well spent. When it comes to the slope issue, I think that when you're getting in the areas that are filled, I think you can actually end up protecting the environment more if you allow the right type of building and if it's engineered properly. And I know that this is the next item on the agenda, but the property we're talking about on Linn Street, I know very well. I grew up in Iowa City. I went to St. Pat's Grade School just a few years ago. And we played on those hills a lot, let me tell you. And I know what's buried there because I saw a lot of stuff dumped there. And it's very very loose soil. And there are trees there, but I mean there's not, I mean at least when I was there, there wasn't that much wild life. And it's kind of a scary situation. We did the work on the Parish Hall that was built behind St. Patrick's there. And actually some of that ground there was pretty unstable. I saw it first hand. And I think that if you propose a building that you know is done properly and engineered properly, you can protect the majority of the slope by shoring up the bottom of it. And you know I'm not in favor of going in and tearing something completely up. I've never been that way. I mean everybody likes trees. But I think in certain cases, this amendment is going to be well used, and I think it's very important for you to pass it. And it's just ironic that it came upon us this quick after passing the ordinance. I mean nobody expected it that quick. But I mean somebody might come along next week with some other problem that we didn't foresee, and we just couldn't, we couldn't predict everything that was going to happen in this town. And we tried to do the best we could and I think we did a good job, so I think you'd be doing the right thing by passing it and you know if you've got any questions. Kubby/ One of the things you said is that because you believe this soil is pretty loose and movable it might be better served by having the building there to shore up the hill. Did you think that is something-that is an important thing to look at if this amendment passes and we look at things on a case by case basis. That if it is an altered slope, that the current stability of it is an important factor? Moreland/ Well, you know, it is a thing when we were on this Thisrepresents only ereasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of February 13.1996. F021396 #Sd page 4 committee we tried to put everything in a general term but I mean so many of these things have to treated individually and I mean, we tried to get it so that every item didn't have to go back to P/Z every single time and so, I mean, Karen, I could sit here and say in every particular case that is the case. It is just my experience after growing up in that area, I personally think that I haven't looked at the plan in total detail. What I have seen of it it looks like it is going to shore some of that up in there. You know, in every case, I might not say that being a concrete man that is the best thing to do. but in this particular case it is and I think when you get into areas that are filled and stuff, for the most part structures retaining of some kind do help shore up the rest of the hill, protect the rest of the trees and everything. Kubby/ Your comments are interesting because when Chris Stephan was in here he was saying that the hill really hasn't moved in 20 some years. If you look at the topo map then and now, you could lay them over each other and they are the same. Moreland/ Right. Kubby/ so it is interesting that they are such different observations. Moreland/ Well, I think, you know, I am looking at it- I haven't walked on it for a few years. But, I mean, it just seemed like the soil was pretty lose on the top. I guess I am not speaking from the overall underneath part. But it seemed like it was lose soil on top. Like I said, I think every instance is different. Nov/ Is there anyone else who wants to talk about this item? Okay. We need a motion to continue the p.h. to February 27 because the staff is going to help re~write the definition of altered slopes. Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Norton. Any discussion. All in favor please say aye- (ayes), Okay. I am assuming that we should also continue the next p.h. because it pertains to the same ordinance. Kubby/ If we don't, we would be forced to vote on the amendment next time to hold a p.h. Thornberry/ If it takes three readings, we could vote on this given Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa Citycouncil meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #5d page 5 that that will change, We could always double up on e. once d. is changed. Nov/ We could put both ordinances- Woito/ It would be easier to go parallel. Nov/ For first consideration on the next agenda along with the continued p.h. Let's start it first. We continued d. and now we are going to open e. Thisrepresents only a reasonably accuratetranscrlptlon oftbelows City council meeting of Februa~ 13,1996. F021396 #Se page 1 ITEM NO. 5e. Public hearing on an ordinance amending the Zoning ChaFter by approving a Sensitive Areas Development Plan and changing the use regulations from PRM, Planned High Density Multi-Family Residential Zone, to PRM-OSA, Planned High Density Multi-family Residential - Sensitive Areas Overlay Zone for a 0.32 acre property located at 517 S. Linn Street. Nov/ Okay we are now opening an ordinance (reads agenda). Is there anyone who would like to address the Sensitive Areas Ordinance Regulations in relation to this area on South Linn Street? Okay. Now we need a motion to continue. Norton moved Lehman seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say aye- (ayes). Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscrlptlon ofthelowa City council meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #Sf page 1 ITEM NO. 5f. 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, Commercial Office. (Second consideration) Nov/ Moved by Norton, seconded by Kubby (second consideration be waived). Any discussion? Baker/ Yeah, Naomi, I apologize for not being here earlier but was this discussed at the informal meeting? And what were the tangible reasons that- Kubby/ It is in the packet- Nov/ The reasons were in a letter in the packet. All we did at the informal was ask are there objections on the council members and it is basically a deadline of March 1 in order to get all the papers in order in order to buy the property. Roll call- (yes). Okay. Moved by Kubby, seconded by at this time. Roll call- adopted. Lehman that we do final adoption (yes). Okay, the ordinance is Thisrepresents only areasonablyaccuratetranscdption ofthelowaCitycouncilmeetingofFebruary 13.1996, F021396 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting February 13, 1996 Page 8 ITEIV] NO. 6 - ITEM NO. 7 - 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. (Second consideration) (~,~.o~) Comment: At its December 7 meeting, by a vote of 5-1, with Supple voting no, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial of the requested rezoningo The Commission's recommendation is consis- tent with the staff recommendation contained in the November 16 staff report. Comments were received at the January 16 public hearing on this item. Action: PUBLIC HEARING 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). Comment: The City of Iowa City Wastewater Treatment Plants, known as Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) under federal law, has been requested by the IDNR and the EPA to adopt regulations concerning holding tank waste transporters or haulers of liquid waste ("honey wagons"). Public hearing is required under City Code prior to adoption of the ordinance. Action: ~ ~J CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14, CHAPTER 3, "CITY UTILITIES," ARTICLE E, "WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS INDIRECT DISCHARGE" OF THE CITY CODE BY ADDING PROVISIONS TO REGULATE HOLDING TANK WASTE TRANSPORTERS (LIQUID WASTE HAULERS). {FIRST CONSIDERATION) See comment above. Public Works and City Attorney recommend adoption. Action: #5g page 1 ITEM ~0. 5g. 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. (Second consideration) Nov/ Moved by Lehman, seconded by Thornberry. Is there any discussion? Norton/ I just like to clarify. I last time. Kubby/ You did. Norton/ Okay. Is that what you said? Kubby/ This was P/Z. Nov/ We listed P/Z. We did not list description. Thornberry/ Why did you vote against this? Norton/ I still will. Nov/ Well, do you want to tell us why? thought I voted no on this the the council vote in this Norton/ I just think we are violating the mild buffer that remains. That we are setting a bad precedent and that we are ignoring the recommendation that both staff and P/Z. Thornberry/ With 60% of the land already zoned. Norton/ But I would like to preserve what is there. I think now we will have to go ahead and zone the place next to it and so on. It is a down hill street. Thornberry/ That is not a spot zone. Not if you are next to a same zone. Norton/ (Can't hear). Nov/ Okay, we understand that you don't want to vote yes. That is okay. Kubby/ I did note in the P/Z minutes that there was a little bit of frustration on the part of one P/Z member that when you say it This represents only e reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 13, 1996. F021396 #5g page 2 was okay to erode this buffer but then on another item where we were saying the buffer on Sycamore Street was helpful. I do-I see that inconsistency although you need to look at these things as individuals cases and I will be voting for slicing the buffer. Nov/ Any further discussion. Roll call- (6/1, Norton voting no). Okay. Second consideration is passed. This represents only e reasonably accurate transcription of the ]owe City council meeting of February 13, 1996. F021396 #6 page 1 IT~ NO. 6 - PUBLIC HEARING ON AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14, CHAPTER 3s "CITY UTILITIES," ARTICLE Es "WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS INDIRECT DISCHARGE" FOR THE CITY CODE BY ADDING PROVISIONS TO REGULi%T~E HOLDING TANK WASTE TRANSPORTERS (LIQUID WASTE HAULERS). Nov/ P.h. is now open. Mike Olin/ Representing Roto-Rooter at 850 South Capitol. And I got a copy of the ordinance and I have a few questions and concerns. One question is on the $800 permit fee, annual permit fee. Is that like an administrative cost for administering? (can't hear). Or is that a business license or what is it? Woito/ It is an administrative cost. Olin/ Cost incurred in the policy? Woito/ Yes. It is expensive. 01in/ Some of the other things we were wondering about was really to be more specific. For instance, the requirement of a certificate of insurance (can't hear) and maybe specific waste kind of generalization where they say they might take sample. You got a load on, you take a sample, say they don't want it. Woito/ You go somewhere else. Olin/ Right. Hauling, the extra time and all of that. I mean if we got specifics as far as (can't hear), CODs, FOG- Woito/ That information is available from Dick Northam and Dave Elias from the Wastewater Treatment Plant. Olin/ Part of their specifics will be in the ordinance? Woito/ Yes. It is already in the indirect discharge under all of those listings. Feel free to call them. Olin/ Because we were wondering specifically about grease interceptor, wash bays, car washes, stuff like that which isn't addresses in the ordinance. Woito/ Yes, they can answer those questions. Grease bags I have doubts about. Thisrepresents onlyareasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of Februa~ 13,1996. F021396 #6 page 2 Olin/ That was our main concern was more specific information. Woito/ Give them a call. Nov/ Thank you. Is there anyone else who wants to address this? Rodney Alber/ Just a minute here. I run behind the park along river and just to bring light to thinking that the city- This side of the river, up river, the 1-80 was a reference as a reason to place the water treatment facility, reference that but north of that. Through my grassroots campaign so to speak the truck stop as well as the River Products, whoever it is, one of the concrete people, they pull their truck up the back to wash there and wash it out. So concrete washes right onto the Clear Creek corner. But I am more concerned with the A-1 or Point A Truck Stop up there off of Coralville. They have a lot of heavy truck traffic there. Trucks when they stay over night and they get a little lazy they right off the central slope there. They have been reports, several incidence of, no references of course, but of that causing the facility to put up their boon docks or shut down for a short period of time because they get such traceable levels. This is just a thing for the whole county to maybe look at and not consider it an Iowa City problem because it is upriver is where we get out water. I appreciate that. Nov/ Okay. Thornberry/ I have a question on what you said. You mean to say there are trucks that wash stuff out of their trucks and then they close it down because they- Alber/ At the bottom of the hill there is that truck stop off the truck stop there and sometimes the honey haulers will take the liberty of shooting their tanks clean. It is not heavily practices thing I have heard of but truckers work long hours and they got a truck stop right there, down the hill and they got a good meal in their stomachs. The next thing they are thinking of is get my truck clean. They don't think about our river water. Thornberry/ You know that this is happening for a fact? Alber/ That is in Coralville. It is one of these instances where it is outside the constraints of the city. CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 96-26 SIDE 1 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the iowa City council meeting of February 13, 1996. F021396 #6 page 3 Alber/ (Can't hear). And maybe he can keep an eye on his own trucks per se. (Can't hear). That was something in the community, talk with the owner of the truck stop. I think that might be a city memo to send (can't hear). Something along those lines. Thank you. Nov/ Is there anyone else who wants to talk about this? Okay. P.h. is closed. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 13, 1996. F021396 #7 page 1 ITEM NO. 7 CONSIDER ANORDINANCEAMENDING TITLE 14~ CHAPTER 3, "CITY UTILITIES~" ARTICLE E~ "WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS INDIRECT DISCHARGE" OF THE CITY CODE BY ADDING PROVISIONS TO REGULATE HOLDING TANK WASTE TR&NSPORTERS (LIQUID WASTE H~ULERS). (FIRST CONSIDERATION) NOV/ The next item is the first consideration of this ordinance and as I understand it, we are doing this on the same day because we are being urged to move quickly. Woito/ Yes. I request that you do it. you don't have to. We have- Dave Elias did send out letters to all of the haulers. They know about the fees. They know about the ordinance and they seem agreeable. I mean, no one wants to pay the $800 fee but they know it is expensive. We have to treat the waste and we have to do the testing and all of that takes time. Nov/ And the fees are in the ordinance that we adopted already? Woito/ Yes, correct. Nov/ I should read it? Should I? I don't know? Let's do it once more. (Reads agenda #6). Moved by Kubby, seconded by Baker. Any discussion? Kubby/ Can we pass on to Dave Elias to get a hold of Mike tomorrow with some information and that that message gets saved? Thanks. Nov/ Roll call- (yes). First consideration passed. Thisrepresents only a reasoneblyeccuretetranscrlptlon ofthelowa City council meeting of Februa~ 13,1996. F021396 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting February 13, 1996 Page 9 ITEM NO. 8 - ITEM NO. 9 - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTION APPLICATION FOR THE CITIZEN BUILDING PROJECT. Comment: Under the Block 62 Urban Revitalization Plan, the Citizen Building Limited Partnership has applied for property tax exemption for the additional value added by the improvements made to the Citizen Building project during calendar year 1995. The Citizen Building project provides 18 one bedroom rental housing units for low and moderate income elderly and persons with disabilities. The project will receive a one hundred percent exemption from taxation on the actual value added by the improvements. The exemption shall be for a period of ten years. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A CONTRACT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE HIGHLANDER AREA SANITARY SEWER, LIFT STATION, AND FORCE MAIN PROJECT. Comment: This project involves sanitary sewer, lift station, and force main improvements in the Highlander Area as obligated under the conditions of a CEBA Grant. The bid opening was held February 6, 1996, and the following bids were received (total includes base bid & bid alternate no. 1): Maxwell Construction, Inc., Iowa City, IA Weber Mid State Construction, Springville, IA Yordi Excavating, Solon, IA Tschiggfrie Excavating, Dubuque, IA Sulzberger Excavating, Inc., Muscatine, IA McAninch Corporation, Des Moines, IA 224,720.12 245,839.04 286,356.36 295,504.75 301,501.85 314,516.68 Engineers Estimate $ 348,000.00 Action: Public Works and Engineering recommend award of the contract to Maxwell Construction, Inc. of iowa City, IA. / #8 page 1 ITEM NO. 8 ~ OONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTION APPLICATION FOR THE CITIZEN BUILDING PROJECT. Nov/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion. Thornberry/ I know that this is a tax exemption for the difference between what the property was and what it is now. The difference, just the added value of, you know, just on the improvements. This is 100% tax exemption for ten years. I can't remember what that figure was. Nov/ We haven't the assessed value yet. Norton/ There was estimates in '93 that it will be $150,000 but that was just an estimate then over the ten years. Thornberry/ I am not going to vote for this I don't think because I don't think any housing in Iowa City should be tax exempt. The homeowners in Iowa City pay a lot of taxes. A lot of property taxes. They are real high. That the apartment owner, the business owner, we all pay a lot of property tax and to exempt anybody from taxes for ten years, 100% for ten years, I just really have trouble with and I know it is for the difference in just the improvements and I know it is for low income housing. Low and moderate income elderly. All right. And persons with disabilities. I understand that. But somebody is making a buck or two or a whole bunch using he state's money, the federal money. They are making a lot of money on this project and then to turn around and give them tax exempt status for ten years I just cannot agree with for the rest of the people that live in Iowa City. However-But previous council have said that if you build it we will pay. Is that about right? Kubby/ If you build it, we won't charge you. Thornberry/ In other words the rest of us homeowners and tax payers will pay. Lehman/ Dean, I don't totally disagree with what you are saying but I really don't think that we are discussing the merits of this exemption. I think that in reliance on this exemption, this project was undertaken and probably because of the tax exempt it made it fly economically. So, I guess I would not- None of us discussed the merits of it. I think we made a commitment to this individual when the project was started. Had it not been Thlsrepresents only areasonablyaccuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting ofFebruary 13,1996. F021396 #8 page for that commitment, the project would not have taken place. And for that reason I will support it. Nov'/ Part of our concern at that time was that somebody would buy the building and tear it down. So the commitment was to keep the building in as good as shape as possible plus provide low income housing. Thornberry/ Very admirable. Norton/ Dean, I want to make a point, too. There might be situations in the future where we want to do something where some kind of a tax break is going to be an incentive. Is that going to be always the case that there is no tax breaks as incentives? Thornberry/ Nope. I think giving tax incentives to new industries that are going to more than make it up in the future is a good sales tool to bring industry into Iowa City and I think it should be used. Norton/ And how about to get housing for people in this situation? Thornberry/ I am looking at where the money came from. The money came from the federal government and the state government. There is a lot of money being made on that project or he wouldn't have done it. Norton/ Well, we don't know that. We don't know the numbers. Thornberry/ I would liked to have seen, perhaps, a tax exemption for the first year with a sliding scale like we did for Mrs. Hieronymous. But to give no taxes for ten years, that should- Sure would like to know how long it is going to take the city to make up the difference of that zero tax for ten years. Nov/ It is not zero. It is no increase. No increases in taxes for the next ten years. Norton/ Didn't the state establish that schedule and one of the options of the- Thornberry/ I think that was the city that- Nov/ No. Kubby/ There are options from which they choose. The developer gets This represents only 8 reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 13, 1996, F021396 #8 page 3 to choose form. Norton/ This one applies in this case, yeah. Thornberry/ They may apply to 4. They just don't automatically get it if they don't apply for it. But I guess it is available but we- Never mind. Nov/ Larry, did you have a comment. Baker/ I just wanted to make sure I understood Dean's position. One of the questions I was going to ask you is the problem with the 100% figure or the figure if you could sort of address that. But you don't have problems with giving tax breaks to industry but you do have problems giving tax breaks to low income housing residents in Iowa City? Or is that too simple. Thornberry/ That is pretty close. That is being pretty honest. It is the industries that are going to employ a lot of people. They are going to bring more money into Iowa City to reduce the taxes for the rest of us. Baker/ I don't think this council has too big of problem with that in certain cases. We will talk about all those guidelines that we want to set up. It would be the second half that I want to make sure I got clear. Thornberry/ Tax breaks with zero taxes for low income housing. Yes, I have a problem with that. And I have a problem with city owning property for low income housing which takes it off the tax roles and the rest of it. I think the city ought to get out of the- That is another- Nov/ That is another story. Another day. Baker/ That is a prior council's decision. So you ought to feel free to vote no. Thornberry/ Thank you for giving me that latitude. Baker/ I am not trying to get you a prior council decision. If you want to vote no, vote no. Kubby/ The other thing that is different about this is that this is considered economic development or we couldn't have this Urban Revitalization Plan. I mean, housing is seen as economic development because of the jobs created and improvement of the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 13, 1996. F021396 #8 page 4 property and the income generated by renting of the property over time and this particular things saying that it pay 0%- It is not analogous to a s.f. house because it is multi-family so it is taxed under commercial at 100% versus having the roll back that you and I enjoy with our homes. And the tax rate per $1,000 is going down this year if we approve out budget at approximately where it has been proposed. It is going down, not up. So saying it is only getting higher is not always true either but I usually don't like tax abatement because as ironic as this sounds for a lot of commercial and industrial enterprises, I believe that if the market can't make it happen on its own, that it should not happen unless there are greater community values like environmental protection, like housing, like certain kinds of jobs that are created or products that are created. And in this case because this is a project- Affordable housing in the rental market has not happened in this town except through Bob Burns and through the GICHF and HACAP all of which have some kind of government intervention to get it over the hump of the market to make it happen because other people aren't willing to do it. I am glad to see a private entity say with that help at the beginning over time we will make money on affordable rental housing and I think that is a positive thing and I will gladly support this tax abatement. Lehman/ Linda, do we have a legal obligation? If we offered this as an incentive to Mr. Burns and relying on that incentive, he went ahead with the project. Aren't we legally obligated to do this? Woito/ In terms of- You have a choice of rejecting the option of the tax exemption. I mean you can pick one or the other but I think this is probably the one that he has relied on and it is under the Code. He has satisfied all of the requirements of the statute, presumably, once the City Assessor goes out and examines it and finds out that it does qualify. The only thing you could do is change the formula. And he would have to amend his application and I don't think as a viable matter that that is possible. Norton/ It is an option though, I think, isn't it, for the council to have set a different abatement arrangement. That is as long as it isn't higher than what is provided in the State Code. So we could have taken a different route at some point. Woito/ But I think this is the only one that really fits, isn't it, Karin? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 13, 1996. F021396 #8 page 5 Norton/ You could have set the terms lower as I understood it. Woito/ It wouldn't have to be 100% but- Franklin/ Well, one of the things that we look at in adopting the Urban Revitalization Plan was that whatever was chosen for the abatement program, we had to do it in such a way that you had those same choices no matter where an Urban Revitalization Plan was done within the city. And that is kind of a little quirk in the state law as I understand it. And so we put in the options, all of the options that were potentially applicable for when we might want to use tax exemption within the City of Iowa City. Norton/ Am I clear then that he chose 4 which is the one that his project- 4 under this tax exemption schedule? He chose 4. It doesn't mean others would have to but anybody that chose 4 would get the same terms. Woito/ Right. Norton/ So we are setting a substantial precedent by this action, I think. Not just dealing with the past commitment. I am afraid that is the way it is seen. Atkins/ I am not so sure that is- I think these are done on a case by case basis. That you make option selection at the time you package the financing. And if we have another project come along, something similar, you have the ability to approve or disapprove the financing package. The developer will choose the particular option and you will say yea or any to that. Vanderhoef/ Then why at this time are we voting on this instead of the council that has approved the package? Atkins/ Dee, I don't have in front of me the formal legislation that authorized this project but I do recall specifically that it was a package of financing that had to be approved and that package of financing included the property tax exemption. council/ (All talking). Franklin/ What you are looking at now is the second step in the process in which the person who has built the project comes before you and says this is what I have built, this is what I am doing. It meets all of the requirements of the Urban Revitalization Plan. It is fairly administerial, I think, as Thisrepresents only aressonably 8ccurete transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of Februaw 13,1996. F021396 page 6 opposed to you having any kind of- A lot of leeway because he has met the requirements of that Urban Revitalization Plan. Woito/ This just certifies for the City Assessor that it should be tax exempt if a, b, c exists. Franklin/ It is probably something, if we weren't following state law that we would just do administratively but it has to come before the city council. Vanderhoef/ And if I understand what you are saying then, Karin, was that the only reason those other three options are even in this document is so that if the next revitalization project comes along in a different part of the city, that we are able to offer any of those four options. Franklin/ I believe so, Dee, but I am not- Linda, can you help out? Woito/ This plan is for this parcel only. We are not talking about the entire city and in that plan all four of the options for tax exemption were available. Bob Burns picked this one and he is entitled to it. If- I think that is the only one that is- Norton/ His is a mixture. Franklin/ Well, that is where it gets back to the requirement of state law that if you have more than one urban revitalization district within your municipal boundaries, you have to use or have available the same schedules in all of those different revitalization areas. Atkins/ If that is the case because parcels- I mean, we have another urban revitalization area, it will be on another parcel of property and we will comply with the state law. The developer will know what their particular project is and what the options are for property tax exemption based upon the project they design. That is how I have always understood it. That each case is unique case. Not the adoption of the revitalization district. That is spelled out in code. Woito/ What Karin is saying it may not be and I am not prepared to answer this question. Norton/ I want to make one more point because this is going to be tricky. The tax exemption schedule, one of them is residential only, and that is limited to what they did with an improved value by only $20,000. So it wouldn't amount to the numbers we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 13, 1996. F021396 #8 page 7 are talking about here. This schedule is for residential and commercial with at least 75-with certain amounts of housing required in it and that is kind of typical of some of the development you would see in these areas and according to the letter from Marianne Milkman in 1993, it says so if the city in the future designates another area of the community as an urban revitalization area, the plan for that area must include the same tax exemption schedule e.g these four. Anybody would be out of their mind not to take the best one if they are qualified. So I think we would be setting a precedent. Atkins/ Take the best one. It doesn't mean you have to agree to that. I have always understood each project is negotiated based upon its merits. This project, while being laid out as a project for low and moderate income, the historical preservation element was one of the most significant elements I recall in the debate with the council. We want to preserve the building. We couldn't find a commercial purchaser, that is make the building an office building and keep it strictly on private tax roll. We can preserve the building and provide housing. At least my recollection was that compelled the council to say this is a better deal because we are doing two policy issues. But I have always understood that each and every one is negotiable. Now with respect to the developer making some money, I don't know that number. Thornberry/ I have no problem with that. Atkins/ But I think it is an important point you make, Dean, because we have had a number of other private developers projects. I think we have a far better handle and we can require the developer to prepare a proforma for us. Lay it on us, and tell us what kind of money. I am assuming you are letting them make money. Thornberry/ Yes. Atkins/ Then you have that factor to weigh with respect to any type of tax exemption that you might choose or not to choose. If you don't like the project, you don't have to grant it. That is what I have understood. Thornberry/ They don't get it automatically because it is there for the choosing. Norton/ Well, we can change it. It says the city has the option to establish four different schedules and I should think that Thisrepresents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #8 page 8 might be something that we want to consider. Baker/ I thought the question was do we have that option-Would a council have that option at this point in the process? Norton/ I think that is kind of a different question because of the prior commitment. Atkins/ My comment to you is that while I understand you may have philosophical differences about this particular project, at least my judgement, I believe that we have made a commitment to pursue this project and pursue this project under these terms and that it makes it easier for us if we know that there is some general agreement up front because they have to carry over, as is this case, from council to council. I am just trying to recollect- I mean I just recollect the discussion and it was clearly there. At one time, Dean, this project, help me, was 60 units which we-67 some which the was far and away felt more favorably inclined to but then the financing and a number of other issues reduced the number of units that were going to be in that building. Kubby/ And that may yet happen- Atkins/ And it may yet happen and that is when he pulled out 48. Thornberry/ Yeah, there are other units that are available to be built. I mean there is room to build 48 more. Atkins/ At the time, Dean, we were pressing the matter of let's do this one big project to get all of these units on and the financing and- My institutional memory is a little fuzzy now but we did make a commitment, I believe, to do this. Franklin/ I think Steve is right and one of the things that may be confusing in all of this is something David pointed out at the work session. You can designate an area as an Urban Revitalization Area before you have any specific project before you because you judge that it is an area that needs some revitalization for some reason and then you set up the parameters of the plan and you set up your schedules and then as each project comes before you, then I think you might be able to make that judgement about which schedule is used. With this project, this started out as the catalyst for having the Urban Revitalization Plan. Burns and Associates depended upon what was agreed to before with the 100% from the get go. Just as in the Hieronymous Square Project which is also a tax Thisrepresents only a reasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of Februa~ 13,1996. F021396 #8 page 9 abatement area. There has been developer to do the graduated. financing package together and there is certainly a reliance. comes forward with a project housing, you may then have the a desire on the part of that So it is how one puts their so I think in this instance If somebody else in Block 62 for low to moderate income choice of schedule. Woito/ I have an answer to your question now, Dee Norton. This does not set a precedent and it does not lock everyone into this formula. As long as we have all four of those schedules in each plan which we have always done, those options are available and not everyone has to pick the same option and you don't have to grant the same option. Norton/ I they can be revised schedules, too. We can set a different time schedule in there as far as I can see in what I see in Marianne's note. That we can set a different schedule. We could make it taper as Dean suggests. Franklin/ Yes, as long as you are more restrictive and not less restrictive than the State Code. Norton/ People might be upset that they didn't get in on this particular train but- Kubby/ As a council member who was here for the previous discussion, I feel an ethical obligation to follow through on my commitment because the bottom line is the way the financing package was put together so it determines the rent for the residents. Thornberry/ One other question on this. Why are we voting on this now when any other developer needs to have-When they get their plans approved whether it be for s,f, or multi-family, why do the other developers, you do all of the voting and everything up front. They know before they even do any changes, to build, to put up any bricks or mortar? Kubby/ We did vote on something up front but there is a two step process. And now that the changes are made, we need to say to the assessor, yes, these changes were made and yes, they are part of this plan. We are directing the City Assessor on how to appropriately tax that property. Thornberry/ What I am saying, plan and it is approved then- Karen, the other developers submit a or disapproved and if it is approved Thisrepresents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of February 13.1996. F021396 #8 page 10 Kubby/ This is a different animal and we have just been told that under state law it has to come back to us. Woito/ This is a very different law. This is state law and it is very specific. This is not as though you are bringing a subdivision before you which is city law. So, it is just a different set of laws. Nov/ And it is also by state law that the tax collection is delayed. You don't start- If you were going to pay the entire amount of the added value in taxes, it would still be 12 to 18 months delay between the finished construction and the time that you start paying taxes and the reason it is coming now is because this is the year in which the taxes start. Kubby/ Let's vote. Thornberry/ I still don't like the ten years. Nov/ We understand. Okay. Roll call- Alber/ ...say something... Nov/ This is not a p.h. This is not a p.h. I am sorry. Kubby/ If there is public interest, if someone wants to make a comment, I would ask that- Thornberry/ It is up to the Mayor. Kubby/ It is up to the mayor with concurrence- Thornberry/ With concurrence of four council members, right? Kubby/ I would like to have Rodney make a- Thornberry/ That is one. Nov/ That is one. Do we have three other Rodney's comments? Okay. Roll call- no) . Thornberry/ I made my statement. Norton/ There you are, Dean. Thornberry/ Two members. people who want to have (6/1, Thornberry voting Welcome to the minority. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 13, 1996. F021396 #9 page 1 ITEM ~0. 9 - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A CONTRACT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE HIGHLANDER AREA SANITARY SEWER, LIFT STATION, AND FORCE M~IN PROJECT. Thornberry/ And the low bid was from Iowa City. Nov/ Yes it was. Moved by Lehman, seconded by Thornberry. Is there any discussion? Norton/ I just want to hear somebody explain the $124,000 difference below estimate. Again, it really scares me. I know we don't have many options but is always surprises me. Fosse/ The market is very competitive right now for bidding sewer projects. We saw that on the South River Corridor Sewer. We are seeing it again here. I wish to had more projects to bid right now. Norton/ But not on drilling under the river. Not on drilling through the bridge. Fosse/ That is right. A different market. Nov/ Any other discussion? Roll call- (yes). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 13, 1996. F021396 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting February 13, 1996 Page 10 ITEM NO. 10- ITEM NO. 11.- CONSIDER A RESOLUTION TEMPORARILY CLOSING PORTIONS OF THE MADISON STREET RIGHT-OF-WAY AND AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION OF AN AGREEMENT FOR TEMPORARY USE OF PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA. Comment: This agreement facilitates a joint project where the University of Iowa will construct their own chilled water distribution lines and a City water main along Madison Street between Jefferson St. and College St. The Engineering Division has reviewed and approved the University's construction drawings and traffic control plan and recommends the closure of sections of Madison Street to assure a safe construction site for workers, pedestrians and vehicles. Madison Street will be closed in three phases between March 1 and June 1, 1996. The cost of the City water main design and construc- tion is~1,17,800.§4. Water main construction will be funded bv the water dmtnbutmn ~u~JC~ e .t~° Act,on: CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A CONTRACT FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA RIVER TRAIL, IOWA MEMORIAL BRIDGE TO IOWA AVENUE PROJECT. Comment: The bid opening was held January 19, 1996, by thelDOTin Des Moines, Iowa. The following bids were received: Peterson Contractors, Inc., Reinbeck, IA Smith Seeding, Clinton Engineering Co., Iowa Bridge & Culvert, Inc., Washington, IA Tschiggfrie Excavating Co., Dubuque, IA Taylor Construction, Inc., 194,163.42 251,042.80 273,689.42 276,250.50 292,604.76 331,687.65 Engineers Estimate $ 158,682.00 Action: Public Works/Engineering recommends awarding this contract to Peterson Contractors, Inc., of Reinbeck, IA. Federal Surface Transporta- tion Program Enhancement Funds will contribute $111,700 to the total project cost. The remainder will be funded by the General Fund, Road Use Tax revenues, and cost sharing with The University of Iowa. #10 page 1 ITEM NO. 10 - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION TEMPORi%RILY CLOSING PORTIONS OF THE IdADISON STREET RIGHT-OF-WAY ANDAUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION OF AN AGREEMENT FOR TEMPORARY USE OF PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA. Nov/ It was amended today, I am sorry. Please correct. It should be $120,000. We have a new list somewhere in the papers that were handed out. Thornberry/ Oh tonight. I haven't read all the ones that were handed out tonight. Nov/ None of us have but it was one of the amendments that was given to us tonight. We need a motion. Thank you. Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Vanderhoef. Any discussion? Kubby/ Rick, is there anyway we could avoid doing this until mid- May. It is just such a busy area. Fosse/ You are right and that issue is kind of a long convoluted issue but it has to do the with the preservation of old documents are the library. Chilled water lines need to get to the library before humidity hits this summer that further decades them which, as I understand it, they are about as far gone as they can let them get and (can't hear). Nov/ Very interesting. They have already closed part of Madison Street. Was this the same project? Fosse/ Well, they are working on the Street hill right now. It is the same project. Before they get out in and close the street completely in segments, we wanted to have this agreement formulated and we thought it important to jump on board on this project because of the encumbrance of that important stretch of roadway. We might as well do them both at once. Kubby/ That is what we should be doing. Thornberry/ And the humidity. Fosse/ Yes. We got to beat the humidity for the library. Nov/ Okay. So this is going to provide better air conditioning for the library this summer? Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #10 page 2 Fosse/ That is correct. Nov/ Okay. Any further discussion? Roll call- (yes). Thisrepresentsoniyareasonablyaccuratetranscrlptlon ofthelowaCltycouncilmeetlngofFebruary 13,1996. F021396 #11 page 1 ITE~ NO. ll. - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDINS CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING THE ld~YOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A CONTBACT FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA RIVER TRAIL~ IOWA MEMORIAL BRIDGE TO IOWA AVENUE PROJECT. Nov/ Moved by Norton, seconded by Thornberry. Discussion. Kubby/ Will the University be paying a fair share of the increased costs? Fosse/ The University remains committed to sharing equally in that cost of the federal bridge° That is a positive aspect of this. Nov/ What ever happened to this expensive equipment that might be possible to be used elsewhere while it is in town anyway? Fosse/ We are proceeding with the design of the boring underneath the railroad near Pine Street and we will get that out for bid at a time frame in which this contract will be (can't hear). We are going fishing for a low price. Whether or not- Kubby/ Could that reduce this cost so those two projects could share the transportation costs? Fosse/ If there is cost savings to be realized, they will show up solely on the Pine Street. Vanderhoef/ How about the bridge on Mormon Trek? Fosse/ Oh that one. We looked at that one as well and there are so many obstacles, both physical obstacles and administrative obstacles that we didn't deem that one cost effective to move ahead at this time. There is an alternative sidewalk that goes under the railroad there. However, it is not great but at least you can cross there without going up and over the tracks. Thornberry/ I haven't given up my Rochester Street bridge yet. Fosse/ No. The one on the creek there, yes. Norton/ Does the Pine Street one line up with Longfellow Manor area? Fosse/ It is further east of there° This represents oftly areasonably accurate transcription of the Iowe City council meeting of February13,1996. F021396 #11 page 2 Norton/ But you will be able to access if from the Longfellow side I assume? Fosse/ Yes. You will be able to cross through from the Longfellow side over to the Pine Street side so you no longer have to go over the tracks. Nov/ Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion. Roll call- (yes). Thisrepresents only a reasonably accuratetranscription oftbelows Ciw council meeting of Februa~ 13,1996. F021396 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting February 13, 1996 Page 11 ITEM NO. 12 - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING AND AUTHORIZING EXECUTION OF A DRAINAGE AGREEMENT BY AND BETWEEN ROBERT H. WOLF AND ERIVIA J. WOLF, J.E.B.B.L.C., BART SCHUCHERT AND GENE SCHUCHERT, SHAM RUSSELL AND ANGELINE M. RUSSELL, ACE AUTO RECYCLERS, INC., AND THE CITY OF IOWA CITY. Comment: This agreement facilitates a solution to a drainage problem that has persisted for a number of years on properties along South Riverside Drive. The agreement specifies both public and private obligations for the construction and maintenance of the improvements. The estimated CiW expense for design and construction of its obligation is $7,500.00 to be funded by 1994 General Obligation Bond proceeds. Act,on: REGULATIONS," CHAPTER 2, "VEHICLES FOR HIRE," OF THE CITY CODE BY AMENDING THE DEFINITION OF TAXICAB CONTAINED IN 5-2-1. (SECOND CONSIDERATION) ITEM NO. 14- 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. Staff requests expedited action. ANNOUNOE~ENT OF VAOANCIES. ~ ~~ a. Current 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 vacancv 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.) 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. #12 page 1 ITEM NO. 12 ~ CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING AND AUTHORIZING EXECUTION OF A DRAINAGE AGREEMENT BY AND BETWEEN ROBERT H. WOLF ~ ERMA J. WOLFs J.E.BoB. L.C., BART SCHUCHERTi~ND GENE SCHUCHERT, SHAM RUSSELLAND ANGELINE M. RUSSELL, ACE AUTO RECYCLERS, INC., AND THE CITY OF IOWA CITY. Nov/ Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Lehman. Any discussion? assume this is in the r.o.w. along the street? Fosse/ Where we will doing be work obligated by this agreement is actually quite a ways removed from the r.o.w. It is down near Willow Creek. It is a drainage way across a small portion of city property that we are entering. And it also commits us to cleaning out some culvert under the roadway after the are cleared out downstream. Nov/ So we are not talking just about culverts parallel to the roadway. We are talking about all the way on Willow Creek? Fosse/ Right. Nov/ Okay. Roll call- (yes). Atkins/ Can I interject for just a moment to get Rick out of here? We have a little problem I wanted to deal with real quickly tonight on Engineering Design Standard. It will only take like 30 seconds, Rick. Fosse/ Thanks. I had forgotten about that. Last night I went to P/Z with Design Standards and they want some more time to talk about it. So, they will likely take action on it at the March 7 meeting and the question here is do you still want me to give my presentation to you at the 20th of February or wait until we get something back from P/Z? Nov/ I think we should wait. Atkins/ Our understanding was you want their recommendation. I just wanted to clarify. That is all. Nov/ Does anyone object to deferring it? Fosse/ We will reschedule. Kubby/ Does that- I know before we talked about rescheduling in terms of it being ready for this construction season. Are we Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa Citycouncil meeting of Februe~ 13,1996. F021396 #12 page 2 going to be pushing it? Fosse/ Yes, yes we will. Kubby/ Well, let's push it as close- Well, we don't have a meeting until the end of March. Norton/ We have a big gap in March. Kubby/ We have a big gap. Nov/ Can we do this the first week of March? Kubby/ Could we ask P/Z to look at it so that we could do it on the 4th of March. To change their schedule? Fosse/ P/Z will be looking at it Monday night of that week. Your informal- Nov/ Monday night. Fosse/ Get it out early over there and come over here. Nov/ Could they move it ahead on their agenda? Fosse/ Realistically they probably won't be able to formulate a recommendation and get it over here that same meeting. Thornberry/ They will not? Kubby/ Could they start to look at it a week earlier? Atkins/ They have already looked at it. They want to take another look. This will be the second time. Nov/ Well, couldn't their second look occur in February? Atkins/ The point is the 20th is off. We are okay on that and then we will get back with them and just see how quickly we can push it up because Rick is correct, we are going to be up against- Our building activity will begin to pick up about that time. Nov/ I think that they may not be aware that we are not meeting except for the first week on March and the last week and maybe if we told them that they would adjust. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the iowa City council meeting of February 13, 1996. F021396 #12 page 3 Atkins/ We will deal with it tomorrow. Lehman/ Rick, they were originally comfortable with this? Fosse/ No, they have not formulated an opinion on it. They had not been exposed to it before. Lehman/ But you are comfortable with this at least from the report that I read. Fosse/ The Design Standards, yes. Atkins/ Just for council. Were there notable objections in any elements? Fosse/ It zeroed in on standards for local roadways and that is getting uniform pavement width (can't hear). We are the odd duck there. There is where we made a compromise (can't hear). Another issue of r.o.w. width. In order to accommodate all of the underground utilities you need stuffed in there, the state requires minimum separation between sanitary sewer and water man and (can't hear). We tried sanitary sewer in the backyard and that was problematic and we tried it in the front yard and same problems there. So to get that back into the street r.o.w. what we are gearing from local design firms is they need more room to work with stuff (can't hear). And that is where the 26 foot standards came form. That raises the issue about land (can't hear). Kubby/ And flexibility to try to have narrower streets in some situations. Fosse/ Yes and that we have already built into the Sensitive Areas ordinance. Atkins/ Rick, is it out of he question to adopt what we can of the Design Standards? Fosse/ No, that is not out of the question. You may to choose to adopt everything except what is at issue here but continue on with another season- Atkins/ We will try that angle with them. Maybe we can get most of it out of the way for you and choose to debates some things if we can do that later on. Norton/ One question. Does it include anything about underground Thisrepresents only areasonablyaccuratetranscriptlon ofthelownCitycou~cil meetingofFebrua~y13.1996. F021396 #12 page 4 utilities, putting utilities underground? Fosse/ For electrical and stuff? That is an issue for the franchise agreement and not for the Design Standards. However, in all new construction in residential areas, it is underground. Thanks. Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscriptlon ofthelowa Citycouncil meeting of Februa~ 13,1996. F021396 #13 page 1 ITF/~ NO o 13 - Nov/ CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 5, '~BUSINESS AND LICENSE RESULATIONS," CHAPTER 2, "VEHICLES FOR HIRE," OF THE CITY CODE BY AMENDING THE DEFINITION OF TAXICAB CONTAINED IN 5-2-1. (SECOND CONSIDEBATION) Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Kubby. (Waiving second consideration). Now we vote on just waiving the second consideration. Roll call- (yes). Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Norton that we do the vote at this time. Roll call- (yes). Kubby/ Good job, Dean. Thornberry/ First time for everything. Nov/ You did very well. final Lehman/ Naomi, I hate to digress but on this last one with the W01f property, it appeared to me that the only thing we were voting on was the drainage ditch. Nov/ Because it requires an agreement with the city in order to construct the ditch because it is on city property. Atkins/ My understanding is that you can only vote on that portion of the project that is in the public r.o.w. and everything else is subject to private agreements with all these other folks involved. Woito/ Are you talking about the Sham Russell agreement? Atkins/ Yeah, back up. Woito/ The reason why we wanted an agreement is because it involved all these different parties and when we needed to put it- Lehman/ But it was strictly relative to the drainage ditch? Woito/ Right. But the drainage goes across our property, across Wolf's, across Russell's, across Schuchert. Lehman/ It goes across r.o.w.s all the way. Woito/ It goes across- Forget about r.o.w. This is just public property and private property and it is going towards a Thisrepresents only areasonebly accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #13 page 2 drainage way. It has nothing to do with r.o.w. Arkins/ If I understood, all of these people within the city are signatures with this agreement. They will be. Woito/ It has nothing to do with streets. Good old drainage. Lehman/ Okay. Woito/ As if we were any other property owner. Just trying to get the water moved off of our property. Nov/ Okay. Moving on. Thisrepresents only ereasonablyaccuratetranscrtptlon oftbelows Citycouncil meeting of Februery 13,1996. F021396 Agenda Iowa City City Council Regular Council Meeting February 13, 1996 Page 12 / ~ 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, ITEM NO, 15 - CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION. ITEM NO. 16 - REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY. a. City Manager. b. City Attorney. ITEM NO. 17 - ADJOURNMENT. City of Iowa City MEMORANDUM To: From: Date: Re: Mayor, City Council and General Public City Clerk February 12, 1996 Additions to the Agenda Item No. 3c(8) Consider a motion approving a Class C Liquor License for Daverse, Inc., dba The Fieldhouse, 111 E. College St. (New) Item No. 3c(9) Consider a resolution to issue a Dancing Permit to Daverse, Inc., dba The Fieldhouse E. College St. Item No. 3f(6) Request and petition from Helen Lemme PTA Safety Committee and concerned Letoroe parents regarding adult crossing guard. Item No. 3f(7) Letter from Michaelanne Widness regarding design for First Avenue Improvements. Item No. 3f(8) Letter from Rodney & Bethann AIber regarding Iowa City water ------....~upply & facilities project. No. Center Comm. - One vacancy for an unexpired term ending "--~__,~ (~,)j.~l,2-Y31/97. (Walter Shelton resigned.) (5 females and 3 Males currently serving on the Commission. This appointment will be made at the March 26, 1996 meeting of the City Council. #15 page 1 ITEM NO. 15 - CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION. NOV/ Do you want to start, Mr. Norton? Norton/ I have just a couple of quick items. I did go to the VA and deliver Valentines to the vets on the 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th floors, I think. I went along with a group of veterans from Earlville, Iowa, and so we chatted about B-29s and things like that. I also wanted to say- I had a long talk with Larry Molnar. I think it was written to us on some other issues but about emergency planning. He was concerned about whether we have in place a good plan for responding to a break in the Coralville Dam and so I told him that I was working with the, I guess I am, with the Emergency Management group. I think I am the designated hitter there and I will try to find out delicately what plans we have in the hopper. Well, I think- Am I authorized to inquire delicately about what kind of plans we have and try to describe them to us? Atkins/ I am not so sure, sir, that you even have to be delicate. Norton/ I didn't know. Vanderhoef/ Define delicate, please. Norton/ I don't want to go charging around and say hey, do you got this or that. But I thought I have now an impetus for a particular plan and I was worried about others. I know that we have some on chemical spills and test nuclear and pollution of water and one thing and another. Nov/ Questions are certainly acceptable. Kubby/ Well, if the answer is indeed no we don't have a plan. Then this group-maybe you could follow up with this group. Then we can say we would like that group to look into a plan. It seems like a very common sensical thing. Norton/ I thought I would try to report briefly where we stand on emergency plans. I assume you like to hear that. Kubby/ That would be great. Nov/ We may find out that the Corps of Engineers has an emergency plan. Thisrepresents only arsasonably accuratetranscription oftheloweCitycouncll meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #15 page 2 Norton/ I also wanted to add one last big item. I went to the neighborhood association meeting at Longfellow the other night and just listened to some of their concern and a couple that they have- One I thought you might be interested in because they are interested in possibly a trails using alleys in the neighborhood, at least some of them are quite heavily treed and I didn't know what the option was and I thought somebody might want to give some thought. Also they were very interested in your tunnel project, Naomi, because they have a little park they call now. I think they adopted the name Ralston Creek Trail or something like that but it is a trail that doesn't go anywhere unless there is a whole drilled under the railroad there. Atkins/ That is the Pine Street. Nov/ That is the Pine Street. Norton/ And I think they have some questions about access and how do you cross the creek and one thing and another. So I hope-I am sure Marcia is aware of all of these matters. She has her finger on those things. But it was interesting just to hear their concerns. I find the neighborhood association is a good place to kind of keep your ear to the ground and the neighborhood council as well. Vanderhoef/ If you have some concerns on trails, then Neighborhood Open Space Action Committee is getting started up again and that is a good place to put input in it. Nov/ Karen- Kubby/ I just wanted to publicly thank the GICHF for voluntarily making a payment in lieu of property taxes for low income housing in the amount of $2300. I think it is very credible that they are not obligated to pay that but they choose to do so out of a feeling of moral participation in the community and I know that there is one congregation that does this as well. I would encourage other congregations too. Nov/ We have very good rapport with the groups and I did send a little thank you. Nov/ Ernie- Lehman/ Dee Norton, Larry Baker and I went through the Citizen Building that we talked about earlier tonight and they have Thisrepresents only areasonebly accuratetranscrlptlon ofthelowa City council meeting of Februe~ 13.1996. F021396 #15 page 3 done an incredible job of fixing up a building that was structurally almost impossible to figure anything out of. And those apartments are absolutely beautiful. And hopefully, think it is going to be around for a long long time and we will be able to enjoy the building. Kubby/ And some taxes after ten years of the increased value. Norton/ A footnote to that is the dirt problem. Vanderhoef/ Is there anyone else who hasn't toured? Vanderhoef/ There is three of us who haven't and I have a note from Bob Burns saying that he would provide tours to those who haven't. Vanderhoef/ I would be real interested. Baker/ It is great. Thornberry/ One thing that grates on me that we do every single meeting and I will probably get use to it but it still grates on me is when announcement of vacancies occur and they say- Madam Mayor says, there are three females and three males on this commission. I think this is being gender specific and I think that perhaps it should be said there are six dedicated volunteers on this commission and if they are going to be gender specific why don't they say two Hispanics, three Native Americans, and one Swede. I am a Swede so I can say that. But I will probably get use to it. But I still think they are dedicated volunteers and we need more of them. Nov/ We do and we do try for a gender balance when possible and therefore we say this. Thornberry/ Okay. The only other thing that I would really like to say is that my mother is in the hospital at Mercy Hospital. She had her gallbladder out yesterday. She is doing very well. Hopefully she will be leaving the hospital tomorrow afternoon on Valentines Day and I will be glad to have you at my house tomorrow night. Nov/ Thank you. Dee- Vanderhoef/ I just like to mention the notice that we had in the packet. A1 Mebus, one of our own police force members and his contribution to the Program called TIPS which is interventions Thisrepresents only ereasonably accur~etranscription ofthelowa City council meeting ~ February 13,1996. F021396 #15 page 4 procedures for training people and for the help with something he probably sees everyday which is drunk driving and alcohol abuse and I commend him for his public service. Baker/ Naomi, I have three things, please. First of all I would like for Brian out in the audience, just by a nod of his head, at our last Wednesday morning budget meeting you were there, weren't you? Okay. I do that because I want to call attention to a Press Citizen editorial in today's newspaper which urges us to act favorably on the Human Rights Commission request for additional staff which I thought we had done and Brian was here. This is not the first time that the editorial board and reporters don't communicate. That doesn't bother me but I want the public to know that we have acted on their request and we are adding at least a 1/2 time position, investigators position. That is not the reason I want to call attention to this particular editorial, I would suspect that members of the HR Commission will be responding to this editorial on their own. But I do want to call attention to the last paragraph of that, talking about the backlog of cases. It says a backlog of 50 cases, some of which are three years old, reflects more unfavorably upon the Commission than it does on the community. I think that is not only implistic, it is unfair and it is unfair and unwarranted characterization of the Commission and I think that the Press Citizen might reconsider that particular view and I think one of the ways they will reconsider is when that Commission talks to them which I hope they do. I, as speaking for myself as an individual council member, I do not look at the backlog of cases as a problem of the Commission. I think there are many other reasons some of which council is directly responsible for in terms of funding help for that particular office. So, I hope that the Commission responds. I suspect that certain members certainly will. Kubby/ Larry, as a matter of fact, the Commission members have done things above and beyond their normal duties like stuffing envelopes and doing clerical tasks that most commission members don't get involved in as a way of speeding things along. Baker/ I think that commission has done admiral work. All of them work very hard. These are volunteer commissions. They put in a lot of time and effort and I think that was unwarranted statement in that particular editorial. I want the community to ignore it or to accept it as is. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the lowo City council meeting of February 13, 1996. F021396 #15 page 5 Now, a couple of other quick things. I want to check with Steve about this in our packet about construction permit fees. Kubby/ That was great. Baker/ I want to make sure that I anybody out there is still night. am reading this correctly in case listening at this time of the Nov/ We are doing great. Baker/ According to this schedule taken in January of 1996 construction permit fees for Iowa City are lower than Cedar Rapids, lower than Coralville, well lower than most communities in the state. One of the objections you always here about is the high cost of development and evidently it is not in the permit phase under other things we could talk about. But I wanted to call the presses attention to that and the public's attention to that because if we are going to be criticized, I want us to be criticized for what we are guilty of and not for what we are not guilty of. That is correct information? Atkins/ What we did was we described that home, 1200 square foot, called each of those cities and ask them what a permit fee would be. They did an estimate. Permit fees are based on a variety of circumstances by community. We tried to be as absolutely uniform as possible, asking each question. That information is being reported to you because it was given to us by those cities. Baker/ And I think more distribution of that particular information. Two more points. One of which is very quick. I had two phone calls this week, very strange phone call. Strange only in the sense people were seriously concerned about a particular issue which they thought the council was addressing and I want to clarify to them and to anybody else who may have gotten this particular- There is a memo circulating that was described to me, a xerox copy of a memo, talking about a proposed city ordinance to require all businesses in Iowa City to provide health insurance for their employees. Atkins/ City letter? City memo? Baker/ Private letter being circulated. I talked to these people that called me and assured them that the city has not done This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 13. 1996. F021395 #15 page 6 that. What I think has happened is we have had discussions in the past with economic development and with incentives to businesses and the committee that we formed for economic development to discuss what sort of criteria we want to use for any kind of businesses to receive city subsidy of any kind and one of the things that was discussed in the past was it is not a requirement so much as a question. Does your company offer health insurance for your employee? So that may be where the misunderstanding rose. Atkins/ It is also a fairly common question for grant applications, particularly- I think CEBA asked that question which is the state economic development grant and I think one other. So it is not an uncommon question. I am not aware of- Baker/ But it was never discussed in anyway as a requirement for all businesses in Iowa city and this person in particular had a plaza, small coffee thing down there that he was afraid was going to have to change the dynamics. Anyway, clarified. It would be a good idea but we are not requiring it. Finally, I want to talk about this issue that I talked about at the last meeting, the new apartment going in on Dubuque and Burlington. I want to clarify something and give the council a little bit more information that they might find interesting. I described the west wall as being fairly blank and an entrance into parking. Looking at the latest plans, that is probably too harsh of a statement. There are lots of windows on that wall but that it is. There is still that entrance to parking. So if I misrepresented that particular architectural design, I apologize but that is not what I really want to call your attention to. This drives my wife crazy, too. I apologize, Ginger. Nov/ Hopefully Ginger is still listening. Baker/ I had talked last time about the possibility of reviewing those zoning ordinances that have zoning requirements to discourage the kind of construction that lets commercial, sort of be a token commercial area at half the space. This is what is going in there. It's 19 apartments. This is from their latest plans I got. There are 11 five bedroom apartments, 6 four bedroom apartments, 1 two bedroom and 1 three bedroom. There will be 34 spaces required from that arrangement. That is 84 bedrooms on 34 spaces, parking spaces. That includes the commercial requirements as well. I certainly hope that we can start talking about this particular issue after budget is over Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetrenscription ofthelowe City council meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #15 page 7 because I would like to see if we can amend that particular zone. On the positive side, we will have collected $68,000 of parking impact fee but that is based upon the required parking spaces and there aren't very many required. Just thought I would bring you up to date on that particular issue and urge the developer, Mr. Clark, to continue working with his architect and city staff to make sure that building in that new location is a very attractive building and I urge anybody who sees Mr. Clark to just encourage him in that effort to make sure that that architectural contribution to Iowa City is something that we can all be proud of. Thornberry/ So get to the point. Baker/ No, that is the point. Nov/ That is the point. Kubby/ I guess I want to go back to something that Dean brought up about having information about the gender balance on the committees. Does anyone else, does that grate on anyone else? Norton/ Just a little. Kubby/ I think it is really good to put out there as factual information what the gender balance is and applicants-may not encourage someone- Thornberry/ Karen, it is not that big of a deal but I would like to have Swedes mentioned if there are. Nov/ Well, this is a question that we do not ask. So even if they are there we couldn't know. Norton/ The point is there is so many could be put on there, why that one not altogether obvious. different categories that is particularly germane is Baker/ See, I think it is altogether obvious. Nov/ It is even in state law to try for gender balance where possible though Iowa City did it before the state law. Woito/ That only applies to state government and not city. Nov/ I know. I am just saying we did it first. Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa Citycouncil moetingofFebrua~ 13,1996. F021396 #15 page 8 Thornberry/ I am sorry my grating grated on you, Karen. Kubby/ I think it is a very important issue and I am really glad that we do it and I am glad that we try for different kinds of balances. Thornberry/ Good. Nov/ I have a couple of things that were at the back in the info packet and there was one protest of a parking ticket that was a car ticketed because it was in a marked stall. I don't know what a marked stall is. Kubby/ But she couldn't see it because there was snow on top of it. Nov/ There was also a meter there. So what is the difference? Atkins/ I will have to find out. Sent the form out asking them to fill out the detailed information. Nov/ She may have paid for a meter and something other than where she parked? Arkins/ I am not sure, Naomi. Nov/ Okay. It just didn't seem to make sense. I am glad this doesn't make sense to you either. There was a letter from Lynne Stamus about raised planters. I found that very interesting. I wrote her a quick little note saying that it was a good idea, sounded interesting and I referred it to the Parks Department. Then I found out that this is someone who had already been corresponding and communicating with the Parks Department and they are already working on it. But I just wanted you to know that I didn't know that originally. It wasn't until I gave it to them that he said he has been working on this already. Kubby/ Actually there are people out there who are people with disabilities who would like to have a garden spot. It might be interesting to call Parks and Rec to let us know that you would like to rent such a spot so that we know there is a market out there because it will cost some money to make them into raised beds. Nov/ He has told her there will be at least one raised bed. They haven't decided exactly where. It is an interesting new idea. Thisrepresents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa Citycouncil meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #15 page 9 People can grow something in a garden that doesn't require bending over. I have one more deer comment. Deer. Eight of them swimming across the river from the peninsula to Park Road. I would have enjoyed seeing that but I am sure the person who saw it coming towards her yard was not delighted. Norton/ That is why it is called Deer Creek. Nov/ They were actually swimming across the Iowa River and it was quite a sight. Norton/ We are getting a report from the Animal Control people who will come back from that conference because I have heard some suggestions and I trust that they will come back with some like darting. Nov/ I am assuming that we will get a report on that because everybody knows that we are anxious to hear something. We have a little note from Lorraine. I will pass it around to you. Thisrepresents only areesonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of February 13,1996. F021396 #16a page ITE/~ NO. a. 16a. - REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY }L~NAGERAND CITY ATTORNEY. City Manager. Nov/ Is there anything city Manager? Atkins/ One quick item. Just remind you tomorrow morning we have a budget session. More for Karin and to alert you. I have asked Linda Severson to come in the first thing tomorrow morning to go over Aid to Agencies. Just to alert you to that. The remainder of it we will have our information on parking and transit issues and then the remainder of the budget. I thought I would do that first. Okay. Baker/ What is the meeting on the 20th for? Next week. Kubby/ Fringe area, CIP and one other thing. Atkins/ Fringe, CIP, possibly Design Standards we thought about and one other- Nov/ We put off Design Standards. Atkins/ I know. I am trying to think, there was one other item I don't recall right now. Nov/ The Fringe Area is the one you really wanted to move on. Larry, do you remember saying that? Baker/ Did I say that? Kubby/ We should move on it. Nov/ We should move on it. Baker/ I don't think we will want to move in the direction I want to go but we will move on it. Nov/ We will at least discuss it. It is time to see if we can't get something going on it. Norton/ I think we would be remiss if we didn't mention a congratulations to the police for handling a pretty hectic weekend last weekend. It apparently went very well. Nov/ Good point. Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcription ofthelowa City councl)meeting of February 13.1996. F021396 #16a page 2 Atkins/ And that is both Police and Fire. We had to run out a number of people and they have been asked by the press to provide information on the cost of that. I should have- Nov/ Are we donating the cost of that? Atkins/ Well, someone ask me the other day and said can't you get the federal government to pay this and of course I picked myself off of the floor after I stopped laughing about it. It is very difficult to tell the President of the United States, oh, no, by the way we are not going to be there to help out. Plus here is your bill. Nov/ I was told the University did charge for the use of their space. Atkins/ I think they did and I think it was a party function which I just heard about. We will take a look at that angle. Nov/ Can't hu~t to ask. / Give the Democrats the bill. They got money. Baker/ So how was Pat's party? Thisrepresents only a reasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowe Citycouncil meetlngofFebrua~ 13,1996. F021396 #16b page 1 ITEM ~0. 16~. - ATTORNEY. b. City Attorney. REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE OITYMANAGER AND CITY Nov/ Does the City Attorney have anything? Woito/ Yes. We are in the final stages of fourth Assistance City Attorney's position and we will to you soon. Kubby/ Good luck. Atklns/ Fourth? Woito/ There are four attorneys. No, there are Assistants. Atkins/ I am sensitive at budget time. Woito/ That would be nice. That would be wonderful. Nov/ We are hiring somebody, okay. our recruiting for the report only three That is all. Thisrepresents only aroasonablyaccuretotranscriptlon ofthelowa Clty councilmeeting of February 13,1996. F021396 City of Iowa City MEMORANDUM DATE: TO: FROM: RE: February 9, 1996 City Council City Manager Work Session Agendas and Meeting Schedule February 12. 1996 NO CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION February 13, 1996 6:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. 6:30 p.m. 6:50 p.m. 7:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m. February 14. 1996 9:30 a.m. February 20. 1996 6:30 p.m. February 26. 1996 6:30 p.m. February 27. 1996 7:30 p.m. March 4, 1996 6:30 p.m. March 5, 1996 7:30 p.m. March 25. 1996 6:30 p.m. lVlarch 26, 1996 7:30 p.m. City Council Work Session - Council Chambers TIMES APPROXlMATE Review zoning matters First Avenue and Muscatine reconstruction design Tax abatement - Citizen Buiding Council agenda, Council time, Council committee reports Regular City Council Meeting * Council Chambers City Council Work Session - Council Chambers Discuss FY97-99 Financial Plan City Council Work Session - Council Chambers City Conference Board Meeting - Council Chambers Separate agenda posted City Council Work Session - Council Chambers Regular City Council Meeting - Council Chambers Special City Council Work Session - Council Chambers Special City Council Meeting - Council Chambers City Council Work Session - Council Chambers City Council Meeting · Council Chambers Monday Tuesday Wednesday Tuesday Monday Tuesday Monday Tuesday Monday Tuesday