HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-05-03 Transcription#2 Page 1
ITEM 2. PUBLIC HEARING ON AN ORDINANCE CREATING A SELF-
SUPPORTING MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (SSMID)
ACCORDING TO IOWA CODE CHAPTER 386 FOR
DOWNTOWN IOWA CITY.
Lehman: I am...I have a conflict of interest. I will not be participating in the public
hearing or the discussion, so I will recuse myself.
Vanderhoef: I will also be recusing myself for the same reason, conflict of interest.
Champion: I will also be excusing myself because of a conflict of interest.
Wilbum: I guess that leaves me. (laughter) And it's a change of pace for me to not
be leaving the room. Folks, this is public hearing, as the Mayor had said.
As we usually do with public hearings, I'll allow 5 minutes for people to
come up and comment. Please state your name, and write your name
down before you begin. The other...there's such a large number of people
here that I think what we'll do is make sure that before, that everyone will
have an opportunity to speak, who wishes to, before someone may return
to the microphone. And before we get started, I've asked Steve Nasby,
our Economic Development Coordinator, to approach the microphone, just
to give a quick synopsis. Otherwise I'll just say the public hearing is
open.
Nasby: I'll make it brief. Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District is
outlined in Iowa Code, Chapter 386. It allows for petition to be brought
forth by owners of property to create a district that would levy additional
taxes for the benefit of the district, and there's a number of things that can
be undertaken that's set out in 386. The petition that was filed with the
City of Iowa City was filed on October 10th. It contained the names of
28% of the owners of the district, and about 38% of assessed value, and
that's important because Iowa Code sets out a threshold for the petition to
be valid on its face of at least 25% of the owners, representing at least
25% of the assessed value. So it met that, on its face, met that test. So the
petition then came to the City Council where it was forwarded to the
Planning and Zoning Commission, and that's a requirement of Code. It
says it shall be referred, so that was done. Just briefly, the petition as
proposed is for the CB-10 Zone, which is the Central Business District
Zone in downtown Iowa City. The petition, the properties are related by
zoning. That's their commonality, and that's again, that's a code
requirement that the properties be related. The proposed tax sets a
maximum levy of $2.00 per thousand. The purposes in the petition that
were filed outlined several. The parking abatement, the capital
improvements would take a subsequent petition because they were not in
sufficient detail, so at this point the petition that's before you, the
operational tax is the only tax that could be levied at this time. As I
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mentioned, the proposed bid went to the Planning and Zoning
Commission. They did review it at two meetings - one in January, one in
February, and P & Z was charged with reporting on the merits and
feasibility of the proposed SSMID, and that term is, that's right out of
Code. It's not defined, so it's really in the discretion of the Planning and
Zoning Commission of what they want to consider. The City Attorney's
office, and our office, laid out some things in a memo that you have in
front of you that was part of the Planning and Zoning packets that outlined
the petition met the "technical aspects" of what was required in code. The
Planning and Zoning Commission did have their report that was done in
April, and that was forwarded to the Council for your consideration, which
has brought us to this point, which is the public heating. And tonight, you
will be having a public hearing, and one important part about it is the
Code requires a waiting period of 30 days before the Council takes any
additional action, so at the time you close the public hearing, it will be at
least 30 days before you can take any further action, pro or con, on this
petition as it's been submitted.
Wilbum: Okay, thank you, and just a reminder for Council, if for any reason we
were to keep the public hearing open, it would be at the point where we
close the public heating, it would be 30 days from them before Council
could take first reading on the ordinance. Is that correct? Yes, okay.
Would anyone like to approach the... ?
Atkins: Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, folks, you're going to have to clear the doorway.
There are seats up here, if you would please. Thank you.
Wilbum: Thank you, Steve.
Brown: Good evening, my name is Julie Brown. I am currently a member of the
Downtown Association Board of Directors. I actually am a sales
coordinator from Heartland Inn, and a lot of people ask me why did I join
the Downtown Association. I'll tell you why. I really thought that I was
walking into a very exciting part of Iowa City. I thought it's going to be
just like the CVB, the funding's going to be unbelievable, my hotel's
going to reap the benefits of all the tourism that this downtown brings.
Well I came to the first meeting, and guess what I found out? We had a
part-time executive director that makes $12,000 a year. We barely have
$30,000 a year total to pay an executive director and market this
downtown. What you guys have here is unbelievable. It's like what we
call the "best kept secret". I think that's not only in Iowa City. I think
that's in the whole state of Iowa, and probably other states too. What
we're trying to do here is let everybody know what we have. We are not
developing a tax district to take money and do what we want with it.
What we're trying to do is develop a partnership, and I think the best
example that we have of this right now, is happening in Iowa City,
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Coralville, and in other surrounding communities, and that's Herky on
Parade, and I know you all know what I'm talking about. When people
work together, and they have a common goal, things like this can happen
and it's possible. There's 75 Herky's out there. They represent these
entities - the CVB, the City of Iowa City, the City of Coralville - all these
different entities working together for one goal. We want the exact same
thing for the downtown district. We want these businesses in the CB-10
district to come together in a partnership. We're asking them to bring
their ideas. If they have, if they disagree with something that we have
said, run for the Board. We want your opinion. We want to work this out
together. We're not trying to make those decisions. We're...the __
as it exists now, is gone. Once a SSMID district is set up, it's a whole
partnership. Everybody in that district is a part of it. We're looking for
partnership. We're looking to bring tourism downtown. I heard an
example. I do believe that Coral Ridge Mall has an average of what, a bus
a day that comes out there? That's a lot of visitors. If we could have the
funds, the resources, to work with them and bring that tourism downtown,
that would be unbelievable for these businesses. That's what we're
looking for. We're working to build tourism. We're looking to build
friendships, partnerships that not only last for 5 years, 10 years...we're
looking for an economic impact for a very, very long time. We hope that
people will listen to what we have to say tonight. This is about a
partnership. It's about marketing. It's about using our resources to show
off what we already have. Thank you.
Wilbum: Thank you for your comments.
Weinschenk: My name is Susan Weinschenk, and I'm on the Downtown Association
Board, and I work at Iowa State Bank. I'm here tonight because I would
like to see us develop a way to have more people come downtown.
Whether it's people from this community, or as Julia referred to, people
coming in on tour buses. We do not get enough share of that business in
the downtown area because people do not know we're here. One voice is
pretty small, but when you can put all the voices together into one big
voice, you're going to be heard a lot better. Same with budgeting. One
small budget isn't going to take you very far when you're trying to market
your store, but if you're willing to pool in together with everyone else,
your budget's going to be a lot bigger and you can accomplish a lot more
things. And that is what this SSM1D can do for us downtown. I know we
ran into some problems with Planning and Zoning. We have been
working on this project for over a year. The director that was helping us
with this had to leave in October. He assured us that we did not have to
have the budget and all the fine pieces in it when it went to Planning and
Zoning. We only needed to show that we had met the requirements for the
petition. That's our fault that we didn't dig a further to find out for sure
that we needed more. We have done that. You do have those in your
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packets. We've done as much on the budget as we can at this time.
There's a lot of objections that we've heard. One of the things that came
out of Planning and Zoning is we haven't talked to enough people. We
have now had 4 meetings with tenants. We have walked around
invitations at least twice, if not more. We've had a very small turnout. I
understand people are busy and it's hard for them to come and visit with
us. We are doing the best that we can. Our next step is to send out a
survey and hopefully they will take the time to fill that out and send it
back to us. We are not trying to control leases. We are not trying to
control tenant space. That's another objection that we've heard. We want
to operate like a mall. We want to have a database of all the businesses
that are here. We want to use it to market these businesses, and we want
to use it in case an owner wants to know "what's here, what's missing,
what can I recruit ifI have an empty store front". There are no plans in
place to kick a tenant out and replace them with somebody that we think is
better. We have absolutely no desire to do that, and we will not be doing
that. That would just be a detriment to all of us if somebody did do that.
The budget seems to be the huge issue, and what we have prepared is
available in the back of the room. It's in your packets. We plan to spend
this money on marketing, on advertising locally, on attracting part of these
tour groups that you've heard about that come to Coralville, to the
Amanas, to get them to come down here as well. We want to hire an
experienced director. We want a full-time person to lead this effort. We
do not want to hire somebody for 20 hours a week like we've been doing.
We want to continue the festivals that we've been doing. There are a lot
of things that are permissible. Initially what we need is to be able to move
forward. We need permission to move forward with the ordinance so that
we can get our operational agreement finished. We cannot do that until
the ordinance is passed. We're going to need legal assistance with that,
and we're going to need input from our members, and the only way we
can get that is to get the ordinance approved and allow us to move
forward. Once we move forward, it's very important that everyone
understand that we cannot spend any of this money until we have the
operational agreement in place, until our new Board is in place, and until
the final operational agreement and budget have been approved by the
Board, and by the City Council. We have no intention of spending any
money until we get to that point. What we want right now is to move
forward. We want you to allow us to create this district so we can get our
information together and back to you, and I think it will be a great thing
for this area. I think we need to do it if we're going to survive, and if
we're going to have the great downtown that we can have. Thank you.
Wilburn: Thank you.
Ginsberg: I'm Mark Ginsberg. I own the building on Washington Street, and I lease
another building on College Street, so I'm both a property owner and a
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tenant, and for the record, I oppose any taxation, so I want you to consider
this investment. The City of Iowa City has invested little over $7 million
in the CB-10 district, and all we want to do is protect what we've already
developed. All fight? So to that end, I just want to point out some of the
things that have been going around, and I know some of you have some
questions, you might have some questions as well. There is a letter of
opposition that has gone out...I have not received this, but I did receive a
fax of it. In the third paragraph, and I'm sure you might have this in your
packet. Do you have this fax that went out from the Old Capitol?
Remonstrance Petition Against the Establishment of a Self-Supported
Municipal Improvement District? There are three issues specifically...
Dilkes: I don't think you got that information.
Ginsberg: ...that are listed here that I think need clarification.
Wilburn: We did not get that so...
Ginsberg: All right, well, I'll give you a copy. The third paragraph, it states that,
"Our position is that, while we do support the goal of an economically
viable downtown area, as almost certainly do all property owners in the
area, a tax imposed by the City is not the best way to accomplish that
goal." Well if I'm understanding this right, that the City did not impose
this tax. This is a self-supported municipal improvement district. This
comes from the current Board of the DTA, asking for you to assess our
property taxes. This isn't something the City decided, unless I'm wrong.
Did you decide to impose this tax?
Wilburn: This is a request by the petitioners to have...
Ginsberg: Right, so you did not impose this tax on us. I just want to make that clear
that the City did not impose this tax on the CB-10 district. I mean, it's a
tax that assessed in addition to our property tax, it's going to be added
on...
Wilburn: At the request of the petitioners, yes.
Ginsberg: At the request of the petitioners. So, I want to point out that I think that's
a misleading statement for those who are looking at this and taking it as
rote. "A tax imposed by the City, which carries with it another added
layer of bureaucracy and administrative cost, does not seem to be the most
effective way to accomplish these goals." Again, I agree with this
statement, but it has nothing to do with the SSM1D. This is a main-line
investment into the administrative and self-support of our CB-10. This
has nothing to do with the City dictating to us what we can and cannot do
once this operational budget has been passed. So, there is no other, there
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is no additional administrative layer. There is no additional bureaucracy.
This goes directly to the participants in the CB-10. And the final thing on
this, excuse me, we simply do not believe the more government control
over private activities, such as advertising and promotion of our
businesses is the way to insure a successful economic future. Again, I
would agree that I don't like taxes or government interference with my
business, or my private area, but this is not government control. This is
our own control over our own destiny, and an absolute way for us to
control what goes on in Iowa City, and the...Susan made a mention, and I
have it in here but I don't want to be too redundant. We are not trying to
take over leases, nor are we trying to even if we could we wouldn't, try to
subordinate a tenant and a landlord's discussion, negotiations with each
other. What we have said in the past, and has been misunderstood, is that
if a building is vacate, if a property remains vacant, it is to our best interest
to fill that. It is also to our best interest to look at, survey what we have
currently in downtown Iowa City, and ask ourselves do we need another
bar? Do we need another restaurant? Do we need another jewelry store?
Do we need another clothing store? Do we need a high-end audio store?
Do we need a maternity clothing store? Do we need a pickle store? Do
we need a chocolate store? Do we need wine store? Whatever is absent,
and I take my cues from people like Kevin. People like general growth, or
property owners who have looked at their areas, scientifically and decided
there's a certain ratio that works, and a certain ratio that doesn't. We
cannibalize each other if we allow just anything to come in, and all we're
saying is give us an opportunity to build a traffic pattern to downtown
Iowa City, to help support the investment that you've made in this
community, to work as partners with all the businesses, to have 100%
participation instead of 15% participation. And the other issue, and the
last issue, is one of trust. There are 15 Board members going to be elected
to the SSMID that are representative of tenants, landlords, property
owners, large and small, business owners without property, and all those
people will have a voice. If you are opposed to the current structure of the
budget, we do have an opportunity from now until the end of the year,
once the SSMID has passed, to amend that, bring it back to City Council,
but it does not seem right that the DTA Board which is trying to phase
itself out, should have the last word. It should be the CB-10, and the only
way for the CB-10 to get involved, is to have the SSMID pass. So, my
words...
Wilbum: Thank you for comments.
Chait: I'm Terri Miller Chait. Mark, you are so good. You talk me into it every
single time that I hear you speak about the SSMID because I think there
are really some good reasons for a group from downtown to support the
downtown. I've been on both sides of the fence. I've gone to the DTA
meetings. I've talked to people who are for it and I've talked to people
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who are not for it. The conclusions that I have come to for myself are that
I believe that the downtown is full of a diverse group of business people.
It includes people who own apartments. People who have retail
businesses. People who have other types of businesses that don't really
rely on tourism, and because of the diversity of this group of downtown
business owners, I don't believe that the SSMID is the proper way to go
about marketing the downtown. I do believe that there should be
something in place to do that, but I don't believe the SSMID is the right
way to go. Sorry, I'm not too organized. One of the things that I have
been thinking about, because I do believe that there has been some good
conversation about what downtown does need, and I think that there could
be a different ~vay of getting people to pay for things. The Downtown
Association has not had very good luck in enrolling people into their
organization. I think if there were more of a menu-driven type of
operation. If I want to be a part of a larger web page that supports
downtown Iowa City, then I think that would be a good use of my money,
and I would pay for something like that. If people think that park and
shop is a good thing for their business, then they could pay for that. If
people have other ideas about things they want to put their money
towards, it could be a menu-driven type of downtown association where
people could pay for what is going to benefit them, because what is going
to benefit me is not necessarily going to benefit somebody else. I also
think that the CB-10 district, the S SMID district as it is outlined, is
not...those are not the only people who will benefit from marketing
downtown because there are businesses on the north side, there are
businesses outside that line that I think would perhaps like to become a
participant in the types of marketing projects that could go forward, and I
believe that there are some people that are in that CB-10 district as
outlined that really will not benefit from...as the budget is laid out, and
from the SSMID as it is proposed. Those are my thoughts. Thank you.
Wilburn: Thank you. After the speaker, I would certainly invite, if there's anyone
here to speak against it, I would encourage those folks to step forward too.
Bennett: My name is Astrid Bennett. I manage and co-own Iowa Artisans Gallery
and serve on the Board of the Downtown Association, where I'm currently
chair of the Promotions Committee. I'm totally committed to downtown,
and it seemed to be a natural stop, to step in right now, and talk about
being in the trenches of actually trying to do promotions for downto~vn.
Speaking about, philosophical arguments is one thing, but I have had a lot
of experience of trying to organize people to actually get things done.
DTA took a turn towards more of a marketing focus several years ago
because downto~vn businesses realized that survival, and survival together,
was the key. As a membership-based organization our resources are puny,
and several people have already talked about this. I apologize for
reiterating. Our budget pays for Friday night concert series, holiday
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lighting, park and shop administration, office expenses, and most
importantly for our salary for our executive director - the $12,000 a year.
We've had 3 talented individuals take that position in the last 3 years. As
soon as they realize that part-time means 30 to 40 hours a week with no
benefits, they're off to other jobs with realistic compensation. One of the
problems with more of a menu-driven membership is that it means quite a
bit more of an administration so we' re compounding that sort of problem.
DTA depends on volunteers, such as myself, who are already working 40
to 60 hours a week, running businesses, donating our own equipment and
staff. Iowa City downtown is made up of a huge percentage of
independently owned businesses. If you look at most other businesses, for
instance at a mall, you'll see a large part franchised businesses, and so
those businesses can rely on a corporate office to help them with
marketing and so forth. Coral Ridge has roughly the same commercial
square footage as the proposed CB-10. Can you imagine marketing Coral
Ridge Mall on a $27,000 a year budget? No way! This is why we have
made such a concerted effort to secure our future with SSMID money.
Something that's gone on for the last few years. As head of our
Promotions Committee, no one has been more frustrated than I at what
we're able to do compared to what's needed. I'd like to site only two of a
variety of very typical examples. There are many more which I could
share, such as a well coordinated, thought out special events schedule if
time were greater. My first example, our downtown business community
should be pro-active in the public relations arena, sending out twice
monthly press releases, announcing activities, pointing out new
businesses, significant milestones, highlighting business entrepreneurs,
mentoring efforts, collaborations with University community and the
social service sector. Instead we are engaged in image mop-up. Much of
our local community never comes downtown. They've never seen the
sidewalk cafes on a splendid summer evening, or taken in the Iowa
Avenue Literary Walk. Why don't they know? Because all people read
about is drunken brawls and letters to the editor that gripe rather than
educate. Having been engaged in public relations for several
organizations, let me just say that staying pro-active is not easily done. It
takes time, focus, skill, and networking. Example two, in my short-term
on the Promotions Committee, I've already been contacted a handful of
times by out-of-town media sources looking for pictures of downtown.
This does not sound big, but it's symptomatic, and by the way, their
deadline is 4 PM and can you email the file? Usually I have to scramble
and say "I'd be glad to try and email personal images this evening from
my home computer." Is it any wonder that the pictures you end up seeing
are from the University campus, or from Coralville or Coral Ridge Mall?
By the way, don't ask me to ask business owners for them. I've already
tried that. Wouldn't you business owners like me to be able to say, "Sure.
Would you like to see sidewalk cafes in action, or Friday night concerts,
or images of shoppers? Images of nighttime entertainment, or perhaps you
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like children playing in Weather Dance Fountain? And, what season
would you like? Fall, winter, spring, or summer?" That, my friends, is
the way to attract out-of-towners to the area. That is pooling our resources
to make things better for all of us. That is just one of many ideas that
affective downtown marketing can bring under the stewardship of skilled,
paid leadership. That will make my own SSMID assessments on the part
of my personal business well spent, and I just want to thank you for taking
the time to take our concerns seriously.
Wilbum: Thank you.
Mondanaro: My name is Jim Mondanaro and I have some real estate and businesses
downtown, and it's not what ya know, it's who knows ya. And what this
is about is building the brand in downtown Iowa City. What I get
concerned about is the expense that gets attached to building the brand. I
look at the budget that they have. I don't like the budget. I don't like
spending $50,000 for a person to oversee how we spend those dollars. We
have enough talented people within this downtown district that can form a
philanthropic board to do it for free. The DTA was never successful
because it didn't have focus, and it wasn't funded properly. So I'm kind
ora mixed bag while I'm up here. In one way I way we have to do this to
build the brand, but how we do it is what's important to me. When I first
signed that petition it was because I wanted to build the brand. But then as
it evolves, I get concerned about the quick-fix is to go hire somebody for
$50,000 a year who doesn't have a gut feeling for what this downtown is
all about. You have to be vested here. You have to be in business here.
You have to own real estate. Own a business - to know what it's all
about. Downtown has changed tremendously over the last 10 years. Coral
Ridge Mall will not go away. It's here forever. There's more competition
than there's ever been before. The Wal-Mart's of this world have
destroyed the small businessman. Taxes keep going up. Values keep
going up, and I don't know about anybody else, but my business volumes
stay the same. That's a success story in downtown Iowa City. So,
taxation to build the brand? Yes. Overseeing it? That's the most
important part of this. Not just letting it come in and then hire somebody
from outside to be the one that spends this money. I can honestly tell you
right now that if that's the route this goes, my wife and I will not be in
support of that 38% people that signed on for this taxation within this
district. But if we have a certain understanding that we're going to move
forward with the idea that we have to do this and get the biggest bang for
our buck, then I'm in. go what's that tell ya? I want to build the brand,
but I want to get power for my money. That's it.
Wilburn: Thank you, Jim.
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Cohen: I'm Leah Cohen, and I have Bo James downtown Iowa City, and I'm a
tenant. I kind of waste my opinion a few times through this. I am not for
this tax, and as I've said, I think the failure from day one was getting
signatures of landlords that were needed, but they never talked to the
people who are really going to be paying the tax, and downtown Iowa City
has been stated as very much small business - individual owners, there
aren't chains, and we are the ones that are going to pay that tax. And what
I see has happened with this, there's been real division in our downtown
because of it. I've had a lot of people tell me that they've been pressured
into signing things. A lot of people do not like, as Jim stated, what's
going on with the money here. I think there's distrust. There's a lot of
distrust with what's going on with this. I think a few big landlords get
involved that have certainly a lot at stake at what could go on with this tax,
and that's a real concern to us small businesses. I think the failure was not
getting real tenants involved from day one with this. The problems I see
and some of the challenges I see is there, we talk about a Board of 15 and
how that Board's elected and whatever in it. One of the concerns I have,
there is no City representative required on that Board, as you will see. My
personal opinion is that ifa City representative's on a Board, it's easier to
work within the City. They understand. They're trusted. There's
different things that go on. That's a big concern for me. I also think it's a
big checks and balance point for any type of Board if it has a City person
involved with it. So that certainly is a concern. I think that along with as
Terri stated, I think all of us downtown would like to see something. I
think we have a very thriving downtown. We have far more restaurants
and bars than any of us would like to see. I don't know how you change
that exactly, but I think that, I think that one thing this will do, I'm hoping,
if it doesn't pass, is open up conversation, and maybe we can put a little
more diverse Board together to sit and really look at how we can come up
with some sort of funds, and whether it's taxation or whatever it may be,
and maybe work within the City and doing something like this. But I
think we're all seeing excitement and trying to do something now, and we
would all like that, but there's a lot of disagreement on where funds would
go, and how they would go, and operation of, and all those sorts of things.
So I'm just saying I think this does open it up. I definitely do not support
the SSMIDs and what's going on with the SSMIDs. I would be happy to,
you know if a committee were formed to start thinking at and looking at, I
think the City has a lot of good people in this city that could work together
with other groups to come up with ideas, and one thing about DTA that if
you look back at the DTA. DTA was not always a failure. I think what
happened with DTA, personally, and I watch this and watch this, and I
came before Council, I talked to Councilors. About 7 or 8 years ago, there
started so much negativity on downtown. You know with Coral Ridge
coming in, and everyone was talking about how downtown was going to
fail with all the bars and restaurants coming in, and talking about that we
didn't want those, and all the drinking going on, and there was so much
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negativity, and I heard it everywhere I went, I heard that negativity. And I
personally went to Councilors and said you know you gotta quit talking
negative because you're putting a perception out there that isn't there, and
the same thing happened with DTA. You go to DTA meetings and it was
all these restaurants and these bars, and this Coral Ridge is going to kill
ya. I could not listen to that and keep my business thriving as I wanted it
to do. I needed positives in my life. Not that. And I haven't had anything
to do with it since. And I think that that's where a failure started to
happen, and I don't know if that could build back up or what could happen
with it, but anyway those are my thoughts. Thanks for listening.
Wilbum: Thank you.
Barnes: My name is Lisa Barnes. I am currently the interim Executive Director for
the Downtown Association. However, I was also the original Executive
Director in 1994 when I was first hired to help out the Downtown
Association. I worked in that position for 3 years, as a part-time
employee. After that time we had another part-time person who
fortunately was very willing, had grown children, she could give as many
hours as was needed, for $500 a month. So the DTA was very fortunate
with that person for 3 years. After she left, I continued on as the
bookkeeper, so I've been involved actually for 10 years. After she left, the
Downtown Association had to do a lot of scrambling. People had to try
and work together and figure out how they were going to keep moving
forward. Unfortunately this was close to the time of Coral Ridge opening.
I've lived in Iowa City for 25 years. I love downtown Iowa City. I truly
believe it's where the unique is the usual. The comments that I've heard
here tonight, them are a lot of them that I agree with. I totally understand
the concerns. I was not involved when they first started discussing the
SSMID. However, when I was the original Executive Director, we had a
Board of approximately 15 downtown businesses. We had regular
membership recruitment drives. We did everything possible to try to get
as much involvement among the downtown businesses as possible. There
are certain businesses that are just going to choose not to participate.
There's nothing we can do about that. We had events on a regular basis.
We had Family Fun days. We had things with Old Capitol Mall when it
was thriving. We every year had our Holiday Lights. There was a lot
going on in downtown. As time progressed, and staffhad fewer hours to
help plan these events, and the volunteers were spending more and more
time on a very limited budget, trying to keep things going, it's become
more and more challenging. I personally think the SSMID is a wonderful
idea. I think it's great for downtown. I think the opponents need to
understand, nothing is written in stone at this point. The members of the
Board who started this process rolling had a lot of good ideas. I don't
think there's any guarantees they're going to hire somebody and pay them
$50,000 a year. Personally, I don't know what a marketing professional in
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that type of position makes. When we put together the tentative budget, it
was based on what the DTA has used in different areas before, what it
would cost to have an office, and trying to come up with a salary to get a
professional that knows what they're doing. I totally agree with Jim. I
think if it's somebody from this area - wonderful. I don't believe that you
can ask these business owners to try to put together a committee to run
things and spend 40 hours a week on that committee. I don't think that
would work. So I'm hoping that you consider this, and that it's a positive
for Iowa City. This first step is just establishing the district. For the
people who have listened to the conversations and read the materials, they
should understand there's no guarantees with this. The new Downtown
Association would have to put together a budget. It would have to be
approved by City Council. If they don't follow through, the SSMID can
go away. It's not something that we're stuck with forever, and I think
everybody needs to understand that, and hopefully think about the future
of downtown. For those of you who have been here for 10 years, what it
was like 10 years ago, and it was a very, very exciting place to be. Now,
there's still a lot of great things down there, but we need to get more
people. We need to make sure we don't have business after business
going out of business. We have businesses that have been there 20 years
that are leaving. We don't want to lose that. We need to keep the people
coming downtown so they can really see what there is in Iowa City.
Thank you.
Wilbum: Thank you. Folks, we'll have to leave the doorways cleared. There's
some more chairs back there. You're welcome to come up along the side
here. Thank you.
Gustaveson: Good evening. My name is Craig Gustaveson. I am the Manger of Austin
Burke clothiers, and I've been a member of the DTA for more years than
I'd like to admit. I have to admit I agree with just about everything Jim
had said about the downtown. We have a lot of talented people
downtown. We have a lot of expertise. The problem we have is so many
of us are locally owned businesses. We're small businesses. Many of us
work 50 to 60 hours a week in our business, and it gives us precious little
time to work on our business, let alone going outside and volunteering
another 10 or 12 hours a month, working to promote downtown. We've
gotten to the point where we just don't have the expertise. We don't have
the time to do it, and we need somebody to help us promote the
downtown. We are an organization, or a downtown, that's like you said,
about the equivalency of the Coral Ridge Mall, but yet we don't have any
one coordinated person to promote it for us. That's what we need to move
forward. The one thing, I guess, I would like to ask the 4 of you, is help
us get to that next level. Help us get over that hurdle to where we can start
working on a way to promote downtown. There's been a lot of time and
effort getting signatures, promoting this, talking about it. Our DTA board
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has put a lot of effort into this, and I guess the one thing I'd ask, if it's
going to be defeated, make the opposition do as much work as we have.
Make them go out and get the signatures. Make them promote it. Make
them do something, rather than just say they're against it. There's just too
much at risk here just to say no. One of the objections I'd like to
comment, that Leah had mentioned, is they don't like the way the money
is going to be spent. You know, there are so many checks and balances in
this. The budget has to be approved by the City Council. The Board, the
new Board, will be made up of tenants, landlords, property owners.
There's a good mix. There are safeguards that this money is going to be
spent the way we want it to be spent. It's not something that's just going
to be willy-nilly that we're going to spend it the way we want to. There
are, there is a good balance between the people that will be making up that
new Board. So again, I guess the one thing I'd like to ask again, if this is
going to be defeated, make them put as much effort into it as we have.
Help us get through that next hurdle. Help us get to the point where we
can help ourselves downtown. Thank you.
Wilburn: Thank you.
Moen: Hi, my name is Marc Moen. We own a significant amount of property
downtown in the Central Business District. About 10% of the assessed
value of the property downtown, which means we would be contributing
about 10% of the SSMID money, or $20,000 of the $200,000 that it will
generate. I am personally totally committed to downtown Iowa City, and
my family is very committed to it. We have invested enormous amount of
time and an enormous amount of money in downtown Iowa City. The
SSMID money is not critical to our business directly. We'll continue to
rent apartments. We'll continue to rent store fronts. We have waiting lists
for most of the properties. But it makes for a better downtown. It's a very
exciting place to be right now. I think the downtown area is about to
explode, which is why we have invested what we've invested down here.
We spend the better part of our days promoting downtown. That's what
we do most of the day, every day, and we're talking to not just student
tenants, but adult tenants. We're talking to people who are buying
condominiums downtown. We're talking to people who want to put new
businesses downtown. And a lot of the people we talk to are from out of
town, and they are amazed when they come to Iowa City. And they say
there are few, if any, cities like it anywhere that they've ever experienced.
And it's a gratifying thing, but to be able to promote it, but you know, one
person or one group, or the people in this city who give tirelessly of their
time and have done so for years to promote downtown, it's now at a level
~vhere, I think to take the city to the next level, there has to be some
funding, and this is really the only realistic way that the Central Business
District is going to be funded. There's no money in the City budget to do
this, and people aren't going to voluntarily just come forth and pay it. So,
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you know, it's not a direct benefit to our business. I'm not trying to
control what happens with the money. I've made it very clear. I've been
involved in the meetings that have lead up to this, and I've made it very
clear that I don't want or need a seat on the Board. I trust these people
that have worked so hard that have retail establishments downtown, and
they're welcome to have my seat. I trust them completely. I don't care if
I have any say in what happens to that money. This group of 15 Board
members will do just fine with that money. So, I think the idea that this
doesn't help apartments. That it doesn't, that some major land owner is
trying to control the budget, I think is all a red herring, that it's a falsehood
that what we need is a fund to allow somebody to promote the downtown
area, and I think when I was first approached about this by Chuck
Goldberg, I didn't think there was any chance that he would get this
amount of support for it, and ! told him that I would be glad to support it.
That I believe totally in downtown, and I think it's the only way to get it
promoted properly. Thank you.
Wilburn: Thank you.
Neades: Good evening. I'm Rebecca Neades from the Chamber of Commerce, and
I've come on behalf of a Board of Directors to let you know that we
support the SSMID district. We've actually written a letter to the
Downtown Association, supporting this. Really believe that our
downtown is really the living room to our community. It's what we want
to show off, and it's a place to be proud of. I grew up here. I'm from
here. I left for 10 years and have just recently come back and downtown
Iowa City is a different place than when I left it. But there's still a lot
going on. I love the concert series. I love the artisan gallery walk. The
lighting, holiday lighting at Christmas time. Jazz Festival --- all the things
that go on downtown, and I see that how much traffic comes downtown
with these things, but these things aren't free, and they take a (TAPE
ENDS)to put together, and I know. I've been on that side of it before. I
sat on the Board at the Downtown Association of Mason City. Got my
start actually in non-profit stuff volunteering with our Downtown
Association there, and when you have a business owner that works, and
small business owners do, 50 to 60 hours a week, we didn't have the time
and energy. We did it, but we needed a full-time director and you need
one here. Someone who knows, who can get out of their business for
more than 10 minutes to run up and grab a sandwich, or to drop offsome
packets. You need someone that can be out and about, that can be
marketing, that has a budget. You know, it's great to have that person but
if they don't have any money to work with, you know, there's only so
much they can do. So I think that's really important, and to hire a
professional. And you know, things with the budget aren't set yet. Those
aren't finalized, so I'm sure that this Board of Directors, the new Board of
Directors for the Downtown Association, will find that perfect person and
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set that perfect budget. I guess in conclusion I would say that we, the
Chamber of Commeme represents more than 900 businesses here in town.
85% of those businesses are small, well actually 84% are small businesses,
with fewer than 50 employees. So we really do look at what small
businesses need and to have a group come together that wants to self-
impose a funding system, you need the commitment of everyone, and you
need it for a longer term than just, you know, a couple of years. Once you
get something like this started, it'll have incredible consequences and it
will be fabulous, but you need that commitment up front and these people
have that. So, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, we support this.
Thanks.
Wilburn: Thank you.
Drum: Let's see if ! can write and talk at the same time. I'm Charlie Dram. I'm
a relative newcomer to Iowa City. I've only lived here for 34 years, and I
work for the University of Iowa. I'm on the Downtown Association
Board of Directors. And I've worked downtown for 30 something years,
and I'm very committed to it and I'm very committed to this proposed
idea. I'm a big admirer of Jim Mondanaro. I love his restaurants. I love
the way he runs his business. I'm really surprised to hear that he doesn't
think it will take a full-time person to make this happen. And by the way,
that person will not decide how money is spent. That person will spend
the money. The decisions will be made by the Board, the group of people
who run the thing, so that's a completely different thing, and I've been on
the DTA for over a year now and I've watched how it works and how
difficult it is for all these people who work so hard to find the time to
volunteer for it, and I admire the business people that I work with on the
DTA are terrific. The time they give to this is remarkable, but we still
can't get everything done, and I winch when I hear the Downtown
Association has failed. It's because the work is hard, and it's really
difficult to get a group of people together to make a decision, and to have
one person who's only working a few hours a week, to do all the
administrative stuff that someone needs to do to guide a project. You all
understand that, I'm sure. So that salary piece, that salary piece is very
important, and I don't think it's out of sight there. We're talking about a
big operation downtown. I think that if this is successful, and I think it
very much will be, I think those boundaries could expand out to those
other areas, and one last concept that I'd like to say is that I don't believe
there's anybody who lives in Iowa City who isn't going to be positively
affected by this. People who own, or rent apartments, well people who
own apartments downtown, who are landlords, will benefit from a place
that's great to live in, and Iowa City, especially downtown, has been
getting to be a better place to live, and I think when it's marketed and you
have people coming to town, I'm fairly convinced that we have people
buying condominiums downtown who are buying them based on previous
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experiences they've had here in Iowa City. They're buying them because
they've had a good time downtown. I teach every year in the summer
writing festival, and we have thousands of people who come to Iowa City,
and I can tell you, when they come back from lunch to the class and talk
about downtown, they all have shopping bags by the way. They come
back and they talk about Iowa City, and they talk about if they live
anywhere close, they're going to come back. They're going to come here
to go shopping and stuff. They didn't know about it before the class.
They didn't know about it before going to have lunch downtown. And I
think what we can do through the SSMID is get those people to come to
Iowa City just as a destination. Not because there are other things to do
here, but because that's the thing to do. So I'm very much in favor of it
and I appreciate your time. Thank you.
Wilbum: Thank you.
Champion: I'm Connie Champion. I've been a member of the Downtown Association
since 1980, and there is no way a volunteer organization can make what
happened downtown happen --- make what should happen downtown
happen. I believe so much in this tax that I called my landlady and
volunteered to pay the tax totally myself, whether it's in my lease or not. I
think...I love downtown. I'm a strong supporter of it, and 15% of the
people belong to the Downtown Association, and 100% of them benefit
from everything the Downtown Association does. So this is just a way of
making it all a little fairer, so I encourage you to support it. Thank you.
Wilbum: Thank you. Once again I'd like to remind anyone in opposition who
hasn't spoken yet, I invite you to come up.
Mondanaro: Can I say one thing that I forgot to say?
Wilburn: Not yet, Jim. No, Jim.
Mondanaro: I can't?
Wilbum: No. After...if there's anyone who hasn't spoken in favor of this who
would like to, I want to make sure, Jim, that everyone has an opportunity
to speak first, and then you may come back up. Anyone else like to
speak?
Clayton: My name's Jim Clayton. I've been a downtown businessman for 23 years
at the Soap Opera. I don't have much to add to what those who've gone
before in support have said, except I bring to your attention some
numbers. Sometimes we talk without being pragmatic. I like numbers. In
December of 1997, park and shop billed its members, now this is a
voluntary organization. We, if you join the DTA you can belong to park
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and shop. It's a great deal. You get a discount from the City on parking,
and you stamp your customer's parking ticket, and they get an hour of free
parking, and most of us have a rule as to how much they have to spend to
get the stamp. Usually it's i 0 or 15 bucks. It was probably closer to 10
bucks back in 1997. Now most of us require a $15 purchase. So in
December we billed our members for the park and shop that they used
during that month in 1997. We sent them a bill for $25,800. Keep that
number in mind -- $25,800. In 2003, we sent bills out again for park and
shop in December. Now there's a lot happened in that period of time
between 1997. There's been inflation. So people spend more money.
Parking probably went up during that period of time. We saw some
attrition in the number of people who were members of park and shop.
Some of them moved out of town and left so we didn't have as many
people using park and shop. But we went from $25,800 down to $7,800.
Now that's a graph that starts here, and goes over here, and we cannot
survive as a downtown as we know it today with that kind of a future.
We're going nowhere. We're going downhill. Now there are some
businesses in the community that will survive no matter how low that
number goes because they don't participate, and they don't depend on new
business to come to their retail establishment. They feed on the students
that live across the street, literally, from our downtown. But we're a little
too big to survive as a total package on 25,000 or 26,000 customers and
their parents. We need to market to our whole community. We need to
market to our area, and the SSMID would give us the wherewithal to do
this. I've been a member of the DTA for a long time. I've been on the
Board. I'm on it now. It's a lot of work, done by a few people, to the
benefit of many, and the SSMID gives everybody an opportunity because
they're going to pay. They can step up to the plate, and run for the Board
if they want, or they can just pay the investment, and let somebody else do
it, but we have them all on board. Thanks.
Wilburn: Thank you. Anyone else?
Gholson: My name is Tim Gholson. I work for Wells Fargo Bank downtown, and I
am also the President of the Downtown Association currently. I just
wanted to address a couple of things that have come up tonight, not to
rehash what everybody's already told you. My colleagues have done a
good job of explaining all the good things about it. Couple of things, in
the case of a menu of services. It's not that it's a bad idea, but it's like
Connie had brought up before, when you have a system like that, people
can pick and choose, and then the people who don't choose to take
something, take advantage of the people who decided to. If half of
downtown pays for advertising, all of downtown wins when more people
come downtown. This is a fair way of distributing the cost of what, of
everything we do. In talking about a full-time director, like someone had
said, this was our attempt at what the budget should be like, and we had
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assumed that we needed to hire a full-time director. This is an idea of
sharing the duties that I heard about today. You know, it's unfortunate
we've held 5 meetings to try to get people's ideas - today's the first time
we've heard about it. I don't think it's a bad idea, personally. But, and I
think we have an opportunity during the next 2 years, to see if it can be
done because there's no money that's going to be, that's going to come to
the new organization before 2006. So we have a 2-year opportunity to
work together, find out if we can develop the marketing plan, develop our
brand. I think that's exactly what we have to do, the first thing is find out
what we have to appeal to the outside world, what we have that appeals to
the rest of Iowa City that would get them to come downtown. And if we
can do it on less money for a director, with a strong Board, that's an
option that's definitely worth pursuing, and I don't think that we're here to
say that what we've proposed is the only way. In the event of the tenants,
not using the tenants, the petition was filed with property owners because
that's what the law states. Back in the fall we had our first meeting to talk
about what the SSMID could be, and we asked for participation from
everybody at that point in time. We've had 3 more meetings since then.
Again, every time asking for more participation. We have Board meetings
that normally are attended by Board members. We've invited anybody
who wants to come because we want their ideas for this project. Okay?
It's not that we've tried to exclude anybody. We've tried to include as
best we could. You just can't make people do things they don't want to
do. And the question of the city representative on the Board, again, we
have a representative now. I think that's a good thing. We have at-large
positions on the Board that could certainly be filled by a city
representative. Thank you.
Wilburn: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address the Council?
Holland: Good evening. My name is Joe Holland and I'm here basically to speak in
favor of the SSMID, but with one exception, and in some ways
unfortunately it's possibly a fatal exception. The SSMID spreads its tax
net widely across everybody in downtown. That includes the retail
businesses, it includes service establishments, and it includes tenants in the
dwelling units in the downtown area, who receive very little if any benefit
out of this --- they or their landlords. However, they're going to be taxed
on the same basis as the businesses that are located, businesses I talked
about, the retail, the service businesses. And I, I spent some years on the
Board of the Downtown Association, and there's much merit to what
people have said about it being an organization that has a struggle to
function because of under funding, because you have busy people that are
trying to do good works but handicapped by their own time constraints.
I've lived, actually lived in the downtown area, and I've worked in the
downtown area for almost 30 years now, and I'm a big believer in the
downtown area, and the people I'm here representing have made huge
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investments in the downtown area, many millions of dollars. They're
going to be taxed on the basis of the apartments they have, and those
owners have no objection for the commercial parts of their projects paying
for funding the SSMID. However, when you look at this, look at who's
paying those taxes, and a lot of cases it's going to fall upon the residents
who live in the apartments located above those businesses, who have a
marginal voice in this. This is a proposition that is being brought to you
based upon 28% of the owners in the downtown area. That's not exactly a
democratic process when you have a small minority, and all those tenants
who are going to be paying the cost of this, are either unrepresented, or
underrepresented, so hopefully you'll keep that in mind that the burden
needs to fall where it is. Those tenants and those apartment owners have
very limited interest in drawing people downtown, which is what we've
heard a lot about tonight. How do you get the tourist dollar, how do you
get the community dollar downtown? That interest falls very differently
across segments in the downtown community. I don't know how you deal
with the fact that the taxing laws spread this across commercial properties,
because commercial classification in real estate apply to those residential
units for the most part, just as they do to the what we conventionally think
of as businesses. Would ask that this particular proposal be sent back to
the drawing board to see if you can craft a way that spreads that tax
burden in a more equitable manner that addresses the needs of the
businesses, the very legitimate needs of the businesses, but doesn't fund
that expense of the tenants and the property owners that own those parts of
downtown. Thank you.
Wilburn: Thank you. Just for the record, my understanding, and I don't know if it
gets at all at what you're saying, is that we received notice that there is an
exemption in the Iowa Code for residential properties. Says according to
the City Assessor's office, there's about 3 million in residential property
that may be exempted from the SSMID levy. If they're exempted, the
maximum levy would be approximately $192,000 a year. Does that
include the ...?
Dilkes: I think what Mr. Holland is talking about is the apartments are assessed
commercially. Because they aren't condominiums.
Wilbum: Okay, okay.
Dilkes: There is, however, a provision in the SSMID statute which allows Council
at this stage to remove property that's included in the petition. Can't add
property without going through some steps. We have had some
conversations with the City Assessor about whether that could be done
horizontally, and just whether the mechanics of that could be worked out,
and it sounds like that's a possibility.
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Wilburn: And would that occur prior to a first reading of an ordinance, or would
that be part of operationalizing it, or ...do you or Steve...?
Dilkes: That would have to be part of the ordinance. Because it would be a
question of defining the property that is included in the SSMID.
Wilbum: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address Council?
Siders: My name's Glenn Siders. I'm here representing Southgate Development
Company. We own property in this district. We were one of the signators
on the petition. We believe in the SSMID district. I'm not going to
occupy a lot of your time because most of the comments I was going to
pass forward to you have already been mentioned by others. I think a
couple do need, are in need of being mentioned again. I too, or I should
say we, looked at this as an investment and not a tax. One of the reasons
we looked at this as an investment is because it's one of the few points, or
one of the few payments, that a property owner can make where you can
actually see your dollars being spent. By that I mean the money that we
pay into it stays in the area where you own the business. As a developer
we pay many fees, and God only knows where some of those fees goes,
and I often wonder where they go. You just, you can never visualize and
see where a lot of these things happen. I think you have an opportunity
here to see where your investment's going to go. I think it is a mutual
benefit to anybody in this district. What's good for one, I think, is good
for all. The target is to get people in the downtown area, and I don't care
what program you invoke to do that, it's going to enhance your business.
You're going to get street traffic by your business, which only gives you
the opportunity to capture more money. We see it as a direct benefit to
our business. We have a building that we lease. If you have an attractive
community and can get people to the downtown areas,' other businesses
are going to want to be part of that downtown area. We feel you have an
opportunity to lease your space to those businesses. And I, lastly I want to
comment that there is a lot of discussion on the budget, which I understand
is something that needs to be approved by the Council. A lot of budgets
are very preliminary. They look nothing like at the end what they do at
the beginning. But that I see is a second step. The first step, I think, you
need to generate this district so you can capture some revenue to have a
budget and figure out how to enhance your downtown. I don't know how
many times you've heard the expression you want to bring back the
downtown. We're a current member of the Downtown Association. On
the outside it looks like they don't do anything because you don't see what
you want to see happening downtown, but that's because they have no
money to do that. What little things they can accomplish, I think are a
benefit, and is an enhancement to the City of Iowa City. Thank you.
Wilbum: Thank you.
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Goldberg: Hello, my name is Chuck Goldberg, and I don't share the love of speech
making that a lot of people here do, and I'm probably not as good at it, but
I'd like to say a few things. I represent the Sheraton Hotel, a company
called MIP. It's a company out of Washington D.C., and unfortunately
due to our fiscal responsibility to our lenders, as we have over 420
properties countrywide, we were unable to sign the original petition.
Speaking to them on Friday, they have given me permission to tell you
that they fully support this. They support what's good for the commtmity,
and what is good for downtown, and what's good for Iowa City in general.
We do not directly benefit from this one bit truthfully. You know, it's
something that we want to do and something that we will do because of
the community, and because of what it can do to enhance the community.
We agree you've spent a lot of money and invested money in downtown,
and we want to be part o£the continued success of downtown. I would tell
you that the Sheraton Hotel was assessed at $12,113,500 when we started
this, which means we represent a little over 10% of the value of downtown
and our share of the commitment to this would be $24,226.50. That's not
a light investment. It's not an investment we take lightly. It's a lot of
money in today's day and age, and we believe that that investment will be
spent wisely. We would like to be involved in how it's spent. I agree with
Jim, Mr. Mondanaro, and some of the other people who have sat here. I
don't know now that we need a $50,000 full-time director. Do we need a
$10,000 or $20,000 director? I think that's something that the board and
the people that have been part of this community for years and years can
decide, and say you know what, we now want to get together, and we want
to do this. I heard somebody say well let's form a committee through the
City and look at it. Well, you know as well as I do that everything that
goes to committee gets kind of lost in committee heaven somewhere. It
gets dispelled. It gets taken away. It's time to take action. It's time to
have one vision. It's time to have one voice, and one goal for downtown
Iowa City. We're not going to be everything to everybody. We're not
going to be able to make 100% of the people 100% happy 100% of the
time. I think you all know that better than anybody sitting in this room.
You hear that just about every week as you go through the motions of
what you do. We're asking for a chance to fail forward, not just fail
standing still. We're asking for a chance to bring this conununity
together, and we're asking for a chance to increase property value
throughout Iowa City. Mr. Holland, I believe, had said that the landlords
and owners of these buildings see no direct benefit, and the tenants see no
direct benefit. I don't have an argument for the tenants. I do think they
see a direct benefit as they have better facilities downtown, and more
options, and more shopping, and places to go, and whether it be alcoholic
or non-alcoholic options, or festivals. I think they see it, but as a first time
investor in an investment property here in Iowa City and you know that's
a big step for someone like me to buy property. I've moved 7 times in 5
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years with the hotel industry, and I just actually told my bosses Friday that
regardless of whatever happens, I'm going to be staying here, because we,
my family and I, love Iowa City so much we choose to start getting into
the investment property end of things. If somebody were to come to me
and say we're going to put a fund together that affects where your house is
or where your building is, the first thing that comes to my mind is well as
more people want to come, as the retail sections of my buildings produce
more, as things happen, property value tends to go up, so I would argue
with anybody here saying that a owner ora building has no benefit from
this. I think they actually see as much, if not more benefit, than some of
the other people in this room because the value of their property goes up,
and such the tax base goes up. I mean, let's face facts, what's good for us,
what's good for the retailers, what's good for anybody in this room, is
good for the City of Iowa City. More taxes means more firemen, means
more police, more cleanup downtown, it means more funding for festivals,
or for education, or for culture, or for arts. We need to be part of that
solution as a group. When I was first approached by it, I was...it was an
amazing concept and I started doing some research on it, and great cities
were built on SSMIDs. A lot of them - Boulder, Colorado, for example,
and people say oh we're not a Boulder. We don't live in the mountains;
we live in Iowa City, but they're on a campus, CU, one of the largest
campuses in the country, and we're on a campus. I think we have so many
similarities that we need to look at the success stories that these SSMIDs
brought. We don't want to replace city facilities. We don't want you to
stop collecting the trash. As a matter of fact, we'll stand up against you
when you say you want to. We've had long talks with Steve and some of
the other City officials who have given us a letter of understanding. Now
I realize nothing is set in stone, but you'll keep your end of things up and
we do our ends of things. The SSMID isn't being developed for us to put
sewer lines in or replace businesses, or to move snow if we don't have to,
or clean if we don't have to. But it is an option, and it is an option that
you will all of you will get a chance to vote on and have a say in. A
director or not a director? To remove snow, to not remove snow? It
doesn't matter. Once that budget is put together you'll have a say, are we
being fiscally responsible? And if we're not, you've got a lot of options in
front of you, and nobody's mentioned that. There is a sunset - 10 years.
That's a long, long time. I understand that, but if we're not fiscally
responsible, each and every year our budget has to come back to you
through review, and you have the option of lowering it to a dollar, to 50
cents, to 25 cents, to zero. You in the end are the checks and balances to
us. It's not the 4 big players in town. There's 4 of us, I believe, Mr.
Clark, myself, the mall, Mr. Moen, that own over $9 million. Put the 4 of
us together and we're over half of the energy in this town, and at least 2 of
us, if not 3 of us, really don't see any direct benefit. I think, you know, the
mall will see a huge benefit. I think we're all part of this, and we're all in
it together. We're all going to sink; we're all going to swim.
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Wilbum: You're going to have to sum it up, Chuck.
Goldberg: I'm sorry?
Wilbum: You're going to have to wind down here.
Goldberg: Well, I think it's a great idea, and I think you all need to take into account
that there are checks and balances, and the board will be diverse enough
that not one person or one business will have the final say on how it's
done. So, thank you for your time.
Wilbum: Thank you. Think that's the first time I've heard committee and heaven in
the same sentence. (laughter)
Goldberg: I'm sorry?
Wilbum: That's the first time I've heard committee and heaven in the same
sentence. (laughter)
O'Leary: ... sign in. I'm used to following Chuck at the Optimist Club so I look
forward to this opportunity. My name is Ryan O'Leary. I'm a realtor.
I'm a landlord, former tenant downtown, and property manager on
occasion. Didn't really plan on speaking here tonight. I came here to
learn a little bit and I have, and from both sides I've seen some great
points, some good possibilities, and I guess what I would do is encourage
everybody to cooperate and see what we can do to collaborate because as
much as I do agree with the benefits, as much as I really am excited by the
vision, to see more kids playing in the fountain, to see more kids using the
playground when their families come downtown to shop. I still kind of
like the old fountain better but, um, I do think that we have a world of
opportunities downtown and I like knowing that people are out there to
grab a bite to eat, or stop into the Soap Opera and grab some gifts or
personal supplies, that some people go out and have a little bit too much to
drink, and that some people are down there to appreciate art, and I think
that's what's neat here and if we can see a way to collaborate everyone's
needs and everybody's wants, I do think that the landlords and the
apartment owners and the residential tenants will see a benefit, but I would
encourage the Downtown Association group and the people who are in the
strongest support of the SSMIDs, to find that collaborative spirit and to
find a way to make that make sense to the landlords. Surely an apartment
above the Sports Column is going to be more attractive than the place I
lived on, in on the comer of Johnson and Burlington. However, I was
always amazed that my friends would pay $1,500 a month to live there,
but they did, and it's those tree economic factors that we see in the
realities of rents, that should supply you with enough evidence that yes,
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there is a return to the landlords. There is a retum to the tenants. There is
a return to the retail and the restaurants, and so I agree much with Mr.
Holland's points about the fact that those returns are diminished to
residential rentals, but I would encourage both groups to find a way that
they can make sense of it, and I'm interested to hear if there are provisions
in the state law that alter the amount of funds that are derived through the
assessments on residential rentals, but I tend to think and I tend to hope
that we can find a successful conclusion. Thank you.
Wilburn: Thank you.
Oakes: I'm Dean Oakes. I'm representing myself as a property owner downtown,
and also Old Capitol Mall. Old Capitol Mall is not in favor of SSMID.
I'm not in favor ofSSMID. I don't think it's the right way to go at this. I
think there's middle ground, and I think we'll find the middle ground, but
the Old Capitol Mall is 60% vacant. We're the vacancy in town. I don't
know if there's more than one other storefront downtown that's vacant.
So we have a marketing plan, and we spend a fair amount of money
marketing the mall, and to pay this money into another group that's
marketing, we're not quite sure where it's going to go, and we're not quite
sure that we're included in any of that marketing. We've had the feeling
that we weren't, so we said at one time, just draw the line down Clinton
Street and take everything to the east and we'll be fine. We'll do ours, and
they can do theirs. But anyhow, just...beings my name is on the petition
that is out being circulated, and hopefully, I hope anyhow, that we'll be
able to bring it back to at least 25% of the people against it saying we'll
have a majority of the Council voting to decide on it. I thought I should
say that at least. Thank you.
Wilbum: Thank you, Dean.
Foreman: Hi, my name is Julie Peters Foreman. I don't own any property, don't rent
any property, but I love downtown Iowa City, and I've had the opportunity
to be a past director of the downtown association. I've worked for the
Chamber of Commerce as well, and mainly I just want to kind of
summarize a couple of things that I've heard, and hopefully have you
think about between now and the time that a vote is taken on this
important issue for our downtown area. Most SSMIDs that I've been
related with, either working for or working with, have been successful.
I'm not sure of too many that have been unsuccessful, but ! might start off
by saying I encourage you to look at the web sites of ail the different
SSMIDs that are out there so you can get better educated on how they're
set up, and how they function. I guess what we're asking today is that we
at least have the opportunity to present a plan that would promote the
downtown Iowa City, much like an ICCAD would promote an economic
development plan, or the Coral Ridge Mall would present a marketing
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plan. So we just want to get to the next step and at least present that plan.
The other part is that it is a self-supported municipal improvement district.
It is made unlike in the past with the Downtown Association has been, it is
made up of the business owners, renters, anybody that's sort of involved,
including city members, at-large members, who are going to have some
say-so on what goes on with that. So it's truly a partnership, and a
collaborative effort between all the individuals who are concerned and
interested about the well-being of the downtown. So I think that's
important to remember. They're going to be involved in that next step of
creating that budget. I hear some questions and concerns about the
budget. Well once we get past this next step, before anything is ever
spent, before the final say-so is ever done, that budget is created through
those individuals who are putting their money in, so where do they want to
spend it, and how do they want to spend it. I guess those are the main
things. The collaborative partnership to support and promote the
downtown. There's no organizations that is promoting the downtown.
The ICCAD doesn't do it. They'll greatly say they don't do it. We don't
do retail, we don't do that. The Coral Ridge Mall area, the Convention
and Visitors Bureau doesn't do it. Obviously we want to create an
organization where we can have those collaborative partnership efforts to
do these things, and lastly I guess just a couple things. Having been the
past president or director of the Downtown Association, I want you to
think about the holiday lighting. Do we like it? Is it necessary? Is it nice
to come downtown and have it? I think the response that I got was people
liked it. It is a huge endeavor, let me just say, it is a huge endeavor to get
that accomplished, and without an organization to spearhead it and to help
fund it, we're not going to have it. Do we like the Friday night concert
series? I think that's a huge, popular, you know it brings a lot of people
downtown. If we don't have an organization to spearhead that, and direct
it, we're not going to have it, and that is a unique thing that people come
to Iowa City for, specifically downtown. Same with the Jazz Festival,
Arts Festival, and those types of things. So I guess my, I'm obviously for
it, and I would want you to at least consider in the next 30 days, I guess
you have, to look at the web site, talk to people, and find out if we can just
go to the next step to create that program before it goes into an ordinance.
That's it, thanks.
Wilbum: Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak who has not had
an opportunity?
Bradford: Hi, my name is Leigh Bradford, and I own a furniture store in downtown
Iowa City. My husband and I moved here about 11 years ago from New
York City, and we choose Iowa City because we thought it was the closest
thing to New York City in Iowa (laughter), and so when I choose to open a
business, and this is my third year in business, I specifically wanted to be
in downtown. I didn't want to be in a mall. I didn't want to be in a strip
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mall. I didn't want to be in CoraIville. I wanted to be downtown Iowa
City. I've been involved also in the DTA since I opened my business, and
as other people have said, it's a struggle to get people to spend time to do
it. It's a struggle for me to have time to do it. And we put as much work
as we can into it, but it's not enough. I have to consider in the next few
years whether my business can stay downtown, and I think that if the
SSMID goes forward I'll feel a lot more positive about that possibility of
really staying here, but you know, it's a labor of love to have a business in
downtown Iowa City. There's a lot of obstacles against us, parking and
just the general, you know, that we're right butted up against the
University of Iowa, and half the people in Iowa City are afraid of anyone
between the ages of 21 and 24. So I'm for the SSMID and I hope you'll
seriously consider it.
Wilbum: Thank you. Anyone else who hasn't had an opportunity to speak who
would like to speak? Is Mr. Mondanaro still in the lobby? Can anybody
see? Mark wanted to come up first.
Ginsberg: Well, shoot, I was going to talk to Dean actually, but I'll address you
because I want to make it clear that Dean, and Kevin, and Mike Hodge
were all invited to participate in the coffee and conversation. We've had 3
of them. We actually offered to have one at the mall so we'd bring the
attendees there, so we were looking for opposition. We were looking for
additional voices, and they choose not to participate, so that is not coming,
excuse me, from the DTA or the proposed SSMID board. That is coming
from their choice not to participate. Not ours.
Wilburn: I think it was pretty, made pretty clear to the Council, that many folks
were invited, and we received invitations to those too.
Ginsberg: All right. I just want to make sure that you understand that because Dean
seems to...
Wilburn: I think we understand that.
Ginsberg: ...have misunderstood our point. So, I'll invite them on the record.
Wilbum: Julie, was there something you wanted to add to your comments?
Foreman: Actually it's just along those same lines. This process, I've heard several
times we've had 3 meetings, we've had 4 meetings, this process actually
started a year and a half ago, back in January, and at the beginning we had'
many meetings with business owners, renters, to get feedback to see
"should we even go down this path" in order to put a proposal together.
So there were many occasions to do that. We had, I don't even remember
the exact numbers, but in addition to individual meetings, we also had
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#2 Page 27
forums where they could come in and ask questions, and that's sort of how
we...but I just wanted to say that as well.
Wilburn: Yeah, I think the Council's aware of that too. Thank you. Okay, just so
you all are aware, a reminder that it will be 30 days before Council can
consider this. I want to thank all of you for coming down this evening,
and the groups that did go out and do the education of your peers out
there, I want to thank you for putting the time and energy into that. Public
hearing is closed.
Kart: Motion to accept correspondence.
O'Dormell: So moved.
Wilburn: So moved. Moved by O'Donnell; seconded by Bailey. Those in favor?
All right. Motion to adjourn this special meeting?
Bailey: So moved.
O'Donnell: Second.
Wilbum: Moved by Bailey; seconded by O'Donnell. All those in favor? Motion
passed.
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Council meeting of May 3, 2004.